Tag Archives: design

Designing our sun room

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This is the first blog post that talks about our interior design choices.  My husband and I like modern, and simple lines.

One of the first rooms we finished designing in our house was the sun room. It is an enclosed sun room, and it is a small space ~5 ft by ~7 ft.

There are several things we loved, about this room, before we started:

  • the color  – its a dark cream; and
  • secondly the light of the room, it has great windows.

The floor consists of terra-cotta tiles, which I was not sure about when we first moved in, but as the room opens to the deck and backyard I have changed my mind – its the perfect surface with a 5 year-old and outdoor activities.

The room had a glass door and a fixed window which was door-sized exiting to the deck. We replaced that with beautiful simple French doors.

Some of the key pieces in the room that makes this a functional room and pulled it together for us are, the side-turned bookcases we use for records and cd’s, the two chairs,  the red lamp, the grey rug and the simple side table (adorned with a plant and a beautiful paper weight art piece). The layout of these pieces definitely make the room seem larger (this was the second layout option we tried).

    

My husband and I do appreciate art and are influenced by New Zealand artists. Some of the pieces that add interest to our room include an antique gas coach lamp which we hung in the inner window space (recycled from my husbands grandfather’s summer garden), a green tiki, and 3 pottery tiles with New Zealand native plants (NZ Cabbage tree, Nikau tree and NZ Flax).

    

I love to read, listen to music and relax in this room now. When friends come over this is where we drink coffee.  I think when designing, for us, it is about putting together items we have collected over time and making room useful but an enjoyable space.

Backyard Garden Design: Part 1

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Over the last year we started redesigning and transforming our back yard.

In the beginning, we started with ripping out our old, enclosed deck which we thought was horrid. We really wanted to open the space so we designed a multi-level, completely open deck with only one side railing.

These photos show it almost completed – its missing the facing wood for the steps.

  

  

Next, I started a vegetable garden. It was an amazing experience I want to share. I am so proud of my garden, I love the nurturing aspect and the delectable results. First of we needed a space – I designed a raised bed garden keeping in mind that we might want to expand if this works.

  

How did we build them?
Dimensions: The garden beds were 4 feet  wide by 6 feet in length, which means the milt-layed bed is 8 feet wide by 6 feet in length.

Materials: We made them from pressure treated grade 2 timber – 4 inches x 6 inches. We used lag screws to connect the wood frame from the outside and we used metal plate connectors in the inside for stability. Garden fabric was laid down and then the soil was added. We did purchase top soil that had fertilizer in it.