When I came across this video interview with Parisian architect Joseph Dirand via Twitter, I can honestly say that watching Dirand discuss his beautiful home in Paris stopped me in my tracks. I already knew of Dirand’s work – I’ve posted about another glorious elegant project of his – but still, his own home is just exquisite in its refined aesthetic and gorgeous, gorgeous use of materials. Continue Reading…
Last week, I mentioned that it felt as if this blog was morphing into The Kitchen Files. What can I say – there’s been a run of great looking kitchens around. And I always seem to be drawn to kitchens. After all this can be the ‘make or break’ room in a property – the space that either sells a flat or house, or the space that leaves you with a headache while working out how much it’s going to cost to replace the existing kitchen. Continue Reading…
A few weeks ago I posted about this compact and clever urban house in Victoria called Lightbox, which has been shortlisted in the Residential Category in this year’s Australian Interior Design Awards. Needless to say, perhaps, this wasn’t the only project to have immediately caught my eye while scanning through the images of the shortlisted projects on the AIDA website. This project, called Swinging Seventies (great name, right?), literally popped out from the screen, thanks in no small part to the fantastic images by Derek Swalwell. Continue Reading…
It requires a confident eye to take a period house and carefully peel back the layers to reveal its age and inherent character. Often – typically – when we talk about refurbishments, it’s about taking an old house and sharpening it up, making the interior fresh and crisp and new again, and that’s an approach I’ve written about at length here. Indeed some of my favourite posts on The Property Files so far have embraced this old-new contrast – Kirk House in Ross-shire springs to mind as a prime example.
But there is another way, as Mark and Sally Bailey have demonstrated in their beautifully atmospheric Grade II* listed house located in the heart of the village of Clyro, near Hay-on-Wye and close to the English/Welsh border. Continue Reading…
I’ve written quite a bit here on The Property Files about my love for old-meets-new. For me, that combination of a period building with contemporary architecture or interior design creates exciting contrasts. I relish that moment of surprise where an old façade or shell of a building leads into a new interior, or reveals a crisp addition. Continue Reading…
This is one of those houses that falls into the ‘must share’ category as it incorporates so many features that I love, from architectural rebirth – in this case a dilapidated agricultural building being granted new life as a home – to the space itself, which combines its inherently rustic character with a sympathetic new palette of materials and a voluminous light-filled interior. Continue Reading…
Hello and welcome to Copperline. My name is Fiona Reid and this is my blog about coastal living in Scotland.