Readers Houses!

 

 

 

As you know – because I tell you all the time  - every day I get emails from readers.  Sometimes the emails are accompanied by pictures of their houses.    I love getting those emails – it’s fun for me to see readers houses and even to offer a few design tips, but ONLY if I am asked to.   Otherwise, I take off my interior decorator hat and just admire their house as any friend would.    Although some emails are from readers wanting advice, most just send in pictures to share with me.   Many times the houses are decorated in a way that the reader knows I will admire and  just wants me to see it.    Some  homeowners don’t send pictures of their entire house, rather they send snapshots of just one special room recently redecorated.    I have no idea why I love looking at other peoples houses, but I do.   And, I suspect if you are reading this blog, you are the same way too.  So today, I am going to show you a few houses and special rooms from readers so you can enjoy them as much as I have.    Most interesting of all is that most of these houses were not professionally decorated, rather the homeowner put it together herself.    If you have sent me pictures of your house and it’s not included here, do not take it personally!    I have so many images stored on my computer, it’s impossible for me to look through all of them to find every house sent to me these past two years!    These that I am showing today just happened to have been easily found on the hard drive.     Also, if you think you do want to  share your house with other readers – don’t be shy!    I’m hoping to make Readers Houses a regular feature of the blog from here on out. 

 

 

Kim from somewhere in the midwest sent me pictures of her beautiful house.    First up is her entry hall with a vignette designed around a silver mirror and lamps.  Right past the entry is an office behind French doors.   I wish there was a picture of this room – it looks so interesting with its patterned rug and pillow!  

 

 

Facing the entry hall is the living area on the left and the family room and kitchen on the right.   Here you can really get a feel for the house – the colors, the whites and light blues mixed with black accents.  Which room tugs at you to see first – the living room or the family room?   For me – even though Kim’s husband and the cat look so cozy in the family room - the living room is calling.

 

 

 

With the pretty staircase overlooking it, the living room is bright, light, and beautiful!   The room is double height with lots of windows that really add to the ambiance here.  The curtains are a wonderful silk stripe in blue and white and notice the pattern is railroaded, meaning the stripes run horizontal instead of the more usual vertical direction.      The large pattern is perfect in this size room.   The sofa matches wonderfully in white with the blue trim and the zebra pillows pop against all the more pastel colors in the room.    In fact, black is an important accent color  - besides the pillows, it is found in the piano and the lampshades.   I love the large trendy chandelier – it’s the right size exactly for this high ceilinged room.   Kim adds a large mink throw for texture.   What a pretty room – I love it!

 

                         

  A close up shot of the sofa with all the pillows and the luxurious throw.    Let’s go see the nearby dining room.

 

 

 

 

The dining room is a bright, sunny space.   With its glass topped table, surrounded by casually slipcovered chairs- the painting really sets the mood in this room.     The pillows that are placed on the chairs all pick up the bright colors found in the painting.    Further bursts of colors come from the glassware found on the tablescape.   I wish we could see the lighting fixture!    Very cute room!!!

 

 

 

Heading back into the central hall,  the family room and kitchen are on the right side of the house.    Here you can see part of the family room with the animal print rug and two white chairs and ottoman.  Notice the breakfast room is off to the very back right of this room.

 

 

The family room connects to the large white kitchen.   There is another back staircase in this room.  

 

 

 

 

Off to the side in a large bay window is the breakfast room – so charming!  I love the way Kim has accessorized the table with a runner and candlesticks.   The light fixture is so pretty too.   I adore this room!    Notice what an important role all the green from outside plays in all the different rooms.     The foliage really adds so much color to the house. 

 

 

The kitchen has beautiful Carrara marble counter tops and great cabinetry.   In every room, Kim has used a wonderful chandelier which really adds an important design element.   I love how the pantry has a French door! 

 

 

 

 

The backsplash is subway tiles, also in marble.   This is really a pretty kitchen with the glass front cabinets and the wood hood.  

