Since Punxsutawney Phil insisted this week that we’ve got six more weeks to plow through before spring temperatures appear, the natural thing to do is curl up for a long winter’s nap. So, we took a little sleepwalking adventure around the web today to round up some things worth dreaming about.

FresHome did a little write-up this week about the “New AIR” bed by Danielle Lago (pictured above), which includes a pastel storage component for books and small items and somewhat startlingly appears to float.

Swiss Miss uncovered some great custom pillows by Lori Blum, which can be personalized to include a family name, street address and city in a variety of colors:

Desire to Inspire let us inside a brilliant and breathtaking home with a waterfront view of the Sydney Harbour and, of course, the world-famous opera house — simply stunning:

Here’s a bittersweet story from Maryland: per the Gaithersburg Patch daily newspaper, the owners of the Gaithersburg Inn have put their B&B up for sale; they’re leaving the inn behind so they can focus more of their time advocating for traumatic brain injury (TBI) research funding in honor of their son, who suffered a TBI several years ago. The 70-something couple poured more than $350,000 into renovations for the 1892 inn before putting it on the market…

…and on a lighter note, we’ve saved the oddest of the bunch for last: the yahoos over at IKEA Hacker did what they do best this week and hacked an IKEA bed into the back of a station wagon. True story.

Happy weekending!

Photo credits: FresHome, Swiss Miss and Desire to Inspire.

When you are cooking, do you prefer to be alone or to share in the experience with family and friends? If you love to entertain while in the kitchen or just enjoy being able to view adjacent living spaces, designing an entertaining kitchen is for you. The kitchen used to be a closed off room set aside from the other living spaces. Today, entertaining kitchens are perfect for busy families, enjoying the cooking experience with friends, and a more integral connection as the heart of the home. Here are tips to design your ideal entertaining kitchen.

• Your lifestyle and your kitchen: Everyone has a different lifestyle when it comes to everyday cooking and entertaining activities. Whether you enjoy having your large family come over on Sundays and everyone helps out in the kitchen, or you prefer to help your kids with homework at the kitchen bar, determine your lifestyle. Designing your kitchen with areas for people to sit in close proximity to the cook is ideal. In addition to seating, ensure pendant lighting, undercounter task lighting, and overall ambient lighting is placed around your kitchen for optimal safety and entertaining atmosphere.

Photo credit: Houzz

• Cooking with guests in mind: While ultimately you are cooking for yourself, having your guests involved in the experience is all the more enjoyable. When designing your kitchen, look for variable counter heights for kids and adults, to accommodate different activities and guests. Variable bar stool heights can accomplish the same effect. Ensure there is ample room for guests to eat, socialize and mingle if you have a party or gathering occurring while the kitchen is in use. The options are limitless!

Photo credit: Houzz

An entertaining kitchen is one of the most sought after amenities in today’s modern home. Even if you aren’t an entertainer by lifestyle, the ability to feel like you could is priceless. From seating and lighting to assessing your personal lifestyle, designing your ideal kitchen for engaging with friends can be a treat in itself. For those of you who don’t get much use from your kitchen, you will be surprised how many friends and family members will love to use your kitchen instead – once you use these helpful designer tips!

Photo credit top: Chic Coastal Living

When is the last time you experienced outdoor furniture that looked stylish but was also made from eco-friendly products? The combination doesn’t always mix. In fact, most often times the result is a stark piece of furniture with very little inspiration. Those thoughts are further from the truth with Husk Outdoor Furniture, by Patricia Urquiola. These modern and sleek pieces of outside goodness look comfortable and are ideal for the Earth.

The durable hard shell is made from Hirek® and the cushions give it a playful ‘ski-jacket’ appeal, that creates the mixture of softness and durability in an outdoor piece.

What makes these chairs fun is the choice of colors for the body and the cushions of the chair. The supports come in white, black, orange, acid green and sky blue, so there is a color to match every decorative style. While the ‘…cushions come in two versions, with larger sizes on the seat or on the backrest, and are covered by technical fabric that is available in five shades: white, beige, orange, acid green, sky blue. The water-passing padding enables water to seep through the cushions without stagnation.”… Muuz

All the components of the Husk outdoor furniture line are recyclable and are made from recycled materials. With complimenting side tables, this outdoor furniture is fun to look at, as well as durable and environmentally friendly. Once spring is officially here, it will be time to think about outdoor living. These outdoor pieces from Patricia Urquiola would be a great addition to anyone’s backyard.

