Dwell March/April 2019

The difference between telling an architect that you want a 10-by-15-foot deck made of wood off your kitchen and simply saying that you’d like to eat outside can be the difference between an inspiring project and a wood deck. When construction is complete, if you can’t eat outside, it will be a failure. If you have a deck, but it doesn’t inspire you in any way, it will be a missed opportunity. Ideally, the ideas of the client and the art of a talented architect are both realized. The directions that clients give architects are the essence of any home and are critically important input. The more involved you are with the architect, the more likely it is that you’ll enjoy eating outdoors in a way never imagined (and that…

David Lebovitz’s observation that stainless steel counters are supposed to be scratched is spot on [“Modern World,” January/February]. The first thing we did with our new stainless steel counters was take an orbital sander and Scotch-Brite pad to them. They look better after 10 years than they did on day one. —Kent Eanes, Richmond, VA The image of the Michael Graves loaf-shaped stainless steel toaster that accompanies the story by Bobby Berk in “One Last Thing” [January/February] was manufactured by J.C. Penney (2013), not Target. It is true that Target produced a Graves-designed toaster (1999), but it did not resemble a loaf of bread. —Jim Isermann, Palm Springs, CA EDITOR’S NOTE: We regret the error. The online version of the story has been corrected. From Dwell.com “Ground Rules,” January/February Beautiful…

SHOW OFF YOUR RENOVATIONS You’ve put in the work—now it’s time for the big reveal. Send photos of your as-yet-unpublished projects, from single-room makeovers to entire-house overhauls, to community@dwell.com TOP INSTAGRAMS Our most popular recent posts include a renovated 17th-century Catalan farmhouse and a Pacific Northwest cabin cluster that pays homage to a local bird. See more at instagram.com/dwellmagazine PODCAST Architect Dan Maginn talks shop with Janne Poranen, whose Finnish company Spinnova (featured on p. 30) spins fibers from wood pulp and biowaste. dwell.com/podcast POLL: In your ideal kitchen, would you opt for closed cabinets or open shelving? 72% Closed cabinets 28% Open shelving…

I installed floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, toward our next-door neighbors. We’re basically animals in a zoo to them now.@vedel78 on Instagram I redid two bathrooms with all high-end chrome fixtures. L.A. water is too hard, and they’re impossible to clean and not scratch. I spent a fortune. If I could go back, I’d put in matte. @weho_hodge on Instagram Putting pure marble tiles on the wall! Made the decision based on someone’s advice that it controls the humidity in the house. My wall looks beautiful but I can’t feel the (humidity) difference, went over my budget, and most important, can’t move to a new house if I think of the cost I wasted on my wall! @mirehherim on Instagram Not having the floors refinished before moving in. We…

Though not very tall by New York City standards, the narrow, 12-story Pell Building juts several floors above its even more diminutive neighbors. Thanks to this good fortune and a low-lying electrical substation across the street, the seventh-floor apartment of Cristina Miller and Philip Hall has wide open views, with large industrial windows providing a 360-degree urban panorama that includes a nearly clear shot of the Empire State Building just four blocks away. “When we first saw the apartment, it had a dilapidated kitchen and a toilet in the darkroom. It smelled like years of stale chemicals.” Cristina Miller, resident A photographer’s live/work studio left untouched for 30 years, the apartment was in a state of disrepair when the couple purchased it for their growing family in 2014. A gut…

Material Obsessions KIRSTIE VAN NOORT & XANDRA VAN DER EIJK Eindhoven & Utrecht‚ The Netherlands Stardust Cube “We see a future in which we collectively treat resources differently. What’s in our backyards will become more important than what’s in the ground.” Dutch designers Kirstie van Noort and Xandra van der Eijk looked to the skies—and beyond—for material inspiration for their speculative project “As Above‚ So Below‚” which used stardust collected from rooftops. The two gathered micrometeorites—metal and rock cast off from other planets and asteroids in pieces small enough to pierce the Earth’s atmosphere—and fashioned them into a poetic cube. The duo also anticipate scientific uses for the extraterrestrial materials‚ whose molecular structures differ from even the same minerals dug from the ground. Just as important to them is a…