ABCD Design Sketch Book | milestones in life set the tone » Interior Design as Inspiration

{interior design as inspiration} Kay Douglass

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:41:47 +0000

{Images via Design In The Woods, Atlanta Homes, House Beautiful, McAlpine Tankersley, Coastal Living - Belgian inspired interior design by Kay Douglass from South of Market}

ABCD Design {guest post} New England Home Magazine

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:03:27 +0000

ABCD Design was asked to make a guest appearance at New England Home Magazine. Please stop by the New England Home Magazine today to see Interior Design Inspired by Nature and New England Seasons - chime in and tell us which one is your favorite color palette!

Shaker Style Mountain Farmhouse {Barbara Barry Jackson, Wyoming}

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:30:52 +0000

We stayed an extra day at The Country House. Omgosh it was bloody cold! Winter’s deep freeze has finally settled in. (Now, if we could only get some snow!) There is nothing quite like hunkering down for a long weekend to catch up on sleep and eating well. Over the weekend, this Jackson Hole Shaker Farmhouse by Barbara Barry helped provide inspiration as we thought about the modern glass breezeway project.We had plenty of time to hang out in the barn (luckily it has a gas heater!) to think about what the new breezeway could do for us. We’d no longer have to go out in the cold or heat through the yard to reach the barn. This would be a HUGE improvement. Heck, this project could turn into a barn extension! “What could look like?” we wondered. There is a lot to consider about the timeline, how we’ll proceed and what the space will eventually be used for. To be honest, the house in its current state is plenty of space for us. What’s the benefit? It would allow for us to claim the entire space upstairs of the existing house (about 900 sq ft) as our master bedroom.We’d have the fireplace room, our own master bath and bedroom to ourselves. The very best part is that we’d be able to claim the current guest bedroom as a gracious walk in closet. You recall the lack of closet space and the abundance of open shelves we were “blessed” with upon moving into the country house, right? The bain of my existence. Right now, it looks like eventually the barn will become a TV room (we don’t currently have a TV in the house) with a Wittus Shaker Stove and an additional dining or table for fireside dinners, sewing projects and game playing. Speaking of which, we were recently introduced to a game called Mexican Train that you play with a set of Double Fifteen Dominoes. It’s so much fun, you should give it a go next time you have a group of four together to play.
There will be a spare bedroom upstairs, and off the back of the barn we will build a bathroom, steps upstairs, storage and a workroom. I want there to be either enough space for both of us to have our own workroom, or a space large enough for us to share. I will weave fabric on a loom again, for this I am certain. I also think a sink and counter space is imperative for flower cutting and arranging. I am sure my husband has ideas for “his” space too.
We also dream designed ideas for the new breezeway. This will be step one of our plan and it is likely to happen during ’12. The current mud room is 11 feet long and about 6 feet wide. It has a wood floor – finished with zero VOC Belgian oil. I love the look, but the guy we hired did a terrible job on it. Do you remember how horrible he was? Unfortunately, my blood boils every time I look at it.I have visions of saying good riddance to that wood floor. I love the idea of using irregular bluestone with grey grout as the flooring in the new breezeway-mudroom. Considering that we have a bluestone patio in front of the barn, it will immediately give us the indoor-outdoor feel that I am after. I don’t ever want to worry about wearing shoes, scuffs or scratches like I do currently with the wood floor.You remember what my inspiration for the breezeway is, right? I added it in at the bottom of a post last week, so it’s possible you may have missed it. The only reason we wouldn’t go modern: it’s bound to be cost prohibitive.
I found another example of a glass breezeway over the weekend. While I am not a fan of the round ceiling in these images below – I do love the double wall of modern windows. How cool is it to be able to see the backyard from the front door?Images Veranda Magazine, Wittus, Connecticut Stone, my own, Hammersmith, Inc.

Mountain Retreat Chic

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:43:38 +0000

I am sort of out of the loop with my blog and magazine content consumption these days. Honestly, I was looking at my blogroll the other day and wondered if I even needed one at all! I tend to follow links from Twitter when I see something that piques my interest. You may find it surprising that I don’t have a reader, and have not followed any blogs on a consistent basis since… well, I can not remember! Long story short, I followed a link to Sharon’s blog from facebook last night.It’s called A Lifestyle Thing and she has posted the most wow-ze-wow gorgeous mountain retreat from Elle Decor. It’s dark and moody color scheme is not dissimilar to the one that I have selected for The Country House. I love the dark wall of bookcases, the apron front sink, the black cabinetry featured on the kitchen island, and the cushion covered banquette by the dining table. I was completely unaware of this beautiful space until I saw it last night.While our new home looks nothing like the one featured in this post – it does have many similar characteristics. It makes me wonder: does it go to show you that there really are really no new ideas in interior design, just different interpretations of the classics?

{Dream Decorating} work spaces + bookcases

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:54:35 +0000

{images via Kelly Wearstler, Elle Decor, Country Living, We Heart It, Met Home, Domino on Brides, Jan Showers, and Houzz}