I, along with a husband, a baby, and five cats, live in what is known as a Revival Cape Cod. People who aren’t from the Northeast (especially those from the left coast) may read that and scratch their heads. It’s not that they don’t have Cape Cod architecture, from what I can tell, but rather that they aren’t in the habit of calling the houses Cape Cods or just Capes.

Our Cape is in good company, when you considered that we’re in New England the architectural style originated right here in the 1600s. These little symmetrical one-and-a-half story cottages weren’t called Capes until the 1800s, however, when the Reverend Timothy Dwight IV, president of Yale University, made a visit to Cape Cod and coined the term “Cape Cod house.”

Nowadays one finds Capes with many different dormer styles, like shed dormers, gabled dormers (also known as dog house dormers), and recessed dormers. And yet there’s something about walking into a Cape Cod. I grew up in one and have found that I can walk into most Capes and know where the bathroom is and where the kitchen will be. The one difference is the fireplace orientation — historic Capes had a large central chimney that allowed for fireplaces in multiple rooms, while revival Cape Cods usually have a single fireplace with the chimney on one side of the house. My Cape? It has no fireplace at all, though I hope to rectify this someday.

HGTV’s Front Door put together a list of the defining features of traditional Cape Cod architecture that reads perfectly, so instead of rewriting it I’ll just excerpt it here.

Large, central chimney The large, central chimney is located directly behind the front door, with the rooms clustered around it in a rectangular shape.
Steep roof Cape Cods have steep roofs to quickly shed rain and snow and a shallow roof overhang.
Captain’s stairway “The second floor, often kept for boarders or ‘seafaring’ men, was accessed by a narrow stair, or ‘captain’s stairway,’ which has incredibly steep risers and shallow treads to minimize the use of the first-floor space,” explains David Karam, an architect and builder from Brewster, Mass.
Shingle siding Weathered gray shingles are one of the most recognizable elements of a classic Cape Cod, but newer homes are built of brick, stucco and stone

Most of the Capes you’ll see today are revivals built after World War II as affordable housing for returning Vets, which might not have been the case if Boston architect Royal Barry Willis hadn’t reintroduced the Cape Cod as a modern housing option in the 1920s. These are a great first-home option for those who are happy living with about 1,000 sq. ft. of living space since they tend to cost less than larger houses. Ours was quite reasonably priced and when we fix up the upstairs properly will have two whole stories rather than one and a half.

Living small. Small space living. Whatever you want to call it, there are people doing it all over the world. Some get into small space living out of necessity — usually because either the money or the space simply isn’t there. Others do it because they want to see how low they can go when it comes to their ecological footprint. And I suppose there are those who think that 175 sq. ft. is plenty, thankyouverymuch.

Zaarath and Christopher Prokop appear to be just that, according to the NY Post. They work a lot, they don’t eat in, and they don’t host guests, which is why they had no qualms about buying a microstudio — possibly Manhattan’s smallest — for $150,000.

The kitchen is used to store the few articles of clothing they keep in the microstudio, with most of their clothes living at various dry cleaners. Oh, and the couple’s two cats eat on the counter. There’s naught in the fridge other than espresso and champagne. A queen bed takes up a third of the microstudio, and the bathroom is the size of a small closet. At a mere 14.9 feet long and 10 feet wide, you can bet it feels a little claustrophobic.

“I’m amazed we can fit two people and two cats in there,” Zaarath said. “But it’s harmonious at this point. I have friends who say they could never live with their husbands in a place this small. It’s a good thing we like each other enough to live there.”

The only other resident of the microstudio is the couple’s Roomba, which must scare the bejeezus out of those poor cats every time it’s turned on. On one hand, I applaud Zaarath and Christopher Prokop for making the most of the space they can afford — they’ll apparently be able to pay off the $150,000 in a mere two years. On the other hand, they seem a little self-congratulatory about their knack for small space living.

Whatever one calls them — hall trees, entry benches, or furniture for the foyer or mudroom — there’s nothing quite like a bench where one can remove waterlogged boots and ice encrusted mittens after slogging through a weather-ridden world. Those who have the space for a hall bench or a hall tree are lucky in that they can keep street detritus corralled in an easy-to-clean spot in their homes. The rest of us have to find the space, but making room for at least a hall bench is oh so worth it. Right now, I’m digging on these hall benches from German firm Car Möbel.

The pretty blue color on this hall bench makes it perfect for not only an entryway, but also a kid’s room, where it could double as a toy box and a spot to curl up and read on chilly Sundays.

Clean lines and neutral white make this hall bench versatile. At home in modern or beachy decor, it offers plenty of seating and storage potential… think a spot for shoes or a place to stash baskets of hats, gloves, and scarves.