All photo credits: Muuz via Mocoloco

The power of a good black and white print is boundless. If it’s checkerboard, it can call to mind a mid-century American diner or a sweet French bistro; if it’s flowered, like the chair from LA Furniture Store shown above, it can be pastoral or aggressive; if it’s abstract, it can either lend chaos or order to the room in which it stands. In matters of contrast, the devil is in the details, and the opportunities for playing with the starkest of contrasts are endless, not to mention fun.

From the naturally-occurring pattern of the cowhide ottoman by Snob Stuff below, to the tightly-controlled, Aztec-inspired diamond print couch by Wisteria underneath it, black and white prints present a nearly infinite array of exercises in line and form. With the same color combination, the former blends into the environment around it, while the latter makes its presence known the moment it comes into view, regardless of how loud the pieces around it might be.

To soften the visual blow of bold opposites competing with one another throughout a home, the easiest thing to do is add a third color. For a sophisticated palette, adding several levels of grey and taupe bring an earthy, timeless feel to an otherwise austere space, grounding it with a quietly middling effect and providing some subtlety to an already arresting room. Cote Maison does a beautiful job of that here:

Those bold enough to take the plunge into a black and white scheme rarely regret it; once a few tweaks are made and the right colors and textures are added to balance out the contrast, the overall effect can be simply stunning.

Photo credits: LA Furniture Store, Snob Stuff, Wisteria and Côté Maison.

There is something magical that occurs when iconic historic buildings are renovated to house new functions that its inhabitants feel at home in. Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut is already known for its Ivy League notoriety and historic architecture dating back to the early 1700’s. When John Ronan Architects decided to renovate the Yale Steam Laundry building, a new type of condominium was formed, melding its historic structure with contemporary functionality and aesthetics.

From the exterior, the iconic red clay bricks of Yale’s legendary facades look meticulously restored. The interior mixture of concrete and brick, vaulted floor structure, and oddly-spaced floor framing creates the skeleton of a magnificent residential space ready to be discovered. The design team didn’t want this to be a total ‘re-do’; in fact, on the contrary, they wanted its historical details and character to stay in tact.

‘The project design asserts that this character is important and should be preserved, and that new interventions should be minimal, legible and discrete. The project is as much about what one doesn’t do as it is about what one does.’ … The Arch Daily

While the interior bricks and concrete were painted in white, it gives a nice contrast to the modern elements that meet up with historical elements beautifully. ‘The hot rolled lacquered steel plate insertions in the public areas (entry, lobby, stair, exercise room) stand apart from the glazed white brick to form reception desks, bridges, stairs. In the residential units above, kitchen/bathroom cores clad in birch millwork are inserted into the existing shell to minimally convert the building to its new use.’… The Arch Daily

The Yale Steam Laundry Lofts are an example of designers respecting traditional architecture and improving the overall aesthetic through innovative materials and contemporary elements.

All photo credits: Nathan Kirkman via The Arch Daily

Happy Groundhog Day!  Since spring is just around the corner, we took a spin around the web today, looking for signs of life to lead us into the warmer months. From the looks of it, the rest of 2012 is coming up roses. For starters, Anthology presented a gorgeous series of photographs this week featuring LA-based designer Justina Blakely’s work with interior greenery, shown above. Makes us long for 80-degree temperatures and cocktails al fresco!

For those of us too impatient to wait for spring’s official arrival, there’s ArchiTonic’s article about herbal architecture, featuring stunning photography of ways clever designers have brought the outdoors inside, like Artaqua’s self-watering, room-purifying Grüne Wand® (Green Wall):

Furniture Fashion shared a roundup of decorative rugs this week, including a cheeky “Turn the Season” rug from YLdesign — absolutely perfect, given today’s prophetic news from Punxsutawney Phil:

Speaking of keeping things green, Dwell took to Washington State this week and released Part 9 of its ongoing series, Building a Zero-Energy Community, focusing on the first-ever multi-family community of its kind in the U.S. (with many more to follow, we hope)…

The boys over at Uncrate are clearly ready for barbecue season, given their raves this week over the Bob Grillson wood pellet grill, which uses electricity to burn its wooden pellets instead of requiring a traditional fire…

…and rounding out the spring fever theme is a post on spring cleaning from Design Public, taking us into the dirty underbelly of a DP blogger’s closet for a much-needed organizational purge. Come to think of it, those of us behind the scenes here at Interior Complex should probably follow suit, but then again, we’ve still got a smidge of winter left to procrastinate our way through.