 

 

 

The master bedroom is a serene place, with a chandelier and two large mirrors that make the entire room sparkle. 

 

 

 

And finally the verdant back yard with its wonderful swimming pool!    Thank you Kim for sharing your beautiful house with us!!!!!

 

 

 

Homeowner Two:   our next reader’s house is owned by a woman who wanted to share her love of accessories and collecting with me.   Like she said – we have many of the same collections – and she is so right!  I see right away we both love zebra rugs and blue and white porcelains!

 

 

This is so charming – an antique round bookcase filled with design books, of course!  I love the screen behind it, made of book faces.  She loves books as much, if not more, than I do!

 

 

I adore this – around a game table – four blue and white garden seats!   She has me beat - I only have three garden seats.

 

 

Another thing we both collect is bronze dog figures  AND design books.  I’m not sure who has more books, she or I, but it’s a tight race.   I see we own many of the same books.   But more important – I spy a picture of the owner hugging a English Springer Spaniel, very much like my own Georgie.    Is this my house or hers??????   I’m getting a little confused here!

 

 

 

Another view of the same tablescape – Living With Dogs is one of my favorite design books!  

 

 

 

In this beautiful antique secretary is a collection I don’t have – but it’s so charming I may start one – vintage dog bowls!   I love this!!!   The entire cabinet is an expression of her love of dogs – she must be the sweetest woman in the world!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

More blue and white and calligraphy brushes.   We both share a love of orchids.  I only own one calligraphy brush. 

 

 

 

Her collection of cooking books fills the bookcase in the dining room.  OK  - here we part ways.   I don’t have a love of cooking.  Whew!  I thought we were the same person until now!

 

 

 

 

 

A view of the vignette atop the console in the dining room.   This homeowner collect religious santos and art work that celebrates the Hispanic woman.   AND she loves orange roses – me too!!!!!

 

 

 

At the homeowner’s 60th birthday party, her family collected all the things from her house that she loves and decorated the party room with her favorites.  What a great idea – I have to remember this for my 60th birthday, in five years!    Here, her love of quilts, santos, blue and white, and orange roses is evident.

 

 

A view of the party table – I see “Antiques At Home” another favorite book of mine.    The fudge looks slightly delicious.

 

 

She’ll probably kill me for this – but the beautiful homeowner at her 60th birthday party- thank you for sharing your wonderful house and all your  collections with us!!!!

 

 

 

Homeowner Three:  Our third homeowner sent in this picture of her bedroom – telling me how much I would love it!  I wonder why?  Could it be the checked upholstered headboard, or the beautiful Scalamandre Oriental toile wallpaper?   Or would it be the vintage sunburst mirror?    Thank you Ms. MDC for sharing your beautiful bedroom with us !!!

 

 

 

 

Homeowner  Four:     Our Fourth homeowner today sent in pictures of her house – and I want to show you how darling her kitchen is – all in black and white, with subway tiles and black granite.    The floor tiles are perfect, and I love the white linen curtains along with the white ironstone too.  But the chandelier is the perfect touch!!!  Thanks for sharing!!  You’ve done a great job with your house.

 

 

 

Homeowner Five:   This homeowner today writes from South Africa!    Her house is built around a courtyard where there is a large swimming pool.  Notice the lions on top of the roof!  This is Africa, after all.

 

 

Her living room is so pretty with its stone fireplace.

 

 

 

I especially love the French inspired bedroom with its trumeau mirror.

 

 

 

But what really caught my eye was this bathroom with its crystal chandelier, twin Venetian mirrors and luxurious silk window shade – all just so beautiful!  Thank you for sharing!

 

 

 

Homeowner Six:   This young homeowner wanted to share her dining room which she had just finished decorating.  She thought I would like it – wonder why?   Well, the slipped chairs are adorable – I like how she put tops on only two of the chairs – it creates a visual interest.  Cute ballet ties too!   And I love the dark wall color with the white slipcovers – it makes them pop.  The plates are the perfect addition too – love that!   You did a great job!!!! 

