Speaking of custom home design — er, like we did the other day — I have a real thing for builders and/or designers who go all out. And by “all out,” I mean they have this vision in their heads that is nothing like the usual house or apartment building, but they go right ahead and construct it anyway, oftentimes to the scorn of their nearby neighbors. Junker House, Lemgo, Germany is one such structure.

Karl Junker was as severely schizophrenic as he was talented when it came to architecture, and this fact is evident in the home that became his legacy. The world inside his head provided the blueprint for Junker House, a home like something out of a nightmare, complete with human faces that stare down from ceilings, twisting caged staircases, skeletal furniture, and “ghosts.”

Not content to build it and let the fantasy go, Junker spent his life (and a sum of money left to him by his grandfather) building onto and perfecting Junker House. He lived therein alone, though elements of the design such as a nursery and a formal salon suggests that he intended to have a family and perhaps even an active social life.

Junker did to some extent achieve the latter goal, and then only at the end of his life when strangers began to arrive daily to request tours of his life’s work. He gave these visitors what they wanted, sure that one day in the future his fascinating style of building and interior design would be appreciated by mankind. In a way, Junker is now appreciated, though only as an example of a man whose madness drove him to new heights of architectural creativity.

(Don’t forget to enter to win a FREE hand-woven jute rug!)

Tired of walking on your bare floors? Me, too, but rugs tend to cost a bit more than I’m willing to pay for them now that I have a kid to think about. I’m fortunate enough now to live in a house with nice hardwood floors, but I’ve also been unlucky enough to live in apartments with splintering wood flooring and vinyl peeling at the edges so I know how vital something like good rugs can be to a person’s foot health and sanity.

I’m happy to announce that I can help at least one of you out, thanks to CSN Rugs. They’ve graciously offered to give away a classic 3′x5′ hand woven jute rug with a soft blue border to one lucky reader of this very blog.

All you have to do to enter to win is leave a comment on this post telling me what kind of stuff you’d like to see on Manolo for the Home in the future, e.g. product reviews, photos of designers’ homes, home care tips, etc. On this coming Friday morning at 9 a.m. EST, I’ll use a random number generator to choose the winner.

Good luck!

Exterior trompe l’oeil… not so easy to do on a small scale (unfortunately for most DIYers), but breathtaking when done as it should be.

This beautiful example of exterior trompe l’oeil comes from France.

A plain building is transformed into something much more interesting when paint is applied.

Here we have a small section of a trompe l’oeil mural featuring famous Lyonnais people such as Saint Exupéry of The Little Prince fame.

And finally, John Pugh paints what are intensely eye-catching trompe l’oeil murals on buildings. Cool, no?

Jimmie and Martin of Jimmie Martin Ltd. prove that more really is more with a baby grand piano done up in sliver leaf with a Zebra pattern. Is it chic or tacky? My answer: “Depends.”

1. Paloma’s nursery:

All right, so by the time Paloma actually has a proper nursery (hey, she was early) she’ll probably be extremely embarrassed to hear me even saying the word. For now, she spends most of her time in my black-and-red themed home office — the space that will eventually become her room. And we’ll probably keep that theme. But until that dream becomes a reality, I can fantasize all I want about building the perfect nursery from the ground up… or letting ducduc do it for me.

2. The color gray:

Cool, somber, elegant. What’s not to like? Don’t think gray is too dark for small spaces. It’s not. A lighter gray can actually make a small space look bigger!

3. Houzz

The Washington Post calls it “the Flickr of design idea sites,” which isn’t too bad of a description. You can search through thousands of photos of interiors by professional designers and save the ones that inspire you in your online idea book… Which means yours truly can finally toss out some of the magazine clippings she’s been sitting on for ages.

4. Hanging things up:

With the baby underfoot or attached to me at all times, I don’t get much done around the house anymore. Projects like tiling the mudroom or tackling the bare upstairs room have been put on the back burner for the time being. Just about the only thing I can do is affix things to the walls. Hanging things up makes me feel like I’m actually doing something to add a little zest to my living spaces, and I heartily recommend it to those with a desire for change but not a lot of free time.

A house nearby to my own up until recently had the most atrociously painted electric purple door. I’ve nothing against electric purple doors, mind you. Rather, I am anti-DIY when DIY is done badly. If you’re going to attempt to fix or refresh your home, why not do it right the first time? And really now, painting a front door is not all that difficult, and it can add a lot of personality to an exterior for very little money.

So how does one paint a front door? First things first! Take off the door — as tempting as it is to glop on paint without taking off the door, you’ll end up with shite results. Corral any pets as necessary. Once the door is off, and keep in mind that it may be heavy so be careful, you’ll need to remove all the hardware, e.g. the hinges, the doorknob, a door knocker, or peepholes. Oh, and any screws that were holding those things on will need to come off, too.

Next step, prime! And when I say prime, I mean the whole thing, including the inside edges and surfaces that will be under hardware. Once that’s done and dry, check for things like cracks. If you see any, fill ‘em up with caulk and then prime over the caulk once it’s dry. Unfortunately, painting doesn’t come next — sanding does. But as much as sanding can suck, sanding with a fine grit sandpaper will make the finished door look polished and professional.

