My daughter Jackie & I recently went to a good friends' bridal kitchen shower in Austin. The shower was held in a very cool modern house overlooking
Lake Austin.
In my older posts, I've written about Lake Travis, the largest lake in Austin. Well,
Lake Austin is just below the dam of Lake Travis, also within Austin, and closer to the heart of the city. Lake Austin's water is colder and it's a calm lake because it's basically a river that runs through our city. Great for water skiing and riding a boat to great restaurants, etc..
Anyways, back to the shower event.......wish I would've remembered my good camera. However, I took pics with the Iphone cuz I figured you'd still like to see this house.
The house is ultra modern and beautiful, inside and out.
The lake view is my fave feature of this dwelling. However, I do love their statement front door!
Watch the way it opens from the inside, as Jackie shows you:
Walking on into the main living room is a grouping of modern pieces. The hostess entertains alot and this is a very cool room for conversations & admiring some art.
Within this same room, is the dining room and had to share the custom blown glass pendant lighting, that hangs above their formal table. Truly a work of art:
View from the main room out to the lake:
From the main level, you walk down a beautiful, circular staircase to the lower level. On this level, there's a fun party room large enough to set up dining tables or to use as a dance floor. The room also has an entertaining bar & a "catering" kitchen off to the side , behind closed doors. The party level also has a pilates room, swimming pool outside, and an amazing home theater room. The house works so well for events: the caterer drives to the lower level garage & unloads onto that level.
Once inside, the caterer sets up in their own "catering" kitchen. Therefore the "help" doesn't even go into their personal kitchen or dwelling upstairs.
Notice the acoustical ceiling treatment in the party room:
Entertaining bar in the party room:
Pool outside on the same level:
As part of the kitchen bridal shower decor, they had flowers decorating Cuisinart & OXO gadgets, so the bride-to-be could take home, and use later:
(the OXO gadgets were hidden amongst the flowers above, on the lower level of the tiered basket)
From the party room, through a hidden door, concealed within a modern wood wall, is the fun theater with reclining comfy microsuede chairs :
After we all had our bridal shower fun on the party level, we walked up to the 4th story observation deck to visit & enjoy the view:
Owl dummies flank the ledges to scare away the birds from making a mess on the deck! (alot of people use the owls at beachhouses too , for the sea gulls)
(Jackie with her good friend Ally , the bride-to-be)
Thinking of the "statement door " & modern abodes, I thought I'd share another modern Austin house.
The dwelling is situated just below the dam of
Lake Austin. (Remember, there's
Lake Travis, then a dam that feeds into
Lake Austin. Then the next dam feeds into
Lady Bird Lake.
Lady Bird Lake runs through the urban part of downtown.)
The house is an amazing composition of different buildings , but has alot of the same features as the "shower" house:
statement door:
Beautiful downtown skyline view:
( older pic though....there are now TALL lofts that line the skyline)
Love the doors, but also love the landscape details from
Big Red Sun:
After being in the modern uncluttered "bridal shower" home, I walked into my own front door and realized how much "stuff" I had in my house. I went through a crazy clean up/edit mode rightaway. I crave modern streamlined decor because it's peaceful and I can just think more clearly in an uncluttered space. I love simplistic, modern interiors now because they're just more updated & fresh. I now have an amazing amount of "stuff" that needs to find a new home. Funny how alot of us accumulate so many things as we get older in years. We get to this plateau of saturation of "stuff", and realize it's not so important anymore. Once we start editing our homes, it can be so therapeutic and liberating! Feels good; like cleaning out an overstuffed closet or purse.
In the last 3 years, we've changed things around such as adding in more classic modern furniture pieces & modern lighting. You can always update and modernize any style home simply by adding those simple interior updates. Modern classic style works in any home & doesn't have to be "cold". You can still create a warm, welcoming home......you just need to know how to create the right mix.
After editing my house, Jackie walked in the next day, and said it looked like I was moving! I felt the same way....I loved it, but yeah, it looked like our house looked before we unloaded all the "stuff" back on moving day!
I love the "just moved in" look though....kind of like staging! Simple, not cluttered.....
How long do you think it will last? Cuz you know winter's around the corner when we all "nest" again!
Wish me luck for "keeping it simple".
All the best,
Well, I just told you in my last post how I love clean modern lines. Today though, Erin of House of Turquoise, posted about a cute, cute cottage in South Carolina.
I had recently seen the photos in Southern Living magazine and fell in love with this place.
Shutters on a porch are great for added dimension & color for any facade, but they're also great for privacy when you need it. Especially if your house sits just next to your neighbors. Sometimes you just prefer to have your morning coffee in your p.j's without someone next door right there as you walk out. Just add some shutters installed in the frame of the porch railing, on one or both sides for that extra side privacy. When you're ready to chat with the neighbor & invite them over for drinks, then open them back up! Shutters are a great because you can regulate the amount of privacy you prefer with the louvers, vs. a roll up shade.
