Summer Kohlrabi

 
My friend Katalin (from my NY days) is an accomplished cook and an even more accomplished photographer. She is always trying recipes, and then photographing them. I invited her to share some of them, and her mouthwatering photographs with us on Wednesdays.

“Crispy Colors Duo”

Eastern European Summer Kohlrabi (karalábé főzelék) is a side dish, a delicious accompaniment to steak or chicken. While I have never eaten kohlrabi, my husband just informed me that his mother grew them. That would make sense, with their German background, as kohlrabi's name is a combination of the German words for cabbage and turnip. According to Renee’s Garden, the flavor of the bulbs is a cross between apples and very mild baby turnips.

• 1 cup finely chopped onions
• 1 pound peeled kohlrabi, cut into stick pieces about 1 1/4 inches long and 1/4 inch thick
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, approximately
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
  

In a heavy frying pan over medium heat, sauté onions and kohlrabi in butter until well coated with the butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover tightly and cook, stirring occasionally, until kohlrabi is tender, about 25 minutes. Sprinkle with flour and turn to mix. Gradually add milk and cook and gently stir mixture until milk thickens to a smooth sauce. Correct seasoning, adding salt and pepper generously. Stir in parsley.

So, next time I head to my farmer’s market, this unusual vegetable will be on my shopping list.

photo credit: Katalin Eisenberg, Renee’s Garden

Pillow Talk

 
Scandia Home sent me their latest newsletter and video featuring their resident Lifestyle Expert, Tyler Heiden Jones. Each month Tyler focuses on a certain aspect of life and home and offers tips for improvement. This month, the focus was a better night’s sleep.

After playing host to a very active 6 year old last week, we couldn’t wait to get into bed most nights! Of course, the older you get, the more you realize how much you need your beauty rest.

Wading In Wallpaper (or How I Finally Started Renovating Our Bath)

Can someone please explain to me why company coming provokes a feeding frenzy of projects before the guests arrive? I haven’t posted much this week, as I have been preparing to host my family this weekend, with my 6 year old niece staying on for a week at Camp Kevin (as my sister calls it; she said Camp Laurie didn’t sound quite as good).

So, I have spent most of this week stripping the wallpaper in our bathroom in addition to all my other projects. No, no one will else will be using our bathroom, but peeling off one tiny bit that was loose has ended up with full-scale ripping down of all wallpaper. What a chore, yet at the same time, satisfying to see such instant results.

Current color - Benjamin Moore™ 2051-60 Birds Egg 

Our current color was so pretty, but as designer Sarah Richardson noted, shades of blue all over the walls can begin to feel like a swimming pool. So, now that the wallpaper has come down, it is time to choose a soothing color for the bath.

I am definitely leaning toward a neutral palette, with some great tile, marble or glass accents added for a luxurious retreat. We had a contractor come this week to quote a lot of projects and will do them over the coming months as our budget allows, since we pay all our balances in full each month (and that included home renovations). 

Here are some examples of bathrooms that I adore.

 Erica from Moth Design and her dreamy master bath. How she describes it, “You might have noticed shades of blue and green but only in a couple of accents. The great thing is this space looks entirely different layered with subtle charcoal greys or a bright dash of yellow.”

House Beautiful new editor Newell Turner's bathroom is clean and traditional. I like the subway tile around the lower half of the bath, I would use a white/off-white instead of the blue.

 Ina Garten’s bath using Calacatta marble around the lower half.

 While T. Keller Donovan used fabric to brighten up the white tile in his bathroom, you would still get a punch of color if you used the fabric for the bench, windows and shower curtain and not the walls.

Note to self from this article: “Prep the walls with an oil-based primer-sealer. You want to create a Teflon-like surface, so if you ever decide to remove the fabric, you're not pulling off a layer of Sheetrock along with it.” As I am finding, they did NOT do this in our bath under our wallpaper, so I have to be very careful to not remove more than I should.

