Ask Bryce Curran if the mid-century modern furnishings in his Portsmouth home are a collection and he will likely respond, “More like an addiction.” Admitting to “constantly looking for stuff,” he wasn’t always this way. In fact, when some of…
Eco-Dog is one long, tall drink of water. It is long on innovation in answer to a tall order: design and build an ecological, sustainable, solar-powered, rainwater-catchment, bio-filtered water fountain for dogs. Created by the dynamic Norfolk-based teaching-artist duo of…
Though there is no castle in Windsor Castle Park, there is an eponymous historic manor house, c. 1725, and plenty of other reasons to put this beautiful riverside park on your day-hiking agenda, even if getting there requires an hour…
vi·brant/ˈvībrənt/adjective 1. full of energy and enthusiasm, e.g. “a vibrant cosmopolitan city” Space/(spās)/ noun 1. a continuous area or expanse that is available or unoccupied. Like people, cities and urban neighborhoods have their own personalities, style, substance, values and, often,…
Like barbecued oysters on bone china or a strand of pearls with faded blue jeans, the Coastal Virginia Magazine Idea House offers the perfect balance of elegance and coastal casual living at the North End of Virginia Beach. Located on…
1. Amazing Architecture: Even before your entrance to the house, plan to be awe-struck on the approach as you take in the nostalgic, Nantucket-style architecture that is described as the “epitome of a coastal lifestyle” by builder Stephen Quick IV of Stephen Alexander Homes. Alluring architectural details include cement, cedar shake siding; grouped and small square windows; and…
Though a barn raising—the collective and voluntary building of a barn by members of a community for one of its own—may seem to us denizens of 2014 a quaint and nostalgic notion, it does serve to remind us of just…
What would possibly make a dignified attorney wear a sparkly gold placemat on his head? One thing: a grandbaby girl. Steve Test and his wife, Maggie, along with Elizabeth and Frank Doll, are just two sets of grandparents among a…
A crushed volcanic rock soaking tub? A rolling barn-style pantry board fashioned from a surf board? A laundry room that will have the kids fighting over who gets to help? Sound like a fantasy house instead of a dream house? It’s not;…
Dinner at the storied and five-starred Inn at Little Washington is surely on every foodie’s Bucket List. Problem is, once you’ve drunk from that particular and pricey well, you thirst to go back again and again because, yes, it really…
2014's COVA IDEA HOUSE Move over “Idea Houses,” there’s a new idea in town. Joining the ranks of prestigious architectural, interior and landscape design showcase homes around the nation—Coastal Living Magazine’s, Southern Living Magazine’s, and more—is our very own Coastal…
2014's COVA IDEA HOUSE These days, there is a lot of talk about “updating” in architectural and interior design. But come October 2014, the first Coastal Virginia Idea House—a partnership between Coastal Virginia Magazine and Chesapeake based Stephen Alexander Homes—will…
The sprawling low-rise buildings, with their nostalgic taupe-colored cedar shake exteriors, still stretch graciously and unassumingly along both sides of Duck Road on a narrow strip of land bordered by pristine Atlantic coastline on the east and the languid shoreline…
Home grown in Virginia Beach, but named after a river in Wyoming, Powder River Paint joins the ranks of “chalk paints” and other boutique products that are all the rage, especially among those who love to give old furniture new…
Donald Hamilton “Don” Clark Whether one knew him as “Protector of the Sand,” “Cowboy Don” or the first name on the masthead of the Clark & Stant letterhead, Don Clark was a civic and legal visionary in Coastal Virginia. …
Though the mountains always beckon, for our third annual hike, my cousin Earl and I chose to spend less time in the car and more doing what we love. As the host, my solution was a hybrid urban hiking-state park…
When you take on an old house renovation project, you expect to learn a lot: a lot about lumber, laminate and latticework. But, in the end, Cindy and Scott Mackey of Norfolk learned some far more important life lessons than…
I wish I’d done it 20 years ago,” asserts artist Sam Hundley on the afternoon of the formal opening of his new Norfolk studio at 2501 Fawn St. “And,” he quips, “my wife wishes I’d done it 30.” Hundley…
Contracts, books by Covey, goal-setting sessions ... sounds like a CEO’s office, right? Wrong. It’s the sunny and spacious Virginia Beach office of guidance counselor Adrienne Pearl, hired in February 2013 as Princess Anne High School’s “graduation coach.” The contracts…
From Claus Ihlemann and Robert Roman’s 35th-floor balcony at The Residences at The Westin in Virginia Beach’s Town Center, both the Norfolk skyline and the Virginia Beach Oceanfront are clearly in view. But, as stunning as this panoramic 180-degree sweep…
All photos courtesy of Jonathan Edwards Media If you could have your (crab)cake and eat it too, wouldn't you? That is, if you could live yearround in the ultimate vacation home nestled into an award-winning neighborhood with the charm of yesteryear and the amenities of…
Like Alice down the rabbit hole, expect to feel pleasantly disoriented when you step inside the “Little Big House.” Is that a salty ocean breeze I feel here in Chesapeake? Have I suddenly started dropping my “Rs” in classic Low…
It seems that everyone who knows Ann Vernon has always considered her a marvel. Now, however, she’s the self-described “Bionic Woman,” courtesy of her LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device), a miniature centrifugal heart pump that is cored into the left…
It takes a village to raise a cottage. That is, it takes the charm, attitude and philosophy of an award-winning neighborhood like Norfolk's East Beach to give rise to the ultimate coastal dwelling. Situated between the epic Chesapeake Bay…
