Tired of crowding his landscape architecture practice into a tiny spare bedroom of his bungalow, Joseph Marek renovated a 400-square-foot garage. He quadrupled his work space and created an attractive destination in the garden [William Wright photograph]

Not that I’m competitive or anything, but I did feel a tad victorious when I opened the current (Sept. 08) issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine, seen at right, to discover a feature story about two of my favorite shedistas, Joseph Marek and John Bernatz. Pretty cool to “scoop” MSL on a design story (it isn’t the first time gardens I’ve written about in books have later appeared in this magazine; no, it’s the third time!).

Congratulations to Joseph and John for the much-deserved recognition. And kudos to their friend, writer Susan Heeger, for her story. To be fair, I can’t take any credit for “discovering” Joseph and John. Their garden and several of Joseph’s residential designs for lucky clients have been featured in House Beautiful, Metropolitan Home, Horticulture, the Los Angeles Times, LA Magazine, Pacific Horticulture and Cottage Living, as well.

I’m tickled that the dynamic duo’s “Stucco Studio,” a converted 400-square-foot 1930s-era garage in their Santa Monica backyard, is featured as the “opening chapter” of Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways (see the first two pages of their chapter, above left).

Exquisitely photographed for our book by Bill Wright, the studio — a paprika-colored structure once designed to hold a single automobile — has been transformed into a creative and joyous environment for Joseph Marek Landscape Architecture, Joseph’s landscape architecture practice.  The highly functional interiors do double-duty (by day, this is the headquarters for Joseph’s design practice and John’s at-home office for his travel agency; come weekends and evenings, it is often converted into an impromptu party house, where friends and clients may gather for informal cocktails). It is also a vibrant architectural foil for the small but intensely-planted garden.

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“System 3,” designed by Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert Ruf, on display as part of MoMA’s Home Delivery show of prefabricated home design.

The Prefab architecture movement has not been lost on those of us who think we’re hip to design trends. Yet the 21st century prefab building-boom has a centuries-old foundation. Would it surprise you to know that such illustrious inventors, architects and designers as Thomas Alva Edison, R. Buckminster Fuller, Charles and Ray Eames, Jean Prouve and Frank Lloyd Wright dabbled in prefab?

It’s good to look to the context of the past as we study the present and predict for the future. Several years ago, I wrote a newspaper article about the “manufactured home” industry. The house my photographer and I toured and documented was Victorian-style; it was literally factory-built in Canada and shipped, in flat-paneled sections, to Washington state for on-site assembly. There was nothing in its exterior detailing, charming turret and wraparound porch, nor in its gracious interior parlour, dining and living rooms that smacked of a stereotypical “double-wide.” My assumptions about design were turned upside down – and to my and my editor’s surprise, our story was picked up by newspapers around the country. The interest in manufactured homes was due in large part to the affordable and sustainable solutions to costlier custom-built versions.

In recent years, I’ve been exposed to a clever collection of prefab sheds, smaller versions of the manufactured home of the last decade. My shed-seeking journeys have led me to discover innovative shelters with four walls, a floor, a roof and a variety of window-and-door amenities – created by today’s designers. You can read one such review from my visit to the Dwell on Design LA exhibit this past June.

The pages of Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways feature a chapter called “Rec Room,” in which one of Ryan Gray Smith’s sleek Modern Sheds grace a small LA landscape. I really love the way Ryan’s groovy, uncomplicated design solves a space problem for the person who wants to add a studio, atelier, guest room, office, party suite, etc., without building a full-blown addition to the house. And that’s just one architect’s interpretation.

Prefabricated architecture is the subject of “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan (on exhibit now through October 26th). If you find yourself in Manhattan, plan to visit it. Lucky for me, I had a last-minute trip to NYC last weekend and was able to spend a few hours at MoMA Saturday morning.

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Graduated in size from tiny to large, a row of ornamental concrete orbs caught my eye at the edge of a path. We toured this lovely landscape on the Sawtooth Botanical Garden tour in July.

“Treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, all in perspective,” Paul Cezanne (1925)

“Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. . . . “ Black Elk, an Oglala Sioux (Hehaka Sapa, 1961)

Cobblestones are embedded in a circular pattern to create a beautiful, uncomplicated lawn terrace in the Yakima, Washington garden of Kim Brewer and Rick Main

The image of a circle pleases the eye. In the garden, shapes that are rounded, organic, and sensual resonate as “good design.” They are visually satisfying, emotionally seductive, artistically whole.

A perfectly round lawn, measuring about 14 feet in diameter, provides plenty of space for children to play in a well-designed urban garden (Langstraat-Wood design)

Circles also appear tidy, if that sort of thing matters to you. They can be formal, but circular shapes are also very contemporary-looking. For a fresh statement in the landscape, think about how you can apply or incorporate a rounded feature. With all the squarish blocks of architecture that occupy one’s life, the circle is a nice, soft antidote.

The reflection of arched openings in a stone bridge creates the suggestion of repeated circles. This is the “Jade Ribbon Bridge” at The Huntington’s new Chinese Garden

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Rosemarie B.’s glorious river view

Garden touring is *work*, people. That”s what I keep telling my husband, at least.

Last weekend, Ms. Idaho Gardener (aka Mary Ann Newcomer or the Diva of Dirt) hosted me for a strenuous garden-touring workout. I think we visited 14 gardens, plus or minus, in 24 hours – on our Sun Valley-Ketchum, Idaho tour.

Now what good thing did I do to deserve this kind of spectacular treatment? Hmmm. I told my husband that the 3-day trip from LA to Idaho was a self-indulgent “getaway” that I planned in anticipation of his 12-day (yes twelve days) getaway in August to go to the Beijing Olympics. That was kind of a snarky thing to say. But it certainly got me a ticket to the airport!

Mary Ann (seen here on the right, walking and talking with talented Sun Valley-Los Angeles gardener Kathleen Phelan) has been raving about Sun Valley’s Sawtooth Botanical Garden summer tour for a couple of years, enticing me with the descriptions of residential landscapes in such a beautiful place. Surrounded by awe-inspiring mountains, under intense sunshine, and just far enough away from the rat race for creativity to flourish. . . the gifted and adventurous gardeners here blew me away. We had a tres bien time. Our local hostess, Julie Caldwell, made it all the more enjoyable by adding laughter, taking us to great eateries, and navigating our side trips. Of course, I was on the lookout for Stylish Sheds, or reasonable facsimiles of such. And I was not disappointed. Here are a few of the creative shelters that we found:

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On July 3rd, my friends at Garden Rant invited me to be their guest-blogger. This kind and generous opportunity gave me a platform to share a little essay about my shed odyssey, the fascination I hold for tiny backyard architecture, and the experiences Bill Wright and I had creating “Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways.” I was tickled to see that Amy Stewart titled the piece “In Praise of Sheds.”

I asked Garden Rant readers to share their thoughts, ideas and inspiration in response to the question: What is your dream shed and how will you use it?  More than 30 clever readers sent in their answers, vying to win a copy of our book, and a set of note cards with our wellies-under-glass photograph (seen at left), taken by Bill while we were on location at Brenda Lyle’s outside Atlanta.

I was touched by reading so many awesome posts – you can go to Garden Rant to read them for yourself. It was a tough call, but I chose as the winner of this small contest a wonderful gardener and writer in rural Massachusetts.

Pat Leuchtman has a blog called Commonweeder. She and her husband created their “Cottage Ornee” (pronounced Cott-aaagh Or-Nay, preferably in a heavy French accent, Pat says), a stylish shed imagined first in their minds and then built by their hands. This little gem of a building resides at their “End of the Road Farm,” in Heath, Massachusetts. I was struck by Pat’s written description of its design and charmed by the narrative of how she and her husband use it. Here is Pat’s post about winning our little contest: “Cottage Ornee is a Winner”

Cottage Ornee  [Pat Leuchtman photos, here and below]

Here are some photographs, provided by Pat. I was so curious about the cottage’s creation and sent Pat several questions. Her comments appear below. I hope you find this little hut as alluring and enticing as I do. I am already scheming about how to get myself up to visit Pat one of these days. In the meantime, I am enjoying reading her delicious words, so make sure to visit Commonweeder.

