things i saw this week that i liked

A video by Baixu, a YouTube Creator & architect. It's called Why Some Houses Just Look Right.​

The ability to teach complex ideas in a simple, straightforward manner is exceedingly rare, and she's got it.

These are not new ideas, but they are important ideas. Likely still taught in architecture school, but so frequently broken, to the detriment of many confused buildings today.

If I were designing any type of moderately traditional home or building, I would refer back to this as gospel.

Just getting windows right is 90% of a great facade. There are a lot of considerations: hierarchy, spacing, depth (setting them back rather than flushing them), shape, and alignment.

Here's to nailing those fundamentals!

Window hierarchy in Krakow

​Truman Capote's House photographed in 1976. You'll need to go to the link to view this. Hadn't seen this before; I love the painted blue floors, wood walls, and shelves.

I was filming a review yesterday of a forthcoming collection for a furniture company, and writing about how the absence of white in the collection makes it feel very much of a different era.

Almost everything in these photos is a darker or more saturated color. In comparison to white and neutral drywall interiors today (including the majority of my own home), it's starkly different.

So much of what creates a heritage kind of look boils down to things on or incorporated into the walls, whether that is art or wainscoting, or upholstery, or bookshelves. Or wood or stone. It's easy to forget that big expanses of uninterrupted white drywall are a pretty recent look.

​Iatesta Studio. Some very fun traditional light fixtures I came across, all handmade in Maryland.