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Tour a “Luxury Funhouse” in Laguna Beach, California
AD100 interior designer Michelle Nussbaumer’s more-is-more approach to decoration feels either inspired by the Pacific Ocean’s magnitude or like a brazen attempt to be the equal of the irrepressible view at this cliff-hugging vacation home in Laguna Beach. “This house is really something very different for the family,” says Nussbaumer, who has worked on the multigenerational family’s other properties for almost two decades. “[They] raised [their] kids in more traditional homes, and now that there are grandchildren around, it’s the era of the luxury fun house.” Fashioning a funky and fearless tableau requires a vast imagination, a key characteristic of natural-born maximalist Nussbaumer. For instance, the designer spared nary an…
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Tour a Once-Dated Tuscan-Style Home That Got a Soothing Refresh | Architectural Digest
The ’90s may be enjoying an aesthetic revival these days, but that doesn’t mean every one of the decade’s creations deserves celebration. In fact, when she first saw this house from the period, Los Angeles–based AD100 interior designer Mandy Cheng says she remembers thinking, “It looks very early-’90s Tuscan, and in a bad way.” The home—located in LA’s Pacific Palisades—showed off what Cheng describes as “modernish Santa Barbara Mediterranean style” exterior architecture. The interior spaces, many of them double height, glowed warmly with sunlight from large windows. But that glow revealed an array of glaring 30-year-old missteps: the highly polished marble floors throughout the ground level, say, or the conspicuously…
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A Tour of Some of the World’s Most Elegant Libraries
This story originally appeared in the March 1994 issue of ELLE DECOR. For more stories from our archive, subscribe to ELLE DECOR All Access. In the beginning was the word: words engraved on clay tablets, inscribed on papyrus and vellum scrolls, written on parchment, and, by 1455, thanks to Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type, printed on paper. Today, while it sometimes seems that electronics have taken over, Barnes & Noble continues to build superstores from coast to coast. We haven’t lost our love of books, and one of our favorite rooms is the library. For a lot of us, though, a single room devoted to books is just not…
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Tour an Austin, Texas, Home Where Stunning Modernism Meets Traditional Design | Architectural Digest
It can be said that a historic house is only as good as its bones, but oftentimes, it takes a little digging to find them. Such was the case for Carrie and Robert Hicks, who found their dream home in the form of a Tudor-inspired house built in 1926 in one of Austin’s oldest neighborhoods. “We first fell in love with the location and the great big front yard. It was just a really wonderful space,” recalls Carrie, an interior designer who cut her teeth in New York and West Hollywood before settling down in Texas. The house had been through many hands in the nearly hundred years before the…
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Tour Midcentury Modern Homes for Sale in Houston
Characterized by clean lines, minimal decoration, and large, open spaces, midcentury modern homes are true classic American architecture. In Houston, new homes are popping up in almost every neighborhood, but we found five midcentury modern homes that still capture that old-school vibe. While some might call for updates, they’re worth the effort for the classic architecture. Whether you’re on the hunt for a home or just browsing because you love looking at home listings like we do, step into a time capsule and check out these five homes in Houston. 11115 Burdine St., Houston, TX 77096$363,000 Built in 1956, this 3-bedroom and 2-bath home…
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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…
