Love the unpolished yards!

Combination of gravel, flagstone, and low-water-use plants that are allowed to grow into their natural shapes and sizes create some very easy-going and absolutely beautiful landscape designs.

All images from ReesRoberts.com

Live the easy-going life!

Rustic, beautiful, and very easy-going! There's still aesthetic concerns and a desire to have beautiful surroundings but they never over-write the functional concerns and they're achieved usually with natural elements with minimal effort... so efficient! The dangerous and obsessive/compulsive "perfectionism" has no place here. I love the Mediterranean life.

Images from www.mixr.se

Cool side of pool-side

Great yard backyard with rusted corrugated sheets for fences, low-maintenance, low-water-use plants, and permeable gravel. That wooden gate is quite nice as well. Also notice that the plaster on the house has not been painted. Very cool, green, great looking, and very easy-going set-up.

Image from DouglasSterling.com

Bathroom with soul

Plenty of daylight, great flooring, a nice rug, great paint job, and french doors that open to the outside, made of reclaimed pieces of wood... I'm not sure I like those sharp corners by the tub but everything else makes this a very cozy bathroom that would age well.

All images from Daniel-Hale.blogspot.com

Be unpretentious

Great simple bath, nothing too fancy, and some daylight is always a plus.

Image from the flickr stream of user The Estate of Things

Clutter and worry free!

The paint on the walls, the bare floors, divan-like seating and that well-used coffee table in the living room, those rocks by the bathtub, that mattress on the floor in the bedroom, and again, that great paint on the walls! There's so much to love in this house, so livable! Isn't it great how the walls and the floor connect seamlessly without base-boards?





All images from a Yatzer.com article

Let the sunshine in!

The flooring would be hard to clean I imagine, so it's probably not the best choice for a bathroom -even though it looks great. That industrial light fixture above the mirror looks like it would last a while but what I like most about this bathroom is  the door letting in lots of natural light, and the simple and casual cabinetry!

Image from the flickr stream of The Estate of Things

Easy does it

Great little bedside/side table that you can put together yourself for very little money/time. Looks great, very practical, and will look better as it ages.

Image of Grandpa's Barn Bench from SundanceCatalog.com

linen & wood

A great headboard made of salvaged pieces of wood, and linen bedding... Cool, comfortable, coastal, easy-going, and (very) inexpensive!

Images from CabinOnTheWater.blogspot.com.

Hail Daniel Hale

The Remodelista.com post about Daniel Hale has some inspiring images, such as the sofa built with wooden pallets -very nice!- and that easy-going low-maintenance yard.

All images from Remodelista.com

Express Yourself!

Go ahead and draw/write on your stuff. Make it yours! Don't just abuse and ruin your stuff, but a quote that inspires or a genuine attempt at expressing yourself (along with some artistic effort) will result in stuff with more character. You will also value your personalized stuff more, and feel more "home" around them. You can start small, I helped my 3 year-old son put blue hand prints on his wall, and we all love seeing his tiny hand-prints there.

Top image from a DesireToInspire.net post, middle image from a The New York Times slideshow, and the bottom image is my own.

Bedrooms without borders

I like life in small quarters, like those hotel rooms with kitchens, as long as functionality is not compromised. Not only do I like how they are getting the most out of their space in this room, I also like the exposed beams, that kilim rug, and that simple coffee table.

Image from doorr.wordpress.com