Happy Holidays 2019!

It was a sunny green Christmas on the East Coast this year. Although we had so much rain leading up to Christmas that our garlands are sagging sadly and need some help if we want to keep them up for a couple of more weeks. I always keep my holiday decor fairly simple (inside and out) using almost exclusively all natural elements. Evergreen boughs, branches, local holly berries, paper whites, pinecones and fruit. Simple, but I can’t think of anything else more beautiful and fitting for the season - all readily available in abundance this time of year, a lot of it we forage from our own property.

Candle lights seem to be an East Coast tradition, its rare not to see them in windows of every house this time of year. I put single candle lights in each of our barn windows and triple lights in all of our house windows, on their own with no other outdoor christmas lights - so incredibly simple but the house looks magical at night when they’re on. I have to say, they are my single favourite holiday decor and every year I can’t wait to put them up and am sad to take them down.

A first snow fall early in December made for the perfect day to hike to the back of our property in search of a Christmas tree. There’s nothing I love more than the character of a wild cut tree and it didn’t take us long to find a beauty one this year. We have enough trees on our property to supply us with christmas trees for life and then some.

Room Design: Carol Reed Interior Design Inc. www.carolreeddesign.com

For the past couple of years we’ve placed our tree in the front hall because we rarely use the front door and it puts the tree in a position where we can see and enjoy it from most everywhere in the house. I loved the shape of this years tree so much and all the natural cones on it I didn’t have any desire to put ornaments on it other than lights and a bird nest we found a few years ago. I did eventually add some dark bronze coloured balls for some contrast and to emphasize the minimal concept.

Room Design By: Carol Reed Interior Design www.carolreeddesign.com

A homemade pine wreath in the upstairs bathroom garnished with some pine cones and bayberry berries from the beach path.

Room Design By: Carol Reed Interior Design www.carolreeddesign.com

Although this photo is from last year, our kitchen looks the same this year (except we have a new white apron sink) its bursting with paper white blooms and trimmed with pine garlands.

I’m savouring these few days of down time before the start of a busy new year, spending much of it immersed in a fantastic new design book cozied up beside a wood fire, purring cat on my feet. Bliss.

CREED Blog www.carolreeddesign.com

Happy Holidays to you however you are spending it! I’ll be foraging more fresh greenery for New Years and throughout the rest of the winter season!

Urban Farmhouse: Family Bath

URBAN FARMHOUSE | BATHROOM CONCEPT: CAROL REED INTERIOR DESIGN INC.

www.carolreeddesign.com

Christmas Greens! We’ve just wrapped up a set of design plans for January construction. The family bath for the Bedford family home is part of an extensive home reno and was inspired by the existing vintage, two sided alcove tub (with rounded corner) tha't’s definitely a keeper. And I continue to be smitten with #Kohler’s Artifacts series which has the perfect modern heritage vibe for this century house, so much so we’re also using this series for faucets in the kitchen.

URBAN FARMHOUSE | BATHROOM CONCEPT: CAROL REED INTERIOR DESIGN INC.

www.carolreeddesign.com

URBAN FARMHOUSE | BATHROOM DESIGN CONCEPT: CAROL REED INTERIOR DESIGN INC.

www.carolreeddesign.com

Kitchen Design: Modern Chalet

Home Design Project: Contemporary New Build

For my clients who I first worked with about 10 years earlier, this new custom-built house would be a major lifestyle change as they relocated from their city home to a rural small town popular for its boating, golfing and skiing. The project took over a year and half to complete from the time I came on board to move in. During that time I designed the interior from a base plan created by the architect, developing all the interior details including the kitchen and bathroom design, ceiling plan, lighting and staircase. I recently received some post move-in photo’s from the client and thought I’d share the kitchen design from concept to completion. Here’s a version of the kitchen concept for the finishes and fixtures.

E-Design: Kitchen Concept for Modern Ski Chalet. | Design: TheDesignShop.ca by Carol Reed Interior Design

The kitchen was custom made so I had the opportunity to design it completely from scratch. Here’s a look at what the preliminary kitchen plan from the Architect looked like when I came on board, and then the final kitchen design.

Kitchen Plan Before

The kitchen is located in a great room and is open concept with a dining area and large living space all anchored by a floor to ceiling stone fireplace surrouned by floor to ceiling windows with tree top views. The kitchen is positioned on an inside corner but sits below a tall vaulted ceiling with clerestory windows that floods the space with light.

