Kitchens With Meredith Swinehart
The winner of the Remodelista Considered Design Awards Best Amateur-Designed Kitchen is Jo Flavell of Market Harborough, UK.
Her project was chosen as a finalist by Remodelista editor in chief Julie Carlson, who said: "The owners have done a nice job of creating an open-to-the-outdoors kitchen in a former garage—you'd never guess its past life. We like the way the salvaged wood floor adds a note of rusticity to the space and plays against the dark-blue-and-white color scheme."
N.B.: This is the first of six posts spotlighting the winners of the 2015 Remodelista Considered Design Awards. Go to this year's Considered Design Awards page to see all the entries, finalists, and winners, and have a look at Gardenista's Considered Design Awards, too.
Jo Flavell's Design Statement: "An unused double garage redesigned into an open-plan space with height and light. A variety of handmade furniture gives an unfitted look, with a mixture of simple colors and old wood. A central prep area serves as a place to cook and socialize and a dining table overlooks views of the garden."
Q: Where do you live?
A: We live in a small hamlet in central England, full of thatched cottages and an old manor house. Our cottage is a listed property, built in 1701 and constructed in warm, orange-colored stone with views of a very old church to the front and open countryside from the rear walled garden.
Q: What were your practical goals for the project?
A: Although our cottage was quaint at the front, the rear of the property had had a 1960s makeover, which was totally inappropriate. Our goal was to create a large, open-plan kitchen/dining area from an unused garage, as we love cooking and entertaining. Cottage interiors can be dark, so we wanted lots of light and a new heating system as it was very unwelcoming before the renovation.
Q: What solutions did you find to your design problems?
A: We wanted a large barn-type feel, but when work started on the renovation, we discovered that the brick-built walls were not strong enough to hold up the roof. We had two heavy steel beams made to support this and clad them in painted wood. The rest of the kitchen was all handmade by my husband, Peter—he's a great solution.
Q: What are your favorite features of the project?
A: The reclaimed wood floor adds warmth, and as it gets more scruffed and faded, the character improves. The enormous, handmade kitchen "armoire" houses the refrigerator and creates loads of storage. It is finished with a black linseed oil wax (Allback from Sweden), so the grain of the wood is still visible. This was also used to color the dining table, an inherited pine piece, and the base of the central unit to contrast with the English oak top. The oversized bottles in the windows—original French vinegar bottles—stand in for curtains and create a colored glow with the morning sunshine.
Q: What advice do you have for someone undertaking a similar project?
A: Work out what is important to you and fits in with the way you live in a space. Also, observe how friends and family behave and relax. This is why we have a central island with high stools, so we can sit and chat while preparing food. Go for oversized pieces for impact and non-matching furniture to create a less formal look. Don't be afraid of bold colors.
Q: What was your biggest splurge?
A: The Mercury range—a heavyweight piece with a double oven and gas burners. A classic design. We also splurged on handmade windows and French doors. As they are non-standard sizes, it gives the room character and lots of light.
Q: What is your best secret design source?
A: We moved here after spending nearly 10 years living in the South of France. Shopping in brocantes and flea markets meant we accumulated lots of unusual, one-off pieces, such as the old Godin stove, wall cupboards, and stoneware. It's not really a secret—we were just lucky.
Q: What is your favorite local shop?
A: It's not local, but it is owned friends of ours. It's called RE, in Northumberland. It does have mail order, but the actual shop, also originally a garage, is an amazing space full of one-off, quirky pieces. We found the original, white enameled lights there and hung them from metal conduits. All the textiles in the kitchen are also from this shop.
Q: Which architects or designers do you admire?
A: Ilse Crawford. We love how she mixes colors and styles to create an interesting and informal look. Also Axel Vervoordt for his use of natural materials, soft color, and old wood.
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Home Inspiration With Meredith Swinehart
We're thrilled with the results of the third annual Remodelista + Gardenista Considered Design Awards: You submitted more than 800 projects, pinned and Tweeted your favorites, and cast more than 60,000 votes. A huge thanks to everyone who participated.
