Homes To Inspire

This debut book from acclaimed Los Angeles lifestyle brand Poketo proves creativity can be sparked anywhere. From a colorful desk in a tiny closet to expansive homes, Creative Spaces explores the lives, homes, and studios of 23 artistic entrepreneurs, authors, and designers through a collection of inspired interiors from across the country that brings art into the everyday. With stunning photography, intimate profiles, and unexpected takeaways, the book showcases an eclectic mix of creatives, including artist Adam J. Kurtz, ceramicist Helen Levi, and DJ Chris Manak, among others. Fusing lifestyle with interior design, this peek into the spaces and lives of creative professionals will motivate dreamers and thinkers to become doers and makers.

Instagram star and founder of Inspire Me! Home Décor shares her creative and elegant interior design secrets so you can create a glamorous yet cozy home without spending a fortune. Farah Merhi launched Inspire Me! Home Decor in 2012 as a creative outlet during a transitional time in her life. Farah was about to graduate college and planned to attend law school. Going through the motions and feeling unfulfilled in her career choice, she built up the courage to face her truth. Taking time off to figure herself out, Farah, through a remodel project in her home, had her “ah-ha” moment. The importance of taking care of your home, specifically in the way you clean, organize, and design, was instilled in her at a young age, but she didn’t realize how much of an impact her upbringing had until she owned her own home. Farah knew she had found her passion and calling, and was determined to inspire home owners to live their best lives in their homes. Farah believes that taking care of your home is essential to your peace of mind. Her design style is elegant and glamorous but infused with warmth and coziness, creating a welcoming feel with neutral color palletes, soft and inviting fabrics, and exquisite design details that can work in any room. She believes you can make a statement without sacrificing an inviting feel to your rooms. There is no right and wrong when it comes to designing your home and Farah encourages you to focus on the overall look and feel you desire, and her tips and advice will help guide you through the process. Starting with her most frequently asked questions about paint color versus wallpaper, lighting and rugs, home organization, and of course styling, Farah walks you through every room in the house from the mudroom to the kitchen and kids’ bedrooms. Along the way, she includes quick seasonal updates on a budget, suggested routines for maintaining your space, and her unique reward system, which includes small styling vignettes around your home. Woven throughout are Farah’s personal stories that will feel like you’re getting design advice from a close friend. Everyone deserves to walk into a beautifully decorated home every day—now you can, with the inspiration and practical tips in Inspire Your Home.

- Written and compiled by renowned global architectural writer, Philip Jodidio - Showcases an impressive collection of 26 of the best house designs from around the world, with an insider's analysis of architectural innovation in Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States - Documents an incredible variety of styles, depicted through magnificent full-color photographs, detailed plans, with an accompanying in-depth text analysis of the architectural features and design of each home - This superlative book will appeal to the general public who's looking to create a beautiful home and design connoisseurs alike World-renowned architectural writer and critic Philip Jodidio delves into his selection of the Top Twenty-six of the most contemporary and current house designs from around the world, showcasing the most innovative and influential designs from Europe, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, South and Central America, India, and Asia. He provides an incisive analysis of the site-specific elements, key environmental factors of the landscape design, the use of spatial visualizations, light, sustainability, and materials, and other critical design features of each home. He expertly articulates and examines the relationships between the architecture and the intentions of the design for the people who live there, taking into account how the architecture affects human behavior, what enhances the success of the design of each home in this collection, with an overview of current industry trends, and where to next for residential design innovation. This beautifully presented book, filled with stunning photographs and detailed plans and diagrams, celebrates residential luxury, inspirational style and design innovation from around the globe.

Country living evokes bucolic landscapes and picturesque villages rolling Connecticut countryside, verdant farmland, the sun-drenched hills of Malibu and the architecture that echoes these idyllic settings. These houses, ranging from family estates to weekend retreats, are the personal homes of decorators and tastemakers, including Jonathan Adler, Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, and Steven Gambrel. The properties exemplify varied design perspectives and provide fresh ideas about how country living is ideal for creative expression. This inspiring medley ranges from Tony Duquette s exotic pavilion-style California home to a charming New York Victorian, a modernist Palm Springs desert getaway by Neutra, a nineteenth-century Gothic cottage on Shelter Island, and an eighteenth-century Connecticut house. Along with design ideas for interiors, the book also covers the garden and pool areas. Since outdoor entertaining is an integral part of country living, a section devoted to tabletop display is included. These beautifully photographed inspirations encourage the reader to explore the design opportunities in the country guided by the best interior designers.

