Homeward bound (have I used that title before?)

HI there! Bethany Heart has opened a new shop by the name of [Coeur], which just debuted this past weekend. I believe it will be a prefab shop, but I can’t say for sure that she won’t expand to furniture and decor. With her grand opening, she’s released the Maison du Alcott prefab, and was kind enough to send me a copy to check out. Here we go!

It’s a simple floorplan with a cottage feel. I do like the expansive porches on both floors – the upstairs porch wraps around two sides of the house, great for outdoor seating vignettes. (I sprinkled some basic furniture around just for pictures.) One of the first things that struck me about the house, though, is the lack of texture shading. My dear readers will know that this is a strong preference of mine – and I know not everyone shares the same opinion – I really would love to see a lot more shading on the walls, especially the exterior. I think it would give so much more definition. The textures are good – they just need depth.

On the first floor is a fairly open layout with subtly defined areas for living, dining, kitchen. There’s a bedroom located off the kitchen area, as well.

There’s a lot of space, but not too much. It would be easy to furnish and make it cozy. Upstairs is the master bedroom, as well as an open landing that connects to the upstairs porch. The landing would be great for another seating area, or maybe a work room of some sort. The master bedroom is more than big enough to house a full suite of bedroom furniture, and it also has french doors opening onto the porch, which is always nice.

I do really love the screen texture that Bethany used for the front door, windows, and the upstairs landing, as seen in the pic below. Another really cute touch is in the downstairs bedroom – the closet is framed with curtains rather than the usual closet door. Cute!

[Coeur] [SLurl]

(furniture pictured is a mix of items from Second Spaces, The Loft, and the (retired) m.fox Collection)

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A quick new release from [ba] Barnesworth Anubis – the Catalina Studio House. If you checked out Barnes’ SUYS set this weekend, you’ve already seen this new prefab. Totally cute, simple and open, great for a workspace or small house. I love the double-sided fireplace!

[ba] [SLurl]

The Loft – Wisteria

I’m willing to bet that the SL universe is already pretty well a-buzz about The Loft’s long-awaited release of the Wisteria home. I know I am not the first blogger to post it, and I’ve seen the plurks popping up on my timeline to indicate that everyone and their brothers are heading to The Loft sim to check it out. Still, I can’t not post it, too….because it is AWESOME. Plus, dear readers, you all know that I. Love. The Loft. Period.

Here’s what I can tell you about the Wisteria. Colleen Desmoulins and Bethany Heart have been working on the house and the furniture since at least March, and maybe even earlier than that. That should indicate right there just how much has gone into this project and what level of detail you can expect to find. When I say “detail”, here’s what I mean: tons of accessories, tons of animations, amazingly and realistically textured objects, full suites of furniture, and overall a house that feels like someone lives there. The official release notice from The Loft states “…the Wisteria is large in scale, yet still cozy enough for your friends and family.” I couldn’t say it better.

The super exciting part for me is that I got to work with Colleen on a tiny piece of the project!! I mentioned the tons of animations – and really, there are tons all over the house – and I’m very happy to say that about 9 or 10 of the kitchen animations are custom work by me! Cutting veggies, making a sandwich, wiping the counter, cleaning the window…those are just a few of mine, and I had a great time making them. Yay!

Even if you have no intention of buying, I really hope you’ll go see the Wisteria in person. The pics in this post are also from the official release notice, but they still don’t show you everything there is to see. You really need to explore every corner, play with all the animated items, and just be in the house. It’s worth the trip. 🙂

The house is available alone, or as a complete package with all furniture included. You can also buy the room sets individually, and this is furniture that will work in any house of traditional or contemporary/modern design. So go, go now, and see the splendor up close. Oh! Also from the official notice: “A free gift awaits you on the second floor.  Look for a pair of sconces with candles.” 😉

The Loft

**UPDATE** Check The Loft blog here for more pictures!

*Second Spaces* Top12, part 3

Welcome to Part 3 of my Top 12! Need some background on what this list is all about? Click here for the original post.

