BEDROOM INSPIRATION: Boy, could I use some of these ideas in my bedroom!

“Nobody is saying that you should completely renovate and redecorate your home each time seasons change but it can be very refreshing to add a few new touches to some of the rooms in your house. For example, summer brings many major changes and you can get some inspiration from nature itself in order to give your bedroom a more cheerful look.”

PORTLAND TOUR: Houzz gets inside a world-travelers’ Portland home.

“Zoe Krislock’s furniture pieces have an international pedigree. A vice president at Nike, Krislock has lived in Shanghai, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Southern California, Boston, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., and the pieces she has picked up along the way make a big impact in her home. “That, to me, really gives style to a home,” says Krislock.”

GARDEN CANDY: Every year, I get more and more into my garden. These gorgeous pictures will have me out there again, hand on hip, eyes squinted. From Greige Design:

“Finding inspiration for the garden seems like it would not be difficult but I am not sure that I have found this much in just one place as of late. I am deeply in love with the outdoor spaces that Arne Maynard has created and will be referring back to them often as I start to plant again here in our garden. I think I may love everything I see.”

The slabs, which he was removing to put down a patio, date back to at least the 1930s when the house was built.

They have now been revealed as lithographic blocks, used to make prints for Walter Macfarlane Co. The Glasgow ironworkers had an international reputation and exported across the globe a century ago.

However, mystery surrounds how they came to be in Mr Reilly’s garden, or why they were discarded and used as building materials.

The firm went bust after the Second World War, and its once-massive factory at Possilpark has long since been demolished and the ground used for housing.

Mr Reilly said: “I was laying a new patio when my son called me over and said there were pictures on the reverse of one of the slabs. I began to check the others and they all had designs on them – about 60 in all.

“I did not know what they were and it was a real surprise. I’ve lived here for years and the patio was already built when we moved in.

“They are really heavy, so I imagine that’s why they were used as paving slabs. I was extremely surprised to find anything like that.”

A investigation of the designs, which are incredibly well preserved despite their decades in the earth, revealed their displays to belong to the Saracen Foundry, which lay only six miles from Mr Reilley’s house.

Set up by Walter Macfarlane and partners Thomas Russell and James Marshall in 1850, the ironworks produced thousands of pieces which decorated much of the north of the city and were sold around the world via the British Empire.

At its peak, the factory employed renowned architects such as John Burnet, and Alexander “Greek” Thomson to come up with their designs, although it is not known if it is their work which is recorded on the slabs.

While many of the firm’s decorative railings have been lost, examples of its work can be found in the supports of the Kibble Palace in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens and the Saracen Fountain in Alexandra Park.

A similar fountain by the company can also be found in the National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria, South Africa.

Experts think the slabs are lithographic printing stones used in the preparation of catalogues for the firm, as the writing on them faces backward.

Officials at Glasgow Life, which runs the city’s museums, now plan to visit Mr Reilly to examine the find. John Messner, curator, Transport and Technology for Glasgow Museums, said: “These are lithographic printing stones, used to create items such as catalogues and other promotional material.

“They are limestone and this technology developed in the mid-19th century to create highly detailed reproductions of items such as paintings, natural history plates and maps.”

Mr Reilly has offered the stones to Glasgow’s People’s Palace, although no decision has been taken on their fate.

By Sarah Cosgrove
15 July 2013

By
• LINDSEY TAYLOR

Enlarge Image

Erik Otsea

1. Extend the home’s design into the garden

JUDY KAMEON creates gardens that practically insist on being lived in, not just envied by the neighbors. The founder of Los Angeles-based Elysian Landscapes and a perennial host who entertains regularly in her garden-cum-laboratory, she’s been designing painterly, beckoning yards in and around Southern California for the past 16 years—and plans to share her wisdom in her first book, “Gardens Are for Living,” due next spring from Rizzoli.

When working with new clients, Ms. Kameon invariably finds that they’re not making the most of their existing gardens. “It’s important to understand what is underutilized on the property, where the potential is and then how that can be realized,” she said. “I like gardens that engage and can be enjoyed on many levels. Of course, I’ve been designing mostly in Southern California, where outdoor living is year-round, but I believe a lot of my ideas can be applied in other climates.”

Before Ms. Kameon transformed the garden shown here—the grounds of a 1930s home in the Silver Lake neighborhood of L.A.—the new owners, a couple with two young children, hardly used their outdoor space. It had a pool and some lovely trees, but no areas defined for entertaining or play. Moreover, the garden had no color relationship to the house’s pale blue, white and black ’30s palette. Her goals: to delineate outdoor living areas and create a seamless style connection between the house and garden. As she explained, “Continuity is important. It stops a design from feeling contrived.”

Underused areas in gardens, Ms. Kameon said, often reflect “bad choices in furniture, bad placement or no furniture at all.” Her recommendation: If you plan to do more in your garden than just grow plants, invest in quality pieces—comfortable seating, sturdy tables—just as you would for your indoor living spaces. Outdoor furniture needs to be worked into the budget upfront.

Beyond furniture, Ms. Kameon likes to activate a space with elements that reliably entice people: a water feature, a fire pit or a built-in BBQ. Pots, pillows and lanterns are essential details for her. “An outdoor space needs the same consideration as an interior,” she said. “Accessorizing polishes off a space indoors and out.”

