Beautiful Backsplash for Bargain Budgets

I can't afford beautiful Ann Sacks tile. I can't even think about installing gleaming white subway tile because I rent. But Mibo is thinking about us temporary folks out here.

Tile Tattoos
Heavy duty stickers to cover unwanted and unloved bathroom and kitchen tile. No glue is involved and they are completely removable. Available in 4" ($16) and 6" ($18) sets of six.

All designs available in both Dusty Blue and Taupe.

SHELTER Sets: "I'll Be There For You..."

Recognize this room?

Do you recognize it now?

The One Where Ross Finds Out

Yup, it's Monica and Phoebe's --> Monica and Rachel's --> Chandler and Joey's to finally Monica and Chandler's huge apartment in New York City. Hmmm, the only person who never lived there was Ross...

Looking back at these pictures I don't think I ever realized how many different colors were in this apartment. How had I not noticed that the kitchen windows, ceiling, moldings, and lower cabinets were bright turquoise blue and the upper cabinets were yellow? The only thing I did remember was that the mismatched kitchen chairs were painted, and now it seems in the same yellow and a different shade of blue.

The hallway which led to the dark plum bathroom ended at a green closet door (the "secret closet") while the walls of the hallway and all other living room walls were a strong lavender color. How did they get away with that, without it looking like a carnival house?

Well, I guess to many people, it did look like a carnival. It was meant to show young women finding their style by using family hand-me-downs, thrift stores, a little DIY, and every once in a while splurging on actual antiques.

Key details for this look:

• Aubusson rug, probably bought at a thrift shop that did not know how much it was worth

The One With Barry and Mindy's Wedding

• TV console constructed from an actual antique buffet
• Lavender walls with molding that sometimes looked blue and at other times a very vivid purple

• White vintage refrigerator
• Pink tiled counter and brick-lined kitchen walls
• Decorative plates attached to the brick walls
• Blue-green painted window frames and molding in the small open kitchen
• Kitschy vintage fabric used for the kitchen, living room windows and as a sink skirt
• Mix-matched chairs either painted in different colors or unified by being the same color

Trivia: You know that little frame around the peephole? It was a mistake, not a design choice, it was originally a mirror that hung on the door that someone accidentally smashed during filming. I think it turned out to be the most iconic object in the whole apartment!

This apartment; the funky colors, feminine furnishings, and the use of large vintage florals make me think of these clippings that I have of designer Betsey Johnson's apartment in the late 90's. Not a bad style muse, huh?

*Some details and first picture from this article in STYLE at HOME magazine. Article was excerpted from Sitcom Style by Diana Friedman.

**Betsey Johnson home shots from Metropolitan Home magazine, May/June 1997.

More from the Gulf Coast

• Habitat for Humanity is building homes in the area according to the regional style. Good, because here in Virginia the only Habitat homes I have ever seen are 2-story townhouse types. They have built over 1,300 homes in the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina and every month they start 50 more homes.

• Mississippi may not get the big press on rebuilding but I think they have the best overall plan. You can check out everything you need to know, right here through their Patternbook for Gulf Coast Neighborhoods. This patternbook also explains the four styles of Gulf Coast designs and shows examples of Acadian/Creole, Victorian, Classical, and Arts and Crafts buildings.

• Mississippi is also embracing New Urbanism, which wants to use city zoning to recreate our country’s small-town beginnings. Places where homes looked out on one another, homes were near enough to the street to seem engaging, and people used their porches to chat with neighbors. These places were also walkable with accessibility to transit; communities with real downtown at the center. In some places, this is so hard to visualize so it might be easier to use television shows as examples: Mayberry, Stars Hollow, Walnut Grove, Pleasantville, etc.
  
• Check out the specifics of New Urbanism and Smart Growth (a reaction against sprawl) at the Congress for the New Urbanism, NewUrbanism.org, Smart Growth America, and Coalition for Smarter Growth.
• Here are the other designs that were developed during the Mississippi Renewal Forum in 2005.

Gulf Coast ReBuilding

Read about the effort, volunteerism, and construction of this family's new Pass Christian, MS home in an inspiring story from Cottage Living magazine.
The local organization, Mercy Housing and Human Development partnered with Lowe's, Cottage Living, the Mennonite Disaster Service, and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation in the project. If you feel inspired to help, donate to the Cottage Living Building Fund through the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

Ocean Springs Cottage Square in Ocean Spring, MS. The development was designed by local firm, Tolar LeBatard Denmark Architects and has won a 2007 Charter Award.

New Orleans' Projects

Here is a great New York Times article and slide show about the variety of design styles being used to rebuild New Orleans.

