Friday, March 15, 2024

It's lovely this settling down again ...


 "May I a small house and a large garden have; and a few friends, and many books, both true, both wise and both delightful too!"


Abraham Crawley



This morning it was so pretty out with rich blue, clear skies I had our son snapped several photos of our new front yard.  It is lovely, this settling down again... being back home in California after being out of state for 3 years for my husband's job. We have begun the process of removing plants that really didn't suit us and replacing them with our favorites.   The sunlight as I walked out side has real warmth in it and the light was so lovely I snapped a few photos of what currently brings me joy in our front yard.   Of course our lawn won't be completely green for a few more weeks and the plants are not fully mature .... But each season brings new joys and with it a quintessence of all that we find hopeful and beautiful, particularly in the small things.  Seeing our new plantings bloom and sway in the Spring breeze is one of them... Sigh.





























Live Beautifully 

x Rié




Monday, March 4, 2024

The Most Beautiful Flower Garden: Cordelia de Castellane of Dior

 






"I must have flowers always and always."
Claude Monet



Nestled in a small village outside of Paris is the beautiful storybook weekend home and garden of Cordelia de Castellane @cordeliadecastellane who is the artistic director of @babydior and @diormaison.  


Cordelia enlisted the help of English landscape designer Milan Hajsinek @milan_greenfuture   She wanted to keep the garden very natural as if it had always been there and not too French nor having too much symmetry.  Something more English with an abundance of flowers from April until the end of October, because it is so inspiring for her designs which are often the color palette for Baby Dior.  Cordelia wanted a a green house where she could grow her plants and design floral arrangements, and did Milan come through!  It is perfection ... and the color is divine! The gorgeous photography is by Dean Hearne @dean.hearne for @houseandgarden uk.  Cordelia has a book out "Life in a French Country House" and her second, all about her passion for flowers, will be released later this year.  


Enjoy this is absolutely beautiful collection of photos of her gorgeous garden.  
















































Hope this inspires you to Live Beautifully

xRié




Thursday, February 29, 2024

New Must Buy Book: Bunny Williams Life in the Garden

 



"In garden arrangement, as in all other kinds of decorative work, one has not only to acquire a knowledge of what to do, but also gain some wisdom in perceiving what is it well to let alone." 
- Gertrude Jekyll



Acquiring knowledge of what to do in a garden takes a lifetime of dedication, passion, and good old fashioned dirt on the knees, hands on imagination. 

This is never more true than of Bunny Williams, known as one of the most talented names in design.  She was named to the prestigious AD 100 list, is a member of the Interior Design Hall of Fame, and a recipient of the Giants of Design Award from House Beautiful.  Her new book Life in the Garden is an intimate yet panoramic survey of her continuing love affair with the garden and woodlands surrounding her Connecticut home.  

This book is stunning, a landmark of garden design and wisdom from the garden designer herself.  The attention to details extends to the very pages: the photography is presented on two different speciality stocks juxtaposing texture and color in a way that brings the subject to life. A book to savor, to learn from, to dream from.  It opens the doors of possibilities and inspirations for your own garden.  

I know you will love it.










































live beautifully...

xx Rié



Many thanks to Bunny Williams, Rizzoli New York, and Sarah Burningham at Little Bird Publicity for the opportunity.  It's a gorgeous book, congratulations!



#book #garden #design #newbook #bunnywilliams

Saturday, September 30, 2023

Autumn's Melody - Peter Pennoyer Architects: City | Country

 


Autumn's melody brings us the fall publishing season and an early highlight for us is Peter Pennoyer Architects breathtaking new book "City and Country".  The "City" features residences designed with history and urban life in mind, while "Country" features romantic estates and coastal homes.  

Thank you to Vendome Press and Sarah at Little Bird Publicity for the opportunity to showcase this book and for bringing us along for the journey.  And to Peter and your team, you have brought together world class collaborations with the best in the industry, including Katie Ridder, Redd Kaihoi, Steven Gambrel, Jacques Garcia, Victoria Hagan, Robert Stilin, Miranda Brooks, and Hollander Landscape Architects. 

Thank you for bringing lasting beauty to the world through you work.  

Congratulations! xRié























Click here to pre-order on Amazon.




#book #fall #design
#garden




Thursday, May 20, 2021

Patina Homes: Steve Giannetti and Brooke Giannetti




Everyone who has followed Steve and Brooke Giannetti has been inspired by their design style, a beautiful paradox of vintage modernity with a curated color palette of neutral tones, often accented by French oak and creamy French limestone walls, juxtaposed to steel windows and set in an open floor plan that is at once warm and inviting.  In their fourth book Patina Homes, readers are presented with a breathtaking showcase of 12 homes that demonstrate the architectural brilliance of Steve's signature materials and understated elegance.  The book, while focused on the architectural aspects of each project, is also a wonderful collection of design inspiration, and together these elements are perfectly suited to inspire us to lighten up our interiors, and pursue the lifestyle quality that makes a house a home.  

I know you will love it...  Here is your sneak peek!







Atherton

"Atherton reflects the stories and dream of our clients.  They raised their family in a beautiful traditional home on this tree-filled property, but their children were older now.  They were entering a new phase of their life and their house no longer fit their lifestyle.  They dreamed of open interior spaces, where they could entertain friends and their grown children.  After seeing Patina Farm, they were convinced they could create a home that reminded them of their original, traditional house, but also included bright, fluid spaces connected to their gardens."