 

 

 

Homeowner Seven:     This reader told me – you are going to love my living room –we share so many things.  Yes we do!  Let me count the ways:  Bennison Roses fabric, seagrass, zebra, white slips, French settee, blue and white, orchid, sconces -  yes, you are so right!!  We do share a love of so many of the same things!! 

 

 

And finally, I really want to show you this house, but I don’t have the homeowner’s email anymore.  If this is your dog, email me!   This homeowner sent in professional pictures of her beautiful house and I want to make sure it’s not being published before I share it.

 

Thank you again to all the homeowners today who have shared their houses and their special rooms with me and you!   What is most interesting, is I don’t think many were professional designed – just homeowners with style and taste who put together their house with the things they love.  If you have designed your house and want to show it off, let me know!  I hope to continue to show “real houses” not just all the more professionally designed houses we see in the magazines. 

 

 

And one bit of blog business, this week The Skirted Roundtable was thrilled to welcome internationally acclaimed interior designer AND blogger Vicente Wolf.    Wolf   was extremely interesting, talking about everything from his childhood in Cuba to his present day design service, working  hard to maintain a profitable business in this terrible economy.   If you haven’t had a chance to listen – please go HERE to do so.   ENJOY!!!!

Australian Fashion Designer Collette Dinnigan Sells Up

SELLER: Collette Dinnigan
LOCATION: Underwood Street, Sydney, Australia
PRICE: On Request
SIZE: 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms (total)
DESCRIPTION: This unique property occupies one of Paddington's largest individual land holdings at 824 square metres. Flowing over three separate titles with dual street access, this remarkable offering boasts three individual residences.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Given that Your Mama appeared in all our baggy-eyed glory on the boob-toob in Australia last week we felt it necessary to discuss some celebrity digs Down Under so that all Your Mama's mates in the southrun hemisphere do not feel neglected by all this talk Hollywood and New York. Fortunately, late last week we received a covert communique from Debbie Downunder who pointed Your Mama's beady and greedy little eyes towards a three parcel property in Paddington (that's a part of the scenic city of Sydney, puppies) owned and listed for sale with an undisclosed asking price by famous fashion designer Collette Dinnigan.

We can already hear some of you snotty fashion people trying to furrow your Botoxed brows and hissing, "Collette, who?" In case you do not know, Miss Dinnigan happens to be a very accomplished clothing designer Down Under and, frankly, all around the world. The flaxen haired and sun kissed Miss Dinnigan's budding empire includes stand alone boo-teeks in both Australia and London and, additionally, her frocks and fripperies hang in fine retail emporiums like Jeffrey and Barneys in New York, Harrods in London, The Swank in Beijing and Hong Kong, Boutique 1 in Dubai, Podium in Moscow and in many other posh shops in just about every other city where rich ladees buy expensive, flirty and decidedly feminine clothes. Miss Dinnigan's designs have been donned by famous ladees like Naomi Watts, Halle Berry, Angie Jolie, Elle Macpherson and pin thin Tori Spelling (who in the interest of her children needs to make some peace with her momma).

Previous reports reveal that Miss Dinnigan paid $4,100,000 (AUS) for her Underwood Street compound in 2002, a number that according to our money conversion contraption amounts to $3,408,105 (US) dollars at today's rates. Listing information indicates the Dinnigan compound is one of the largest individual land holdings in Paddington. Miss Dinnigan purchased the property with her former partner, the former pop star turned tee-vee presenter Richard Wilkins, with whom she made a baby. Somewhere, we don't remember where, we read that Miss Dinnigan bought her baby daddy out of the property when they busted up. We also read, and we don't remember where since our gin addled brain forgot to bookmark the page, Miss Dinnigan's property was expected to bring in $10-12,000,000 (AUS), an amount our conversion contraptions says amounts to 8,312,000-9,975,000 U.S. dollars.

