contemporary home design – The Home Style Directory

Shokan Home

February 23rd, 2016admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This is Shokan House. It is one of those homes that you Instagram the sh*t out of it…right in front of the owner too! You just don’t care. It’s that good. Shokan House spacious private residence is situated at the edge of the Ashokan reservoir, in New York. The house stands at the edge of the Ashokan reservoir, just below the summit of a Catskill mountain, with views extending south across and beyond the reservoir to the horizon. Oak, fir, spruce, and an occasional birch surround the house. Here you can expect hawks, turkey, fox, deer and …

Writer’s Home

February 21st, 2015admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This rendered home clearly has a sparse industrial stamp on it, punctuated by the assorted colours from the African masks and books on display. The Flos Ray floor lamp below only furthers this agenda as 80% of it’s grand body is Eiffel Tower-esque metal. This is Hollywoods idea of a home for a their resolutely single, obsessively minimal and neat, alluringly mysterious and sexual lead male loner character. The raw recessed shelving in the kitchen, the buff, tough concrete flooring and the wood and metallic sink do not suggest raucous kids or grandparents coming to stay. But then …

Wandana Home

November 11th, 2013admin0 Comments

This home is located in Wandana Heights in the suburbs of Victoria, Australia. Blessed with space and height it is a free flowing space that drifts easily into demarcated areas with the easygoing attitude we associate with Aussie life. Gorgeous slate flooring, dark and classy meets dark and cream skin with floor to ceiling glass windows. Indirect lighting is always such a simple way to add a really classy ambience to a space. The shiny tiled walls are a doozy. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Our great thanks to: Architect: James Dean & Associates

Modern Sydney Home

August 10th, 2013admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: Built in the Eastern ‘burbs of Sydney this spectacular home boasts high ceilings and clean modern edge. Blessed with not only height but square footage they have allowed the interior sections to flow easily into one another keeping the floor plan loose and open. Against a backdrop of white the stylists have not been afraid to mix and match a variety of dark colours which possibly shouldn’t work. Dark woods and green metal cabinets. There’s the dark leather seating and even pops of orange in the cinema room. It works, creating a trés tasteful ambience. This space is …

Modern Spacious Home

August 7th, 2013admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This is a lovely home by bespoke home makers and award winning creatives Smerin Architects. It shows what can be done with a West London space and a little foresight. Lovely streamlined furniture choices against a fresh white backdrop with well chosen prints on the wall. The little garden area has been dealt with simply and effectively. We love the ambient lights at night and the plants are a lovely framework to the choice of simple paved flooring. It is perfectly set up for when both friends or summer decides to arrive with the in-built bar-b-cue and the …

Stylish Children’s Bedroom

August 1st, 2013admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: How stylish is this room and are your kids really ready for it? Muted greys, cream and white abound to calm the lingering cultural A.D.D. No computers, but encouraging art desk and creative tools instead! The daybed / bed design is ingenious and adventurous and the wall art delightful. Simple white wood flooring, (we’re talking kids so perhaps keep that spare pot of white paint for retouches in the garden shed yeah?!) Very cool ottoman and lounging cushions galore. We like how the wall paneling sings in tune with the support frame of the wardrobe. It’s …

Sculptural Spanish Home

July 26th, 2013admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This exceptional space was designed by Spanish design studio A-cero. At approximately 18,00 square feet it’s highly structured contemporary exterior belies it’s extravagant, lush interior. It’s stylized curves make it resemble a large yacht in harbour whilst surrounded by a lovely green garden and a beautiful lake. Within the home, we see confident, exhuberant spaces, with stunning art and bespoke sculptures. Quite a bit of smooth white corian moulded units are to be found in the bathroom and bedroom. The elegant, tall slimline planter below in the swimming pool annexe is deadly covetable and the swimming pool itself …

Glass Home

June 18th, 2013admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This the kind of home you stay in if you want friends and family to keep saying ‘Wow!‘ when they pop round. This amazing glass structure was built by Milan based JM Architects on Lake Lugano. It is 3,700 square feet and sits between Switzerland and Italy. A polygonal shaped glass pavilion with rounded edges stands above a linear underground block. The living and dining room, the kitchen and storage spaces are located in the pavilion, while bedrooms, bathrooms and garage are in the lower level. There is also a roof garden from where you can sit …

Smart Modern Home

April 10th, 2013admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This award winning interior is typical of the clean modern aesthetic from Cecconi Simone. The generous open floor plan is de-lineated by dividers throughout the home which creates lovely little nooks of relaxation or activity. Clean cut and sophisticated with lovely style accents such as the random lights, the sleek corian moulded kitchen and the generous use of Brazilian Ipe wood. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well, lets start with the kitchen. Sleek lines from unfussy corian moulded cabinets and work tops. …