Finally, it is time to paint. Um, once you’ve rubbed off all the dust from all that sanding. I recommend using a roller on the flat bits of the door. Part of the reason that the electric purple door looked so awful was that there were brush strokes over brush strokes, and the door’s original color was showing underneath. Not very polished looking at all. As you paint, try not to let the paint pool or drip because, yes, it will dry that way. Finally, apply as many coats as you need (when the previous coat is dry) to get good coverage and a uniform hue.

Now that’s not so hard, right? As for the electric purple door, the owners of said door eventually did take it down and paint it correctly, and now it looks absolutely stunning.

(Image via)

…you may find that your love of contemporary decor has only increased and you end up redoing your entire house just to accommodate a few elegant pieces. Or so I’ve heard.

My only first hand experiences with black furniture have involved paint and lacquer, and that was in high school when I was going through a decidedly Gothic phase. However, I’m not closed off to the notion of one day retooling my living room, bedroom, etc. to be ultramod with a traditional bent.

From Sheer Home, I like the black Louis chair upholstered in a rich fabric and the three-drawer “Angela” chest in a French black painted polished solid wood. What do you think?

Yellow is a vibrant, energetic color, but it can also be as relaxing as it is invigorating. When combined with scads of languid butterflies in this
hand-painted Chinese storage cabinet and situated in a bedroom or den, this hue becomes very relaxing.

The butterflies themselves are rendered in springtime pastel paints mixed with “tongfen,” or bronze powder, to guarantee a fadeless gleam. Two large doors swing open on “menzhou,” an ancient hinge-less mechanism which allows them to be easily and completely removed, revealing ample interior storage space. The doors are kept securely closed with custom bronze butterfly hardware from which flowerpot handles hang beneath a peach key latch.

In Chinese thought, butterflies represent change, rebirth, and duality. Zhuangzi, a Taoist poet and philosopher, wrote “I once dreamed I was a butterfly fluttering here and there. But did I really dream of the butterfly? Or is the butterfly now dreaming of me?” A thought-provoking question, indeed.

When it comes to custom homes, it turns out that while men do the dirty work, it’s the ladies who are in control. In an article at Club Femina, actress-turned-builder Cathleen Gallagher’s self-designed house gets analyzed, and the larger gender issues of custom home building are taken to task.

National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Women’s Council statistics from 2007 show that of the 2.8 million home construction firms in the U.S., only 201,000 of them are owned by women. Yet women play the major role in up to 91 percent of home purchases. It’s not hard to figure out the cavernous void that is being left–one that talented builders like Gallagher can ably fill.

“It’s not only that women make more of the home buying decisions; it’s also that they decide differently,” said Dave Harding, CMP, an NAHB National Sales Manager of the Year and Principal, Western Market Forces. “The single-greatest identifiable group of prospects–indeed constituting a majority of the population–is women. Male builders try to design homes then merchandise them to appeal to that largest demographic. But just as women (and men for that matter) dress for other women, what is more logical than women building for women? Not to exclude men, but to supplement man-think.

“Women are more often heads of state, secretaries of state and practitioners of real estate,” he added. “But, so few are actual builders. Look at the annual reports of the biggest public builders and you’ll see few pictures of women in leadership positions. It’s a huge missed opportunity. Cathleen has a built-in constituency. Her design and execution are superb. Not superb as a woman builder. Superb for a builder.”

It’s interesting stuff — I definitely recommend taking the time to read the whole thing.

Ever wondered about the Ikea furniture and decor naming scheme? I have two Billy bookcases, for example. Why Billy? I also have a couple of chairs that I’m sure have equally strange names. Oh, and I am the owner of a Jokkmokk kitchen set.

After a bit of searching, I came across this naming scheme that apparently appeared once upon a time in an un-cited article and was later confirmed by the Wikipedians.

Items in and for the bathroom are named for Scandinavian lakes, rivers, and bays.

Kitchens and kitchen items are named for grammatical terms, while kitchen accessories are either labeled with foreign words or are named after spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, or fruit.

Chairs and desks have male names, materials and curtains have female names, lamps and lighting accessories are named for terms in music, chemistry, meteorology, and measures, as well as seasons, months, and days.

Sheets, bed covers, and cushions are named after flowers, plants, precious stones, and words associated with sleep and comfort.

Children’s goods are labeled with adjectives or the names of animals and birds.

Cornices and other accessories for curtains are named using mathematical and geometrical terms.

Frames and clocks are referred to with expressions, although some still have Swedish names of places.

So why the odd naming conventions? Company founder Ingvar Kamprad, who is dyslexic, found that naming the furniture with proper names and words, rather than a product code, made the names easier to remember.

Funny, I always thought that Ikea names were rather like Häagen-Dazs — foreign sounding, but ultimately meaningless. But no, my Jokkmokk is named for a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden and Billy is a masculine name in that same country!