According to listing information provided to Your Mama by Debbie Downunder, Miss Dinnigan's current crib includes a 3-story main house with 3 bedrooms and 3 poopers. The property also includes a small studio style apartment (with kitchenette and bathroom) above the detached two-car garage at the rear of the property and another freestanding weatherboard cottage adjacent to the main house that has a private veranda and private pooper but does not have a kitchenette. We're not sure this property is our particular real estate cup of tea, but we'd chop our toes off for two detached guest units in which to stash visiting friends and family, particularly Sister Woman's rather vociferous children who just about made Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter crazy with bickering last weekend. We love those children dearly, but holy hell they could probably wake the damn dead with their near constant cacophony.

But we digress...The main floor of the main house includes a narrow entrance hall that leads directly to the bottom of the stairs. This in not a good set up for the feng shui since it encourages money to slide right down the stairs and out the front door. At the front of the house are a trio of room that include a media room and lounge, both with fireplaces, and a smaller sitting room that opens to a deck and inner courtyard. Beyond these three rooms are a glassy dining room which overlooks the swimming pool and the kitchen/family room which opens to the backyard through to two sets of floor to ceiling glass sliders. We appreciate the layout of the kitchen and the ability to open up the family room area to the outdoors is truly dee-lish, but we can already hear our imperious house gurl Svetlana kvetching about having to clean all the stainless steel that has been used on the kitchen's work island and along the back wall behind the range.

The second floor includes a study with built in cabinetry flanking a third fireplace, a small bedroom which we'd toot suite turn into a dressing room and a long narrow bedroom that opens through four sets of french doors to a wrap around balcony overlooking the back yard. All three rooms share a good sized, spa-like and sky lit bathroom with gray veined white marble walls. Up one more floor is a third bedroom with private pooper and and slim balcony that we do not recommend for acrophobics.

The lush gardens include tall stands of bamboo for privacy, behemoth banana plants and a wee but beautiful bougainvillea being trained to grow above the glass sliders to the family room and along the underside of the vine wrapped balcony that encircles the master bedroom on the second floor.

Miss Dinnigan will be downsizing and decamping to another property in Paddington that she reportedly purchased earlier in the year for more than four million (Australian) dollars. Miss Dinnigan's new digs are said to have been originally erected in the 1880s and to contain 5 bedrooms and a heated swimming pool in the back yard.

Mish Mash Thursday

Your Mama is sitting on a list of little items burning a hole in our pocket so we're going to do the mish mash this morning.

1. Prolific property collector Nic Cage has taken a major machete to the asking price of Gray Craig, his 12 bedroom and 13 terit estate in Middletown, RI. The 26 acre spread first hit the market in October of 2008 with an asking price of $15,900,00. The price tag now stands at $12,000,000.

A peep into the property records and a few subsequent flicks of the well worn beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus reveals that the current twelve million dollar price tag is a heart stopping $3,700,000 less than he paid for the 24,664 square foot white elephant in July of 2007. Ouch. Your Mama don't care how rich you are, that is a bitter real estate pill to swallow fo' sho'.

In other Nic Cage real estate news...

Word is slipping down New York City's real estate gossip grapevine that Mister Cage has not just one, but two offers in on his two unit combo condo at the Olympic Tower on Fifth Avenue, currently listed at $9,750,000. We shall wait and see what transpires.

In addition to his Manhattan pied a terre and his little used Rhode Island residence, Mister Cage's vast real estate holdings also include two homes in New Orleans (both for sale), a house in Las Vegas (also for sale), a legendary Bel Air mansion (for sale), a townhouse and a castle in and around Bath in the U.K., a house on Paradise Island in the Bahamas as well as a 40+acre private island in the Exumas archipelago which is also on the block with an asking price of $7,000,000.

