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During the early weeks of 2020—before sheltering in place began—I visited New Orleans for the first time. After years of longing to experience The Big Easy, I found myself sauntering (okay, stumbling) to the tune of brass bands and bounce music down Bourbon Street, passing a refreshing Hurricane between my friends, beneath the twinkling of Mardi Gras beads dangling from balconies overhead.
New Orleans has many unique architectural styles when it comes to the residences & houses that make up much of the city.
New Orleans is one of the most iconic and culturally-rich destinations in America. The amazing food scene,…
Few elements of the New Orleans cityscape speak to the intersection of architecture, sociology and geography so well as the shotgun house. Once scorned, now cherished, shotguns shed light on patterns of cultural diffusion, class and residential settlement, social preferences and construction methods.
It took keen eyes for Michael and Elizabeth Magner to see the potential in the 1837 Creole townhouse that had been carved into a multifamily dwelling in the French Quarter. While it sat in the middle of a picturesque block, the masonry house was in serious need of repair — “an ugly duckling over a beautiful swan,” Elizabeth Magner said.
Rising through three floors of weathered brick, lacy ironwork and long, shady verandas, the old St. Vincent orphanage has cast a compelling allure over the Lower Garden District for generations. It proved enough to draw Larry McGuire to town, too.
The French Quarter in New Orleans is the city's oldest neighborhood and a place completely unique to itself. Here are our top picks of where to visit.
One recent afternoon, a torrential downpour flooded the streets and courtyards of the French Quarter as David Schulingkamp’s household staff readied his 1790 Creole townhouse to receive the Consul General of France and his wife for dinner.
In the historic cottage updated by architect Bryan Young with his client Sukey Novogratz, music and laughter are never in short supply
A modern couple has reignited tradition in the home where William Faulkner penned his first novel. Step inside the Faulkner House in New Orleans.
Mitch and I absolutely love driving around neighborhoods to check out the local homes when we travel. So here's a New Orleans House Tour.
Explore Beth Kirby | {local milk}'s 3898 photos on Flickr!
Swing down to the American South and tour the confectionery homes of New Orleans. Fully colored in the spirit of Mardi Gras, this print will bring the party straight to your home. This piece is a great complement to a NOLA lover's home, whether they live there or just miss it. Available in 11" x 14" or 18" x 24" Printed as a matte finish on 80# acid-free cover stock paper. About the frame: This is a basic, lightweight wood poster frame. Alder, semi-hardwood .75″ (1.9 cm) thick frame from renewable forests; Lightweight; Acrylite front protector; Hanging hardware included.
A vibrant new photo book celebrates homes with big personalities
City leaders hailed the post-Hurricane Katrina decision to demolish and redevelop New Orleans' largest public housing developments as the opportunity to fix the wrongs of the past and provide a better life for the residents who once called B.W. Cooper, St. Bernard, Lafitte and C.J. Peete home.
There is no American city quite like New Orleans: it’s a little Spanish, a little French, but mostly uniquely the thing that it is. Call it a je ne sais quoi. I highly recommend a visit, but if a trip to the Big Easy isn’t in the cards for you right now, there is still a way you can enjoy its unique architecture and laid-back vibe—through these tours of five of NOLA’s most beautiful homes.