Great for a beach house or country cottage, this hall bench is everything the one above is with the addition of a sweet wicker storage basket that keeps clutter out of sight (and possibly also out of mind).

Hall benches are country? No way! This one would feel right at home in a mod and minimalist house or apartment as a temporary space to stash things like those organic apples from the farmers market.

unfinished wood means this hall bench could work in a variety of settings, though I like it in a primarily white space without a lot of other furniture. It would also be sweet in a dressing closet (for those who have them) or a laundry room, so one could sit and fold in peace.

A bench of mine recently called it quits, committing furniture suicide by casting off one of its own legs. Once upon a time, I purchased that bench to match a writing desk given to me as a present when I published my first book. I wanted not just somewhere to sit, but a piece that would match the desk itself, which had brilliantly curved legs and a dark cherry finish. In looking for that perfect match, I discovered that my writing desk had been crafted in the Queen Anne style. Naturally this inspired me to want to find out more.

The cabriole leg is one of the most recognizable features of the Queen Anne style of furniture, but it’s not the only defining element. Queen Anne furniture is often marked by a carved cockle shell or fan motif that appears on the front of a chest or on the curve of an iconic Queen Anne leg. Frequently found in the dining room on tables and lowboys, the Queen Anne style of leg can also be found on dressing tables, writing desks, and benches.

I tend to think of Queen Anne furniture as being delicate, but that delicacy is oftentimes an optical illusion caused by the curvature of the legs or the scalloped edging on a sturdier piece. That’s not the only thing just a tiny bit strange about Queen Anne furniture, however, as I discovered in an article at Osborne Wood.

Who would have thought that a mistake in identifying the proper origin of a single table leg would result in arguably the best known furniture style of the world today–the Queen Anne? You see, it was really the Chinese who inspired the cabriole legs and the Devonshire legs. Although mistakenly attributed to England’s Queen Anne period, the nomenclature remains today. Carefully researching the history of the ‘Queen Anne cabriole legs’, we find that it most resembles the William and Mary styling of the late 1800′s. Thanks go in great part to William Thackeray’s novel The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne. Thackeray eluded to the Queen Anne style of architecture, but failed to give many particulars. So, readers and craftsmen devised their individual interpretations and labeled these different styles ‘Queen Anne’. Thus was born the many variations of the Queen Anne styling appearing today. Although quite a misnomer, the Queen Anne leg has certainly taken its place in the world of beauty and design, even if it does have a bit of an identity crisis.

Learning about one’s furniture is fascinating, no?

Houses that are nothing but windows? Yes, please! I have a real thing for houses that are more window than wall, even if they can be hell to heat if not done right and privacy is at a premium aaand birds get bonked heads thinking they can fly right in. Glass houses tend to be super mod, but they don’t have to be. My grandparents, for example, live in a glass house that was crafted from a barn dating back to the 1700s. It’s a cool mix of modern and traditional styles, and wonderfully light and airy within.

This glass house from Arquitectura X was created to mimic the feel of unlimited space. The living areas open out visually onto wherever the house sits, making the house itself feel expansive.

A glass house found in Freetown Christiania, Copenhagen exemplifies modern “architecture without architects.” It appears to be literally all window. (Photo by seier+seier)

It’s more common to see glass houses around the ocean, especially in warm locales, where you get beautiful views year round. The downside is cleaning the salt spray off of all those windows, though presumably if you have a glass house like this one, you can afford to pay a window washer.

Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut was Johnson’s own residence. As glass houses go, this one is superlative.

The beauty of glass houses, of course, is that they let the outside in without actually letting the outside in. In tropical climes or mountainous areas or in the woods, having a glass house is one of the best ways to appreciate nature’s splendor. (Photo by Ah Hman)

A puzzle box is a container that can only be opened using some obscure and often unexpected form of manipulation. It can be as simple as pressing a hidden button on the side of the box or as complicated as turning the box in space so many times. Variations can be found all over the world — Costa Rica, Vietnam, Poland, and Turkey, to name a few countries — though Japanese puzzle boxes seem to be the most common. I like to give them as gifts because I’m mean like that.

The examples above all came from Amazon and can be had with a click. For the gift giver, puzzle boxes are a little bit of harmless sadism. For the gift recipient, they’re as fun as they can be frustrating, especially when there’s something like a gift card, a spot of cash, or a piece of jewelry hidden inside.

Love her or hate her, Julia Child exerted a great deal of influence over the evolution of American cooking — a book I love, Something From the Oven, touches briefly on just how much. But that sort of history is best left to authors of food tomes and cookery bloggers. What I’m interested in is her kitchen. Want to see it? There’s an amazing reproduction of Julia Child’s kitchen in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I’d post a picture here, but I’m unsure about the legality of doing so, which means you’ll have to be satisfied with the link above.