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When I toured the Dwell Outdoor section of the trade show at last weekend’s Dwell on Design 08-LA, the first things to catch my eye were some “flying” pots of bamboo. Suspended from the ceiling, resembling broomsticks owned by the Wicked Witch of the West, the potted bamboo plants seemed to be whooshing to and fro, by themselves.

Slightly twisted, this version of a well-behaved, dare I say “garden-variety,” plant display was the brainchild of a few folks at Monrovia. As one of the major sponsors of the Dwell conference, Monrovia was given the task of decorating the vast Dwell Outdoor area, which showcased modern living trends and hot new products.

Monrovia partnered with Sarah Graham, a principal of agps architecture, to create the “Flying Bamboo” theme. “We wanted to design a conceptual landscape for Dwell Outdoor and Monrovia, as a means for visitors to see landscape in a new way,” Graham explained in a Monrovia press release. “As plants, particularly large plants, are usually gravity based, we reversed that normal condition, making it surreal. One cannot help but to notice, to question, and to laugh.”

Bamboo foliage nearly tickled the tops of our heads while I chatted with Judy Lynes, Monrovia’s publicist from The Phelps Group, a Santa Monica-based PR agency, and Pamela Wasson, Monrovia’s marketing VP. The women said Monrovia enjoyed creating something that guaranteed a reaction (I guess the only person not excited about the installation was the local Fire Marshall, who had concerns that plants would start dropping from the sky onto conference-goers).

But thanks to secure cables and lots of other precautions, the caper worked! When I walked into the giant shell of a convention hall, the flying plants soared above the displays and visually demanded my attention.

Plenty of lush, healthy Monrovia plants were closer to the ground, too, for easy viewing, including dramatic architectural plants, water-wise and easy-care varieties. By focusing on its selection of 42 custom-blended  soil mixes (using dozen different types of mycorrhiaze, a beneficial fungus), Monrovia educated consumers and landscape professionals about the importance of good soil.

“We work with so many landscape architects and designers, we thought this would be an ideal venue to showcase our plants and soils to those professionals,”  Wasson said.

ARCHITECTURE IN THE GARDEN

Shedista that I am, I was wowed by the many great examples of scaled-down style designed for escaping to the great outdoors. There were some of the wonderfully creative shed-like structures on display below Monrovia’s flying bamboo. I daresay each was a stylish hideaway, deserving of a starring role in the garden:

MODERN CABANA

The brochure copy reads like it’s straight out of the pages of Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways, promising: “SPACE TO: Work, Play, Film, Paint, Meditate, Rest, Escape, Research, Read, Create.” Based in San Francisco, Modern Cabana offers pre-fabricated accessory structures made from clear cedar siding (all sorts of design upgrades are available). The clean, modern design comes in 10-by-10, 10-by-12, 10-by-14 and 10-by-16 foot configurations. Multiple units can be connected to create expanded floor plans. “The Cabana can be used as a guest cottage, urban penthouse, desert hideaway, fishing cabin, workshop, sound studio, yoga studio, kids’ playhouse, or exercise room.”

KITHAUS

I discovered Kithaus, a cool slat-sided shelter, at the CA-Boom 07 show in Santa Monica and invited the company to be part of our book. But the young shedmaker, which uses a lightweight anodized aluminum frame, Ipe decking and louvers, and a corrugated metal roof to make its nifty, freestanding room, didn’t have a completed and fully installed structure ready in time for our photo schedule. Now, Kithaus has been picked up by Design Within Reach, which is marketing and distributing the prefabricated units. “Wondering where you can use Kithaus? How about anywhere you need a fully insulated, pre-wired comfortable space.”

SHELTER SYSTEMS

Like a three-dimensional puzzle, the “Comeback Cube” by Culver City, Calif.-based artist-architect Gregg Fleishman, is undeniably part sculpture and part shelter. It is playful and interactive in its design. Yet, it is practical, and I can see it functioning as a contemporary summerhouse. According to press material, the design features: “a full-size single-cube module in 3/4 inch European Birch, measuring 9 ft by 9 ft by 9 ft, with 81 square feet of interior space and an 81 square foot rooftop deck. The single cube is permit exempt, making for a quick and elegant temporary structure, backyard studio, guesthouse, or children’s playroom.”