We have chosen a color! This is good, because the painter is scheduled to come in 5 days. Now that we’ve finally emerged from the process of choosing an exterior paint color, I need to tell you so many things to help you not agonize in the same way. After purchasing something like 10 samples (maybe more, maybe less, but my husband is reading this ;)) and painting them on the front, back and sides of our house, I started digging into the color’s Hue, Saturation and Value (using Encycolorpedia – lifesaver!) to determine what was common between what I liked and what I didn’t. Besides the general tips, I’ll show you the samples that we purchased (all Benjamin Moore) and explain how we found a color (finally!) using hue, saturation and value. Our exterior paint: BEFORE First, our caveat and yours: What exists on and around your home that should factor into your paint color decision? Ours were: (1) Big, orange-red brick pillars on our craftsman cottage (or bungalow for everyone not in New Orleans). We are not willing to paint them, as they are nearly 100 years old and original to the house. I’ll talk more later how to balance this strong architectural element. (2) Our neighbor’s house is yellow. That ruled out yellow for us. (3) We live in New Orleans. We feel as though we owe it to our street, and to our city, to pick a fun, vibrant color. So for you, this could be architectural details, the city or region where you live, your neighbor’s houses, your plants, etc. Alright, now you go merrily on your way to the local paint store (I suggest actually picking up paint chips, not just looking online), and peruse the colors that you think you’d like for your main house color. The secrets of choosing exterior paint color Colors look much lighter in the sunlight (especially in bright, Southern light) than you’d expect from the chip. We found that our target value (aka brightness) was 57-67. Again, you can search Encycolorpedia for named colors from major paint brands to see their HSV numbers. Colors look much more vibrant / saturated in the sunlight than they appear on the chip. If a paint color seems grayish on the chip, it’s probably a color you want for the exterior. We didn’t want too gray of a color (we live in New Orleans, after all) but we didn’t want a gaudy, blinding green color either. We found that our target saturation was 17-22. White exterior trim isn’t usually white. And the off-whites we considered for our interior trim didn’t even make the list (FYI, we used Benjamin Moore White Dove for the interior trim.) For exterior “white trim” think cream or even light beige. The more white the trim, obviously the starker the contrast. This can be good for angular homes where a high contrast between the main color and trim embellishes the detail (like a Craftsman). However, less white trim looks softer and brings out the detail in wood. Victorian homes or more traditional New Orleans homes are served much better by less white (cream, tan, light beige) trim detail. Benjamin Moore offers its most popular exterior trim colors on a chip. Photos online are nice and all, but we have NO idea how much any photo has been edited. For instance, I found one house tour with a color we loved — it had been profiled on three different sites. On each site, the color looked completely different because of the time of day the photo had been taken and according to the editor’s Photoshopping techniques. Plus, the same photo never looked the same on my mac, PC or phone because of monitor settings. You can not pick a color without painting a small sample on your home…. unless you are an architect, interior designer, owner of a construction company or paint store, or have an MFA… then, go ahead and do whatever you want. Our inspiration Inspiration: a townhouse with orange brick base and a vibrant blue-green exterior Inspiration: red brick Craftsman home with teal exterior Given that we have the big, orange-red brick columns, we started looking for inspiration every time we left the house. “Did you see that house?!” one of us would exclaim, then we’d have to circle the block to look at it together. After nearly a year of this, plus looking online (see inspiration photos), we realized that we would either have to keep our house a dark neutral (see BEFORE photo above) to balance the brick columns or go for opposite on the color wheel – the blue green spectrum. This left us with light, medium and dark green-blue options. Obviously, these inspiration photos show you what we’re leaning toward. Now, the problem of selecting paint colors that don’t look too light, too dark or too gaudy. Easy, right? Our paint samples Our exterior paint samples from Benjamin Moore Dark paint swatches from Benjamin Moore (click for larger) From top to bottom: Pleasant Valley, Benjamin Moore 696 Sage Tint, Benjamin Moore 458 Stratton Blue, Benjamin Moore HC-142 (Same as Del Mar Blue 704) Harrisburg Green, Benjamin Moore HC-132 Scenic Drive, Benjamin Moore 697 Mill Springs Blue, Benjamin Moore HC-137 We also briefly considered dark colors, but given the intensity of the sun in this subtropic city, we are worried this dark color will fade too quickly. But, for the record, those samples are: Hale Navy, Benjamin Moore HC-154 Evening Sky, Benjamin Moore 833 Old Navy, Benjamin Moore 2063-10 See our chosen color and our before and after photos!!
New Orleans has many unique architectural styles when it comes to the residences & houses that make up much of the city.
New Orleans has many unique architectural styles when it comes to the residences & houses that make up much of the city.
During their regular walks around Coliseum Square with their French bulldogs Louie and Lady, Amy and Garrison Neill often wondered about a stately Greek Revival home on the park.