"Although the interior rooms have a modern sensibility, I also wanted them to feel warm and welcoming.  A few antique architectural elements–a large-scale limestone mantle in the living room, a pair of antique French pine doors in the breakfast room, and two vintage zinc industrial pendants in the kitchen–help balance the contemporary detailing.  The view of the gardens through the generous steel windows becomes large-scale landscape art, adding a natural ease to the interior spaces."












Cliff House

"This Malibu home, equal parts industrial factory and Italian villa, is a departure from the traditional shingle-style beach house I designed for this same client a decade ago."





"One of my main goals was to connect the indoor spaces to the ocean beyond.  I wanted to take advantage of this home's location on a cliff above the Pacific.  From the entry courtyard, a steel-and-glass door allows visitors a peek at the magnificent views.  Upon entering the house, monumental steel doors pocket into the wall, providing guests with the full, breathtaking sights, scents and sounds of the ocean.  The entire home becomes an outdoor porch."












Malibu Colony

"This Malibu Colony beach house was my opportunity to create the perfect beach house by having every single element conform to the single purpose of opening the whole space to the ocean."





"Although this is a contemporary house, I wanted to make sure it felt inviting.  The natural material selections add warmth.  Planked wood walls and floors stained a warm honey tone balance the cooler plaster and glass throughout the house.  Honed slabs of buff-colored, fossilized limestone add natural texture to all of the bathrooms."







Oceanside

"Oceanside is a home in a private beach enclave in Southern California.  Built in the 1920s, all of the houses in this community are based on classic French Normandy architecture, and all new homes are required to adhere to these details."





"...I designed a French Normandy-style home centered around a courtyard, where the living room, dining room and kitchen flow together and connect to a porch with spectacular ocean views.  Combined with our clients' bedroom suite, these spaces become a comfortable two-person home.  As more guests arrive, the extra bedrooms and bunk room surrounding the courtyard extend the home while still protecting our clients' privacy."








To purchase Patina Homes and request an autographed copy, click here.







Congratulations to Steve and Brooke for the gorgeous new book, thank you ever so much for the signed copy.

As always a very special thanks to Jill Cohen Associates for the wonderful opportunity to review this beautiful publication.

All quotes courtesy of Steve Giannetti - Patina Homes
All images courtesy of Gibbs Smith, photographs in post taken by Lisa Romerein
Reprinted with publisher and authors' permission.


Architecture by Giannetti Home
Design Associates: Ryan Oliva, Laura Putnam, Renata Costa, Andrew Mitchell, Nick Giannetti, and Blenda Luong.






...live beautifully 
x Rié




Thursday, April 29, 2021

April Book Club - HOUSES: Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Gorgeous New Book!

 


I learned the love of blueprints from my dad; as a child I would wait patiently for him to finish, to ask him if he had an extra so I could color them, and of course add my own designs.  Even though his plans were for mainframe computers and their parts, he was a budding architect at heart, and was the first to introduce me to architecture and landscape architecture.  The first time I remember learning an architect's name was for a beautiful building by Robert A. M. Stern, who was first known for his distinguished, timeless, houses.  The firm's latest book marks a new celebration of their world-renowned residential projects.  Houses: Robert A. M. Stern Architects was recently published by The Monacelli Press, so you know it's gorgeous.  It's a sweeping presentation "...of seventeen homes that showcase RAMSA's mastery of diverse styles and highlights the firm's collaboration with leading designers, landscape architects, craftspeople, and builders around the world."  It also contains blueprints of site plans, floor plans, and early conceptual sketches, which I personally find thrilling. 

Just order it now and add it to your library, you will thank me later... Enjoy your sneak peak!






HOUSE 
IN 
VIRGINIA
BEACH
Gary L. Brewer, Project Partner

"Several years ago, a Virginia Beach couple purchased oceanfront land on which to build their dream house.  While gathering inspiration images, they discovered that many of their favorite homes were designed by our firm and that the wife's father years before had consulted Bob Stern about a house that he was thinking of building.  Introductions were made, and before I knew it, I was on my way to Virginia, where the couple showed me their site as well as several local shingle-style houses they admired.  Among them, to my surprise, was one that had been built to our 1994 plans for the Life magazine dream house." ...


















RESIDENCE
ON
KIAWAH
ISLAND
Roger H. Seifter, Project Partner

"Just twenty-five miles southwest of Charleston, South Carolina, the barrier island of Kiawah was first developed as a private community nearly fifty years ago.  Since then it has become a veritable subtropical paradise of scenic inlets and lagoons, rolling golf greens, and broad, south-facing beaches." ...













HOUSE
ON
LILY POND
LANE
Randy M. Correll, Project Partner

"This house is on one of East Hampton's most picturesque lanes, just parallel to the beach, with the sound of the ocean ever present.  The street is lined with beautiful sycamore trees that tower above the landscape, which takes on a park-like quality, thanks to the unusual siting of the house far to one side of the generous lot." ...





















To Purchase Houses: Robert A. M. Stern Architects, click here.








All quotes attributed to the respectively listed partners; the opening quote sourced from The Monacelli Press press release.

Book Forward by Robert A. M. Stern.
Edited by Peter Morris Dixon and Shannon Hohlbein.
Written with Samuel Cochran.

Congratulations to Robert A. M. Stern Architects, and in particular RAMSA's residential Partners - Gary L. Brewer, Randy M. Correll, Grant F. Marani, and Roger H. Seifter on the magnificent book and each of your world class projects.

With very special thanks once again to Sarah Burningham - Little Bird Publicity - for the opportunity.

Thank you as well to The Monacelli Press, and media contact Laura Mintz, for the copy of the book to review.







...live beautifully
x Rié



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