Each winner will receive a $200 gift certificate to Remodelista prize sponsor Kaufmann Mercantile or Gardenista sponsor Terrain, as well as a profile post on either site—watch for these over the coming week. And don't forget to visit Gardenista to see the results of their Considered Design Awards.
Without further ado, congratulations to our winners!
Amateur Designers
Above: Best Amateur Kitchen: Jo Flavell in Market Harborough, UK.
Above: Best Amateur Living/Dining Space: Brigitte Gfeller in Hudson, New York.
Above: Best Amateur Bath: Zachary L. in Toronto, Ontario.
Professional Designers
Above: Best Professional Kitchen: General Assembly in Brooklyn.
Above: Best Professional Living/Dining Space: CWB Architects in Brooklyn.
Above: Best Professional Bath: Daleet Spector Design in Los Angeles.
For a look at last year's Considered Design Awards—including finalists and winners—see the 2014 Remodelista Considered Design Awards archive.
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Home Inspiration With Margot Guralnick
An icon of sixties utilitarian chic, Massimo Vignelli's stackable melamine plates and mugs tower on. Made in the US by Heller in their heyday, they've been reissued thanks to demand. And though we don't usually get behind plastic, Hellerware, as it came to be known, is an exception.
I myself grew up in a house outside of Boston laden with the stuff—it provided the perfect companion to my mother's Marimekko tablecloths from Design Research in Cambridge. (And though some of the plates and bowls are admittedly looking a bit less pristine of late, my mother still uses her stack.) Vignelli, who died just last year—and with his wife and design partner, Leila Vignelli, left his imprint on everything from NYC's subway signage and maps to the Bloomingdale's bag—would not be surprised. "If you do it right," he said, "it will last forever."
Four to Buy
Above: Made in the US by Heller (using the original molds and a BPA-free techno polymer), the classic Heller Dinnerware Set—dinner plate, salad plate, soup bowl, and mug—is available from Unison for $46. Unison, MoMA and Design Public also offer the pieces individually starting at $8.
Above: Vignelli created the first of his melamine tableware in his native Milan in 1964, and it won that year's Compasso d'Oro Award for Good Design. He explained to Edible Manhattan: "I had a client making plastic tiles. I went to see the factory and noticed that they were also using the plastic to make ashtrays with Mickey Mouse and things like that. I thought, 'Can't you make anything better than that?' And a set of compact dinnerware came to my mind. I went back to the office, and in two hours I had the design fully completed." In 1971—the year Massimo and Leila founded Vignelli Associates in New York—Alan Heller's new company introduced the line in the US as its very first product; the white tableware has since never been out of production.
Above: Vignelli designed the signature box for Heller in his beloved Helvetica (and later explained his affinity for the typeface in the documentary Helvetica). Heller Clear Mugs are $12 each from DWR.
Alan Heller told to us how his company came to be synonymous with the design:
"I met Massimo and Lella in the late sixties and we all fell in love. In one of our conversations, the dinnerware design came up. I was excited, even though the Italian manufacturer had gone bankrupt. I decided that I'd fly to Italy and find out what had happened to the bankrupt company. The assets had been sold to another company, and most of the production was those Mickey Mouse ashtrays. I found the molds and negotiated with the new owners to buy the unused molds and have them produce the dinnerware again; they were delighted, since the molds had just been sitting in a corner of their warehouse.
Six months after we introduced the dinnerware it was accepted into the Museum of Modern Art permanent design collection. The business grew, and in 1975 we decided to move the molds to the US because of horrendous labor strikes in Italy."
Above: Vignelli's original tableware was in bright yellow; Heller introduced a range of bold colors in the mid-seventies and created a best seller. Over the years, Vignelli also designed additional pieces for the collection, including these mugs.
Rainbow Mugs are $60 for a set of six from MoMA. They're also available at DWR. Photograph via Placewares, a design shop run by a couple who met at Design Research.
Above: Vintage pieces are easy to find on eBay and Etsy, by the piece and by the stack. Look for ones that have had little use. And Alan Heller says his company "plans to produce the dinnerware forever." Photograph from Etsy seller Object of Beauty.