Photo credits: Anthology, Furniture Fashion and ArchiTonic.

Choosing furniture is always a challenge. Between deciding on color and type of material, design style, height, size, and a dozen other factors, choosing furniture for your small home can make the search even harder. Smaller homes have the advantage on not needing a lot of furniture, but they have the drawback of requiring that your key pieces are functional and look fabulous in the space. Here are some tips for choosing furniture colors for your small home.

• Choose furniture color by lighting sources: While it’s important to choose furniture by how much space you have, it is also important to assess how much light is in your space. Small homes that have plenty of natural light, windows, skylights, and artificial light can work with darker colored furniture, while the contrary is true for small homes with minimal light. Darker furniture will make the space feel cramped and will appear to swallow the room up. Find a happy medium and find lighter colored furniture with darker accent pillows and area rugs to solve a lighting source challenge in your small home.

Photo credit: Emily A Clark

• Make a lot of bang with color: In small homes, everything is magnified. Meaning, if you only have space for 3 pieces of furniture – make those pieces the best bang of design inspiration you can. The same holds true for color in your furniture. Pick one bold color, and two or three complimenting colors and find pieces of furniture that incorporate them together. The bolder and stronger the colors, the more neutral you can make surrounding walls, floors and textiles.

Photo credit: BHG

Choosing color for your furniture doesn’t have to be a headache; in fact, it can create a fun challenge to determine how to make your small home have its own colorful personality. Whether you have a few colorful key pieces or you have a bountiful amount of natural light, choosing furniture colors is part of enjoying your home. Adopt a few of these tips when choosing your next furniture and see how your small home will instantly feel big in character and appeal.

Photo credit top: The Lennoxx

Oh, to steal away for a spa weekend, free of worries and stress. Sounds delicious, doesn’t it? Although real life doesn’t often allow for luxurious getaways whenever the mood strikes, it’s actually rather easy to transform a bathroom into a spa-inspired sanctuary. The tiles above from Evit are phenomenally soothing and have major tactile appeal, but what really makes them pop is their light aqua color, reminiscent of the sea — an inspiration point upon which most spas draw in their design.

Moving on to one of the grandest indulgences we’ve ever seen, take a look at this disco ball bathtub featured at the Mondrian in Miami:

While the Mondrian’s tub in particular is completely over the top, the introduction of reflective surfaces — think mirrored bath accessories and wall hangings — and a white-on-white palette can transform a bathroom, large or small, into a gleaming getaway fit for a king or queen (or both).

Although ofuru and ofuru-inspired tubs are available on the open market today, the principle can still be applied to any tub. The idea is nearly as ancient as Japan itself, and its application is available to anyone with a bathroom…walk-in showers notwithstanding. But even in those cases, there’s something sublime to look into if a little stress reduction is in order.

Photo credits: Furniture Fashion, Ocean Drive, Rapsel and SouthCape Tapware.

Your bed is the crowning glory of your bedroom, or at least maybe it should be. Creating a center point in your bedroom focuses the eye and helps you create a room that is balanced with furnishings and decor. There used to be a time when Grandma’s brass headboard bed was the norm, and it wasn’t much to look at. Over the years, the headboard has become eye-catching and beautiful! Here are some ways to make your bed highlight the room and your spirits.

• Use color to attract the eye: Headboards that contrast or compliment the colors in your bedding, an accent wall, or the decorative elements on the side tables can instantly create a focal point. If you are starting from scratch, decide what color palette you’d like in your bedroom. Choose a bedding ensemble you love, and grab color inspiration from it. If you have an older headboard that you want to repurpose, add a refreshing vibrant color to wake up your eyes everyday.

Photo credit: Design Sponge

• Rethink traditional: If you’re craving a non-traditional headboard how about using reclaimed timber, shutters, or a weathered door as your headboard? Believe it or not, headboards have become one of the easiest and trendiest design project for do it yourselfers. Visit garage sales, vintage stores, and salvage yards for pieces that would make perfect headboards. Don’t be afraid to distress the material for a weathered and worn look. This will give character and uniqueness to your eye-catching headboard.

Photo credit: BHG

Whether you use a picture frame, or an actual headboard, the options are up to you when creating a focal point for your bedroom. Find what speaks to you in color, patterns, and design styles. A simple and understated headboard can become the conversation piece of your gorgeous bedroom. So the next time you are wondering how to make your bedroom pop, get a hold of an awesome headboard and make it your own!

