On gray, rainy days, sometimes you need some colorful inspiration, like these funky stairs are in Wuppertal, Germany. The 112 steps are painted and the various colors express different emotions. Makes me want to go get out a paintbrush.

[Photos: Example.pl and Coconuts and Limes]

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This kitchen has the perfect balance between simple surfaces and gorgeous details! Black walls with white trim and cabinets.

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Cafe latte walls with white trim and rich brown furniture in this super cozy living room.

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This stairway is just fantastic! Love the dark wood steps and white railing, not to mention the chandelier.

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Rich brown bedroom with white trim makes a super cozy atmosphere.

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Old pink and white girls bedroom. I love a kid’s room which doesn’t need a total renovation every couple of years.

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Beautiful brown bathroom with built-in tub.

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View more photos from this gorgeous home here! I think the language in the page is Dutch (correct me if I’m wrong) and I can’t read it, but I’m pretty sure Mi Casa is a Belgian architect firm? Whatever they are doing, it looks absolutely fantastic!

Take a look at these fantastic designs by Morgan Harrison:

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Gorgeous soft combinations with soft pinks. I especially love all the beautiful carpets! What do you think? Click here to visit Morgan Harrison Home!

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Gorgeous all-white romantic country style dining room, with little hints of pink. I think the classic chairs painted white and upholstered in lace fabric are just gorgeous. The double chandelier setup is quite dramatic.

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Cream and white living room with classic seating furniture and multiple round tables. I think all the fresh flowers really add to this romantic decorating style.

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Decorate your stairway with old mirror frames pained white; all shapes and sizes.

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Photos borrowed from Country Home!

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]]> http://thelennoxx.com/2009/09/03/open-plan-solution/ Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:07:26 +0000 theLennoxx http://thelennoxx.com/2009/09/03/open-plan-solution/

Lets take a tour!

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Huge open plan solution with open entry, living room, dining room and kitchen. The fact that this whole level has the same color theme of light blue and a cold yellow (yellow with white).

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The living room is decorated in yellow, green, cream and maroon.

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This über long drawer unit doubles as shelf, storage and seating area. And look, a fireplace too!

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Wow, fun choice of chairs, each in a different color to match the rest of the home.

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I think the blue and yellow color theme works best of all in this kitchen.

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Yellow floating shelves instead of kitchen cabinets. Looks fancy, but what about the dust job??

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Cool triple lamps. And, check out that creative frying pan-storage!

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Nice railing on that staircase. Very artistic.

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This minimalistic bedroom has a great view. A mini fireplace and a mega plant!

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Yellow and blue bathroom. Shiny tiles..

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Photos via Houzz, Check out more gorgeous architecture by David Neiman here!

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Sunset and Glendale Boulevards are two major thoroughfares running through Echo Park that appear on maps as an intersection, but in reality, cross over/under each other. This can be a bit of a problem for motorists who need to get from one street to the other. For people on foot, however, there’s a convenient stairway that gets you between them. There’s also a really cool mural painted on the tunnel walls of Glendale as it passes under Sunset.

Recent circumstances have caused me to leave my beloved Echo Park (and Los Angeles), so this series will be on a short hiatus until I can return to finish climbing and documenting the remaining stairways. Thanks for your patience – Steve “Multimedia” Jones.

Remember this post on the gorgeous design by Sarah Richardson? Well, now it’s time for more!

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This is the laundry room of laundry rooms! Grey,  silver and brushed steel theme, with frosted glass cabinet doors and glass jars for soap powder.

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Now this is a posh stairway! Grey and white, with a gorgeous classic bench.

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Grey dining room with shiny pearl wallpaper and a lucite chandelier. By replacing the inner row of chairs with a bench seat you get the restaurant look, lol.

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Cozy built-in home office. White and gray. So many lovely details!

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Another entry, grey “accessorized” with yellow rain boots, lol.

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View more pretty room designs on Sarah’s site!

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Pretty light rooms designed by Brad Ford:

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White kitchen with raw black counter tops. I like the ceiling lamp triplet.

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Modern light bedroom. I think that picture on the side tables is beautiful, do you like it?

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Grey and cream white stairways. I’m intrigued by this wallpaper! The pattern seems so irregular..

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Nice hall.

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A nice seating area in the hall.

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If you take a closer look, the theme in the hallway/stairs is … bugs. I’m fascinated!

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Click the images to see them in a larger scale. Check out more gorgeous designs on Brad Ford’s site.

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Gorgeous rooms designed by Thomas Pheasant:

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Gorgeous chairs.

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Love the ottoman coffee table, beautiful design.

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We’ve seen that mirror here before!