On his web site, Fleishman speaks further about his design decisions:

“In architecture today, the green movement focuses mostly on the origins of material and use of energy. This work proposes that there is another way to be green in architecture, a way that focuses on process in building going beyond the factory. It is in geometry, with its repeating similar forms, and smaller similar parts that we find the advantages we are looking for. These include greater structural efficiency, manufacturing economies, easier handling, less specialized work force, and lower start up costs. What distinguishes this geometry . . .  (are) the cube and the octagon, more specifically variations of a 3D checkerboard of cubes or ‘rhombicubes.’ When oriented in different ways, these cubes have provided for a veritable bouquet of new and different building types to sprout up using faceted geometrical faces that can provide a new and more natural look and feel to our buildings.”

THE NOMAD YURT

Ecoshack is an LA-based green design studio and manufacturer of architectural products such as the Nomad, a modern take on the traditional Mongolian yurt. I am fascinated by this fabric-cloaked shelter designed for use as a fully-enclosed guest room for 3 to 4, a poolside (or rooftop) lounge that seats 10 to 12, or a spa treatment room. “At night, light the interior to create a magical, private room.”

Designed by Ecoshack founder and CEO Stephanie Smith, The Nomad measures 14-ft. diameter, with an interior height just over 7 ft. Its materials include:

— Solid Core Bamboo, a renewable, flexible, strong and light material 50 times stronger than oak but lighter than steel;

— WeatherMAX FR, an advanced, exterior-grade, anti-flammable fabric that delivers “unsurpassed water repellency, mildew and oil resistance without relying on environmentally unfriendly coating compounds.”

Truly, “a yurt reinvented.”

The “Geranium Hut,” named so for the cluster of pelargoniums growing at its base. Designed and built by Jeff Shelton

Santa Barbara architect and shed-maker Jeff Shelton appears in my new column for the June issue of 805 Living, a local style magazine based in Westlake Village, California. The column is called ‘In the Garden.’ Not too imaginative, I know. I voted for ‘Deep Roots,’ but I think my editor considered that too esoteric. So like a million other gardening columns, we’re calling ours: ‘In the Garden.’

A blog reader tipped me off about Jeff and his penchant for designing and constructing cool little buildings, sending along a link to the “Huts” section of Jeff’s web site.

When I contacted him to schedule a visit, we had to work around Jeff’s grueling schedule: He was taking time off from his architecture practice between 10 a.m. and noon, four days a week, to teach ultimate frisbee at a middle school. Despite a demanding professional life, Jeff knows how to enjoy the moment. And, of course, this is why he loves creating his little huts.

If it’s possible for someone to be both intense and mellow, Jeff is it. His body language is relaxed, but I can tell his mind is working nonstop. Definitely an out-of-the-box architect, Jeff allows artistry and, dare I say, whimsy, to have a seat at the design table.

“You certainly don’t need skill to build these,” Jeff insisted, describing his structures as something a Dr. Seuss character might erect. While touring me around Oakleigh, his 12-acre family compound in Montecito that dates back to the 1890s (when it was a boarding school for boys), we stepped inside several of the structures, including his wife Karin’s art studio, shown here:

Using whatever was on-hand, working at his leisure during weekends, Jeff fashioned this light-filled room where Karin paints and draws. He appropriated and reassembled old windows and doors, hammered reclaimed fencing to create a cantilevered “porch” for their eldest daughter Elena’s shed, and mounted a mural-painted piece of plywood (originally used for the backdrop of a sixth-grade play) to form one wall of a shed called the Geranium Hut.

In appealing contrast to the luxury world of Santa Barbara and Montecito, Jeff’s little buildings illustrate his Less is Better philosophy:

“People miss out on coziness when their home turns into a status symbol,” Jeff points out. “My job is to try and reduce the size of a project.”

Sometimes, like the forts and tree houses of one’s childhood, the shed “is the answer for the moment,” he says.  

In addition to sharing this illustration of Elena’s Red Shed for use with my column, Jeff gave me a selection of his hand-drawn shed plans. He sketches the dimensions and construction details, makes photocopies, and sells a set of plans for $5. One two-page set of plans, titled “Gardener’s Hut,” includes front, side and back elevations for a cozy, 192-square-foot structure with a tiny loft and a sloped, shed-style roof.

