Today, we’re headed to Fisher Island, an uber-exclusive island 3 miles off the coast of Miami to see a jaw-dropping home.  The island used to be a one-family island residence of the Vanderbilts, it was developed in the mid-80’s for very limited residential use.  There are no bridges to the island – it is only accessible by a private ferry or helicopter.

So prepared to be astounded.

Inside this building:

We get to tour the penthouse.

We’ll start in the living room.

Dining Room.

A gorgeous table set for 12.

Home office…

Kitchen.  This chandelier is just astounding.

The family room continues the kitchen’s color palette.

Playroom.  What could I possibly say here??!?

Master Suite.

Powder Room…

And the Nanny’s Bedroom…

Nursery…

Guest Bedroom…

Veranda… (ahhh heaven)

Boy’s bedroom…

The pool – just a little piece of heaven!

Can you get over this place??

A lifetime of thanks to Lauren Stern Design of Brooklyn, New York for this amazing home tour.

All photography by Micheal Grimm.

This home transformation on a golf course in Southern New Jersey will wow you.

It’s incredible to me that you can take this 80-year-old ranch home…

and this…

and turn it into this stunning 7,000 square foot English country estate…

Here’s a look at the rear of the home.

And one more because I can’t get enough of it.

And just because we’re on a roll…

Here’s what happens when you take a little pool house…

and expand it to 1400 square feet.  Wow!

Another angle of the original…

and the new.

Stone sitting walls surround an English style garden.  Beautiful.

Moving inside…

Family room…

which is open to the kitchen,

Love the colors!

Hmmm… I think this is perfect.

Living room.

In the dining room this built-in hutch makes me swoon.  So pretty…

Okay, here’s where you may want to round up your men.

This is the English style pub and it is pretty impressive.

What you can’t tell in the first photos is how big it is inside.

The wood is all custom alder, in case you were wondering.

Look how profound this is!  Coffered ceiling and all.

Special thanks to Gardner Fox Architects of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania for this gorgeous home tour!

Have a magical summer weekend everyone!

And it’s a Home Tour Friday to top it off.

Today, we’re visiting the Hollywood Hills neighborhood to see a gorgeous home steeped in 1940’s Hollywood glamour, but with a modern slant.

You’ll see…

The entry staircase ceiling is just stunning.  The hand-painted detail!

The entry stairs with their retro film posters set the theme immediately.  The rug establishes the colors that are used throughout the home.  Notice how cohesively each room works with the next.

The library pulls from the color palette of the entry rug.  Love the contrast of the floors.

A peek at the dining room via the mirror.

I can just see the old movie directors hovering around a script.  Or the Bohemian types discussing politics and drinking wine.

Cozy on those cold-ish California nights.

This tile is the perfect accent.  Could it possibly be original?

I’ll just sit here quietly and wait while you take all of this in: the brick patio, the hanging lights, the wall of candles (can you imagine this lit??).  Unbelievable!

A special thanks to Mae Brunken Design for this gorgeous home tour!

Another amazing home to tour!

Today we’re heading to sunny Brentwood, California to see a jaw-dropping home built for a director, his writer/sommelier wife and their 2 daughters (lucky, lucky girls!).

I know, I know!  Can you imagine the pool parties?

This home draws from Contemporary and Italian influences and was designed for as much natural light as possible.

The homeowners mixed plaster colors themselves to find just the right exterior hues.

This is my million dollar shot here!  I can’t get over how gorgeous this water looks coming directly up to the foundation of the home (only in California, friends), with the lush, tropical landscape in the backdrop.

This unexpected water fountain is just tranquil and stunning.

The colors inside maximize the warm sunlight streaming in.  I love the way this color palette changes with the light depending on the time of day.

The interior is open and contemporary.  Look at all the windows!  The architect describes the look here as “rough luxury”.

I love the “living outside” focus of this room.  But with that pool and outdoor landscape as a draw, it would be difficult to keep guests inside.

Special thanks to whipple russell architects for this amazing home tour.

Have a terrific weekend!

Today we’re headed to Corona del Mar, California to see a 1940’s bungalow exploding with color.

Strap on your seatbelts because here we go…

Family room.

Doesn’t this just scream California sunshine?

I just love the happiness and cheer embodied here.

Although separate, the living/dining, and family/den rooms are all visible from each other, so the same colors (turquoise, aqua, yellow, green, fuchsia, among others) are interspersed throughout to create a flow.

The traditionalist in me loves the look of this room, especially the white bermuda shutters which make everything look clean and fresh.

Love, love, love the pattern and the color of this rug.