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Simple and beautiful.

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More pretty rooms at his website.

Crosby Stairway

The stairway’s condition also depends on the time of year. Earlier, I found all kinds of weeds and wildflowers growing on either side (as seen in the still photos here and the “Welcome to my Blog” page). On the day of this recording, the vegetation had been cut back, revealing all the trash previously hidden underneath.

The Crosby Stairway connects Laguna Avenue near the east side of Echo Park Lake to the corner of Crosby Place and Crosby Lane up the hill. Neither street is much more than an alley, but it’s packed with residences just the same.

]]> http://multimediajones.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/kent-street/ Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:17:43 +0000 multimediajones http://multimediajones.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/kent-street/

Chicken murals on the side make this stairway rather unique. That, and the fact that several homes line the walkway above. There’s no street parking on this section of Kent, which I’m sure the residents prefer. And the views aren’t bad, either.

Pastellkreide auf Aquarellpapier. Die passende Musik dazu findet man hier (Samuel Barber – Adagio for Strings, Op. 11).

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Beige and coral living room, with splashes of blue. The beach theme is completed with the rattan furniture.

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A beautiful light dining area. Nothing says coastal more than sea fan dining chairs!

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The modern kitchen is kept light and beachy too, with splashes of oranges and yellow.

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A beach-theme display under the staircase. Nice detail.

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Gorgeous bedroom in white, green and purple. Hot lamp!

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These gorgeous ceiling lamps are designed by Amanda Nisbet herself, they are available at her site!

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If you want more, check out my earlier posts here and here featuring Amanda Nisbet’s work!

“Talk to me about some random financial stuff.” I whispered as we were approaching a security guard.

“The deal…. ” He rattled on and on as I pretended to understand. My heart was thumping.

It was 9pm on the Friday that had just passed. After dinner and a couple of drinks at Raffles Place, Bestion and I still had 2 hours to kill before we were supposed to meet our friends over at ButterFactory.

“Shall we have a quickie?” I proposed. Soon, I found myself disguising as a staff to sneak past the security guard into the building. We headed straight for the second-highest level and started indulging in our acts. The familiar environment brought back fond memories. Bestion used to work in the building and we once had a quickie right along the same stairways during our lunch time.

Click.

A door, either above or below the level that we were at, was unlatched. We froze.

Thud… Thud… Thud..

Footsteps were getting louder and we could hear people chatting.

Wasting no time, we pulled up our pants, grabbed our bags and exited the stairways. We headed straight to the executive toilet opposite, but it was locked.

Shit.

The footsteps seem to be getting closer to us. There was no way to hide.

Just as we were panicking and wondering what to say when we were caught, the sound stopped. It was all quiet again.

Thank God. We heaved sighs of relief.

Sensing that it was probably too dangerous to linger around, we made a swift decision to leave the building and head elsewhere. We didn’t have time to clean up either. The condom was still stuck to his dick as we left the building.

“Keep it on. That’s the only one that I have.” I quipped.

Very soon, we found another secluded stairways where we were finally able to continue whatever we had intended. The silly light sensor freaked us out many times as it switched the lights on and off  sporadically. Probably the interrupted fuck took bulk of our courage away as such thrills were getting too much for us. I perspired profusely as my eyes and ears kept a lookout for any signs of people approaching. He came quickly, way before I could calm down and enjoy the session. 

Nonetheless, I am not complaining because I was duly compensated by a mindblowing fuck much later in the night when we finally got back to the comfort of our bed, and another one when we woke up the next morning…

Don’t you just love how outdoor quickies make good foreplays?

Clinton Stairway

Clinton Street Stairway is also a storage and/or dumping area for some of the ‘hood’s residents. It actually is two stairways in one, so why not use it for two purposes? I went up one side and came down the other. Nextime, I’ll do the opposite.

]]> http://multimediajones.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/bellevue-avenue/ Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:13:51 +0000 multimediajones http://multimediajones.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/bellevue-avenue/

Bellevue Stairway

Bellevue Avenue runs parallel to the Hollywood Freeway. Unlike the freeway, it starts and stops for the hills in its way.

As it runs alongside Echo Park Lake, Bellevue Avenue comes to an end at Glendale Boulevard. From here, Bellevue continues uphill via stairs and joins the next section of the avenue up there. Try that on the freeway.

Interior designer Phoebe Howard created this wonderful sophisticated home:

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Dining room:

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Kitchen:

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Dining area / Lounge:

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Living room:

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Living room, second view:

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Hall/ Entry:

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Foyer:

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If you enjoyed these pics, I urge you to visit Phoebe Howards own site here, she has the greatest website with huge images and the easiest navigation!

