Pleasant Living

THE CHANGING LOOK OF AN AVENUE KNOWN AS BROAWAY

2013-06-15T17:46:00.002-05:00

REJUVINATION

It seems every spring in New York after the slush has melted, the tulips have finally opened their cups of color and the weather has turned from frigid to short-sleeve the city's inhabitants once again begin to take their seats at the outdoor cafes and public benches that populate the borough known as Manhattan. Faces that had been sheathed in fur lined hats and wool scarves or the ubiquitous hoodie were now discreetly eyeing you up and down or boldly staring at your transition from winter's black to spring's sherbet hues as we walk the streets of the island.

As with every new awakening the city also transforms its attire and neighborhoods that once were sections of seedy luggage and discount clothing vendors mystically find a new set of clothes in sophisticated awnings, freshly cleaned stone and trendy black industrial street level windows. Broadway between twenty-third and thirty-fourth streets was filled with wholesale suppliers to the street vendor trade.

Before the onset of winter unkempt storefronts with hand-painted signs offering cheap costume jewelry and imitation handbags lined the street.

This spring a rebirth has started in one of the few areas left in Manhattan yet to be gentrified. Facades of glorious turn-of-the-century architectural masterpieces long left unattended had now been reborn into sophisticated hotels and European boutiques selling expensive clothes and spa accessories.

The whole tenor of the area is fading from what was a crushed cardboard box strewn series of midtown blocks into a potted plant garden of outdoor delights. For a while we lived not too far from this tin and sequin ghetto. The 28th Street R train was our link to getting Emmy to and from grade school. When we walked from the subway it was always with our heads turned toward the sidewalk dodging discarded Chinese food cartons and the occasional rodent.

I never took the time to look up and see what existed above eye-level. That was not the case this spring. What a shame we missed all that lovely architecture for years. What a delight it was to discover it this spring

A POP-UP EATING GARDEN ON THE EDGE OF MADISON SQ PARK

At the intersection of Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 24th Street, across from Madison Square Park there sits a spit of concrete watched over by a statue of General Worth to the north and the iconic Flat Iron Building to the south. It had been nothing more than a point of egress from the bustle of the office buildings on the west to the serenity of Madison Square Park on the east,

but for the month of May this triangle of cement and iron fencing was transformed into an eating and drinking outdoor garden of innovative street vendors selling the likes of

Seoul Food,

Red Hook Lobster rolls,

People Pops,

and fully dressed Tacate.

Groups of Friday evening twenty-somethings and lucky unsuspecting tourists sat at tables shaded by Marimekko umbrellas under lines of string lights reminiscent of popular European beer gardens but with that unexplainable New York twist.

Every day the tables were packed with people tasting the wonders of exotic grilled cheese sandwiches

and Italian pastas dressed in amazing sauces.

Asian shrimp breaded with honey and served on shredded cabbage in disposable street-wise paper dishes could be devoured for under five dollars. The whole place was a really cheap date. And then when June came the whole scene evaporated. General Worth was left once again to guide those office workers safely across the intersecting of western chaos to eastern tranquility but the haunting peels of laughter generated by the crowd that once was still echoed on that triangular sliver of concrete between Broadway and Fifth Avenue.

THE GALLERY

Flatiron Building, 1946
Harold Roth, photographer
Represented by Elizabeth Clement Fine Art

KIPS BAY SHOW HOUSE 2013

2013-06-07T23:26:00.000-05:00

41ST ANNUAL KIPS BAY DECORATOR SHOW HOUSE

Once again the doors of one of the Upper Eastside's more prestigious townhouses was turned over to another group of New York's most acclaimed designers. Hidden behind a dappled sidewalk at 161 East 64th Street lay the suffocating interior of this year's designer show house. I always remember the event referred to as a designer event not the less complimentary "decorator" moniker but due to my advancing age I could be totally wrong and laziness and the inaccessibility of getting on the internet at La Guardia is preventing me from goggling past events to see if I'm right. I'm sure someone out there will correct me if I'm wrong