Kitchen Plan - Final

Kitchen Design by: Carol Reed Interior Design Inc. www.carolreeddesign.com

Kitchen Layout

One of the biggest changes was to the pantry, we opted to add a counter in between two tall cabinets and include a wine fridge so the area can also be used as a servery. An additional tall pantry cabinet is adjacent to the range to keep daily essentials in reach. An oversize island provides ample prep space and seating on two sides.. The orientation of the main sink in the island allows the cook(s) of the house to be facing their guests and the scenic views while prepping or cleaning up. A secondary sink beside the range is convenient when two or more people are cooking and is super handy for filling and emptying pots.

The most unique aspect about this L-Shaped kitchen is the way the corner is designed, which was derived from centering the range between a pair of tall cabinetry columns, with one column being in the corner mirroring the column on the opposite side of the range. Because this was being custom built I was able to design the corner cabinetry to utilize all the corner space. Below the counter the full corner is accessed with a ‘magic corner’ unit which has a swivel pull-out function. At the counter the column becomes an appliance garage with a flip-up/retracting door and above that the upper cabinet space is divided into two compartments, one accessible through the adjacent wall cabinet and the other by a narrow pull-out.

Elevation - Kitchen Range and Hood Canopy

Kitchen Design By: Carol Reed Interior Design Inc. www.carolreeddesign.com

Kitchen Details: Elevations

The range hood typically becomes a key design element in a kitchen as its a great opportunity to make a style statement by either underplaying it or highlighting it. A key feature of this concept was to create a sleek architectural millwork element out of the range wall to conceal the exhaust system so both it and the fridge are panelled for more of a furniture look. The hood canopy is integrated with upper cabinets , all at a flush, equal depth and to be faced with blackened steel to contrast the white oak and light stone. Continuing the stone slab counter up the wall to the underside of the hood enhances the sleek lines and showcases the organic veins and colours of the natural stone.

Elevation - Front of Kitchen Island

With the main sink located in the island it also houses the dishwasher, recycling bins, cleaning supplies, a microwave and container storage. A cantilevered deep overhang provides lots of knee space for counter seating and the extra wide counter means there’s lots of prep and clean up space without imposing on the seating areas.

Elevation - Back of Kitchen Island

Kitchen Design by: Carol Reed Interior Design Inc. www.carolreeddesign.com

The back of the island is only partially cantilevered with a full cabinet on one end (left) and knee space overhang extending to the right of it. An ultra modern sleek suspension pendant illuminates the island without detracting from the dynamic ceiling or clean lines of the kitchen cabinetry.

Kitchen Concept - Materials & Fixtures

Design by: Carol Reed Interior Design Inc. www.carolreeddesign.com

Kitchen Fixtures & finishes

After the floor plan was finalized I pulled together all the fixtures and finishes. The dominant finishes throughout the house were natural white plaster walls, white oak floors and black windows. The focus in the kitchen was to continue the light natural materials with more wood and stone accented by contrasting dark metal.

Kitchen Post Move-in

Kitchen Design By: Carol Reed Interior Design Inc. www.carolreeddesign.com

Here’s a view looking towards the kitchen (from the pantry side) shortly after move-in, sent to me by my clients ( they won’t typically need this many stool for daily use but they can easily seat up to six when they entertain) . A second oven was added and built into the column to the right of the range.

Kitchen Desk, Pantry & Servery

Room Design By: Carol Reed Interior Design Inc. www.carolreeddesign.com

A glimpse of the pantry and servery area. To the left, a desk floats in front of the floor to ceiling windows beside the walk-out to the deck. Although these are not professional photos seeing the servery un-styled like this gives you an idea of just how simply and easily it can be accessorized for any occassion. A perfect place to show-off some seasonal foilage and florals or a local piece of pottery.

Kitchen Ceiling Detail

Kitchen Design By: Carol Reed Interior Design Inc. www.carolreeddesign.com

The vaulted ceiling was clad in cedar boards, it took weeks of sampling to get the stain colour right.

A huge thank you to wonderful clients for sharing the post move-in photos and for their dedication in implementing the design plans. Having worked on this project remotely its been incredibly exciting to see it all come together over the course of almost 2 years from concept plan to completed space.