The architect’s design notes appear in the margins, with tips such as “check dumpsters on large construction sites for good stuff,” “design around windows and doors that are available” and “stain wood with watered down latex; 1 gal. will last for years.” An area beneath the shed’s raised foundation is labeled: “place for dog to sleep.”

Often, Jeff helps would-be shed builders to find sources for recycled windows, salvaged wood or other pieces and parts. He is the ultimate scavenger-builder who sees a good use for materials otherwise destined for a landfill. “Save it and use it,” Jeff proclaims.

A note about writing for my “local” style publications, 805 Living magazine. Our monthly magazine has distribution in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, so this new gig allows me to explore in my new backyard. I’m meeting great garden designers, architects, plantsmen and women, and I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot.

In addition, editor Lynne Andujar pretty much lets me run with the ideas I find exciting. I am grateful for the freedom she gives and it reminds me of working with a few other trusting and supportive editors in my past, including Melanie Munk at The Herald and Giselle Smith at Seattle Homes & Lifestyles.

When Lynne and I met at a press luncheon last December, we discovered that we have a common past: We both worked for Seventeen Magazine early in our careers. I’m sure she was there more than a decade after I was, but even still, there is a common language for anyone who’s done that gig. Not exactly the stuff of “The Devil Wears Prada,” but kinda.

My pals at Monrovia made sure to add me to the press list for dwell Magazine’s first-ever design symposium in Los Angeles (I think the two previous conferences were held in the San Francisco Bay Area).

Dwell on Design’s hip graphics and giant magazine covers filled the LA Convention Center. The addition of plants, provided by Monrovia, helped soften the ultra-modern flavor of the event and infuse the setting with something living and green.

The four-day conference included panel lectures, home tours and a trade show featuring the best contemporary and sustainable resources for the home and beyond. I missed Thursday’s panels, but met up with Nan Sterman to attend some of Friday’s panels and the trade show.

Having spent many hours of my professional life uncomfortably confined to stiff, industrial-grade chairs while listening to lectures, I was thrilled to see that conference sponsor Lounge22, a Los Angeles-based furniture company, provided v-e-r-y cushy sofas for those of us smart enough to show up on time and get a place near the front of the room. Sleek, low-profile sofas, upholstered in white or black leather, made sitting still an easy (and luxurious) endeavor. Very classy, folks.

Stylish attendees reclining on sleek Lounge22 sofas – it beats a folding chair!

First off, a panel of leading hotel and restaurant designers convened “Home and Away: the nexus of hospitality and domestic design.” Moderated by dwell editor Sam Grawe, the panel featured Cass Calder Smith, principal of CCS Architecture (San Francisco-based), Peg O’Brien, founder/principal of O’Brien Design, and Theresa Fatino, Chief Creative Officer, SBE Entertainment Group.

I asked myself, why do I care about hotel and restaurant design? I haven’t written about the hospitality biz since I was a reporter covering the hotel beat for Puget Sound Business Journal back in the late 80s-early 90s. But I remembered that my experiences reporting on hotel and restaurant trends strongly influenced and shaped my design sensibilities – and helped train my eye to look for creative design influences everywhere around me. I’m pleased to say, it was worth my time to slouch into the white leather sofa, stretch my legs and listen to the presentation.

Of the three panelists, it was Theresa Fatino who blew me away. She has been described as having a sixth-sense for observing cultural tastes and trends. Fatino is a passionate keeper of the faith for her current project, SLS Hotels. As a project of SBE Entertainment Group, the first SLS Hotel is slated to open later this year in Beverly Hills (Las Vegas and South Beach, Florida, properties are also in the works). 

You may ask yourself: What does SLS mean? I finally found a clever reference to the acronym on the company’s web site: Some Little Secrets. The hotel is pursuing a high-touch, but understated niche in the crowded hospitality market.

Fatino is the organization’s key collaborator with master designer Philippe Starck on its hotel, restaurant and lounge concepts. In addition to SLS Hotels, these include the Katsuya restaurant brand, recently-opened S Bar and a yet-to-be-named upscale supper club on the Sunset Strip. She has an impressive resume that includes a fine arts degree from Syracuse University, followed by design positions with Ralph Lauren, Pottery Barn and the W Hotel.