Mister Cage recently managed to shed a schloss in Germany and, according to the New York Post, he also sold a house in Malee-boo which is interesting because, to be honest with y'all, Your Mama did not know Mister Cage owned any property in The Boo besides the oceanfront house he sold way back in 2005. So, naturally, we did a little investigating and in about as much time as it takes to toast bread we discovered that Mister Cage does indeed own property in Malibu. In fact, according to property records and much to our surprise and dee-light, Mister Cage owns two properties in Malee-boo. He's got a 320-acre sub-dividable ranch property on Encinal Canyon Road currently listed with an asking price of $9,975,000–reduced all the way down from $19,900,000–that includes an eco-friendly 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom cabin plus a 4 bedroom caretaker's house, and he's also got another 88 sub-dividable acres next door that can be snatched up $2,500,000.

Well, call Your Mama a monkey's uncle.

2.
Behold the official listing for Candy Spelling's hotel sized house in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles listed with an almost comical $150,000,000 price tag. Listen chickens, we wish Candy all the luck in the world selling her humongous house because she gonna need it. There simply aren't that many people out there who require a motor court expansive enough to park 100 cars.

Your Mama is starting to wonder if perhaps Candy–as well as haute couture queen Suzanne Saperstein whose got her residential beast in Bel Air listed at a migraine making $125,000,000–should look into having the near 5-acre estate on S. Mapleton Drive re-zoned so that it can be utilized as a corporate retreat, a lavish drug and alcohol rehab center, or perhaps even as a home for unwed, teenage mothers with wildly wealthy parents.

Some of the rooms, like, say, the doll museum, the gift wrapping center and the silver display room, would have to be re-purposed into bedrooms and/or treatment rooms. Think about it Candy. Seriously. Your new $47,000,000 penthouse in Century City is nearing completion and, even though you have more money than the damn Pope, Your Mama can't imagine you (or your accountants) want to bear the considerable costs of staffing and maintaining The Manor once you move to your much smaller 16,000 square foot empty nest in the sky.

Now then, Your Mama has a little free and unsolicited advice for Candy: Call your daughter. You're the parent, you take the lead. Have a cigarette, swallow your pride and call your damn daughter. No, don't be taking to your blog or calling any of the gossip glossies or asking your publicist to call her publicist. Just call your damn daughter yourself and work this shit out. All the sniping at each other in the press is embarrassing. It is. Hunny, we're embarrassed for you and we don't even know you. And you, Tori, we like you. We do. We admire your pluck and ambition. We know you have probably got some legitimate beef(s) with your momma, but gurl, life is short, take your mother's call and speak to her like a grown up woman. You don't have to be best friends, but you have children that have a right to know their grandmammy even if you think she's a beehawtch. 1. 2. 3. Go.

3.
Your Mama can't even begin to count the number of communiques we've received in the last couple of days regarding the super skinny house on Bedford Street in New York's West Village that was recently listed for sale with a corpulent asking price of $2,750,000.

Although not currently owned or occupied by a celebrity, the four floor house with the Flemish front façade has hosted and/or been home to a slew of famous folks such as acclaimed poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, cartoonist William Steig, cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead and actors Cary Grant and John Barrymore.

Below is the floor plan that accompanies the listing which shows that the 8'2" wide house is not only thinner than a single wide mobile home, but it's probably not even as wide as the hallways in Candy Spelling's hulking house in Los Angeles. The floor plan indicates that each floor contains two rooms, one in the front and one in the back overlooking the garden. There is a windowless pooper on the second floor and although there is a second terlit in the basement it can only be accessed by pulling up a panel in the floor of the kitchen which exposes a stair case that leads down into the basement. This near hidden space is where you keep the bodies and the sexual apparati not appropriate for display in the living room or the bedrooms.



4.
The much ballyhooed and Grammy winning, Miami Beach based music producer Scott Storch–the man we can all thank for producing such amazing albums for talented singers like Paris Hilton and Brooke Hogan–has lost his 10 bedroom and 16 pooper pile on Miami Beach's Palm Island to foreclosure. That's right, the big living braggart who used to yammer on about how many $500,000 cars he owned and who scooted around everyday wearing more diamonds than Liz Taylor would wear to her own wedding was tossed from his home for not paying his damn mortgage.

