Home Inspiration With Julie Carlson
Spotted lately: ropes, netting, and tension wire cables as stairway enclosures and balustrades.
Above: A safety balustrade made of net stretched from floor to ceiling via Savio Fabrizzi Architectes.
Above: In a house in Oporto, Portugal, OODA architects suspended netting over the stairwell, creating a hammock.
Above: A1 Architects in Prague used netting as an elegant safety enclosure that extends along the upstairs hall.
Above: For a house in Kamnik, Slovenia, architects Dekleva Gregoric enclosed both sides of a stairway in dark netting.
Above: In their design for an apartment building in Lausanne, Switzerland, PRS Architects spec'ed wire netting for a stair enclosure.
Above: In the renovated hay barn of a traditional farmhouse on a small island in the North Sea, Stockholm architect Karin Matz created a stair enclosure using blue polypropylene rope.
Above: In their garden house in Viksberg, Sweden, architects Tham & Videgard enclosed the stairwell in a steel net.
Above: In the Karst House by Dekleva Gregoric in Vrhovlje, Slovenia, a system of cables and nets encloses an upstairs bedroom.
Above: South Korea firm Smart Architecture created a tension-cable balustrade in an apartment project.
We're longtime fans of Rope Decor—see 10 Favorites: Simple Rope Stair Rails and DIY: An Instant Rope Towel Bar for Under $10.
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Outdoor Spaces With Remodelista Team
Let the summer countdown begin. Michelle and crew have been out mowing this week—and exploring ways to "make the world feel green and cool on even the hottest afternoon."
Above: Stylish Planters from Copenhagen, by Way of Tuscany.
Above: Wolf Hall on Location at Chalfield Manor: Built a year before the birth of Henry VIII, the National Trust estate plays the part of the Cromwell family home.
Above: Planting Patina: English Garden Antiques from Agapanthus.
Above: 10 Garden Ideas to Steal from Best in Show Winner Dan Pearson at the 2015 Chelsea Flower Show.
Above: 10 Easy Pieces: Garden Trugs.
Above: Landscape on a Budget: 11 Ideas for a Summer Grass Path.
Explore Green Roofs, how and when to Deadhead, and much more at Gardenista.
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Architecture & Interiors With Michelle Slatalla
For a bookworm client, Paris architect Antonin Ziegler built a freestanding library annex onto a country house in Senneville-sur-Fécamp, on the northern coast of France.
Sited on a cliff above the sea about two and a half hours from Paris, the library's views are spectacular. To take advantage of them, the architect replaced three of the walls with enormous windows to erase the separation between outdoors and in. On the fourth wall? Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, of course.
Photography via Antonin Ziegler.
Above: Concealed in the base of the new 650-square-foot library is a garage. The library cube is adjacent to an old stone country house. The dark bulk of the new building "creates a relationship that tends to make the existing house disappear," the architect says.
Above: Connected to the existing house by a glazed passageway, the new library is open on three sides—designed to look like a book that is open to the landscape.
Above: A staircase from the kitchen in the main house leads to the library.
Above: Ceiling pendants and strip lighting illuminate the plywood-clad interior. The glazing is presumably treated to prevent sunlight from harming the books.
Above: The timber framing runs like ribs up the walls and across the ceiling.
Above: Indoor and outdoor walls are clad in plywood; the exterior siding was blackened with pine tar to create a contrast to the stone walls of the existing house.
Above: Windows frame views of a nearby village, meadows, and a green expanse of rough grassy lawn.
Above: Pale plywood was left untreated on the interior walls and turns a warm golden color in the afternoon sun.
Above: The staircase from the main house rises from the floor in the library.
Above: "Inside, piles of books are stacked in every corner and recess. The rhythm of the day is marked by the turning of pages and punctuated by the comings and goings of the house cats," says the architect.
For more of our favorite book-lined buildings, see:
And for the bookish look, go to
10 Favorites: Bookshelf-Printed Wallpaper.
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