I just caught the show on the Sunday before it closed, on one of those dead stagnant days in New York when the heat and humidity combine, coating your skin in a fine mossy film with beadlets of sweat dripping off the back of your neck and down your spine. Being so old school I couldn't don a pair of shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt to go to the show house. No, I needed at the very least a pressed dress shirt, appropriate slacks and shoes with socks and laces. Staying on the Westside I thought it would be a short and beautiful walk to cross Central Park over to the show house. I was wrong. About halfway through the park was when the sweat started its short journey from the nap of neck to the crack of my butt but at half way there, there seemed no point in turning back. The prize at the end of the sojourn would be the cool air-conditioning breezing through the five floors of 161 East 64th.
Each step I took toward my goal came slower and slower as I fought my losing battle against the humid air of that Sunday afternoon. When I reached the front door under the dappled shade of decades old trees my resolve remained high. Unfortunately, my whole body wilted when I crossed the threshold into a completely un-air-conditioned reception area. I wanted to turn around but to where? I paid my $35 in sweaty limp bills and decided to reap my revenge by ignoring the no photography signs posted at every turn and on every landing and on I went camera boldly held in hand to photograph the heck out of every room.
I had to hand it to the designers present that day for the event. No one would want to have to spend an afternoon explaining to the ladies who lunch how sorry they were that their Marc Jacob silk blouses might never recover from those embarrassing underarm sweat stains.
Here are some of my favorite rooms if not favorite designers:

Lets start in the kitchen. Christopher Peacock is one the world's premier kitchen designers and this year's installation was no exception.

What he added this time was a known chef who had the unfortunate obligation of having to be the docent for the kitchen on this particularly uncomfortable day. Julie Elkind was the consummate professional walking and talking anyone through all the bells and whistles of the Peacock kitchen.

What I was surprised at was the use of Kitchenaid appliances and Caesarstone countertops. It was nice to see more moderately priced items in what is normally a knock-your-socks-off budgetary approach.

I loved this little powder room by Andrew Suvalsky Designs. It was mid-century provocative without being too Jonathan Adler. It also set the tone for a lot of lacquer walls throughout the townhouse. I was still sneaking around with my camera at this point and the guards were out in full force on the bottom floor. If I had bigger balls I would have taken more details of this tiny jewel.

Niviera Williams Design added this outdoor oasis in the backyard. The subtle handling of the landscaping along with the minimalist approach to the furniture made a complex design seem simple and tranquil. Who couldn't find a piece of serenity in such a quiet space?

The dining room designed by Kristen McGinnis was a highlight for its inventiveness, its spirit and most of all the graciousness of Kristen who was there sweating away with the rest of us and smiling all the way through it. There is so much to address in this space and unfortunately my little point-and-shoot didn't do it justice.

From the ceiling to the floor each detail went beyond mere object and became poetry in three dimensions. The hanging sculpture by Elliott Hundley made of neon, wood, metal and cork hung from a papered ceiling by Maya Rudolph and then over painted with silver leafing for depth.

But the show-stopper had to be the deconstructed breakfront by Vincent Dubourg. Backed up against these amazing ocean blue lacquered walls. The broken breakfront was more art than buffet. I'm just glad I didn't have to pack this one up after the show came to an end.

Each year there is at least one headliner whose name creates the buzz that brings everyone in. This year, I assume, it was West Coast designer Kathryn Ireland. The irreverent star of Bravo's Million Dollar Designers did anything but an irreverent design in the Master Suite. This room could only be defined as Traditional with a capital "T". It's the room you want to find on your next holiday to Nantucket. It's old world and charming, totally appropriate for a New York show house but unexpected in the reverse.

Most designers who show at these venues want to appear trendy and on the cutting edge. I think Kathryn has the hutzpah to say to hell with that. I'm going to give you the Master Suite I want to sleep in - like it or leave me alone.

