This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
2. Yards for Foraging
There’s something pleasingly wholesome about gathering plants from our own yards to use in the kitchen. The idea of weaving in less common edibles is gaining popularity, and several designers at this year’s show incorporated varieties that are safe to eat.
The Whittard of Chelsea garden, seen here, designed by Ollie Pike for the esteemed tea company, featured numerous plants with leaves, petals and hips perfect for infusions. These included river birch (Betula nigra, USDA zones 4 to 9; find your zone), which has vitamin-rich leaves; ‘Our Beth’ rose (Rosa ‘Beacarol’, zones 6 to 9); and tea plant (Camellia sinensis, zones 7 to 9).
The Woodland Trust “Forgotten Forests” garden by Ashleigh Aylett contained plants with edible berries, flowers and leaves.
The Eden Project “Bring Me Sunshine” garden (see next photo) by Alex Michaelis and Harry Holding was inspired by a coastal town in northwestern England and wove edible plants that thrive in salty sea air, such as sea kale (Crambe maritima, zones 5 to 9), into soft plantings.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
Ocean screen, Eleanor Pickin
1. Decorative Reuse
The theme of this year’s event was Material Evolution, an idea that embraced not just the new, but the reused and reinvented as well, and there were plenty of examples of reworked waste materials across the show.
But while we’ve become used to the idea of plastic bottles made into countertops and construction waste being turned into bricks, what felt so inspiring were the numerous examples of waste materials being reinvented in intricate and beautiful ways.
The most striking piece was by “Emerging Talent” Eleanor Pickin, who uses industry offcuts and discarded veneers to craft exquisite marquetry. Her Ocean Screen (pictured) depicts an undersea world and, in addition to looking beautiful, serves to remind us of the need to take care of fragile ecosystems.
It’s full of detail (note the emerging octopus, bottom right), has a night scene on the back, and can be commissioned in sections, depending on the size of screen required.
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This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
With the holidays upon us, it’s time at Houzz to once again celebrate our favorite furry houseguests — our pets! Whether they’re making us laugh, warming our hearts or doing a bit of both, pets help to make a house a home, especially at this time of year. We’d love to see the best photos of your cats, dogs and every animal in between filling your home with seasonal cheer.
The Houzz community is already bringing the festive spirit! Renata Circeo-Loudon shared this adorable photo of her aptly named Snowball, lounging in the cozy glow of the Christmas tree and holiday village.
Lucie Laplante’s Bengal cat Felix gets into the Christmas spirit by playing with the tree ornaments.
Please post a picture of your pet enjoying the holidays at home in the Comments.
Why stop at one holiday pet when you can celebrate three? In this photo from Sue Henderson, two cats and a dog — all dressed in their Christmas sweaters — pal around under the tree.
Do you dress your pets up for the holidays? Snap a photo and share it with the Houzz community in the Comments.
In another photo featuring a trio, Houzz reader suzanneholancin’s lovable labs Crush, Mac and Jet wear holiday headwear and Christmas bows as they pose in front of a roaring fire. Who could ask for better gifts?
Or perhaps we could all take a cue from Lynne Humkey’s dog Bentley and slow down and relax this holiday season.
Your turn: However your pet chooses to spend this time of year at home, please share! Add your best photos and stories to the Comments.
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This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
Pixa chair by Hugo Charlet
3. Uncurved Seating
Although chairs have been adopting comforting, wraparound shapes with domed curves for a few years, this fair saw the return of sharp, straight lines. That’s one of the things we noticed in creations by young designers, including Hugo Charlet, the young graduate selected by Paris Design Week Factory to showcase his designs for the first time.
The initiative chose to put the spotlight on his Pixa collection, a line of robust, rustic furniture designed for outdoor spaces. Their thick legs and oversized proportions are intriguing, but the manufacturing method also deserves attention. The collection is designed using a unique type of board made from pressure-treated pine for optimal resistance, making manufacturing as straightforward as possible while minimizing off-cuts and waste.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
Pixa chair by Hugo Charlet
3. Uncurved Seating
Although chairs have been adopting comforting, wraparound shapes with domed curves for a few years, this fair saw the return of sharp, straight lines. That’s one of the things we noticed in creations by young designers, including Hugo Charlet, the young graduate selected by Paris Design Week Factory to showcase his designs for the first time.