For more iconic modern tableware, see our Object Lesson on Finnish designer Kaj Franck's Teema Dinnerware, and 10 Easy Piece roundup of Architect-Designed Flatware.
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Architecture & Interiors With Julie Carlson
If you grew up spending summers (and sometimes winters) in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, it was normal to run into architectural giants such as Serge Chermayeff at the grocery store, to sweep the floors of Lilian Saarinen's modernist cottage, to babysit Charles Zehnder's children, and to watch your mother drive off to a cocktail party in a Marimekko dress. It wasn't until later, when I was taking architectural history classes in college, that I realized how rarified the design scene was on the Outer Cape, where more than 100 modest modern holiday retreats were built over a 40-year span, merging Bauhaus ideals with New England fishing town building traditions.
The catalyst for all this architectural innovation? Jack Hall, a Princeton grad and self-trained architect, who bought a 180-acre swath on Boundbrook Island in Wellfleet from Katie Dos Passos (the widow of John Dos Passos). Hall sold the land to friends (a 12-acre parcel to Chermayeff, for instance) and went on to design the Hatch Cottage for Robert Hatch, the then-editor of The Nation, and his wife, Ruth, an artist. The house—the setting for innumerable summer soirees—is available to rent; go to the Cape Cod Modern House Trust for information.
Above: The Hatch Cottage hovers above ground, perched on concrete pilings. Photograph by Anna Moller via Kinfolk.
Above: A woodstove is set into a circle of beach stones. Photograph by Raimond Koch for the Cape Cod Modern House Trust.
Above: A built-in banquette with rattan chairs. Photograph by Don Freeman via Artists' Handmade Houses.
Above: A framed Matisse print, rice paper lantern, and vintage chair, design elements typical of modern houses of the era. Photograph by Don Freeman via Artists' Handmade Houses.
Above: Sliding doors connect the house to the beach and fill the room with sea air. Note the mismatched dining chairs. Photograph via the Cape Cod Modern House Trust.
Above: The tiny galley kitchen features open shelves, a common feature in modernist summer cottages. Photograph by Don Freeman via Artists' Handmade Houses.
Above: Fishing decoys as decor. Photograph by Anna Moller via Kinfolk.
Above: Beach stones collected by Ruth Hatch. Photograph via Salt Cellar Shop.
Above: A Bertoia chair positioned in the entry. Photograph via the Cape Cod Modern House Trust.
Above: A series of working shutters, operated by a rope and pulley system, allows the cottage to be closed off in winter. Photograph via the Cape Cod Modern House Trust.
Above: A simple stone-edged path leads to the house. Photograph via Salt Cellar Shop.
Above: A deck overlooking the bay. Photograph via the Cape Cod Modern House Trust.
Above: Sunset at the Hatch Cottage. Photograph via the Cape Cod Modern House Trust.
Above: Interested in learning more? Order a copy of Cape Cod Modern: Midcentury Architecture and Community on the Outer Cape ($30 from Amazon) by Peter McMahon and Christine Cipriani.
See a 1970 Charles Zehnder house that's part of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust (and also available for rent) in our post Pilgrim's Progress. On Gardenista, tour Architect Sheila Bonnell's Cape Cod Kitchen Garden.
N.B.: This post is an update; the original story ran on May 28, 2014, as part of our Modest Modern issue.
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Home Inspiration With Remodelista Team
This week we're paying homage to the midcentury modern summerhouse, classic accoutrements included.
Above: A summerhouse bedroom by Swedish architect Maria Masgard, via Scandinavian Retreat.
Monday
Above: In our Object Lessons column, Margot delves into the history of the iconic dinnerware found in midcentury summerhouses everywhere.
Tuesday
Above: Alexa deconstructs one of our all-time favorite modest modern cottages in our Steal This Look column. Photograph by Raimund Koch for the Cape Cod Modern House Trust.
Wednesday
Above: We're rounding up the 10 best modern wood dressers out there in 10 Easy Pieces.
Thursday
Above: Dalilah investigates a new line of graphic tiles in our Tile & Countertop column.
Friday
Above: Alexa drops in on a reimagined summerhouse in Sweden in our Architect Visit column.
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