Landscaping for Privacy
Whether you spend time in your East End home during the summer season or all year round, privacy is probably important to you. And it seems harder to come by all the time. There’s more traffic on the roads. The quiet of a weekend morning is often shattered by whining leaf blowers and buzzing lawnmowers. The right landscaping can give you more privacy. Plants can serve the same purpose as a fence or high wall, but they can do it in a softer, more attractive way.
2016 Countertop Trends
Kitchen countertops are changing. Moving away from high-maintenance granite and marble, more designers are turning to composite materials made of crushed stone bonded with resin. Whenever she has a client who does a lot of cooking and entertaining, Elyse Parkhurst, who with her business partner Caitlin Flynn, forms the design team at North Fork Design Co., recommends doing the kitchen islands and countertops in engineered stone.
Color Schemes That Work
“Concerning the difficult question of color, once wrote Edith Wharton, it is safe to say that the fewer colors used in a room, the more pleasing and restful the result will be.” More than a century later, the question remains as vexed and contentious as ever. No wonder so many of us take refuge in the comfort of neutrals, those reassuring earth tones that are the equivalent of a soothing murmur.
The North Fork Designer Show House
Have we got an eyeful for you! The twelve room manse of Cutchogue Presbyterian was redecorated by a new roster of interior designers. The next door neighbor, Jessica Lee, invited the Committee to use her large red 19th century barn, covered outdoor seating area with charm to die for, hoop house and primitive potting shed.
Insta_House – The Art of Losing
Architect Maziar Behrooz says that to create an extraordinary building, you need to take something away. With the $149,000 insta_House, he’s put that precept into stylish practice.
Versatile Vines
Vines are seldom the stars of the garden or landscape, but they play important supporting roles in many successful landscapes. Vines enhance the focal points and features of the garden, and in the right location at the right time of year can have their chance to shine, too. You might choose a flowering perennial climber such as clematis or trumpet creeper or climbing roses to bring glorious color to the garden for several weeks in spring or summer, year after year.
North Fork Designer Showhouse
Commencing on August 14th, the North Fork Designer Show House will once again open its doors. For more than three weeks, the North Fork will be treated to fun, food, and flair. The idea to do this came from seven friends who got together one day, and realized they all wanted to do some type of event for the community…
A Taste Of The Tropics
It’s time to savor the warm weather and glorious sunsets of summertime on the East End. After the seemingly endless bitter cold and snow we endured here this past winter, it’s time to unleash our inner beach bum. One way to make the most of summer this year, even when you’re not at the beach, is to create your own little tropical paradise at home.
Add Color to Your North Fork Garden
In summer on the East End we revel in color, from the sea and sand, of course, and from the flowers that fill gardens everywhere. A big flower garden can be a lot of work, but you can get a lot of dazzle for not a lot of work with two classic summer flowers that you can plant in spring and enjoy in summer.
Not for Grandma Anymore
Peonies. Maybe you’ve never heard of them. Maybe your grandmother grew them. But if you don’t have them in your landscape or flower garden, take another look. They bloom for just a few weeks in spring, but oh, what flowers! Big, round, sumptuous balls of wide petals in so many shades of red, rose, pink and white, with a beguiling sweet fragrance. They rule the garden, and they make wonderful cut flowers, too.