Mister Storch picked up the 15,462 square foot water front mansion in May of 2006 for $10,500,000 and according to property records he was servicing a butt clenching six and a half million dollar mortgage as well as a downright scary $194,893.69 yearly tax bill. Poor Mister Storch, who hasn't had a song in the top 10 since 2005, ran into some trouble with drugs, bought a 117-foot boat, blew through thirty million smackers in 6 months and now he finds himself starting over and shacked up at the W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale where, it's reported, he's been telling pals that he's happy to be out of the Miami scene.

Your Mama never likes to see anyone booted from their home but if we're being honest, and we always are, it's a bit tough to feel much sympathy for ol' Scott Storch and his recklessly profligate ways. Since we're full of complimentary exortations today, Your Mama recommends you get yerself a used Honda Accord or maybe Ford Focus, a studio apartment in South Beach and start sending both your baby mommas the child support.

5.
In other foreclosure news, much maligned property developer Robert Bisno was recently booted from his big house in Beverly Park. According to records on file with the City of Los Angeles, on August 3, 2009 a bank holding a $5,315,530 loan on the Mister Bisno's behemoth home foreclosed.

Mister Bisno had been trying to unload his 16,800 (approx.) square foot behemoth since at least the fall of 2008 when he listed the 5 bedroom and 9 terlit property with an asking price of $29,500,000. The price was eventually karate chopped to $22,500,000. The property still appears on the MLS and other listing sites with a $22,500,000 asking price. However, we're guessing the bank just might be willing to give it up at a much lower price considering the stagnant market up behind the gilded and guarded gates of Beverly Park. It seems almost no one wants to buy any of those many houses on the market in the ritzy enclave of monster mansions.

The children will recall that a few months ago Mister Bisno sold the 6+ acre buildable and vacant lot across the street from his former mansion for $8,250,000 to actor Mark Wahlberg who Your Mama presumes is going to build just what the world needs, another a house the size of a boo-teek hotel.

For what it's worth, Mister and Missus Bisno, Your Mama knows of a nice 2 bedroom house with a big backyard in Studio City that's vacant and ready to be rented for $3,000 a month. It's even got some new, if not exactly inspired or drought tolerant landscaping. Let us know if you're interested and we'll hook you up with the landlord.

6.
Lenny Kravitz might have recently sold a rehabbed house in Miami Beach, FL without much effort but Lady Luck does not have his back regarding the downtown Manhattan penthouse apartment that he's been trying to unload ever since the damn cows came home. First it was on the market at $19,500,000, then it was off. Then it came back again and then it disappeared. Then he renovated and lowered the price, and then lowered the price again all the way down to $12,000,000. Then the listing vanished into thin air. Well, like a bad case of the crabs, it's back. This time, the 5 bedroom and 7 pooper penthouse on Crosby Street in SoHo has reappeared on the market with all new white walls, a pared down day-core and an asking price of $14,995,000. Blah, blah, blah. Larhd jeezis in heaven. Just like with Mister Cage's multiple properties, we're apparently going to be talking about Mister Kravitz's New York City penthouse until the day we meet our maker.

7.
This is not even remotely real estate related but Your Mama feels the need to comment anyway because this crap about Michael Jackson being alive is working our last damn nerve. Michael Jackson is dead people. If any of y'all think otherwise, Your Mama would like to introduce you to our pet unicorn Claudine, her best friend Santa Claus and our smart and lovely lesbian therapist Lucinda who would sooner clock you with a verbal dummy stick than listen to a bunch of nonsense about dead celebrities faking their own deaths. Have mercy. These people ought to try using their brains once in a damn while. Pleeze. Okay?

Now that we are sweating and our blood is up, we are through here. Your Mama is headed for an afternoon cuddlin' and cozyin' up to the big ol' pitcher of gin and tonics that's been chilling the icebox all morning. We suggest y'all do the same.