From the article, the sentiment I completely agree with is this statement:
"Among the ideas advanced by architects and urban planners is permitting New Orleans to come back as a smaller city, with some heavily flooded areas left undeveloped; commissioning innovative 21st-century architecture for new public and residential buildings, even as the city’s treasured historic structures are preserved; and rebuilding low-income housing on higher ground."

The uproar that the city/state would even suggest not rebuilding some of the flooded areas seemed more political than sensible. Why even take the chance of this tragedy happening again? Some low lying areas should be left alone as they will always be too dangerous. This does not mean those people should not be provided housing in New Orleans, just that it should not be there.

 
The Tulane Gravier and Tremé/Lafitte New Orleans neighborhoods are to be reconstructed with help from Providence Community Housing and Enterprise Community Partners.
UrbanBuild N.O.'s Central City area project designed and built by the Tulane School of Architecture in conjunction with Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans.

 

Photo courtesy of JetsonGreen.org
Global Green USA, Brad Pitt, and the Home Depot Foundation project in the Lower Ninth Ward Holy Cross** area. Each home will cost about $150,000. Applicants must have previously owned property in the ward to be eligible and will be expected to contribute whatever they can afford.

In my personal opinion, these last two groups missed an important component in developing these environmentally sustainable and modern designs for the people of the Gulf Coast. They forgot to honor and preserve the history, attitude of the area and its people. I am a strong supporter of the green building movement, but in this case, I think more emphasis should have been focused on the importance of the exterior design of these projects. I was strongly disappointed in the designs as I see no connection to the regional architecture of the homes that they will be replacing.

**As of 11.21.07, the first home in Holy Cross (which will be used as a visitors center) has not been finished. More information via this incredible site from the neighborhood, HelpHolyCross.org.

Rebuilding the Gulf Coast Stronger

I have been wanting to write about this for over a year but had no idea of how to approach it. I have friends who were evacuated during Hurricane Katrina but they were lucky to live at a higher elevation and sustained minimal damage to their home when compared to those whose homes were flooded, submerged, or completely destroyed.
In October of 2005, the Mississippi Renewal Forum was created to respond to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and its massive loss of residents' homes. Here is a great article from Katrinacottages.com about the effort behind the creation of emergency hurricane resistant and affordable housing solutions for those people.

One of the assignments during the Forum was to “develop designs for affordable housing, which could be immediately put into place while respecting the place upon which it would be built”, in this case the architecture of the Gulf Coast states. It was that last part of the statement that impressed me.

The first design created from that forum was the beautiful, affordable, and historically sensitive Cusato Cottage designed by Marianne Cusato. The beauty of this design is that those needing quick housing could create an affordable, well-constructed, yet quickly built home that complies with the latest hurricane safety requirements. For her efforts, Ms. Cusato won the first Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt People's Design Award in 2006 for her Katrina cottage design.

It was a downsized version of the Mississippi coastal-style house, designed as an alternative to the FEMA trailer. Unlike the FEMA trailer, this cottage and other designs offered, are meant to be permanent structures and "are designed to withstand hurricanes, since we know that they will continue to occur," Cusato said.

FEMA trailer interior
Cusato cottage interior

Ms. Cusato started small; the original design was only 308 square feet*, but it was designed so that as these residents regained their lives, the cottages could be easily expanded, having possible additions already built into the plans. An example is the KC 612, "this 2-bedroom cottage with 1-bathroom starts at 612-sq.-ft. and can expand over time to a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom 1,080-sq.-ft. house with a family room." The materials for the house average about $55 per sq. ft., so that the KC 612 house would cost $33,660, before labor costs.

The designs of Ms. Cusato, Andres Duany, Eric Moser, and others are available to everyone through Lowe's Katrina Cottage building plans. The eleven plans available from Lowe's range from a 544 square foot 2-bedroom to 1,807 square feet for a 5-bedroom cottage.

• Katrina Cottage types available through Lowes.

• A comprehensive list and descriptions of Katrina Cottages types available through other sources.

*According to this 11/06 New York Times article, Ms. Cusato actually lived in a 11 by 28 foot, 308 square foot apartment when she was designing the first cottage.

In this new year...

1. I have already rearranged the furniture in my living room.
   
2. Received an A in my Historic Preservation in Planning course!
   
3. Received a subscription to Cottage Living for Xmas (so I must now devour it's contents.)
   
4. Received a $25 gift certificate to Lowe's which means the green paint for the armoire has been financed. I just have to make up my mind on the color!
   
5. Rewriting the SHELTER Study questionnaire. Have to keep it fresh, you know?
6. Still working on a few very cool posts for you to enjoy.

I'll be back in a few days.

Wish me luck.