The Spa At Nemacolin

With a mix of Asian and modern design, The Spa at Nemacolin Woodland Resort in Western Pennsylvania is not only a luxurious retreat, it's a wonderful design feast. You can take many of the ideas you'll see there and apply them to your personal space.

Fresh Look at a Stale Cottage

Living a modern lifestyle doesn't mean you have to buy a mid-century modern home or build a new one. This cottage redo goes to show that the bones of any home style can successfully have a modern injection. Bret Zamore and his fiancee Rene transformed this cottage style house in Houston into a cool combo of classic and modern. From Cottage Living.

A New Year of New Design, H-Haus

H-Haus models are showcases of intelligent home design for the 21st century. The architecturally modern home designs introduce elegant living paired with eco-friendly designs adopted from European housing standards to the American Market.

Luxurious spa bath, single and two-story living arrangements, double height entry, cook’s kitchen, roomy bedrooms, wrap around balconies and operable skylights are just some of many high-end standard features throughout the H-Haus models. Spacious plans provide maximum living and storage space in a small footprint that reduces land use.

From the rooftop to the interior floor coverings, these homes are constructed with materials that will reduce energy bills and conserve natural resources. The smart, efficient design offers solar heating, super-insulated walls and roofing, rainwater catchment, and wastewater recycling.

Pre Fabulous

Go modular with this expandable design. One room or a home. The MD 280 features a full kitchen, a separate bedroom, a living room and a bath. Ambient light is plentiful thanks to 9' floor-to-ceiling glass. The entire home fits on a single semi truck trailer and is very easy to transport and assemble. Fabulous.

Radiator

Europeans have had a very different take on the radiator for many years compared to Americans. This cubist design is another example of this form and function thinking. From Marco Dessi.

Instant Kitchen And Bath

These are efficient designs from Marc and Justus Comandare that can turn a space quickly into a kitchen or shower. While they differ from each other in style they both are great for DIY living.

Your Drain

I never really thought about the lack of beauty in a sink drain till I saw this sink drain from The Ornamented Life, Netherlands. Designer Joana Meroz has taken the drain to new levels. Compare the standard to this beauty. At Rose and Radish.

ZENKAYA

ZENKAYA is a prefab architecture delight. It comes fully assembled and has many option packages to choose from when outfitting, including furniture. Yes, you still need a site, prepared for the structure and utilities to hook up to, but other than that, they do the rest for you. You can choose from studio, one bedroom or two bedroom and they will expand the length further, should you desire. Neat!

How To Make Your Garden

What's your garden Style? That is the first step to planning and planting a garden. Then understanding the plants that will go together to achieve this style is the second step. Monrovia Garden Quiz has made this an easy task. It's the Match.com for gardeners. Stop by the site, take the quiz and see you style and a large range of plants to create that style. Then you can order them and your on your way. My garden style was modern, of course.

Maax Urban Series

The Maax Urban Series is the ultimate is shower luxury. I saw one today on a showroom floor and it exceeded my expectations far more than I could have imagined. If you don't want to get into a contractor built spa shower, this is for you. So sleek.

Kitchens By Ikea

Everyone who considers an Ikea kitchen wonders it the value price means they are getting an inferior product. I've been doing a bit of informal research and the word on the street is , no, you're not getting an inferior product.



Here are some resources to check out before making an Ikea kitchen decision, IKEAFANS, Positive Fanatics, and IKEA hacker.

The Modern Townhouse

I never thought I would be interested in living in a townhouse, but after owning a 1910 home for 9 years, the idea of a house with no exterior maintenance and on grounds amenities is looking quite good. As someone who loves modern architecture it can be difficult to find townhouses that fit that preference. That is why The Modern Townhouse by James Grayson Trulove is my dream in book form. It covers renovating existing townhouses and new townhouses. I don't know if I'll find a modern beauty like this, but it's nice to dream.

The Weehouse

These days the Weehouse is not so wee, but it started out as the little abode you see here. It was in production in the US early in the prefab boom and now has many design options for a full home. But it's this first model that I still love. It's got modern charm.

Mid-century Modern

This is a wonderful book about a seminal period in interior design which combined the work of great modern textile, furniture, object and home designers. A great resource from Conran Octopus Interiors.

Rocio Romero LV Homes

I've had my eye on the LV Series prefab modern home for a long time, being that it was one of the earlier designs to be available in the US. There are now several different option with kits starting at around $31,000 and completed dwellings ranging from $75,000 to $120,000. It's a great design and you can even tour the model. See the web site for lots more info.

Valcucine Kitchens

I don't even know if the word kitchen applies here. It's more like a technologically advanced, ultra space age, culinary execution and consumption environment. The design is spectacular, the details are amazing and every efficiency has been included. They are even an environmentally conscious company. Take a tour of Valcucine's Site.

Dwell

Dwell is simply one of the best things to happen in design in a long time. Since the first issue published on October of 2000 Dwell have consistently turned out an honest and unique take on the world of design. You must subscribe to this magazine if you have any interest at all in design. With features on art, architecture, craft, interiors, green living and even jewelry they are the tops in my book.

The Modern Landscape

In modern home design the landscape is very important because of how visible it is from the inside of the home. So many large expanses of glass give amazing views of the outdoors and the landscape should esthetically compliment the architecture.Realtor Renee Adelman's Eicher Homes web site shows some wonderful examples of modern landscape design as well as remodeling ideas. Let these inspire you.

Modern Community

If you love modern as much as I do you may have noticed how hard it is to find existing modern residential homes, condos or townhouses. But little by little architects and developers are realizing there is a market for modern. Case and point, Indigo Modern, a modern community in Tuscon Arizona. Let's hope this trend continues.

Happy New Year - Happy New Home

FlatPak Homes is my favorite in pre-fab design. This company has created a panel system where you pick from many options of materials, mix or match to create exterior and interior walls. Then with your design input they fill in all the rest, kitchen, bath, storage.... They have taken modern prefab out of the "box arriving on a truck" method and opened it up to anything you desire. They are part of Copper Hewitt's Design Triennial in NY from now until July 29, 2007. Great Design! (Special thanks to Dwell)