The master bedroom, originally painted in the same ‘lemon drop’ color as in the living/dining room.  However, this one shade didn’t work, and actually made the room feel smaller than it is. Natalie, the designer, used a trick-of-the-eye painting technique to make the room feel larger – she added 27″ wide horizontal ‘flower pot’ color stripes around the entire room – which guides the eye downward and makes the space feel much more comfortable.

I LOVE this headboard and I think I could make it too.

Isn’t this a fun home?  I love the casual elegance as well as the California cheer this home exudes.

WHOOAA!!!  Stop the presses – I was just checking out the designer, Natalie Umbert’s website and she has painted her walls yet again:

The Running Man could never live here, but I LOVE it – the walls, the rug(!), the pillows, the light.

Scroll back and see the orange versus the pink and let me know which you prefer.

Special thanks to Natalie Umbert of Atelier Interior Design for this incredibly fun home tour.

Many thanks to Jeri Koegel for use of her photos.

Everyone, have an incredible Fourth of July Weekend!  Let me know when you get a chance what you did.  I just love this holiday!

I missed this so much last week, but the Father’s Day Week of Giveaways was also seriously fun for me.

But we’re back, we’re back.

Today we’re heading to the Northshore of Chicago, to see a 1950’s home that has been completely renovated and expanded for a young family.

Gulp.

Here’s another look at the rear of the home.  The wood-clad extension there houses the Master Bedroom suite.

The front entryway continues the wood and white brick exterior.

In this montage you can see the befores on the left and the afters on the right.  The transformation is pretty amazing, isn’t it?

Moving inside…

Isn’t this a gorgeous room?  I love the wall of brick and light.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the brick or tile fireplace surround recessed into the wall.  And I like the effect it creates.

A peek at the kitchen.  I only wish I had more of this room to show you…

The entrance hall gives another glimpse of the kitchen.  I love the entire wall of tile.

This is the million dollar shot for me: I love the open floor plan, that big table for impromptu gatherings, and that loft above is just killer.

Looking down from the upstairs loft.  Love the openness, the lighting fixture and the wall of glass.

Here’s some ingenuity: a drawer that slides out of the vanity to be used as a stool.  I love that you just push it back into its place.

I had to save this pool house for last because, well, I’m sure you can probably guess.

I love it.

Special thanks to the following team for this incredible home tour:

Architect: Searl Lamaster Howe Architects, Chicago, IL

Designer: Homeowner – Cynthia Chase

Builder: LN Construction

Photographer: Doug Fogelson

A very happy weekend to you all…

Today we’re headed to Harbor Springs, Michigan to an all-time favorite home of mine.  This magnificent home belongs to some family friends and I’ve been working up the courage to ask to use the photos I took last summer when we visited.  Luckily, they said yes!

If I were to build a home, this is exactly the floor plan I would use: open, open, open.

And skip the living room!

This is a view from the kitchen.  There’s so much I love about this room – the color, the cozy warmth, the stone fireplace, the bookcases, the view and access to the outdoors.

Please excuse this crooked shot of this gorgeous kitchen. (That’s what happens when you have me as a photographer!)

Here’s another view that shows the dining table beyond.

Here’s another view.  I just love a big, round, farmhouse style table to linger after eating.

Directly outdoors is this amazing fireplace and covered deck.  What a great place to be, and for some reason I think especially in the rain.

This is the library and I love the tilework on the fireplace!

These are the upstairs bedrooms.  I love the tall detailed plank ceilings.  I also love that the size of these rooms easily accommodates 2 queen beds.  I also love the quilts for curling up on those cool Northern Michigan summer nights.  Lastly I love the balcony for practicing my best Juliet.

The other guest bedroom mirrors the first, but with a more Americana feel.  Notice the trestle ceiling and the window seat.  Love this room!

Throughout the rest of the home, the same attention to detail is apparent…

On the upstairs landing overlooking the Great Room, this library nook with its window seat and pillow collection.

In the bunk room (which just screams for grandchildren, ahem), the cubby bunk bed is just awesome.  My adorables would fight over this every night.

I love the paint detail in this bathroom – again cottage cute, cute, cute.

I just LOVE this mudroom and thus I saved it for last:

First, it’s the stone floor that makes me love this room.  Next I’m not sure I could even fill those closets and cabinets = abundant storage.  Third, benches and wainscoting galore.  Now this is a mudroom folks!

The home is just a short stroll to downtown Harbor Springs, a shopper’s heaven.

Here’s my plug for Northern Michigan in the summer and fall: get there!  You’ll love it – natural beauty, gorgeous quaint villages, and the nicest people in the world (and yes, I’m biased).

Many thanks to my dear friends for opening their home for our peek!

Have a blessed weekend all.