Copenhagen Penthouse

February 27th, 2013admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: Messrs Kasper Rønn and Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen of Norm Architects are why we get up in the morning. Their simple pared down aesthetic allows so much more subtle activity to happen that I believe it takes a certain intelligence to see it. There. Now I sound like an interiors snob. I don’t care. To appreciate their work, you have to understand the secretive sophistication of simplicity. Their creation is timeless. It is not trendy. We don’t do trends at THE HOME STYLE DIRECTORY. We expose and comment on them for interested parties, but we extol classic simple elegance …

Herzliya Home

February 13th, 2013admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This highly spectacular, angular home built in Israel is the work of Sharon Neuman Architects. The decision to build this ecological home with such visually jarring angular plains impacts completely on the interior of the house as you will see below. It is such a work of art that it is almost farcical for being built next to the more conventional two family home next door, dampening a little of its singular lawless majesty. The glass facade above is just glorious with modesty frosting on the lower part of the first floor whilst the bottom floor large …

Susie Cohen Home

January 2nd, 2013admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: Ms Susie Cohen is a Melbourne based interior designer. Here she has converted a disused 1920’s warehouse into a stylish new home. Rough sawn bench meets rustic bowl, flowers, a simple wood laminate floor with white walls and fabulous artwork with great personality. The most perfect decisions have been made here to totally utilize the space available for Ned’s room, ‘flattened bunk bed’ units with drawer storage are assisted by inline wardrobes. No-handle kitchen units provide a smooth and unfettered eye-sweep. You can just see an RAR rocking chair peeking out from …

Scandinavian Apartment

January 2nd, 2013admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This space by Wench Holth is almost painfully beautiful. It reminds me of halcyon days spent in Scandinavia and indeed it is fairly typical of a home there. Gosh, where does one start? The floor? Mon Dieu! Just beauteous. Natural wood stained black to contrast and anchor the crisp white walls. The exuberant basket chandelier works because there is enough height and width here. The chilled, calm space below it prevents it from looking overblown and pompous. There is so much communication and follow-through with the accessories, fixtures and fittings. The sleek doors, the occasional …

Diane Bergeron’s Home

December 13th, 2012admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This is the home of interior designer Diane Bergeron. Ms Bergeron has been a designer for over 20 years with her work featured in some of the biggest style bibles around. She is known for creating the breezy ‘Hamptons Look’ witnessed in the living room above which is almost zesty it is so fresh! Her eye for placing some of the most unlikely colours in close proximity is daring, experienced and uncanny. The pair of purple upholstered armchairs are simply delightful against the white, but just look at the other colours with which they find themselves …

Swedish Style

December 13th, 2012admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This is Villa Överby in Värmdö, Stockholm. From the success of Ikea whose ubiquitous presence does not automatically mean lack of stylish, useful pieces, to the spectacular creations from the architects at John Robert Nilsson. My own love for this unpretentious ‘blond’ aesthetic came from living in Scandinavia and I for one have never looked back or re-cluttered. This home was featured in the American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Did you see it? It belonged to the character Martin Vanger. We are loving the minimal design end tables for your Mac, tablet …

Rooftop Sanctuary

October 24th, 2012admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: Clean Swedish design comes to the fore with fresh white walls and natural materials all over the home structure, the home accents and accessories. The spotlights and skylights provide a generous flood of light through out this fairly compact space. The suspended fireside adds some Amish-style homestead influence to the mix backed up by the lovely wood flooring. There is an interesting melee of modern and rustic in this apartment..tres Scandinavian. Church candles and raw looking wooden beams with chrome ceiling light supports and sleek kitchen units. Are we loving the suspended lamp? …

Australia House

October 24th, 2012admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This Australian home deliciously refuses to follow any standard architecture. With it’s predominance of block black and block cream, interspersed with ethnicalia, it does rustic-chic to a tee. The wooden steps amongst the marble seems almost like a structural after thought – but one which suits the design lawlessness of the space. The art here is simple and abstract and matches the spirit of the place. This home is fairly rug-less. With this kind of simple set up, that tends to be the norm with designers, stylists or home owners opting for naked marble, tiled or …

Melbourne Residence

October 15th, 2012admin0 Comments

Inspire Notes: This Melbourne DLM Residence was actually constructed off the back of an old Victorian building making for a solid, angular, trustworthy structure. The classic has been contemporised with a glass facade exposing a chic and spacious interior. The house flows beautifully with simplicity and ease. Without solid closed-off rooms the separate living spaces are still quite crisp and delineated. The Ghost-like stools are perfect for the little kitchen island cubby-hole. This is a neat idea in terms of smooth aesthetic flow as some kitchen bar stools hang homelessly off the end of a solid block …