Holiday reading guide 2009

Welcome welcome welcome! How did your Christmas go? Too much food and watching great aunt Minnie' dentures travel down her chest as she snores quietly at the end of the table? (True story only the name has been changed!) Well it's time to pour a cup of nice hot tea, sink into your chair and join in a Desire to Inspire Christmas tradition .... the holiday reading guide to blogs big and small, home design, other design, in English or not, new or new to me. I spend my spare time jumping from link to link and lurking on lots of blogs. Warning though. Take your time, savour them all and save room for more guides over the coming days.

    

  

    

    

   

     

  

  

  

  

  

  

Happy holidays!

Jo and I (and our furry children, including Felix below) would like to wish you all a very happy holidays and hope you all get at least a bit of a vacation and have a great time with family and friends. Jo is off to her sister's home on the beach for a couple days (and off work until the new year) and I am having a relaxing time with family nearby (and I am back to work unfortunately on Tuesday). Since we are blogging fiends, we are not really taking a break from the blog over the holidays. Instead we'll be featuring some reading lists of new blogs that we've come across as well as some of our favourite photos we've posted over the past year. So if you get a little break from the chaos of the holidays, stop on by here as we'll be blogging daily. We very much appreciate everyone's support over the past year and thank you all for visiting DTI. Be safe and we'll see ya soon!

Mastro Skylar Architects

Emily emailed Jo and I recently hoping we could find her some inspirational photos for a dilemma she has with her bedroom. Due to the chaos involved with trying to get ready for the holidays, our help will have to be postponed a little bit. In the meantime I thought we could showcase the work of her very talented aunt and uncle, James Mastro and Claudia Skylar of Mastro Skylar Architects. I cannot even fathom how awesome it would be to have architects in the family. I know I would certainly save up some dough, get myself a plot of land and have them design me the house of my dreams. So to start I thought I'd showcase some photos of Emily's aunt and uncle's own home, a converted 1905 carriage repair shop. "This is our house: filled with light and space and our favorite stuff. Airy but cozy. Colorful but neutral. Sometimes playful, sometimes elegant. Radical ways of organizing space that make perfect sense. Understand our house and you’ll know everything there is to know about us."

  

I think the greenhouse is my favourite space. (What a dream!) And here are a few more spaces they've designed.

  

Stiff + Trevillion

It’s easy to see why Stiff + Trevillion are leading U.K. architects. Theirs is not a definable “style”. It’s modern, clean lined and addresses the connection between heritage and the future, preservation and everyday use. It’s about light and volume, the client’s needs and beautiful spaces. More than inspiring.

  

  

  

Leslie's home tour

We received an email the other day from a reader named Leslie that had me completely intrigued. "hi. i love your blog and i am also a design junkie. i live in a stone house from the 1930's and have designed it with a diverse mix of tribal, mid century modern, antiques, hand made objects, things i've collected from my travels. it all pulls together in an integrated rich mix of textures and objects...i do think it is a home you would appreciate and wondered if you wanted to see some sample photo's of some rooms?" Hells yeah I want to see!!! Mid-century and tribal is Jo's ultimate mix of styles and I love it as well. Leslie has such a wonderful collection of tribal pieces and ethnic furniture, and some fabulous teak pieces. Not to mention quite a stellar collection of rugs and mid-century chairs (and cute pooch) that had me gasping in delight. I love eclectic and this is for sure an eclectic mix. Thank you for sharing your home with us Leslie!!