So far we’ve covered pre-fabs…now that we have a house, we need furniture! So let me start by spotlighting a frequent blog mention here on Second Spaces: The Loft! I’ve mentioned this shop on several occasions; just do a quick search on the blog for ‘the loft’ and you’ll see about 5 posts that apply. Colleen Desmoulins and Bethany Hart are the designers behind the brand – I’m not sure if Kingston Augustus is still with them- and everything they create makes me say ‘oh, damn!’ — in a good way. If you’re a fan of Pottery Barn, West Elm, Crate & Barrel — as I am — then The Loft is a must-have LM for you.

I popped into the store specifically to pick out a few of my favorites that I haven’t already blogged. Those are shown below — and you know what you need to do, dear reader, don’t you? GO THERE. 🙂

Bago Living Room: They do green like nobody’s business! Subtle, soft…I want to lounge.

Stephanie Dining: The chair texture is awesome. It’s like…formal snakeskin.

Bago Bedroom: I have always loved a canopy bed. When I was a wee girl, I wanted a princess canopy bed more than anything…and I never got one. My tastes have grown up (thankfully!), and this is the sort of canopy that not-so-wee Elle dreams of.

I may have said this in my original spotlight post…but it bears repeating: the textures you find on The Loft’s upholstered pieces are heaven. Truly, it’s almost a tangible experience for me.

So, dear reader – go, see, touch. The Loft also has some awesome pre-fabs that are a must see; check my post about their sim opening for a sneak peek of a few of them!

*Designer Spotlight* The Loft

I attended the opening of The Loft’s new sim last night – and I was like a giddy schoolgirl in the hours leading up to it. 🙂 As I expected, it was beautiful. The shop is centered around a gorgeous courtyard; there’s a lot of empty space right now, but I’m sure that will be filled up soon enough. Check out the shadows from the trees – I love that!

The party was nice – The Loft folks had set up one of the empty spaces with a dance floor, tables, and a stage for the live performers. Phemie Alcott started the night with an impressive acoustic set – she did a soft acoustic cover of Umbrella by Rihanna which was just beautiful. Next up to the mic was Kafka Dinzeo who took us through a pounding set of live rap mixes, including one he made just for The Loft which was really fun. It was great to finally meet Colleen Desmoulins and Bethany Heart in person; Kingston Augustus, the third designer, was not in attendance.

I did wander around, of course, but I didn’t take a ton of pictures because I want you to go there and see it for yourself. Yes, you, dear reader! There were two new sets displayed that looked awesome:

AND there were pre-fabs, which is what I was most excited about. There are three displayed on the perimeter of the sim, and they’re all fantastic. My parting words, as I said my goodbyes and gave my thanks for the invite, were “Colleen, I’m going to marry all three of your prefabs.” I am. Seriously. You have to go see them — the details and the depth we know from The Loft’s furniture is all over these houses. The little details, the awesome textures – gorgeous. Here are exterior shots, just as a tease! From left to right, the Pusa Hilton, the Hattan Skybox, and The Bago:

I also loved that The Loft crew used the lighted tree from Heart Garden Centre as decoration in the party room. It IS the best tree ever!

Get over to the new sim to check it out, here. Go buy yourself one of those lighted trees at Heart Garden Centre, too, while you’re hopping around the grid. 🙂

*Designer Location Update*

I was just checking in on The Loft3 and found that Colleen Desmoulins has relocated the shop temporarily, and it seems to be back to the original name of The Loft. Here’s the updated SLurl: The Loft

Always worth a browse!

***UPDATE***

Talk about timing. 🙂  After I posted the SLurl update for The Loft yesterday, I received an invite from Colleen and her design partners, Bethany Heart & Kingston Augustus, to the grand opening of the new Loft sim! A whole sim for The Loft = heaven for Elle. The party is by invite only (score me 🙂 ) and is this Saturday, 3/22. I am planning to attend and will hopefully be able to grab a few pics and share them here. I’m very excited to see what’s new — I think there may be some pre-fabs involved! — and I know the sim is going to look amazing. More to come soon!