All posts tagged: home decor

Wabi sabi in Brooklyn

Published by

East Williamsburg in Brooklyn is an area that’s becoming more residential as factories and warehouses move out. This is where Elissa Ehlin lives, and she shares her home with her husband Jay Leritz, Cougar their son, and their cat Pretty Perfect. The low-rise buildings around their home are covered in imaginative graffiti by internationally renowned street artists, and theirs is no different. They have lived here for eight years and have transformed what previously was an auto repair workshop in an industrial building into a very personal home. The extensive construction work that this has required, they did themselves with the help of friends. Elissa is an enamelist by profession like her husband, and they have one of their two studios in the same building. This atmospheric home has exposed wood beams, brick walls and metal beams, wooden floors, rustic plank stairs and a serene colour scheme. It’s set up on two levels with an open plan living room and kitchen on one floor. A mid-century conical fireplace is in one corner of the room. …

Consciously minimal

Published by

Emily Johnston, an artist and photographer has her home in East Village, Manhattan. Her apartment is stylishly furnished throughout in muted shades and has a calm and harmonious ambience. “What I really liked about this apartment when I saw it for the first time, was that it had a space I could use as an office, and that the living room had doors and is separate. As I work from home it’s really important to find ways to make a separation between work and relaxation. I determined that the living room was a place I wouldn’t work in, but would be where I could relax, read and think. I like the layout of this place too. You can be in the kitchen and another person can be in the living room and you feel like you are in a completely different space, which is a nice feature for such a small apartment.” She has been living in her 450 square feet* apartment for about four years. Before discovering this apartment she visited nearly a hundred other …

An Accommodating Home

Published by

“I’m passionate about my family,” Doreen tells me. “We are very lucky in that we really like each other and have something to say to one another. Every single member of the family has something to offer in the creative field. It may be different but it’s always interesting”. Doreen and her family live in an old, historic house, a former rectory in a leafy, quiet part of Gardens. That is, she shares it with Meyer her huband, their youngest daughter Olivia, who is still at university, and Jinja the dog. Their son Uno lives in Johannesburg, and another daughter, Jade, has recently moved out, but still lives in Cape Town. There is no doubt that this is a very tight-knit family, and a very creative and talented family too. It’s a beautiful, large house standing in a lush garden, with the majestic Table Mountain as a stunning backdrop. From the front door, a long, narrow corridor runs down the middle, with many rooms leading off it. A vast kitchen, a dining room, a couple …