Father’s Day Week of Giveaways starts Monday (with a bang!  Well, not literally).

Today we’re heading outside of Aspen, Colorado to see an eccentric and amazing home.  You won’t believe all the green building practices that are included in the environmentally-friendly home.

So without further adieu, it’s off to Colorado we go…

The architect, Eric Anderson says, “The Homeowners desired a quaint and whimsical architectural expression; swayback roofs, hidden doors, secretive passages, rustic stonework. Tempered by the Ranch’s vision for greater energy efficiency and implementation of on-site renewable energy systems; solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, creating a harmonious relationship between “old” and “relevant” in the quest for of achieving a net-zero energy consumption.”

Pretty impressive, I say.  Especially for a home of this magnitude.

Now this is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.  You may need to look at this a couple of times:

There is a drawbridge in this roofed wall here, and it opens…

to a deck!

I love these stained-glass doors in the greenhouse.

This is the catwalk that runs along the top of the conservatory.

This home is one of 7 proprosed residences on 254 acres outside of Aspen.  The overall goals for the Circle “R” Ranch were to create an education and demonstration center for green building standards and sustainable design; as well as to maximize the utilization of on-site renewable energy resources to produce and distribute more energy than consumed.

Look at how green this place is:

• A vertical loop geothermal system provides for the overall heating and cooling, snow melt and domestic hot water demands
  Reclaimed timbers, salvaged slate shingles, environmentally-friendly spray foam insulation and water based stains
• Renewable energy systems
• Ground source heat pump
• Passive solar design
• On-site wastewater treatment system (OSWS)
• Rainwater collection

Special thanks to architect Eric Anderson of E. Anderson Architecture, Littleton, Colorado for this amazing home tour!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

FYI, Monday’s giveaway is the biggest one yet and it’s something everyone needs!!!!  I’m beyond excited.

Today we’re headed to Minnesota to see a gorgeous beauty located on 10 fabulous acres.

Designed as a new ‘farmhouse’, this home was built to complete an existing group of outbuildings, which included barns, garages, storage sheds and a pool house, re-establishing the childhood farmstead for the homeowner, who grew up on the property.

Bring me some lemonade please.  I’ll be here all afternoon.

The placement of the house takes advantage of the abundant natural light, and captures the near and distant views offered by the site’s 10 fabulous acres.

I just love all these windows.

Moving inside…

The design in this room is simply stunning.  Love the subtle palette to allow the sunlight to take center stage.

The painting through the entry is my favorite.  I can just imagine dinners stretching for hours here.

The kitchen: I’d venture to guess any gourmet chef would be thrilled to craft their magic here.

In the family room, this niche created with the cabinetry for the painting frames it perfectly.  Love this room.

In the sunroom, let the light shine in.  Gorgeous.

Okay I had to save this for last because this outdoor kitchen in the screen porch is, well, pretty incredible.

Many thanks to the following team for this amazing tour:

Architect:  Paul Buum, AIA,  SALA Architects,    http://www.salaarc.com/buum_resume.html

Interior Design:  Christine Frisk, ASID,  InUnison Design  http://www.inunisondesign.com/

Builder:  Choice Wood Company   http://www.choicecompanies.com/

Photography:  Dana Wheelock Photography     http://www.wheelockphotography.com/index_1.html

Best wishes for a fun, safe and happy Memorial Day weekend to you.  Be sure to sneak away from your BBQ on Monday for a quick second to see a GREAT giveaway!

Today we’re headed to suburban Philadelphia to see a magnificent home(!).

Friends, we’re not in Kansas anymore…

I’m sure I just heard you gasp.  No worries, I did the same from here.

I’ve just finished yet another Jane Austen-inspired novel and estates like Rosings and Pemberly have nothing on this home, er, manor.

Regal, Elegant, Traditional.  Jaw-dropper.

View from the entry porch…  Love the intricacy of the brick work.

The rear of the home is grand for entertaining.  Can you imagine??!?

I envision a monster pool party with a game of soccer occurring simultaneously on that gorgeous lawn.

Moving indoors…

This view from the dining room to the entry’s grand staircase with its intricate marble floor and concert-style grand piano set the tone for the home.

The living room is formal and imposing.  Best manners here please.

The library is masculine and traditional.  In my Jane Austen frame of mind, this is where the men retreat for port and political banter after dinner.

The family room facing to the pool and yard beyond is still grand

And the kitchen.  Ahh, lovely.

Special thanks to Gardner/Fox Associates of Bryn Mawr, PA for this incredible home tour.  They were the design and build team responsible for all of this beauty.

Many thanks to Jeffrey Totaro for use of his photos.