Fatino described the intricate development of SLS Hotels’ “brand” management message, summed up by a list of “emotional touch points.” I might be missing a few of them, but here are the themes I quickly jotted down during her lecture:

Conscience

No Compromise

Internal Reward

New Functionality

Semi-public

pre-Googling

Curated Consumption

Customization

Customer-made

Out-Experience-In

Niche Growth

Online Oxygen

Planned Spontaneity

Buy Now

To me, these ideas are symbolic of broader consumer trends. Far-reaching, such ideas aren’t limited to the hospitality industry. They serve a kind of marketer’s shorthand to describe and highlight the present mood of popular culture, media (and media consumption), technology, product design and art.

Fatino illustrated a few of the ideas:

pre-Googling: This refers to our reliance on the Internet as a “preparation” tool. For example, how many of us “Google” someone in advance of a planned meeting (this could be a work-related contact or even someone you might encounter at a dinner party)? We’re addicted to Google as a verb!

Curated Consumption: As a design writer, I find this one fascinating. Certain arbiters of taste are given the “power” to curate our artistic and aesthetic choices. Fatino describes Pottery Barn as the “curator of casual living,” Williams Sonoma as the “curator of the kitchen,” Oprah as the “curator of the books we read,” and Martha as the “curator of flowers.” “We are following and obeying the new curators of taste and style,” she explains.

Online-oxygen: “How many of us wake up in the morning and before we do anything else, we reach for our Blackberry?” she asked. This habit equates our need to breathe oxygen with our need to constantly access our online lives; it is shaping design decisions made for the new hotel. She illustrated this concept with a slide of a man seated in a Zen garden, using his laptop. Hmmm.

Internal reward: There is a need to balance our “wired” lifestyle with an “unplugged” response. “We need to rejuvenate, nourish the mind, replenish, engage in spiritual activities,” Fatino suggested (at this point in her lecture, I leaned over to Nan and whispered: We all need a Stylish Shed – that will provide ample internal reward, the antidote to everyday insanity!)

After identifying these emotional touch points, Fatino cited a list she called the “catalog of experiences” the new hotel will offer. I suspected her list would be geared to customers willing and able to pay for this level of luxury. But surprisingly, many of them are emotional experiences rather than tangibles. And in a way, that’s what’s so appealing about these ideas. These experiences seem to require an attention to detail rather than a big budget. Here they are:

Elegant

Timeless

Intelligence

Community

Authentic

Human-Spirited

Organic

Respect

Reliable

Humanity

Inspiration

Discovery

Soul

The challenge, said Fatino, is to “translate the ‘experience’ into a physical product,” but to do it with sincerity and integrity (people can easily spot a “copy job,” she says).  

For example, the hotelier has decided to eliminate little plastic bottles of shampoo and lotion and replaced them with high-quality, natural body products in large, glass, refillable bottles. Not only is this environmentally smart, it is a small gesture that communicates the desired guest experience. Some are tangible, such as warm, fuzzy-feeling Egyptian cotton towels or “bronze-tinted” lighting flattering to the face. Others are intangible, such as how guests’ children and pets are treated. “We know when to create a surprise and when to whisper,” Fantino explained.

HOW WILL HEARING THIS NEW INFORMATION CHANGE THE WAY I OPERATE?

I think I will come up with my own “emotional touchpoints” and “catalog of experiences” to describe how I want to live, conduct my life, work, relationships and immediate surroundings. I’ll be tracking SLS Hotels as they open and begin to execute Fatino’s vision.

NEXT UP. . .

I have two more reports to post, but this is already too long. The next one will highlight Dwell Outdoor, the exhibit area featuring landscape and garden design ideas and products. That will be followed by a report on a Sustainable Interiors panel.

 

 

 

Frette’s luxurious Bohemian pillows, featured in a Betty Wasserman-designed living room

New York-based interior designer Betty Wasserman, whose redesign of a one-car garage and potting shed into a gorgeous guest cottage is featured in Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways, has been named JUNE Designer of the Month by the luxury linen firm Frette.

Profiled on Frette’s web site (photo above and at left by Frette), Betty is described as “a rising designer who has made her mark by fusing original art, interior design and home furnishings into a complete and modern approach to lifestyles.” The article continues: “She takes a warm, minimalist approach to design to create an environment reflective of modern themes while concurrently expressing the lifestyle and needs of the client.”