Photo credit top: Flickr

One month into our new year’s resolutions — most of which are health-related — we’re getting a little hungry for some sinful and delicious culinary indulgence. So, instead of giving in entirely and diving headfirst into a New York cheesecake, we did the next best thing and made today’s roundup all about beautiful kitchens. Indulging our appetite for design is, after all, calorie-free.

First up is Belle Vivir. She doesn’t update her “kitchen of the week” section every week, but when she does, it’s grand, and today we’re taking a look back through her archives, including the stunning Scandinavian kitchen pictured above.

The Kitchen Designer gives us a sneak peek into the world of La Cornue’s Kitchen Magnifique — an aspiring chef’s wildest dream come true:

Over at Tile Envy, we’re given a rare glimpse into the home of abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler, and we can’t take our eyes off of this shot of contrasting textiles surrounding a delectable-looking piece of cake:

Elsewhere, Kitchens.com offers a great little feature that allows you to take an interactive role in choosing your ideal kitchen’s color palette based on the style you select…

You can channel your inner American Idol judge over at HGTV when you cruise through their “Rate My Space” section, which has more than 26,000 uploads to browse through.  It’s essentially an endless well of design do’s and don’ts…

…and FresHome delivers a roundup of no fewer than 30 kitchen islands to get our imaginations spinning.

Bon appetit!

Photo credits: Belle Vivir, The Kitchen Designer, and Tile Envy.

When you think about new homes being built in historic neighborhoods, you get images of architectural styles and details that complement the surrounding houses. In Melbourne, Australia this idea was implemented with a twist in a Victorian neighborhood.  Instead of recreating a historical home, the architects at Kavellaris Urban Design (KUD) used an innovative technique to create an image of a Victorian house on perforated metal panels to clad the outside of a contemporary home. The team calls it The Perforated House.

The concept of melding the historical look of the Victorian surroundings with innovative wall panels that open up to expose its inner ‘skeleton’ is unique and design forward in thinking. When the panels are opened, the modern and clean-lined interiors show off glass railings, expansive glass walls and the open concept floor plan.

The floor plan is unique in that the bedrooms are housed on the first floor, while the entertaining and communal living spaces lie on the second. This floor plan arrangement allows for full views and appreciation of the open paneled vistas from the top floor.

Who’s to say that modern architecture can’t be housed in a historical neighborhood? The Perforated House by KUD answers that question beautifully.

All photo credits: KUD

It’s been said that, sometimes, fashion comes before (and often at the expense of) comfort; today’s roundup of ultramodern sofas likely substantiates that line of thinking. They may or may not be incredibly comfortable to lounge around in, but these four candy-colored couches display some eye-popping aesthetic sensibilities and nearly-edible fabric choices. With their sinewy lines and bombastic hues (including just the right tomato-and-lime combination to balance out the stark whiteness of Christian Vivanco’s curvy loveseat, below), to call each one a conversation piece would be a bit of an understatement. In fact, for someone who doesn’t spend much time lounging in front of the television and would rather make a bold proclamation of style with their living space instead of spending long weekends at home, hibernating in cozy but perhaps boring digs, this quartet of seating options might be just what the design doctor ordered.

Photo credits: Herman Miller, Dezeen, Apartment Therapy and Archi Expo.

When it comes to seating in your home, do you look for pieces that you have seen in every furniture store or do you prefer chairs that are different and a bit unusual? The Millipede chair, by Michael Samoriz of Umbra Design, is definitely for those that love funky design with a bit of whimsy. This bar chair looks something like a jellyfish, making the idea refreshing since it doesn’t look like a cookie-cutter piece of furniture.

Samoriz said, “The idea of Millipede is a symbiosis of cyberpunk and bionics. I borrowed the look of “Dron” guardians from The Matrix trilogy. The bionical part of design is related with the look of a jelly fish. That’s why the Millipede chair is something in the middle between a robot and a living being, some sort of futuristic organism.”… Behance Network.

The chair is crafted from a high gloss plastic and is molded to be comfortable for seating with its all-in-one back and arm rests. Its tentacle-like legs appear as though it wouldn’t be able to stand up, but each one is angled in just the right way to give it durability. It has a living organism feeling that is highly unique and innovative. If you’re looking for seating that is comfortable and will be the conversation piece of the party, the Millipede chair belongs in your home.

All photo credits: Behance Network