News — living room

Cosentino’s new line is slim in stature, big on impact.  Countertops. Walls. Floors. Ceilings. Tabletops. The home’s many surfaces are an integral part of architecture and design, not just for their beauty but also for their functionality. With these surfaces facing the everyday wear-andtear of foot traffic, food prep, and hygiene rituals, it’s important that they also are durable and low maintenance. Cosentino specializes in collaborating with customers to create high-value, innovative surfaces that add beauty and brawn for a variety of applications. Their Silestone, Dekton, Sensa, and Natural Stone lines are the perfect solution for homeowners and designers looking...

Make lighting a priority in your home design.  The cascading fixture in the foyer welcomes guests into your home. That organic chandelier induces lively dinner conversation. Those sleek but subtle spotlights transform your fireplace or artwork into the focal point you imagined. The master bath’s well-placed ceiling lights and wall sconces provide not only a healthy dose of style but also the perfect amount of illumination to help you “face” your day. Of course, we’re talking about lighting, where form and function meet style and sophistication in a single element that can make or break the entire home design. “Unfortunately,...

TWO DESIGNING WOMEN TRANSFORM A SHOWHOUSE INTO A FORT MILL SHOWSTOPPER.  Who doesn’t love when a chance meeting leads to an amazing creative collaboration? In this case, it was a festive street party less than two years ago at the Southern Living Home Summit in New Orleans that brought together Cary, North Carolina–based designer Vicky Serany, founder and principal of Southern Studio Interior Design, and custom home builder Mary Ludemann of New Old. “We immediately connected and spent the evening discussing building and design as we followed a band marching through the French Quarter,” Serany recalls with a smile. Fast...

A 400-year-old mill house has been given a new lease of life, while retaining all of the charm that has made it a favourite family escape for two decades. A mill house tucked away in a rural valley just three miles west of Dartmouth and a quick walk to the picturesque beach of Blackpool Sands became a bolthole escape from London life for Tanya Bird. It proved to be an idyllic spot for her and her three sons to enjoy holidays away from the city, with all the freedom afforded by the country-meets-seaside location. ‘It was a magical place for...

When Katharine and James Howard needed to upsize to accommodate their growing family, the architecture of this house blew them away. ‘It’s early Victorian, with sweeping steps up to the front door, which were a big draw.’ The house had been let to students, so the interior was another story. ‘It had brown, cigarette-burned carpets and scuffed magnolia walls, but my mind began racing with ideas to bring it to life,’ says Katharine. ‘The deep cornicing, the lovely tall windows, the marble fireplaces – it had it all,’ she says. ‘Although the house felt big compared to our flat, we...