This is an amazing bath, with large scale tile on all the walls and the glass tile above. 

 I still like the Flora Rug for the bath, but will have to see how it all comes together once I decide on towels, etc.

 How about a fun outdoor rug for the bathroom? I haven’t felt the texture, so not sure how it would feel underfoot. But at only $39.99?

Or this indoor/outdoor rug in a graphic design?

Pretty, inexpensive Tile towels from BB&B

I would love to see any images of bathrooms you have designed, or of your own personal bath if you want to share. I don’t have comments enabled, but feel free to email me your images at mydomicilestyle (at) gmail (dot) com.

Photo credit: Moth Design, Frédéric Vasseur, Simon Upton, Victoria Pearson

The Design Dilemmas of a Gemini: Part Two

OK, I promised you the antithesis of what we normally like in a house. When driving about the other day, we came across a hilly (very unusual in Dallas), heavily treed street. At the end of this street was this looker! Of course, I had to see how much it listed for - only $850,000. While not in our price range, for it’s location and the size of the house, it isn’t unusual.

While not modern at all in its styling, I could imagine how pretty this house would be if you painted all the dark woods a creamy white. Then the juxtaposition of modern furniture would be stunning.

It reminds me of all those homes in Paris where the apartments have such great bones and they mix and match styles freely in very traditional spaces. Right now, this house feels heavy and staid.

The floors really have a reddish tone. I would stain them either really dark, or make them much lighter.

    Those window treatments are a bit over the top.

  This might be the only room where I would keep the dark walls.

   Expensive floors and counters but the brass is detracting.

 I do love the multiple fireplaces, especially in the bedroom.

The house is on a hill, and backs up to a nature preserve. So the views from your balcony must be stunning and you won’t ever have neighbors behind you!

So here are some visual aids, as to what I might do in a very traditional home, to give it my own personal twist.

Instead of light woodwork, how about a bold color?

Dara Caponigro’s home, subdued molding, white walls, modern furniture via Domino.

Light walls, dark floors via Domino. So pretty and love the lucite.

 From Architectural Digest, one of my favorite rooms, and what I thought of when I saw the interior of this house.

I could go on and on with fun photos of updated spaces, but for now, I will just dream about buying a house and making it over. 

The Design Dilemmas of a Gemini: Part 1

I really do blame it on being a Gemini. While I don’t put any stock at all in horoscopes, there is something about the two sides of a Gemini that make perfect sense to me!

“Gemini is the third sign of the zodiac, and those born under this sign will be quick to tell you all about it. That's because they love to talk! It's not just idle chatter with these folks, either. The driving force behind a Geminis conversation is their mind. The Gemini-born are intellectually inclined, forever probing people and places in search of information. The more information a Gemini collects, the better. Sharing that information later on with those they love is also a lot of fun, for Gemini’s are supremely interested in developing their relationships. 

Since Geminis are a mix of the yin and the yang, they are represented perfectly by the Twins. The Gemini-born can easily see both sides of an issue, a wonderfully practical quality.
They can be wishy-washy, too, changing their mood on a simple whim. It's this characteristic which readily suggests the Mutable Quality assigned to this sign. Mutable folks are flexible and go with the flow.”

What is my dilemma you may ask? Wildly divergent tastes would be one of my dilemmas.

For instance, my husband recently sent me a post about the following house, redesigned by the Seattle office of of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. They redesigned a 1950s mid-century modern home to give it a new contemporary life for a young family.

When I say that my heart went pitter-patter, I am serious. Can you imagine the kinds of parties you could throw with all this open space? I can also see children running and riding their tricycles around the house, with dogs chasing after them. And no, I don’t care if those are wood floors. Of course, if I lived here, I could surely afford to have someone come to do maintenance on those floors. 
    

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by architectural photographer Nic Lehoux

Come back Thursday to see a house that I fell in love with over the weekend. Hint: it looks nothing like the house above.