In “Second Act,” our chapter about her inviting backyard destination, Betty plays the role of designer and client. Bill Wright’s photos capture the spirit and flair of Betty’s creative work. In my text, I tried to sum up her acumen as an artist and designer:

Where others saw “potting shed” Betty Wasserman saw “guesthouse. She renovated the barn-shaped structure with her signature “country modern” style, using furniture and art to create a cozy backyard getaway.

There is a pleasing asymmetry to the gambrel-roof garage with the small attached potting shed [William Wright photo]

This talented young woman breathed new life into a 1930s Hamptons garage and created a serene guest cottage for weekend visitors. Bill and I still talk about the day we arrived at Betty and her daughter Milly’s  Southampton backyard in May 2007. Situated behind her 1930s farmhouse, which Betty also renovated with a refreshing face-lift, the 600-square-foot garage revealed undeniable charm. A gambrel-style roof hinted at the building’s history. The original barn-style sliding door was mounted along the outside, as one would expect. But there was a promise of something new and exciting on the face of this little brown building.

A pair of horizontally-divided French doors enliven the front of the building.  Square, cottage-style windows give it a welcoming, wide-eyed personality. Tidy evergreen shrubs anchor the foundation into the ground. Square paving stones punctuate the lawn with a checkered pattern. Everything is crisp and confident. And that is just the exterior.

The original beams look rugged beneath an open ceiling [William Wright photo]

The interior is, as Bill likes to say, “magazine picture-perfect.” When we walked inside, it was so understated and classy that we honestly just stood there and pointed the lens. That’s not to say it was easy to photograph because like anything done well, we had to light the interior and compose our shots. We also had some kind of insanely short deadline, since weekend guests were expected to arrive in less than three hours. The picture-perfect room would soon be filled with their luggage and tennis equipment.

Somehow, thanks to a year of mentally communicating with one another on our locations, Bill and I whipped into high gear, angling furniture, and running into Betty’s house to borrow accessories like pillows, vases and candles. Her daughter Milly, who reminded us of the storybook character, Eloise, alternated between hanging around to watch, posing on the sofa in her party dress, and racing around the garden in “superhero” mode. We could have used a superhero to make time stand still and allow us to work at our leisure.

Miraculously, we shot something like 11 images in that three-hour window. Serious record, folks. Bill likes to say, “we did our best work in the shortest period of time!”

We have to give much of the credit for our awesome photos to Betty herself. After she was through with it, as small as it was, the serene guesthouse gave no hint that it once held a truck or tractor. This woman has incredible vision. To Betty, what once was a 200-square-foot lean-to style potting shed appeared just the right size for an apartment-efficient kitchen and even a postage-stamp-sized bathroom.  The garage ceiling was stripped away to make room for earthy beams overhead. A Murphy bed, hidden behind a custom door that Betty created by “weaving” walnut veneer strips over and under steel rods, was just one of her innovations. Betty designed much of the guesthouse’s custom furniture, similar to pieces in her line called bettyhome.

The garage-turned-guesthouse is popular with visiting families and their small children, usually playmates of Milly. It’s also a private retreat for mother and daughter, Betty says. “Sometimes, Milly will say, ‘Oh, Mommy, can we sleep out here tonight? She loves that whole feeling of it being our separate getaway.”

If you click over to the Frette web site, you will read a Q&A interview with Betty. Her answers to two of the questions struck a chord with me:

Q: What advice would you give to other young, up and coming designers?

A: Determine what your tastes are early in your career and focus on what you love doing. Only do what you love doing. Specialize and do not try to be everything to everyone; then you are no good to anyone!

Q: What do you look forward to accomplishing in the next 10 years?

A: Besides raising my 5-year-old daughter Milly to be a confident, happy child who is proud of her mom, I also look forward to seeing the business grow to another level in terms of project type and scale. I enjoy having our projects published, and I would like to consider producing a book about my work some day. We appear in a new book just released called “Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways,” by Debra Prinzing. Milly and I are featured in our Southampton guest house and that has inspired me to want a book published about my work soon!

Congratulations, Betty! Thank you for sharing your talent with us and here’s to your future success!