Isn’t that a beautiful kitchen? Julia Child’s kitchen was not particularly pretty in the sense that a staged kitchen in House Beautiful is pretty. Rather, it’s a lived in kitchen… a worked in kitchen… a kitchen that is beautiful in its perfect usefulness. The knives, the colanders, the parts for the KitchenAid are all accessible. I somehow imagine that I could walk right into Julia Child’s kitchen and start whipping something up without much trouble. I doubt anyone could say the same for my kitchen, since not much beyond my cast iron pan and my teapot is accessible without digging around in cabinets and drawers. Could someone say the same for your kitchen?

A friend of mine is thinking about remodeling her master bathroom herself, and I’m behind her all the way. She shared her ideas, and all of them are totally DIY-friendly. Replace a counter top vanity with a pedestal sink? No problem. Put down a new vinyl floor? Easy-peasy. And throw up a few panels of beadboard wainscoting? Doable, definitely. As an aside, This Old House magazine had an article about wainscoting and I found their report on the pronunciation surprising.

Wayne’s coating? Wayne’s cotting? Wayne’s kitting? Merriam-Webster prefers the first pronunciation, but all are acceptable. It’s also fine to call it wainscot; the terms are interchangeable.

Who knew? But back to beadboard… I love it, mainly for its country chic look and its versatility. Beadboard isn’t just bathrooms, though they look great in small spaces like the powder room, hallways, and mud rooms.

In this particular bathroom from the Swan Corporation, I like how the look of the white wainscoting is continued in the sea foam bath stall walls. It’s a subtle inside/outside effect that makes the space look a little bit more expansive than it really is.

I was going to use this beadboard wainscoting as an example of how beadboard doesn’t have to stop at a relatively low chair rail, but it turns out that this is actually paintable beadboard wallpaper. Beadboard wallpaper is fairly inexpensive and easy to put up, though it doesn’t look quite as nice as the real thing.

Hot pink beadboard wainscoting in this room from Green Apple Design turns a plain wall into a display shelf for artwork or framed photographs. (I love the color — in fact, we have cans of that same color for our post-renovation nursery.) It’s nice to see more painted beadboard since the more common configuration includes a colored wall and white beadboard.

Like this one from Nantucket Beadboard. The contrast created by the white beadboard and the dark counter top is awesome, especially when paired with such a cheery bright blue. It’s very fresh and outdoorsy without being too beachy. The pretty blue glass bottle by the sink doesn’t hurt the look, but I’d make sure no one tried to add any seashells.

Beadboard doesn’t have to end at a chair rail! Floor to ceiling beadboard looks very rustic and homey, but stops short of looking like it belongs in a farmhouse. Look closely at the ceiling, however, since the beadboard doesn’t stop there, either. This room features beadboard everywhere but on the floor. What sets the walls apart from the ceiling is two different shades of the same color and two different widths of beadboard.

Aren’t these just super boss? I’m totally digging on skateboarding vinyl wall decals from Willow Creek. Even if you’re not a skateboarder (which I most certainly am not) there’s plenty you can do with a couple of kicky vinyl skaters. Jump ‘em over your couch. Have ‘em grinding along your bookshelves. Whatever. It’s up to you. Stick them, restick them, put them away when your momma comes a’callin. Give them to you brother for the holidays. It’s skateboarding, man. Do whatever you want!

The holidays are coming! The holidays are coming! Aaargh! No matter how hard I try, I cannot avoid the slow drag that leads toward December’s end and masses of money spent on others. Not that I mind buying holiday gifts, of course. It’s just the shopping and the shipping and the wrapping and the packing and the traveling. The hassle, really. I long for simpler times, when no one expected holiday gifts of me, and my crudely fashioned macaroni necklace was the biggest hit of Christmas.

In that spirit, here are some sweet holiday gifts from Atypyk that are playful and reasonably priced. It’s almost like you made them yourself, but you didn’t. You picked them out yourself, though, or you can tell people you did. They’re holiday gifts for the quirky and forgiving loved ones in your life, not those recipients expecting a boc from Nordstrom. I guess you could package any or all of these in an old Nordstrom box, thus confusing your recipients.

Why waste a whole plate on a slice when you could put your slice on a pizza slice plate? Less space, sure, but also less to wash.

Quench your flowers’ thirst in eco-friendly containers. Drink beer first, though. Or soda. You give a little to get a little to give a little with a six pack vase.

Bananas are good for your health, and no-slip bananas are no exception. Step one: Peel off bananas. Apply them to the bath floor, bathtub or shower stall. Step two: No slip-and-fall anymore.

Who hasn’t used a wine bottle as a rolling pin, in a pinch? I’ve done it plenty, and I actually own a rolling pin. Give bakers without rolling pins something chic in the form of a wine bottle rolling pin.