On exhibit through October 10, 2010

Upstairs At Margaret's, oil on canvas 32" x 42". Image courtesy of Alanna Fagan's website.Last week I had the pleasure of attending a small show of paintings titled Interior Space(s) by Alanna Fagan exhibited at the H. Pelham Curtis Gallery in the New Canaan Library in Connecticut. 

I joined my mother on her second or third tour through the show. She has yet another visit there planned this week. She can't get enough of Alanna's paintings, and I can understand why.

Many of them, like "Upstairs At Margaret's", draw the viewer through somewhat muted, spare, layered space toward something reflective and colorful or more detailed, as if through a memory to the heart of the scene.  Alanna's controlled attention to the architecture, hardware, and furnishings gently guides the viewer's journey through the painting and the recollections it evokes.

Her work reminded me of paintings by Edward Hopper, Vilhelm Hammershoi, and Carl Larsson, all of whom had an eye for quiet, layered, familiar and evocative interiors. (All of whom I've referenced, at least tangentially, in House Enthusiast here, here, and here.) Those of you with ties to coastal New England homes will readily recognize in Alanna's paintings the domestic setting of youthful summers or of more recent escapes or even daily life.

If you can get to the show, and you're at all like my mom and me, allow for multiple visits.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

When my friend Stephen saw these prize-winning eggs at the Truro Ag Fair, he remarked that they could inspire a beautiful paint palette. Of course, he’s not the first to have found inspiration in Araucanas eggs. Martha Stewart had her Picnic Boat hull painted to match one such egg.

I know this because once when my husband, a boating enthusiast, was stretching out for a run in front of the living room T.V., he stumbled upon a show about the making of a Hinckley Picnic Boat in which the experts explained the process. I overheard the show from the kitchen and recognized a familiar voice. I paused and listened longer to be sure, and then entered the living room.

“Are you watching Martha Stewart?” I asked, very amused. (He’s not a Martha enthusiast.)

“Oh, I wondered what was going on when they started talking about the color matching some egg,” he said. The boat builders sounded about as dumbfounded by the color selection as my husband was. None-the-less, it was a dreamy color -- just beautiful with the boat’s dash of brightwork.

Finding color inspiration in nature is only, well, natural. Take a look around your local farmers’ market for inspiration. A friend found an exquisite, red-tinted-blue, spicy pepper which she matched on her kitchen cabinets. Another colleague found a deep purple-black eggplant worth emulating for an exterior house color. What will you find?

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Q: We have purchased a Cape house on Long Island with the front elevation as seen in the attached picture.  A poorly detailed "Nantucket-style" dormer was added at some point. Also, there was a later addition (to the right in the picture) with two gable dormers.

We are about to renovate this house, and while we would love to avoid *any* dormers, they are just too essential to the interior space.

Any ideas? Feel free to comment on any aspect of the house!

John and Cary, Springs, NY

photo provided by homeowner

A:  I’m breaking my own “Ask Katie” rule here by including a photo with a reader question, but because it illustrates a number of design issues many homeowners encounter, I believe it’s worth sharing.

dormers

As I’ve mentioned before in House Enthusiast and in columns I’ve written for Fine Homebuilding and the Journal of Light Construction, dormers can be a great way to gain second-floor living space without adding to the building footprint. The challenge is to keep them from overwhelming the roofscape or throwing the massing off balance.

Unfortunately, the dormer shown on the original Cape is too flat-faced and prominent. My first thought was of cat ears. Had it been a true Nantucket-style dormer the center shed-roofed portion would have been recessed from the two dog-house (excuse the pet theme) dormers. Overall, it’s also too tall and showing too much shingle wall relative to the windows. It is, however, nested fairly well, meaning it’s set back from the main roof lower eave, set below the main roof ridge, and leaves a generous amount of the original roof on either side.

I imagine that whoever created the addition to the right, was influenced by the cat-ear dormer when they added the two independent dog-house dormers there. Or it could have been the other way around; the dormers to the right could have inspired the dormer on the original Cape. In either case, the two dog-house dormers on the right strike me as more successful. For one, their windows are shorter, which in turn resulted in shorter dormers which are less obtrusive. I also appreciate that the dog-house dormers over the addition do not include the shed dormer component in between them, so they aren’t trying to duplicate the other dormer, but merely respond to it. These I would keep.

The solution to the dormer over the original Cape may be to replace the cat-ear dormer

Click to read more ...

This cottage architecture, complete with cottage garden, speaks to me every time I pass it. In the ten + years I’ve been admiring it, the house has changed color, and the garden has evolved, but my affinity for it has never wavered. This romance is founded on curves.

The curved-top casements and trim, just kissing the eave fascia, and the decorative shared pilasters between them suggest a cheerful, well-crafted, and sunny space within. The gate with its varied height pickets picks up on the curve theme and, when slightly ajar, allows passersby to peek into a whimsical garden. The robin’s-egg blue house-color accentuates the bright palette of the flowers, which border the serpentine, stepping-stone path, and lends it a storybook look.

It’s a romantic ensemble for which I’ll never tire.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast