Design Wise

By Shelagh Duncan The two most important areas in any home are the kitchens and the bathrooms—especially to potential home buyers. Those two rooms will have a biggest influence on any purchaser. You know that feeling when you walk into a friends’ kitchen that is fabulous—you just stand there, and

By Shelagh Duncan Ben Franklin has been credited with saying something like “fish and visitors start to smell after three days…” That may have been true back in the day, but we all love to have friends and family come visit and want them to enjoy their stay. We are

By Shelagh Duncan If you used to watch Frasier back in the day you will remember his impeccable sense of style. “So what do you think of what I’ve done with the place?” Frasier asked his father, Martin, in the pilot episode. “You know, every item here was carefully selected.

Ideally, the master bedroom should be the sanctuary where you can retreat at the end of the day. A place to relax, enjoy, and encourage a good night’s sleep. By Shelagh Duncan It should be able to make you just feel good—it is not important whether it is a large master

Unfortunately there’s no way yet to create indestructible furniture and homes. However, there are steps we can take that will help them stand up to life with kids, pets & the jungle. By Shelagh Duncan My guess is that none of us came here to live a high maintenance lifestyle

Tropical Modernism By Shelagh Duncan Last month we looked at the basic differences between Modern and Contemporary design, and now let’s explore the world of Tropical Modernism. That’s a little closer to home… We saw that this movement was born out of the need to incorporate the Modern aesthetic into

Modern or Contemporary? By Shelagh Duncan When we moved down here I was probably more drawn to the Tommy Bahama living room more than any Modern one.  How can our casual and laid-back lifestyle in Costa Rica relate to the cold, clinical steel and concrete interiors that are called Modern?

By Shelagh Duncan Building a new house in Costa Rica is an exciting venture for many of us. Sometimes it is our first custom home – our dream home. There are always many details to think about and many decisions to be made, often ones you had not even considered.

By Shelagh Duncan I know, we tell ourselves “We live in paradise—what’s there not to be happy about? The resulting guilt because we don’t feel happy can just make things worse. If you believe that our homes are an extension of who we are, we have somewhere to start. But

By Shelagh Duncan Where Do I Start? Window treatments have been a part of life for most of us. We consider it one of the finishing touches for any room. There are many window covering options available to us here just as there are back home, and a huge variety

By Shelagh Duncan One of the things we learn early on in CR is that Tico chairs and sofas leave a lot to be desired in the comfort department. The mattress, chair and sofa are the most important pieces in your home. They are where you will spend most of

By Shelagh Duncan This seems to be have been one of our warmer summers and it gets harder to keep our homes cool. A/C is expensive and we all know it is better to breathe in the wonderful, oxygen-rich air that surrounds us than any ‘processed’ air. I was just

By Shelagh Duncan Now is the time of year when we enjoy visits from friends and family. We all want to make their stay as enjoyable as possible, so when arranging the guest room, think about your experience in your favourite B&B or 5-star hotel. Take your cue from the