I have to end with someone whose work I have respected every since I first saw her name in one of my favorite shelter magazines. Eve Robinson has had a connection with a mutual friend of ours so we've been able to follow her career a little more closely than some other designers.

We'd never met before so it was a real pleasure to see her battling the heat on that horribly humid Sunday and way up on the fifth floor. After a five-flight journey it was a joy and a surprise to see her and her family lounge that she titled "Modern Family".

Danish Modern in design but mixed with contemporary accents the room had a playful feel appropriate for family fun. Nothing seemed too precious and there was lots of space to move around the way a room meant for a family should be.

I know from experience the work and financial commitment it takes to pull off a room in one of these show houses. I know the word decorator shouldn't make my skin crawl but anyone who has been selected to be a part of the Kips Bay show house should be, with reverence, called a designer.

THE GALLERY

Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield at Romanoff's Beverly Hills, 1958
Joe Shere, photographer
Represented by Monroe Gallery, Santa Fe

ICFF 2013 PART 2

2013-05-31T20:45:00.001-05:00

THE TRENDS

Trends are always a part of what bloggers and design soothsayers are on the lookout for at ICFF. I'll admit it; I'm no different. I'm sure there was much more to marvel at then what I'm about to highlight. Having to man our booth didn't allow for a lot of time to see the rest of the show. I was forced to use my flea market buying technique, which requires a roving eye, a pair of track shoes and a great deal of luck.

Here's what I saw that I felt set some worthy trends. First was the introduction of technology, well not just technology but TECHNOLOGY. Now some will say that was so yesterday but the technology at the show this year went way past my imagination. At Focal technology and ergonomics were in full swing with these workstations of the future. These tractor-like seats pivoted from a central stem swaying with your body position as you reached to your right or left.

Everything about the work surface was arranged for maximum utilization of space and included every current gadget you could think of. These workstations were a designer's dream and lines of people trying them out were testament to their originality.

Technologies effect on the senses wasn't limited to sight and touch. Vendors specializing in the field of audio advancement were in abundance at the show, but none were as eye-catching or pleasing to the ears as Oswalds Mill Audio. The shear size of their speakers was enough to make you look twice. Their wooden megaphones atop trapezoidal bases hinted at nostalgia with a very contemporary twist. And the sound was magnificent. I was just thankful we were on the total opposite end of the hall. They ran those speakers at high volume 24/7.

Rugs also did a spin on combining old and new. Since I could only run the show I wasn't able to stop and talk to the people at Jan Kath so I can't really comment on the true technique used here but I can tell you that the results were spectacular. Here's what they looked like. They appeared to have taken vintage Tibetan/Moroccan rugs that may have been worn out in spots and then rewoven over them with new silk and wool.

The effect was like looking at an Egyptian hieroglyph where the colors had faded a bit and parts of the original had been lost exposing the underlying surface but in a good way. I loved these rugs. I loved the sense of history they possessed. I loved the recycled aspect. I loved the designer's ability to choose the perfect colors and the right amount of new weaving to make these awe-inspiring pieces of art. It was no wonder they decided to hang these on their walls rather than lay them on the floor.

Still trending were the references to mid;-century; the forties through the sixties. Jonathan Adler was there with his ever present homage to a bygone Palm Springs but so were FAB with their sixties kitsch that may have swung more toward accessory than furniture.

One of my favorite wall-covering vendors was this small booth of whimsical wallpapers at the near end of our aisle. I never got the vendors name but every time I passed it by on my way out or off for an outrageously priced Grande Java Chip Frappuccino Lite from Starbucks it made me smile.

How could I not end without referencing the biggest trend of the show - the live edge. It seems everyone is jumping on this bandwagon. If saw one live edge table I saw a dozen. Here the people of Sentient have used the live edge on their head and footboards. I expect Crate & Barrel, Room & Board and Pottery Barn won't be far behind with their own versions of the live edge. I actually think I saw a live edge table last week at West Elm.