The initiative chose to put the spotlight on his Pixa collection, a line of robust, rustic furniture designed for outdoor spaces. Their thick legs and oversized proportions are intriguing, but the manufacturing method also deserves attention. The collection is designed using a unique type of board made from pressure-treated pine for optimal resistance, making manufacturing as straightforward as possible while minimizing off-cuts and waste.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
Residential building material prices rose in June, driven primarily by higher construction machinery and equipment part prices. Metal commodities also experienced significant increases, following recently implemented tariffs on steel and aluminum. Meanwhile, price growth for services used in construction continues to outpace both domestic and imported goods.
Prices for inputs to new residential construction—excluding capital investment, labor, and imports—rose 0.7% in June, following a (revised) flat change in May. These figures are taken from the most recent Producer Price Index (PPI) report published by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The PPI measures prices that domestic producers receive for their goods and services; this differs from the Consumer Price Index which measures what consumers pay and includes both domestic products as well as imports.
The inputs to the New Residential Construction Price Index grew 2.6% from June of last year. The index can be broken into two components—the goods component increased 2.1% over the year, while services increased 3.3%. For comparison, the total final demand index, which measures all goods and services across the economy, increased 2.3% over the year, with final demand with respect to goods up 1.7% and final demand for services up 2.7%.
Input Goods
The goods component has a larger importance to the total residential construction inputs price index, representing around 60%. On a monthly basis, the price of input goods to new residential construction was up 0.2% in June.
The input goods to residential construction index can be further broken down into two separate components, one measuring energy inputs with the other measuring remaining goods. The latter of these two components simply represents building materials used in residential construction, which makes up around 93% of the goods index.
Energy input prices were up 0.9% between May and June but were 7.4% lower than one year ago. Building material prices were up 0.1% between May and June and up 2.9% compared to one year ago.
Tariffs on building materials do not directly show up in the PPI data because the PPI measures prices for domestically produced goods and services. In fact, tariffs and taxes are explicitly excluded from the PPI. Despite this, price changes in reaction to tariffs are included in the PPI, meaning price increases to pass on increased costs of materials will show up in this pricing data. Announced tariffs in recent months have resulted in material increases across a few different goods, specifically certain metal products and equipment.
In June, the largest year-over-year price increase was for construction machinery and equipment parts, reporting a 24.2% increase over the year. Meanwhile, metal molding and trim prices were up 15.1%, fabricated steel plate prices were up 13.6%, ornamental and architectural metal work prices were up 9.0%, and fabricated structural metal prices were up 9.0% compared to last year. Metal commodities have been the primary targets of tariffs, with 50% tariffs in effect on steel and aluminum products and a potential 50% tariff on copper products coming this August.
Input Services
Prices for service inputs to residential construction reported an increase of 1.5% in June. On a year-over-year basis, service input prices are up 3.3%. The price index for service inputs to residential construction can be broken out into three separate components: a trade services component, a transportation and warehousing services component, and a services excluding trade, transportation and warehousing component (other services).
The most significant component is trade services (around 60%), followed by other services (around 29%), and finally transportation and warehousing services (around 11%). The largest component, trade services, was up 4.7% from a year ago. The other services component was up 1.1% over the year. Lastly, prices for transportation and warehousing services advanced 2.1% compared to June of last year.
Inputs to New Construction Satellite Data
Within the PPI that BLS publishes, new experimental data was recently published regarding inputs to new construction. The data expands existing inputs to industry indexes by incorporating import prices with prices for domestically produced goods and services. With this additional data, users can track how industry input costs are changing among domestically produced products and imported products. This data focuses on new construction, but the complete dataset includes indices across numerous industries that can be on the BLS website.
New construction input prices are primarily influenced by domestically produced goods and services, with domestic products accounting for 90% of the weight of the industry index for new construction. Imported goods make up the remaining 10% of the index.
The latest available data, for April 2025, showed that domestically produced goods have experienced faster price growth compared to imported goods used in new construction. On a year-over-year basis, the index for domestic goods increased 0.4%, while prices for imported goods fell 0.1% over the same period. Comparatively, service prices have risen more than good prices over the past year, rising 3.1% year-over-year. Across the three indexes, all inputs remain at higher levels compared to pre-pandemic prices.
