Tag Archives: homes

A railway depot turned into a lovely home


I love this house that Elle Decor featured on their website recently. Jeweler Federico de Vera revamped an abandoned railway station into this marvelous and very stylish home. Read the rest of the story here.

Railway station turned home

Mind you; it’s his weekend home. It inspires me to rethink my plans for our cottage. It’s lovely as it is, but can do with a bit of a spruce up. It’s still a bit too cluttered and I am not sure I can still fool myself into thinking the faux-wood paneling has a Mad Men feel to it. Maybe a lick of white paint on the wall for a start…

our cottage. I was thinking white for the walls and a darker colour for the window panes

And maybe a slate grey for the outside with white for the window panes and doors. And a red and white scheme for the shutters….

Cartoon-like home in Thailand cost just $8.000 to build!


It reminded me of the Maison Bulles house for Pierre Cardin on the French south coast. And it reminded me of another real live version of the Flinstones’ home. Either way, this is a clever piece of work. The owner built this wonderful little home for as little as $8.000. His name is Steve Areen, once a flight attendant for Delta, now non conventional entrepeneur making money with music, photography, blogging and, as this project shows, by saving money on living costs. He used materials sources from the local area and did most of the work himself saving on labour costs. It took him only 6 weeks nonetheless.

Dome house by Steve Areen / photo: Inhabitat.com

Dome house by Steve Areen / photo: theownerbuildernetwork.com

Dome house bathroom by Steve Areen / Photo: Inhabitat

Dome house by Steve Areen / photo: Izona

Brazilian artist recreates ‘Gilmore Girls’ town out of paper!


OK, so this might harm my image a little bit, but I watched Gilmore Girls. There, I said it.

The dialogues irritated me, the French gay guy was so phony it was annoying, most of the characters were dull and the girls actually pushed my wrong buttons too. But OH MY LORD those houses! Talking about your American Dream. This was before Desperate Housewives, so I had yet to see the homes on Wisteria Lane, but I wanted to live in Stars Hollow, I really did.

Stars Hollow aerial view. Not sure what town they used. If anybody knows, please let me know.

It off course is not a real town. In fact, it is a backlot at Warner Brothers studio’s called ‘Midwest Street, built in the 1940’s for the movie Saratoga Trunk. However, the town in the show was inspired by Washington Depot Connecticut, when producer Amy Sherman- Palladino spent a night in the local inn. A lot of the filming for the pilot and some later used street shots was done in Unionville Ontario, Canada.

A store front in Washington depot CT, the inspiration for the Gilmore Girl’s town of Stars Hollow

Brazilian artist Bruna Salvador Conforto, must have been watching in equal awe, yet she managed to use her inspiration for something more tangible. Some of you might know her for her recreation of the apartment from Friends.. in paper! That already was quite the achievement, but it wasn’t enough for Bruna. Her latest project is, you guessed it, a paper version of Stars Hollow!

The town of Stars Hollow, of the TV show Gilmore Girls, in paper as created by Brazilian artist Bruna Salvador Conforto

Lorelai’s home in Gilmore Girls recreated in paper!

For more movie and TV homes check out the Famous buildings and Movie locations section here at Homevoyeurs. Or test your knowledge in one, or more, of the TV home quizes. Time for a new one of those soon actually…

Book review: Prefab Houses


As you might know, I have a thing with prefab homes. Always have. I love the idea of a cleverly designed home, fit for a contemporary lifestyle, put up in a matter of weeks, sometimes even days. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I got this marvellous Taschen Book ‘Prefab Homes’ as a gift from friends. I am helping them with a design and install for a new bathroom and I recently had my birthday but still out of the blue they surprised me with this marvellous gift.The book is written by Arnt Cobbers and Oliver Jahn, two well-known architecture and design authors. I can highly recommend it. It’s the perfect coffee table book, with tons and tons of inspiring pictures and stories about various prefab home designs and their designers.

Prefab Houses Taschen

Prefab Home

Another page spread from the book Prefab Houses by Taschen

The book is also available in the Homevoyeurs webshop for $47,38. You might be eligible for free shipping!

Prefab Houses Taschen book

Prefab Houses Taschen book

An early example of a prefab home in the book