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Inside a ’70s-Style River Island Home Outside Portland, Oregon
Sauvie Island—a river island 10 miles northwest of downtown Portland, Oregon—is a gem of a place to live. Cradled by the Columbia River to the east and the Multnomah Channel to the west, the island is a nature lover’s paradise, replete with farms full of berry patches, roughly 11,500 acres of wildlife reserve, and several stretches of white sandy beaches. Its charming scenery is the reason a family of four chose it as the location for their second home, finding a 1979 fixer-upper to make their own. “You got to one bedroom through the garage,” designer Jessica Helgerson notes of the preexisting structure’s flaws. (Other absurdities included a toilet bowl…
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8 Eye-Catching Kitchen Island Decor Ideas
Kitchen islands are the heart of the contemporary home. They’re a casual gathering point for families to cook, dine, relax, entertain guests, and enjoy spending quality time together. Big or small, free-standing islands make a functional addition to any kitchen, providing an extra work surface and additional storage. Utilities aside, kitchen islands also offer the perfect platform for expressing your personal style and elevating your kitchen decor. We’ve rounded up our favorite decor ideas to spruce up your kitchen island and turn it into a stylish focal point. Jeff Herr 1. Have Fun with Fruit A fruit bowl is a kitchen island staple, but why not try something unexpected? Here,…
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Tour a Garden in the Fire Island Pines
Great Rooms A visual diary by Design Editor Wendy Goodman. House and Garden: A view toward the 1960s A-frame, where it all began. Photo: Annie Schlechter When Sumner Freeman bought this 1960s A-frame house in Fire Island Pines in 1980, the property it sat on was so obscured by poison ivy, catbrier, and Virginia creeper that he couldn’t even see it, and yet it called to him. “It was charming, and I could see the possibilities, and it suited me,” Freeman says. In the 1990s, he bought the house next door and then, in the aughts, with his partner Roy Yeager, added a third. They rent out all but the…
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Inside Vanessa Carlton’s Magically Cozy Rhode Island Home | Architectural Digest
“We found it on Zillow, just like everyone did during the pandemic,” musician Vanessa Carlton says of her charming Federal post-and-beam house. She and her husband, fellow musician John McCauley, even purchased the Rhode Island home—which was built during the first few years of the 1800s—without ever seeing it in person. “We did a FaceTime walk-through,” Carlton says. “I know, it’s crazy.” And yet the house, which the couple share with their seven-year-old daughter, Sidney, has led to their “next life” in the Ocean State. The blind commitment to a centuries-old abode is a bit more understandable considering that Carlton and McCauley, whose renovation projects have grown larger over the…
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In This Sydney Home, the Drama Starts with the Kitchen Island
It’s hard not to be mesmerized by the marble island that takes center stage in Australian designer Tamsin Johnson’s home in Sydney. Carved from a striking hunk of gray Bianco Gioia stone, the audacious design features a gravity-defying counter perched on plinths of marble stacked in a jagged-edge arrangement. The result may look like minimalist sculpture, but it’s not just for show. The island is fully kitted out with everything from drawers to power outlets. “I love spaces that are equal parts functional and beautiful,” Johnson says. If her home has a fashionable feel, it’s by design. Both she and her husband, Patrick Johnson, have roots in fashion. Tamsin studied…