THE GALLERY

Studio Chair, The Tappen House, Little Compton, RI
Peter C. Jones, photographer
Represented by Bonni Benrubi Gallery

ICFF 2013 PART ONE

2013-05-25T21:38:00.003-05:00

EVERYONE ELSE

As difficult as it had been to get away for even a few minutes at ICFF, I managed to walk, no run, the show on early Sunday afternoon. Every year I'm amazed at the work that goes on display, and this year was no exception. A few steps to our right and you were in the booth for Illuministi, producing modular task lighting.

Their innovative product attracted a crowd the entire show and lit up the very end of our aisle.

Lighting was one of the more impressive categories throughout the entire show. One of my favorites has always been Moooi Lighting out of The Netherlands. We just installed a reception area at one of our current clients using these spectacular LED globes.

Apparatus was another favorite lighting company. When it comes to presentation their booth was that kind of booth that sucked you in. Beside the shear beauty of their product they were smart enough to display their fixtures against a black background making them even more eye-catching.

Two individual lamps that stood out to me were the Fife Tripod lamp designed by Matthew Fairbanks and this screw wall fixture I found in the area designated for designers looking for vendors and manufacturers. I failed to get the name of this designer but his playful wall mounted and table version screw lamps in brightly colored threaded posts and chrome stand-offs made me smile. Here humor was high but not to the detriment of sophistication.

Matthew's floor lamp, on the other hand, with its pencil thin cerused legs, polished chrome sabots and semi-spherical mirror-like shade was a showstopper for me. It was elegant, original and eminently sellable to most of our clients.

My last lighting find was this beautiful hand-blown pendant with a real mid-century feel. Designed by Avram Rusu Studios, it is part of their Confetti Glass Collection. It can be customized in a variety of colors making it a perfect focal point and bounce of color in the right setting.

Furniture wasn't as prevalent as it has been in the past but some of what was presented was worth the look. I'm in love with the work by Tod Von Mertens. Tod is a metal designer by trade but he has managed to blend his metal work with a beautifully polished finish reminiscent of driftwood. When the two materials meet they blur their differences making it almost impossible to distinguish what is metal and what is wood.

There's a lightness to his pieces that comes from his spot-on translation of form and shape into exquisitely tapered legs, elongated boxes and perfectly thin frames that wrap around his drawers.

James De Wulf, a young upcoming designer has found new ways of transforming concrete into tables and chairs that at times look more like plush cushy overstuffed pieces of furniture than virtually indestructible piles of aggregate and cement.

By far the cutest boy on the block had to go to the quirky designer, Palo Samko. One of his most intriguing pieces was a floor lamp that ascended more than fourteen feet from its tripod base to its black shade. It was one of those objects that was so impressive in person but impossible to translate into a single picture. I had to opt for this smaller version. Complementing the lamp were pieces carved out of beautiful chunks of wood and seating wrapped in worn leather. Not completely visible here but if you look closely you can see the inlay on his dresser that gave it the precise detail that takes a piece from the ordinary to the grand.

Not to be left out, for the first time to my knowledge, IKEA made an appearance. I'm sure there are purists who have poo-pooed ICFF for allowing them to exhibit but I for one have used them many times in some of our design projects. Not all of their products will stand the test of time or the crushing pounding of a four-year-old's mighty wheels but their design capability is frequently innovative and always under budget.

THE GALLERY

Cine York, 2011
Roberto Riverti, photographer
Represented by Dina Mitrani Gallery, Miami

THE MENDOTA COLLECTION @ ICFF2013

2013-05-18T21:56:00.000-05:00

MENDOTA

This post is begging to be brief. The introduction of a new line of furniture is exhausting if nothing else. Rick and I have survived day one of the fair too tired to make the Saturday night party, overjoyed to be sinking out heads into 1200 count Egyptian cotton pillowcases, and looking forward to dreams devoid of anxiety.

