Stone Barn at the Judge Johnson Home in Spring City, UT

 Photo:  Toni Youngblood

Photo:  Toni Youngblood

Architectural & Design Projects

Residential Addition:   Sunny breakfast room-chartroom-lounging room-doggie dining and mud room. 
This is a complete tear-down and rebuild of a poorly constructed addition to a home originally built in 1912.  A "shoe-string" budget was available.
Before and After comparison photos are shown below.  The completed remodel is furnished as a sunny breakfast room-chartroom-lounging room-doggie dining room.  When possible, "recylcled" building elements were used in the new construction.  All furnishings were found in consignment shops, on craigslist and on the curb!  For more information regarding resources go here.
Paint Colors:
Walls:  Ralph Lauren color - Montauk Driftwood (matched by Benjamin Moore paint specialists)
Ceiling and Trim:  Benjamin Moore Cloud White
All paint is Benjamin Moore's Regal Line in pearl finish.


Below:  Before...Looking South


Below:  After...Looking South



Below:  Before...Looking East 


Below:  After...Looking East


Below:  Before...Interior brick wall


Below:  Now...Interior brick wall
 
Below:  Exterior Before
 

Below:  Exterior After - Materials were chosen to match the existing garage (that I designed in 2007), shown below:  Exterior Paint:  Base Color - ICI Paints Virginia Vine; Trim - ICI Paints Casual White

 










Below:  Existing Garage

Below:   Front of the main house.
 

Commercial Interior Design Project:  Main Lobby, Canopy Properties - Lindon, Utah

 

Memorial Weekend

Be happy, be safe.

Watercolor Dessert

Fred's Birthday Dessert, 4"x6", watercolor, Toni Youngblood 2013

Six-string Incantations I

Above:  Six-string Incantations I, 21-1/2" x 21-1/2", Encaustic on board, Toni Youngblood 2013

Crows

Manny, Moe & Jack - Toni Youngblood, Acrylic on canvas board, 12"x9"  2013

Amalfi Watercolor Sketch

This is a tiny postcard sized watercolor, 4"x6" of a hillside in Amalfi, Italy. When I was an architecture student in Italy, I painted one small watercolor while we were visiting Villa Cimbrone, but there were hundreds of little areas near Amalfi to paint and we had to get back on the bus, so I took a few snap shots for later. Later is now---25 years later!

Handmade House Constructed with Salvaged Materials

My House, My Castle a New Zealand TV program aired a story about this house completed in 2006 and built by G. C. in Wanaka, NZ.

All photos by Sasha St. Clair
Drought tolerant plants comprise the landscaping adjacent to the home and blend with surrounding natural terrain.

The following information originated in New Zealand's TV Program, My House My Castle:   
The Labour Of Love category includes a Recycled House from Wanaka. Owner G. C. combined his skills as a panelbeater and carpenter to build his unique home almost entirely from salvaged metal and recycled materials.

It took him years to complete and for many of those years he lived without a flush toilet. “I lived really rough,” says the owner/builder. “Without heat and hot water!”

Now, he has all the comforts, is mortgage-free and loves his home!

INTERIOR:

Bathroom

Bathroom

Kitchen & Dining Area

Lounge Room

Lounge Room

Master Bedroom

 Master Bedroom

Guest Bedroom

Sailing on Lake Wanaka

After: Yard Sale Toy Bench

Before                                       After

 

                                

The only color I loved on the original toy box/bench was the red.  I saved the red in its distressed condition and chose black and creme to paint my pattern. 

I wanted my new paint to have the look of age and use of the old red paint, so I applied the black and creme paint accordingly.

I was lucky that the chest was composed of even proportions that provided easy numbers  with which to work in developing my design.             

Before: Yard Sale Toy Bench

I'm a believer in the value of reusing "stuff", versus throwing out and buying all new.  Could be the influence of grandparents who lived creatively through the Great Depression, not to mention the austerity measures people were tasked with through a couple of world wars.  

More than ever, I'm also rescuing and reusing because it's an  important action to break the cycle of throwing out and buying all new.  It helps us keep functioning, quite happily and creatively without making a dump out of our planet. Now I'm not recommending filling up your house with garbage. I'm just pointing out the beauty of giving existing quality items another chance to shine.  Furnishing by recycling, you may call it.  

Besides all that, there are a lot of old things with character that I really like---just as they are.  And sometimes I see things that require some help . . . to become lovable. So I jump in and give them the TLC they need.   And it's not just about choice of style.  Oft times vintage pieces are higher quality in materials and construction!

Pictured here, is a toy box/bench yard sale find for $5.00.  I'm in the process of transforming the character of this piece with paint.  See the completed bench here.