Knoll Curtains

We have a project that we need to get onto for 2021. It has long been on our to do list, and that is restoring the original knoll curtains that hang in most rooms of the Frost House. They have water stains, look like they need their hems dropped, and need some sewing to make the curtain hooks all hang at the same height. We have put it off as we can’t find someone that wants to touch them. We need to look further, and research a little harder. We are determined to get these looking refreshed in 2021.

Paul McCobb Built-ins

When we bought the house we were handed a Sales Brochure that described details about the designers behind Alside Homes. The Relator failed to mention in the listing some of these critical details, like the one where it states that the Interior Design was a collaboration between Paul McCobb and Knoll. Knoll were responsible for the curtains and furniture. Paul McCobb had designed all the built-ins including the kitchen cabinets, the vanities, the glass partitions and the glass itself, along with wardrobes and bookshelves. Here is a look through the house and all it’s different built-ins. As an FYI, Paul McCobbs designs have all been handed over to Form Portfolios – you can see what’s available here. Paul’s designs are highly sort after still to this day, and some have entered back into production.

So here we go with the listing of all the pieces he created for Alside. Starting in the main living room – here is his entertainment center. The styling of the shelves has evolved, these were taken not long after we moved into the house, and things had been shoved into a nook waiting for its final placement.

These are the glass partitions that separate the main living room from the front entry, and hide / hint at the ‘office’ writing desk.

And our favorite glass partitions can be found in the principal bedroom, dividing the dressing area from the sleeping area.

And we have to call out the vanities in the dressing area in the principle bedroom, they have an incredible golden glow in the evening. Slide to see the transition from a day to night look.

And just a few of the other rooms, the guest bathroom and the bunk room.

And there you have it a view into the world of built-ins by Paul McCobb for Alside Homes.

In print: Resident Dog

We are excited to announce that The Frost House along with Banksy our ‘Resident Dog’ are featured in a book due to be released Nov 10th 2020 on Amazon. Last fall photographer Nicole England and her Stylist / Assistant Natalie James paid us a visit from Australia. The duo for 6 weeks traveled the world to capture some incredible homes, by legendary architects and designers (Kelly Wearstler, Jonathan Adler, Luis Barragan, Found Associates .. to name a few). Anyway, straight from the website of publisher Hardie Grant (UK) here is what they have to say about the book:

…. showcases over 25 of the world’s most amazing houses, and the dogs that live there.

As an architecture photographer, Nicole England found that the shoots she enjoyed the most were the ones where dogs were present – nothing lightens the mood like a nonchalant pup. However imposing the architecture, some doggy hijinks can immediately bring an element of sociability and fun. With this in mind, Nicole set about setting up her Instagram, Resident Dog, and now this book, Resident Dog [Volume Two], which showcases over 25 of the world’s most amazing houses, and the dogs that live there.

Photographing dogs is not always straightforward, because they don’t always cooperate! The result is that these images end up with a looser, more spontaneous style. Just as every home is different, so is every dog. The photographs showcase amazing architecture and capture the personality of the idiosyncratic personality of each canine. Take a wander around the world’s most stunning homes, from Mexico City to Sydney, London, New York and LA, with the home pooch as your tour guide. Each home will feature several photographs, and an interview with the architect or homeowner.

We are truly humbled, and forever grateful that our house and rescue mutt are preserved on the pages of this beautiful book. Order your copy today.

Lisa Perry & Frost House Inspiration

Just reminiscing about that time you are scrolling Instagram in bed – and a girlfriend tags you in a post and you – squeal a little – because a design Icon has utilized your house for inspiration of one of her projects. Back in July 2019, Lisa Perry shared with the world her inspiration for the pool in a Palm Beach, FL home she designed [and sold for $9.1 million]. Lisa Perry (mid-west girl from Chicago) is the queen of color pop, her work is so fun, playful and total eye candy. This interview and Dwell article really shows the house off.

Here is the instagram post – where you can see the Frost house in the design inspiration for this pool wall. We were so floored to see the house being used for this incredibly beautiful house. We admire her fashion design, and are now even bigger fans of her home design work too. If you want some eye candy on your coffee table – get her book.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Screened Porch – The Aviary

The screened in porch, we call ‘The Aviary’ is our favorite spot in the house, it is a vacation just to sip coffee in or listen to the birds in the garden. We are entering into our third season using the porch and it is always evolving. Originally, it was furnished with Woodard ‘Rose Vine‘ outdoor furniture [as pictured below from the real-estate listing].

These are a few shots just after we closed.

Whilst we still have the original furniture in storage, we have replaced it with the design classic ‘sculptura’. We mainly switched it because we have always coveted the design pieces, and when we had the perfect spot to put them – we started collecting vintage pieces. They were all white when purchased from etsy + eBay + charish, and we had a local company powder coat them black for us.

Year-after-year, the furniture remains in the same spot and is divided into two zones: a dining area that is located close to the kitchen; and a lounging area with views over the garden onto the pool. Planters are used to divide the ‘rooms’ up, and this year we are adding ‘flor’ tiles to make a rug. The rug will be placed under the main seating arrangement, just to mix things up, and to make it cozy under our feet when the sun goes down, the terrazzo can feel too cold for most of the year.

