Dispelling fears that his retirement would mark the end of the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, Duane Kelly announced earlier this week that he is selling the show to Portland-based O’Loughlin Trade Shows. Next year’s show is already set for February 3–7 and will be titled, "Make Life Beautiful." —Julia Chang
We can’t wait to enjoy the beautiful garden displays again next year. Check out our posts (HERE and HERE) about this year’s gorgeous gardens.
July 3rd, 2009
One of the amazing things about working at Seattle Homes & Lifestyles is the chance to visit so many beautiful homes and hear their stories. While we learn about many of the houses we feature through design professionals (architects and interior designers, for example), we also often get to meet the current owners. And, because a lot of the homes we publish are new construction, we sometimes hear their entire histories from the people who commissioned them, designed them, built them and decorated them.
But when we run stories about older homes that have been remodeled or renovated, those houses have all kinds of stories that we often don’t hear-stories of past owners, other renovations and sometimes even former architects and builders whose names are unknown to a home’s current owners.
On rare occasions, we learn more about a home after we publish an article about it-and this was the case with the Queen Anne home once owned by Seattle design icon Jean Jongeward, which we featured in our January/February 2009 issue. After the story was printed, we were surprised and pleased to receive an e-mail from a woman, now living in California, who purchased the house from Jongeward’s estate. She and her late husband hired San Francisco architect and designer Nestor Matthews of Matthews Studio to renovate the house and repair the ravages of time. Matthews, and Seattle-based builders SBC Construction, remodeled the kitchen, master bedroom and living room, and added the main floor terrace and courtyard.
Like a vintage dress, even a well designed older home usually needs some tailoring to make it a perfect fit for a new owner, and that was the case with this beauty. Steven Hensel, the interior designer hired to make the alterations for the home’s current residents, was happy to see that Jongeward’s home had already been restored before his clients purchased it in 2007.
"What they had done was great," recalls Hensel, who designed the current interior look of the home. "We didn’t have to do very much remodeling … they had added the deck, which was breathtaking [and] that courtyard area (designed by David Pfeiffer), which we didn’t touch."
Perhaps it is the mark of a truly great home when it can be tailored to perfectly fit several owners over the course of its long life.
If you know an untold story about a home that has been featured in the pages of SH&L over the years-either what has happened to it since our feature or what it looked like before—we’d love to hear it. Please drop me a line at the address below.
In this issue, we turn our focus to what lies outside a number of homes in the Seattle area, featuring two beautiful gardens that have completely different personalities: a structured garden outside a Mediterranean-style villa on Mercer Island and a lush garden overflowing with foliage, flowers and art year-round in Laurelhurst. We also spotlight the winner of the fourth annual "First in Home and Design" award, which SH&L gives to the Northwest Flower & Garden Show display garden that represents the best ideas in residential garden design. This year’s winner-designed by New Yorker Rebecca Cole-was an urban rooftop garden filled with great ideas for going green.
Whether your passion for gardening is active or passive, we hope you’re celebrating the arrival of spring.
Giselle Smith, editor
gsmith@seattlehomesmag.com
April 1st, 2009
One of the pleasures of my job at Seattle Homes & Lifestyles is the extraordinarily talented people I get to work with on a regular basis. Spring blossoms are now appearing in our featured gardens, and bookstores shelves are sprouting spring book releases—among them, a few from our valued contributors.
Our longtime garden editor, Debra Prinzing, who left Seattle for sunny Southern California in 2006, collaborated with contributing photographer William Wright on Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways (Clarkson-Potter, $30), available in bookstores now. The book includes Seattle-area sheds featured in
Photo by Hank Drew
the May 2006 issue of SH&L. For this issue, Debra wrote features on a Shoreline garden and the winner of the third annual "First in Home and Garden Design" award at the 2008 Northwest Flower & Garden Show.
Food writer Becky Selengut, who is also a local chef and cooking instructor, is co-author of the Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook (Lone Pine Publishing, $19.95), which hit bookkstore shelves in March of this year. The book includes 91 recipes featuring seasonal local ingredients, a topic of special interest to Selengut, who operates a Web site, SeasonalCornucopia.com, that tracks when local foods are in season in the Northwest. This month, Becky shares recipes using wine in "Uncorked in the Kitchen."
Also out this spring: Kate Baldwin, whose images illustrate Becky’s article, took some of the photographs for How to Knit in the Woods: 20 Projects for the Great Outdoors (Skipstone, $16.95), by Shannon Okey. The book features knitting projects designed for camping—and for passing the time around a campfire.
Other talented contributors who worked on the issue include Randy Altig, who offers tips on wine cellar decor; Kathy Renner, who describes a beautiful Kirkland home; and Market Editor Virginia Bunker, who writes about landscape designers’ inspirations, wall coverings and vessels for holding blooms from your garden.
SH&L is currently scouting beautiful gardens to photograph this summer and feature in 2009. If you have one—or know someone who does—please let us know!
Giselle Smith, Editor
gsmith@seattlehomesmag.com
May 1st, 2008
I acquired my first piece of original Northwest art as a gift when I was in my late 20s. A small painting by Seattle artist Richard Morhous, it depicts a waterway under a night sky filled with stars. I love it because it calls to mind the pathway of my life: a river always flowing toward new opportunities and adventures.
My colleagues at the magazine and I share some work by a few of our favorite artists in this issue of Seattle Homes & Lifestyles. We also present three beautiful homes in which art is the focal point: The Bellevue home of Michael Monroe, director of Bellevue Arts Museum, contains his eclectic collection of craft and fine art. North of the city, in Skagit County, Brian and Kathy Wolfe’s home is full of artwork they have collected from around the world. And in West Seattle is the light- and art-filled home of former painter Grace Boyd, president of Phenix Glass Art.
Also in this issue … Market Editor Virginia Bunker tours Seattle Design Center; our Trend Watch column spotlights felt furnishings and home décor; and In Good Taste looks at the artful presentation of food.
We’d love to hear your reactions to our “Living with Art”–themed issue—and any suggestions you have for beautiful homes with great collections that we might consider featuring for this issue next year.
Giselle Smith, Editor
gisellesmith@seattlehomesmag.com
March 25th, 2008
