exterior design Archives

WHAT MY FALL DREAMS ARE MADE OF: A-FRAME CABINS

by Michel Van Devender November 9, 2021

Without fail, each and every fall our A-Frame cabin dreams return… sigh. These triangle homes with their super steep angled lines have an inherent escapist allure. I imagine being tucked away, enveloped by nature, in an A-Frame cabin somewhere remote and peaceful, far away from the hustle and bustle of city life. And really, it could be anywhere from Lake Tahoe to the Catskills to Nova Scotia.

If you too like to dream of a little fall wooded escape, there’s an abundance of eye candy on Instagram and Pinterest, best viewed with a comfy blanket and a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. Some of our favorite A-Frames and other types of cabins can be found on Instagram – @cabinlove and @cabinporn. Hope you enjoy our gallery of inspiration below!

AND, while we're dreaming, let's not forget a little interior inspiration for our A-Frame...

November 9, 2021

SCULPTURAL STAIR DESIGN: 21 BEAUTIFUL SPIRAL STAIRCASES

by Michel Van Devender October 25, 2021

Spiral staircases give me all the good feels. As a little girl, I have the fondest memories of my aunt and uncle’s modern house in my hometown of Concord, North Carolina. I spent many weekends there with my brother and cousin. My uncle was an artist and designed and built the coolest 70s contemporary house. It had large, oversized windows and sat back in the woods. There was a spiral staircase in the two-story entry that lead to his art studio.

Since then, I’ve been dreaming of a spiral staircase. I’m thinking I may need to design an entire house around placing one of these functional, sculptural structures inside or outside of my home. I also have thoughts of adding a second story to our pool house, utilizing a white or black spiral staircase. Or perhaps, we’ll stack another shipping container on the one we already have in our backyard and finish off as a creative space, including a spiral staircase on the exterior to connect the upper and lower floors.

Outside of their beauty, they are especially brilliant in providing a space-saving solution for reaching your second floor. Now, I’m not going to say they’re the best for high traffic spaces as the narrow passage generally only accommodates one person at a time. They can also be tricky for moving furniture and other large items from one floor to another. Those are minor details in my opinion, and I’m sure I could be creative with solutions.

And when I get to the point where I’m ready to incorporate a spiral staircase in one of my designs, how will I even begin to choose a direction? There are some really great examples out there. I’ll definitely start here with these images for inspiration. Which is your favorite?

October 25, 2021

HOME EXTERIORS: 17 BLACK HOUSES YOU’LL LOVE

by Michel Van Devender May 28, 2021

It seems the black house club continues to expand or at least more are being posted and pinned out there. Either way, it makes me happy to see all of the black house love! I continue to see a mix of both traditional and modern black exteriors taking a walk on the dark side, proving black paint isn’t just for modern homes. There are definitely more examples popping up in and around Charlotte. In my opinion, the more the merrier so please keep them coming! Here are some of my favorites from my recent saves on Instagram. Here’s to living inspired! Happy Friday!

May 28, 2021

DREAMY OUTDOOR LIVING

by Michel Van Devender May 11, 2021

When we moved into our new house back in September, we had very little landscaping. We were so excited to move in and get out of Airbnbs that, at the time, we didn’t really care. There was a large hole dug for our pool and nothing but red clay surrounding our black house. If you know red clay, you know how completely awful and invasive it is! Thankfully, we have a large wooded, natural area and a mature bamboo grove on our lot so we could at least look out our windows and doors to see the lush green beyond the red mud. We knew living with mud and without grass would be challenging with three boys and a dog so we quickly got to work.

Coming from a less than quarter acre lot to more than triple that size was a bit overwhelming in terms of scale. We are thrilled to have the extra space to spread out and roam about, but we knew more planning and plantings would be necessary to build an exterior space we love. We took to paper, designing and drawing a landscape plan and cobbling together materials. Much of the decisions were made on the fly and in the field, researching along the way. With the help of our contractor and landscape crew, we successfully created a good, solid foundation of hard and soft scapes.

By design, our house, with it’s open floor plan, large windows and glass doors, was created to maximize indoor/outdoor living. With Spring’s arrival, our design focus shifted back outside. We’ve been adding furniture and more plantings. Our ultimate goal is to bring the outdoors in and enjoy our outdoor areas as extensions of the interior, blurring the line between the inside and outside. And with everyone home more these days, who couldn’t use a little extra square footage, even, AND especially if, it’s outdoors? I know our family of five sure can!

We’re dreaming and working away with much on our to-do list, always inspired by dreamy exterior spaces. Here are some we’re loving right now!