So keeping to my promise of brevity here's a series of pics taking our booth from nothing to magnificent.

Almost done

THE GALLERY

Woman as a Lamp

Rodney Smith, photographer

Represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery, NYC

ITALY AND ICFF

2013-05-13T00:35:00.002-05:00

GRADITUDE

There's always a breeze slipping up the hill rippling over the vineyard and zigzagging through the cypress trees that stand like sentries along the dirt road leading up to the farm in Armena. For many years we've been blessed to find a low enough gear on our rental car to chug us up the hill to Fattoria Armena, high up in the Tuscan hills where we've taken our holidays on over a half dozen trips. A week here isn't enough. We always take two. Each year we've arrived cementing the bond with the place and the people we share our vacation with. We've now sent groups of friends and brought relatives to Stefania and Alessandro Saraceni's beautiful villa and each visit I've recorded in a scrapbook. It's the gratitude for this opportunity that I'm sharing as we make our reservations for a trip six years in the making. It's been a long time, we've all grown, and aged and moved on, but the pull of this Tuscan haven will always tug at our hearts.

SCRAPBOOKS

I'm not sure if scrapbooking is too Martha Stewart or too the women who think they are Martha Stewart. This whole scrapbooking thing has become a cottage industry if one can call an entire area in your local hobby shop devoted to decals, borders, and bedazzling paraphernalia for putting together memory books a cottage industry. I hope I 've taken a different tact.

I've always collected things on every vacation we've taken: a book of matches here, a brochure there, a napkin from a restaurant where we had a spectacular meal. I'd come home with a bundle of ephemera wrapped in a rubber band and then not knowing what to do with it. I don't know if the idea came to me first or I stole the idea from seeing Martha do it but the scrapbooking idea seemed the perfect means for finding a home for all the things I'd collected from places I never thought I'd actually get to see.
Here are a few of my tips for putting together a scrapbook:

1. Don't buy a themed book with some designer's idea of what your vacation should look like. It may seem the easier way. You might tell yourself you're not talented enough to do it on your own, but no matter how rough around the edges it might be, it'll be truly your own. Buy a beautiful blank book and your set. Buy one with a marbleized cover and everyone will think you're a pro.

2. Don't be afraid to take a picture of a beautiful meal. Food is one of the biggest memories of a trip to somewhere you've never been before. There are so many entrees in our adventures whose presentation has been worthy of a photograph. It makes it so much easier to explain the appeal to everyone at home when you can show them a photo of what you ate before you ate it. A pizza lunch may not have been the most elegant of meals but when your sister's bad Italian ended up with ordering a pizza for everyone at the table a photo of the gluttony was an absolute necessity

3. I've been known to soak off the label of a great bottle of wine whose name I wouldn't have had a chance of remembering without the aid of a slightly tattered label.

4. Never rely on the first photo you take when you're doing pictures of little Ricky and all your friends at the local gelateria. It's always that second or third shot when they drop their frozen smiles and relax into a more candid and animated pose.

5. Bring a set of colored pencils and little sketchpad along with you. I'm hearing everyone out there saying, "but I can't even draw a straight line." First, no one needs to draw a straight line, in fact the more crooked and varied the line the more interesting the line will be. Then don't draw what intimidates you. Draw a beautiful door, a bowl of figs, the best slice of pizza you've ever had. Don't judge what you've done. Appreciate that it's yours.

ICFF

If you're in New York between May 18-21 please stop by the International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Javits Center and see our newest furniture line, The Mendota Collection, for Black Wolf Design. Designed by Rick Shaver and Lee Melahn for the Wisconsin firm, Black Wolf Design

THE GALLERY

Nel bulo di un temporale - Assisi, 1967
Elio Ciol, photographer
Contact: elio@eliociol.it

THE MOST EXPENSIVE RETAIL STREET IN NEW YORK CITY

2013-05-03T17:17:00.000-05:00

BLEEKER STREET

Who knew there was so much money in a cupcake. The stretch of Bleeker Street between Christopher Street and Eighth Avenue has out stripped Bond Street in London and The Champs-Elysees in Paris as one of the most expensive retail streets in the world.

