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This Dad Made a Super Cool Playhouse for His Kids Using Home Depot Moving Boxes

Debbie A. Cunningham 1 day ago
Photo credit: The Real American Dadass / Facebook
Photo credit: The Real American Dadass / Facebook

From House Beautiful

Usually our cardboard boxes go straight to recycling, but one quick-thinking dad constructed the ultimate playhouse for his kids using boxes he purchased from the Home Depot.

Chicago dad-of-four, Rob Hagerman, recently shared a photo of his cardboard creation to his Facebook page, The Real American Dadass, where he creates humorous parenting memes. But this wasn’t any ordinary box home he constructed—this home was lightly illuminated with string lights, and was complete with windows, curtains, and a planter box filled with flowers.

“The sink is full of dishes, the dishwasher is waiting to be unloaded, laundry needs to be ran, and I have no idea what I’m making for dinner yet… but that stuff will always be there,” Hagerman wrote in the photo’s caption. Despite his long to-do list, he checked off the most important task: building

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Explore an Art-Filled Connecticut Family Home That Balances Comfort and Sophistication

Debbie A. Cunningham 3 days ago

As the quintessential country retreat for some of the 20th century’s most affluent families—with surnames like Rockefeller, Gimbel, and Post—the tony Connecticut town of Greenwich is littered with sprawling estates that wear their traditional aesthetic like a badge of honor. But in their 22,000-square-foot home, one West Coast family of five decided to shake off the dust of the old and infuse the house’s iconic structure with a dose of contemporary vigor.

“The house had such a strong point of view when we entered the project,” says New York–based designer Sara Story of the classic shingle-style property, which was originally designed by renowned architecture firm Shope Reno Wharton in 1996. “It felt really heavy and dark, and it was chopped up in an unusual way. But the scale was really nice. We just needed to give it a little bit of a facelift.”

She began by knocking down walls and

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Inside Creative Mogul Cordelia de Castellane’s Eclectic Country Home

Debbie A. Cunningham 4 days ago

It’s a bit mix and match, but every piece has a story,” says Cordelia de Castellane of the eclectic assemblage of treasures inside her enchanting country house about an hour north of Paris. Although she hails from an aristocratic family that counts numerous statesmen and aesthetes in recent generations, the artistic director of Dior Maison and Baby Dior is anything but stuffy and old-fashioned. So it comes as no surprise to find that her personal retreat, festooned with climbing pink roses and chock-full of family heirlooms and flea-market finds, is a dreamy, effortlessly chic getaway.

<div class="caption"> A Braquenié print envelops the boudoir. Cordelia de Castellane often draws at a desk that belonged to her grandmother. </div> <cite class="credit">Matthieu Salvaing</cite>

A Braquenié print envelops the boudoir. Cordelia de Castellane often draws at a desk that belonged to her grandmother.

Matthieu Salvaing

<div class="caption"> De Castellane in an efflorescent alcove next to her boudoir. </div> <cite class="credit">Matthieu Salvaing</cite>

De Castellane in an efflorescent alcove next to her boudoir.

Matthieu Salvaing

De Castellane has been steeped in the fashion world since youth. She went to work at 16, cutting her teeth with fashion

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These Color-Coded Lockers Are a Genius Addition to a Family Home

Debbie A. Cunningham 5 days ago
Photo credit: Carmel Brantley
Photo credit: Carmel Brantley

From House Beautiful

Anyone who sees the Wentz family at home would have no trouble believing their space was designed specifically for them. Betsy Wentz, founder of Studio B design, has an office/command center at one of three kitchen islands (more on those later) while her husband, a doctor, can hole away in a study. The couple’s three boys and youngest girl bounce between sports in the backyard to movies on a sectional large enough to fit the whole gang (plus frequent friends) and the entire family spends most summer nights around the fire pit on their patio.

Photo credit: Carmel Brantley
Photo credit: Carmel Brantley

So it might come as a bit of a surprise that the origins of the home were somewhat coincidental: “We had actually just finished renovating another house,” laughs Wentz, who grew up in Sewickley, PA, where the home sits in a woodsy residential area.

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