May 11, 2021

THE INSPIRATION BEHIND BLACK HOUSE BLUE SKY

by Michel Van Devender January 16, 2020

Black House Obsessed

Welcome to Black House Blue Sky! Hi, I’m Michel, and I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve always had a fascination with black. Whether it’s the little, wardrobe-staple black dress or the stars magically dancing in the pitch black sky, I love the depth, mystery, neutrality, versatility and grounding effect of black. For years, nordic design publications have featured black houses, painted out of function (and probably form for their beauty – imagine a black house contrasted against the white snow) to attract and absorb heat in a frigid climate. If you’re interested in venturing down a rabbit hole, you can find endless examples on Pinterest. In recent years, more and more dark-hued exteriors have been popping up all over the U.S., many of which are black – soft black, dark black and every shade in between. My design love for the black exterior runs deep as I opted for black on my own house, never second guessing or looking back. Black also tends to work well on many different house styles as you’ll see in the images below. When contrasted with a clear blue sky and a lush green landscape, it’s my idea of design perfection. So, love them or hate them, I think they are a classic and are here to stay!

Why A Blog?

When I first had the thought of doing a blog, it was rooted in a desire to share all of my creative loves and passions, in one place, documenting the unfolding journey. I really didn’t know how this would happen, or what exactly it would look like. What I did know from the onset is that it would be my sincere hope to inspire and help others, creatively or otherwise. I wanted the blog to be image driven, reflecting my lifestyle and my love for design and all things beautiful, juxtaposed with authentic copy, telling the story of my life – the good, the bad, the real and the untidy, emotionally frayed parts too.

I’m A Quirky, Hot Mess

If you ever look at my photographs and graphics and think she must have it all together, I do NOT! Please know that most all of my images are edited to reflect my aesthetic and are part of my artist expression. On a really good day when I don’t feel like I’m going crazy, I’m still a clumsy, quirky, hot mess. I’m an analytical over thinker. I sometimes have a difficult time focusing and completing whatever task is at hand. I’m introverted and have social anxiety. I’m also capable, positive, curious, resourceful and creative. On occasion, I do some pretty amazing things! I’m a mom of three, mind-blowingly wonderful boys and a wife to the sweetest, most patient guy. I love my people fiercely and tirelessly. I may be an over sharer… guess we’ll see. Through it all, I’m literally just trying to figure out what and who I’m being called to be.

Putting Myself Out There

The almost year-long process of creating Black House Blue Sky has been challenging. There have been so many steps – missteps, sidesteps, steps forwards, steps backwards. There have been starts, stops, detours and struggles along the way. All those months ago when I naively and enthusiastically set out to construct and build this creative idea I had for the blog, I knew absolutely nothing about setting up a website, a blog and had not written anything consistently outside of an email in years…. hello ginormous, steep learning curve. I’ve always prided myself in being up for a good challenge, but bringing this idea to life triggered a paralyzing fear of failure, judgment and the “I’m not good enough” feeling. The putting myself “out there” has been a road block to my forward movement and progress. I’ve felt like a solo act on an empty stage delivering a bad rendition of an unintelligible soliloquy, with a spotlight illuminating my scars and the parts of myself that have been hidden from sight. There have been too many days than I’d like to admit that I’ve been sidelined, wrestling with bouts of self doubt. Admittedly, like many, I’m my own worst enemy and a skillful master of constructing a critical and irrational narrative in my head. And then, there’s that caught-off-guard moment when I realized that constructing the blog is not the hard part. Eureka moment! The hard part for me is getting to the place where I’m comfortable letting go and putting myself out there, exposed for others to see.

The Real Work

Through all of this, I’ve been working to intentionally counter the relentless shit- show conversation I’ve been having with a big dose of self love, compassion, positive reframing and prayer. This experience has pushed me to get curious and honest about my fear of judgment and failure… and my perfectionism, facing and embracing that dark, shadow side. There’s freedom in learning to love all of our parts. Believe me, this isn’t my first rodeo, and I’ve been here before. Slipping back into old, toxic patterns and behaviors happens. I mean, I’ve read all the books before (special thanks to Brene Brown) and done a lot of previous work. Honestly, the letting go of perfectionism is not the easiest nor quickest work, but I know it’s worth the ongoing investment. I’m worth the investment. It is also an ongoing process that takes time and patience. I do know for sure that perfectionism has never served me well. It inhibits me from being who I am, from being seen and from living fully into the imperfect human God created me to be, beautiful wounds, scars, messiness and all. I’m also working on having some freaking grace for myself. Aren’t we all deserving of that? After all, each and every one of us is a work in progress – exploring, floundering and faltering, trying to figure out our place in the world as a beloved child of God.

A New Beginning

So in more ways than one, I begin anew… a new blog, new work, renewed thoughts and patterns. This blog has been almost a year in the making from conception to this date, finally clicking the WordPress “enabled” red button. I’m incredibly thankful for this day and for the many people who have supported and cheered me on during this process. They have all showed up and been there at the exact moment I needed the encouragement. I’m literally doing a little, happy, celebratory dance over here! Hope you’ll join me as I begin this great, new adventure, learning and growing as I go forth into the unknown!!!