Below, some lessons on making a garden thoroughly livable, as illustrated by her Silver Lake project.

Enlarge Image

Illustration by Judy Kameon

THE MASTER PLAN Garden designer Judy Kameon’s blueprint for a property in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood features (from left to right): enclosed front courtyard with water feature (1); clients’ residence; back patio and pool area; built-in sofa (2); separate seating zone on concrete “area rug” (4); teepee hidden among the trees in back corner (3). “I like dynamic gardens that inspire activity,” Ms. Kameon said. “They needn’t be passive spaces.”

1. Extend the home’s design into the garden: The property’s front courtyard was little more than two shade-providing olive trees and some sad, out-of-place paving. To establish a more inviting relationship between house and yard, Ms. Kameon introduced encaustic cement outdoor tile in a Deco pattern that picks up on the home’s old Hollywood glamour. “A front garden is like the first room in the house,” Ms. Kameon explained. “The style and the color palette should relate to the architecture.” An existing circular fountain (above, center) was updated with coordinating black-tile edging wide enough to sit on. “The water feature is the first thing you hear when you come through the gate,” she said. “The ear tunes to it immediately and the street noise falls away.” Also new: a daybed from Plain Air (a company Ms. Kameon started with her husband, Erik Otsea), an ideal spot for early morning coffee. The plants, a calming palette of purples, silvers and blues, are mostly shade-tolerant succulents. She incorporated some classic ’30s plants—junipers and English ivy—to suggest the landscaping was original to the house.

Enlarge Image

Erik Otsea

2. Build in seating

Chevron

in Oxford Grey. Whimsical aqua birds from L.A.’s Chinatown seem engaged in a gossipy conversation.

Enlarge Image

Erik Otsea

3. Give kids their own distraction

3. Give kids their own distraction: In a dark, unused corner of the property, Ms. Kameon found a suitably mysterious spot for a children’s teepee the family owned but never used. She laid a meandering path (more fun than a straight one) to its door with circular pavers and spotlit the approach with bright lime-green foliage. Behind the teepee, she planted looming birds of paradise for an exotic look. This hideaway proved almost too irresistible: At the first party the owners threw after the garden was installed, the tent was crowded with more adult guests than kids.

Enlarge Image

Erik Otsea

4. Lure guests with a fire pit

4. Lure guests with a fire pit: After a makeover by Ms. Kameon, a previously ignored part of the family’s garden has become a go-to spot. She first defined the space with a poured concrete patio that acts as an area rug, its size determined by the dimensions of the sectional sofa, designed by Plain Air. She planted bright shrubs in lime green and silver to illuminate and embrace the space. Boosting conviviality: a bright yellow Bauer Pottery planter, ceramic drinks tables and punchy ottomans that complete the seating circle around the big draw—an easy-to-light gas fire pit from Plain Air filled with heat-retentive Lava Rocks.

Explore More

• 

  Welcome to the New Home Office
  

• 

  Back by Popular Demand
  

• 

  Next to Nature, Art
  

• 

  Flower School: An Artful Arrangement
  

• 

  Throw Pillows, A to Z
  

• 

  On Le Corbusier’s Roof
  

A version of this article appeared July 13, 2013, on page D5 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: WanttoStep Outside?.

If you want to create a perennial herb garden but aren’t sure where to begin, experienced gardener Donna Wrubel will share her tips and tricks at this weekend workshop. 

And if you’d like to keep in touch with Massaro Community Farm, visit the farm’s blog page and click “get email updates.” 

Details: Wrubel will talk about designing your own perennial garden and uses for herbs. There will be treats to partake in that were made using fresh herbs from the garden.

Time Date: 9:30 a.m. Saturday, July 13

Cost: Suggested donation of $8 per person

RSVP: RSVP by calling 203-736-8618

The site at the corner of First and Kingsley in Ann Arbor where stone sculptor Joshua Wiener has plans for a public art project in conjunction with a new rain garden the city is planning to reduce flooding in the area. The city demolished a house on the property to make way for the project.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

Wiener is an stone sculptor, and his public work can be found in Florida, Washington, Oregon and Colorado.

He is currently working on public commissions for San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; and Denver, Littleton, and Boulder, Colo.

The city issued a request for proposals last November, asking artists to submit ideas for an artwork at the First and Kingsley site. A budget of $23,380 was established for the project.

A selection panel, which included stakeholders from the neighborhood, reviewed more than 20 submissions and selected Wiener.

The artist is expected to be on site at First and Kingsley at 10 a.m. Tuesday. City officials said that will be another opportunity for the public to meet the design team and discuss the plan.

The city’s Public Art Commission also will be hosting an information table at the Ann Arbor Townie Party from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Monday, where the artist will be in attendance and exhibiting the design.

The city stipulated the artwork must generate community interest in the site and encourage common use of the location.

The goal of the artwork is integrate public art into the features of the rain garden. It was a requirement that it must contribute to the purpose of the rain garden, which is to reduce flooding in the sunken, flood-prone area by increasing the potential for stormwater infiltration.

The city had encouraged artists who work with natural materials and have experience creating lasting earthworks art to apply.

To view some of Wiener’s past work visit www.joshuawiener.com.