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4. Wild Urban Spaces
Bringing some of the health benefits of the wilderness to busy urban lives was another trend seen across the show. The most striking example of this was the Fettercairn Wilderness Retreat balcony garden (pictured) by ssh scapes — Sonia Kamel, Sally Giles and Helier Bowling — and inspired by the wild landscape of the Scottish Cairngorms mountains.
This small urban space was designed for a busy professional couple “who love the outdoors and, in particular, the Cairngorms in Scotland, and want to recreate the environment for daily health benefits on their high-rise city balcony,” according to the RHS.
At the heart of the space was a copper bath perfect for a cold-water dip, which was surrounded by wild planting reminiscent of the grassy heaths, rocky outcrops and mossy glens typical of the area.
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This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
It’s that time of year again, the time when we want to see your Christmas trees! Whether it’s indoor or outdoor, fresh or artificial, big or small, please take some photos and share them in the Comments. We’d also love to hear about your tree-trimming inspirations, your traditions, your favorite themes, your successes and even your #christmastreefails. Your well-lighted photos and comments may be used in a future Houzz story.
Last year, Houzz reader Crystal Swanson harvested her tree from her own yard. “Planted 20 years ago along our driveway, the evergreens were crowding each other and needed to be thinned out. So we cut down this blue spruce and topped it for our tree,” she wrote. “Nicest tree ever.”
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The tree you share needn’t be full-size. For example, a new addition to a home inspired this sweet bird-themed tabletop tree. “Our screen porch was finished in 2023, so we were able to put up our little tree for the birds at the outside feeder to enjoy,” Houzz user hunnicook wrote last year. “The tree is decorated with vintage feather birds.”
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Lots of trees have special significance and memories, and we’d love to hear about them. In this household, the holidays are a special time to show gratitude. “We decorate with angel trees as a tribute to the paramedics who saved my husband’s life 15 years ago,” Houzz reader Chris wrote.
We also love to see your pets enjoying your trees, like this Houzz cat. “As soon as I put down the tree skirt, Oliver came over and took a nap. He’s my favorite tree ornament,” Houzz reader livinginpalmbeach wrote.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
It’s that time of year again, the time when we want to see your Christmas trees! Whether it’s indoor or outdoor, fresh or artificial, big or small, please snap some photos and share them in the Comments. We’d also love to hear about your tree-trimming inspirations, your traditions, your favorite themes, your successes and even your #christmastreefails. Your photos and comments may be used in a future Houzz story.
Last year, Houzz reader Crystal Swanson harvested her tree from her own yard. “Planted 20 years ago along our driveway, the evergreens were crowding each other and needed to be thinned out. So we cut down this blue spruce and topped it for our tree,” she wrote. “Nicest tree ever.”
Browse holiday lighting in the Houzz Shop
The tree you share needn’t be full-size. For example, a new addition to a home inspired this sweet bird-themed tabletop tree. “Our screen porch was finished in 2023, so we were able to put up our little tree for the birds at the outside feeder to enjoy,” Houzz user hunnicook wrote last year. “The tree is decorated with vintage feather birds.”
Shop for a Christmas tree
Lots of trees have special significance and memories, and we’d love to hear about them. In this household, the holidays are a special time to show gratitude. “We decorate with angel trees as a tribute to the paramedics who saved my husband’s life 15 years ago,” Houzz reader Chris wrote.
We also love to see your pets enjoying your trees, like this Houzz cat. “As soon as I put down the tree skirt, Oliver came over and took a nap. He’s my favorite tree ornament,” Houzz reader livinginpalmbeach wrote.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
A defining theme at Chelsea is that we should optimize our outside spaces, regardless of size. The show provided several uplifting examples.
The Cleary Gottlieb “Time for Creativity” garden by Christina Cobb championed the idea of dedicating space to hobbies, free of distractions. A walk-through greenhouse featured books and craft materials — including paper, paints, fabrics and threads — inviting visitors to choose an activity as they passed through to a table and chairs. Flowers surrounded the seating area, shaded by a multistem weeping common hornbeam (Carpinus betulus ‘Pendula’, zones 4 to 8).
All five balcony gardens, measuring around 6½ by 16 feet (2 by 5 meters), packed in interesting details and activities. These included “A Little Garden of Shared Knowledge,” which reflected a lifetime of learning, travel and mentorship. Similarly, the “Tales From the Riverbank” showcased outdoor living with a Big Green Egg grill standing ready to cook the homegrown harvest.
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