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that L.A. has a graffiti problem. As you’ll see from upcoming videos and pictures, there’s a bit of a trash problem as well. Still, the stairs on Court Street (at Glendale Blvd) are worth the hike. Just watch where you step.

Crosby Stairway

I live in an older part of Los Angeles between downtown and Dodger Stadium called Echo Park. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this part of town was considered the suburbs.

Residents commuted downtown by trolley from their bungalows in the hills above Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park Avenue. Getting to and from those hillside bungalows was done by climbing several public stairways around the neighborhood.

Over a hundred years later, these stairways are still in existence, but few are used anymore. Time and disrepair have taken their toll, as well as overgrowth rendering many of them nearly invisible.

Using a map I found at www.HistoricEchoPark.org, I’m able to find over 30 of these stairways within walking distance of my house and document them for your enjoyment. I was originally taking pictures with my cell phone camera, but have since started recording my entire ascent and descent on a small HD camcorder.

In cases where I have still photos (and they’re worthy of viewing), I will post them alongside the videos. I would also like your input as to what you like or don’t like about this site. These stairways act as my “urban hiking” workout and I will have several opportunities to return for second and third takes.

This summer house is an eye candy explosion of pretty pastels. Combinations of white with pink, blue and yellow are the seen throughout this home.

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The darling pink, white and blue living room. This is patterns done good! The sofa has the largest pattern, containing all three colors of the room. From here, the colors and patterns radiate throughout the room.

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White, yellow and blue lounge. Takes a lot of courage to buy a yellow sofa with large sailboat pattern..

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The beautiful white, pink and blue patio. Complete with anchors and lobsters.

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A nautical themed entry, with polished compass floor and a globe map table. Even the stair rail is a lighthouse!

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Blue, white and pink nautical bedroom. Very creative bedside tables I must say!

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White, blue pink AND yellow dining room.

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Take a look at those seashell dinner plates!

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If you want seashell plates, check out these:

You can get them here!

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To see a couple more pictures from this super cute home, visit Veranda blog.

]]> http://thelennoxx.com/2009/07/21/white-and-blue-nautical-style-house/ Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:00:23 +0000 theLennoxx http://thelennoxx.com/2009/07/21/white-and-blue-nautical-style-house/

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A fun nautical theme kids room. The speed boat bed was introduced earlier in this post, check it out if you want to know where to get it.

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A luxurious bathroom in light blue, white, beige and dark wood. Those mirrors are just enormous!

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A lovely little living room nook in light blue and white. Wooden chest and natural fiber blinds contribute some warmth to this room.

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A white, blue and yellow kitchen and dining area.

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White and light blue seating area and stairs. Cushion and blinds in a cute coastal-theme fabric. You can get a fabric that looks about the same here.

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Cute idea to spruce up your glass top table; decorate the table top (under the glass) with nice post cards, photos, maps etc.

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Cute blue and white stars and stripes bed set.

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Sea stars for decoration.

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A sailboat for your stairway or kids room?

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]]> http://thelennoxx.com/2009/07/15/bb-brown-and-blue/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:37:52 +0000 theLennoxx http://thelennoxx.com/2009/07/15/bb-brown-and-blue/

A warm rich brown looks good with most other colors, of either warm or cold tones. Lets take a look at some ways to use brown and blue together. Blue is generally considered a cold color, but is warm if yellow or red is added. This will make the blue more green (aqua/turquoise) or more purple (indigo/violet), respectively:

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<– warmer       Cold         warmer–>

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In the Bedroom:

A rich warm brown combined with a warm yellow tone of blue, aqua.

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In the Living room:

Icy cold blue with a rich brown. Looks great, no?

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In the Nursery:

A rich warm brown combined with both warm and cold blue.  Really cute.  Pic from this site.

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In the Dining room:

Brown and blue, both are warm. Room designed by Candice Olson.

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In the Teenage room:

Yes, this is Hana Montana herself, Miley Cyrus, in her lovely bedroom. Great warm tones.

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A cool wallpaper (pun intended)

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]]> http://thelennoxx.com/2009/07/12/a-rosy-home/ Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:11:34 +0000 theLennoxx http://thelennoxx.com/2009/07/12/a-rosy-home/

Bedroom:

A soft greyish lilac color on the wall, with cream and white.

Dining room:

White,  mint green and pink! Pillow cases on the chair matches the fabric hanging on the wall in the back, and possibly the placing mats. Cute idea!

Kitchen Dining area:

White, mint and pink like the dining room.

Living room:

A soft green wall color with white and old pink.

Stairway:

This is a good idea too! Looks like wallpaper on the stairs, and it looks cute.