For anyone with eco-friendly ideals as well as a penchant for high style,Dreaming Greenshowcases seventeen inspiring homes that are at once luxurious, beautiful, and fashioned inside and out with green materials, design, and details. While renovating their Manhattan brownstone, Lisa Sharkey and LEED-accredited architect Paul Gleicher’s top priority was to create a home that was light on the earth and completely free of the harmful products that are often found in building and decorative supplies. A sophisticated couple who entertain frequently, Sharkey and Gleicher also demanded a home that was beautiful from the basement to the top floor’s sunroom. They sourced stylish and elegant materials, designed small and large spaces for flawless efficiency, and finished the project with responsible yet stunning finds. Dreaming Greenfeatures the Sharkey-Gleicher brownstone as well as sixteen other environmentally responsible, impeccably designed residences that will stir readers to reimagine their homes as places that marry responsibility and beauty. From cities and suburbs to the countryside,Dreaming Greenshowcases places of myriad sizes, shapes, and styles. Each space, with its floors, gorgeous fabrics, nontoxic paints and finishes, wall coverings, furniture, fixtures, use of recycled materials, and other details, is a treasure for the eye and a gift to the earth. What’s more, Sharkey and Gleicher highlight unseen design elements that conserve resources, such as passive heating and cooling methods and ideas for low-impact building and renovation, among other innovations. The spaces on display here prove that saving the earth never needs to compromise comfort and elegance. Make yourself at home and lose yourself in: • An English Tudor–style home in Austin, Texas, that was built from cast earth clay and utilizes a wind-powered energy system. The home is decorated throughout with gorgeous antiquities and salvaged materials. • An upstate New York eco-farmhouse perfectly situated on a hilltop and designed to catch the breezes from the surrounding Berkshire hills. The owner-architect used local craftspeople—none based more than a mile away—to further the “buy local” ideal. • An Ann Arbor, Michigan, “sunhome” built to capture the sun’s rays for maximum heating and lighting. The modern marvel is U-shaped to accommodate an eighty-year-old magnolia growing on the property. • A glamorous southern showplace in Atlanta, Georgia, which the owners christened “Ecomanor.” It hearkens back to the stateliness of an earlier time but is also a model of contemporary energy efficiency and sustainability. Lavishly photographed,Dreaming Greenalso boasts an invaluable resource section—a boon to anyone embarking on making a green home, renovating a current residence into one, or just dreaming about doing so.Dreaming Greenis both a practical guide and a rich source of inspiration.

We all deserve to live unapologetically in homes that reflect who we are. Instead of a cookie-cutter approach, we crave spaces that make us feel secure and connected, nurtured and enriched. Individual journeys to fifteen truly unique homes that are authentic reflections of the people who inhabit them, from an art-filled city terrace to a magical seaside shack and a 1970s-era palace in the 'burbs. Practical tips on such topics as choosing a palette, balancing function and style, and living better with 'stuff' show you how to imbue your space - whether a rented apartment or a cottage in the country - with the essence of you. Individual is a stunning reminder that you don't need a bulging bank account or an award-winning architect to create an authentic space in which you can thrive.

Tiny House, Large Lifestyle! Tiny homes are popping up across America, captivating people with their novel approach not only to housing, but to life. Once considered little more than a charming oddity, the tiny house movement continues to gain momentum among those who thirst for a simpler, "greener," more meaningful life in the face of society's "more is better" mindset. This book explores the philosophies behind the tiny house lifestyle, helps you determine whether it's a good fit for you, and guides you through the transition to a smaller space. For inspiration, you'll meet tiny house pioneers and hear how they built their dwellings (and their lives) in unconventional, creative and purposeful ways. They'll invite you in, show you around their cozy abodes, and share lessons they learned along the way. Inside you'll find everything you need to design a tiny home of your own: • Worksheets and exercises to help you home in on your true needs, define personal goals, and develop a tiny house layout that's just right for you. • Practical strategies for cutting through clutter and paring down your possessions. • Guidance through the world of building codes and zoning laws. • Design tricks for making the most of every square foot, including multi-function features and ways to maximize vertical space. • Tours of 11 tiny houses and the unique story behind each. Tiny House Living is about distilling life down to that which you value most...freeing yourself from clutter, mortgages and home maintenance...and, in doing so, making more room in everyday life for the really important things, like relationships, passions and community. Whether you downsize to a 400-square-foot home or simply scale back the amount of stuff you have in your current home, this book shows you how to live well with less.

The value of design for contributing to environmental solutions and a sustainable future is increasingly recognised. It spans many spheres of everyday life, and the ethical dimension of design practice that considers environmental, social and economic sustainability is compelling. Approaches to design recognise design as a practice that can transform human experience and understanding, expanding its role beyond stylistic enhancement. The traditional roles of design, designer and designed object are therefore redefined through new understanding of the relationship between the material and immaterial aspects of design where the design product and the design process are embodiments of ideas, values and beliefs. This multi-disciplinary approach considers how to create design which is at once aesthetically pleasing and also ethically considered, with contributions from fields as diverse as architecture, fashion, urban design and philosophy. The authors also address how to teach design based subjects while instilling a desire in the student to develop ethical work practices, both inside and outside the studio.