For plants, we have found that ferns seem to be the least maintenance, and will tolerate some hot weather and long spells without remembering to water them. The added bonus with the ferns, they can be found in Lowes in April and they last until January when the temps really drop.

The flooring is the original terrazzo Fritz tile, we found a box with some spare tile in the crawl space under the house. We used the same brand to add terrazzo inside.

Back to the Sculptura Chairs – we have been searching for a pattern, or an example of the cushions for the lounge chairs. I was able to buy a set of original pads for the dining table from F&F Vintage. As for the loungers, we had some made, they were expensive and not well constructed. So the search continues … but here are some photos of the original cushions in case anyone is looking for inspiration:

Even in the winter the space is lovely. We switch out the screened panels back to plexiglass-glass and hope that the ferns make it thru.

Glass Fence

We have had several requests asking about details on our ‘Glass’ fence. Let us start by pointing out our fence is a ‘fake-glass’ fence – it is actually made from polycarbonate material. We are not ones for long posts so we will break this down fast.

WHY A FENCE

Simple – we added a pool to the side-lot that came with the home, and state law requires the pool to be fenced. We also wanted to allow our dog Banksy to be able to enjoy the outdoors without us worry if he was playing on the road. The fence were were worried about – as we didn’t want to impact the look of the house – distracting from the original design and look of the garden – we started to lose sleep over the fence design.

DESIGN INSPIRATION

Luckily we didn’t need to look too far. We were inspired by our neighbors fence. Their gorgeous fence is an original pool fence to the house and it made from aluminum and actual safety wire glass. The minute we noticed it – we were 1] jealous 2] knew we had to do something in-the-manner-of to be period appropriate. Our landscape designer Julie DeLeon of Groundwork Design also provide some visual inspiration with black metal and glass fences, and we looked to our previous home for ideas too [see here].

MATERIALS

Here is a list of the materials that were purchased / utilized during construction:

• Fake Glass: Mulit-wall polycarbonate sheeting we purchased through EPlastics, the material was made in Wisconsin, we had it custom cut and shipped direct
• Posts: Standard 2″ square steel posts painted black [similar material – see here]
• Post Caps: Plastic you can easily source these [local hardware or amazon]
• Concrete: Used to set the posts
• Frames: Steel hot rolled Angle bar [similar materials – see here]
• Screws: Frames were screwed to the posts so at anytime if needed they can be removed.
• Gate Hinge: Again nothing custom – readily purchased at hardware store.
• Gate Handle: Simple and cost effective – here is something similar to what we used
• Gate Plate: Custom made from plate steel, welded to steel angle bar painted black.

CONSTRUCTION

We had been working with, and still to this day, work with a local General Contractor, Juan Ramirez and his crew RASE Construction LLC – hold our house together and are not afraid of our crazy project requests. We are not handy people, and rely upon this crew to help us with our projects, they figured out how to construct the fence from all the pieces and put it together. The frames were welded off site and everything else was put together onsite. The poly carbonate panels are 3ft wide by 6ft tall, and are set into frames that are 2 panels across, attached to fence posts set every 6ft. We tried to do 9ft wide with 3 panels, but the wind made them too unstable. The rest of the details – to us it was magic. Sorry we are not of much use here as to the ‘how’, we truly are useless even with a hammer.

LESSONS

There was some trial and error with the fence, just like anything, nothing is really ever perfect and you just need to roll with it. Here are a few things we learned:

1. Polycarbonate delivery was huge, the crates were custom made and hard to crack open – we needed a crew to help us off load a delivery that would normally go to a construction site with forklifts to offload – we had to do it by hand. It can be done, but be prepared with a crew to help you.
2. Light. The fence creates the most amazing light shows all times of the day. It really obscures detail until you or the object is up close to the fence. You can see movement of people and cars going by, and night the headlights and tail-lights are like moving abstract art. And you can see the garden plantings and their movement too. So far no discoloration to the panels from the light has been observed.
3. Weather. It is holding up well so far, it went in August 2017 and at time of writing April 2018 it is looking great. It has endured: heavy snow; high winds; tree branches; hot sun; and torrential downpours. So far we are giving it a thumbs up.
4. Cleaning. It is low maintenance, with the hammered effect to the poly carbonate, to make it opaque it helps hide the dust and the rain splatter. A quick hose down get rid of any bark or soil.
5. Channels. The polycarbonate is twin-walled so has channels for water and small bugs to make themselves a home. So far – the bugs haven’t been an issue. The first panels that were installed we used silicone and it created condensation issues. There is a tape to seal them that comes with the manufactures recommendation – don’t skip buying it, it seems to work to keep bugs out and condensation a way to escape [see photo below] It was only utilized on the bottom edge of the panels, the rest of the edges are sealed with silicone.

Oops this turned out longer than we thought it would. Well – we hope this helps, and please share your projects if you are inspired to create your own ‘frosted-fake-glass-fence’. And if you have any question please ask away we will do our best to answer your questions based on our project and experience to date.