Only some locations on Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue have been able to command a higher price tag than the $6,700 per square foot tag that now hangs on the merchant doors that line Bleeker Street.

The street has become home to big names in the fashion industry, names like Michael Kors, Cynthia Rowley, Marc Jacob

and Ralph Lauren all have shingles facing the street with their names subtly displayed.

Ostentation never appears where real money exists. Let this be a lesson to you Donald Trump.

On this toney stretch of real estate you'll see fashion displayed at its most provocative.

You'll see coach bags displayed with price tags larger than a descent used car

and even the shops for kids exceed the price of a three-course meal with beverages for a birthday party for your seven year-old and thirty of her best friends at your local Applebees.

The draw at the end of the street is still the Magnolia Bakery where the tour buses line up and the Japanese get out with their cameras to take a picture under the awning at 410 Bleeker.

If you go to this swank little area you should also tour the side streets for some of the quaintest architecture New York has to offer.

When I first moved to the city the West Village was still filled with reasonable real estate and an abundance of hippie culture to go along with it.

The village still retains its quirkiness but the price tag is way more silk and cashmere than cotton and denim.

THE JEFFERSON MARKET GARDENS

It's one of the most famous corners in New York City, the intersection of Greenwich, Christopher and Sixth. Shooting Gothic towers to the sky, Jefferson Market, designed by Calvert Vaux and Clarke Withers in 1877

provides the shade and a romantic red brick background for one of Manhattan's most beautiful gardens.

The Jefferson Market Garden now blooms on the site of the former New York Women's House of Detention, a building built adjacent to the market and fittingly torn down so that flowers could grow where previously women had been incarcerated in inhuman facilities.

No longer do you hear the sounds of wailing women screaming from the windows of the jail to people walking below or waiting to hear messages from the loved ones shouting words of longing from the street.

Now beauty prevails where the crumbling house of detention stood.

Glamourous people now sit on benches ringed in tulips reading novels of mystery and squirrels have taken over from the rats take once ruled the street.

THE GALLERY

Ruggiero's Fish Market, 235 Bleeker, 1965

Robert Otter, photographer

Contact at: info@robertotter.com

TRANQUILITY

2013-04-28T07:52:00.000-05:00

SERENITY

Two things happened this past week to inspire this week's post: one was client inspired and the other was media driven.

Hokkaido, Japan, 2002

Michael Kenna, Photographer

Represented by Robert Mann Gallery, NYC

CLIENT

Having a client who is all about serenity is a pleasure as long as the client is serene as well. This client has fulfilled that blend of having a soothing design aesthetic stretching our awareness of element and detail and at the same time allowing us the opportunity to begin designing a space that has energy and interest within that soothing envelope. For this we needed to combine both eastern Zen and western sophistication into one cohesive mix. We're at the beginning of the design phase so I thought I'd share some of our inspiration

MEDIA

Once again our friends at House Beautiful have decided to include us as contributors to their color tip section. This month the issue centered around tranquility, They let us be the lead quote along with a picture of one of our designs, a design wrapped around the word: tranquil.

THE GALLERY

Untitled #147, 2003

Masatomo Kuriya , photographer

Represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC

A LOOK AT LIGHTING

2013-04-20T09:45:00.001-05:00

NEW LIGHTING

One of our current projects has forced us to search out some spectacular and unusual lighting. It's a more challenging task than you'd think. Lighting can span an enormous gap when you start playing the high-low game. There were many beautiful pieces, like this piece by Donghia, that made our jaws drop and then drop again when we asked for the price. So I thought I'd show some of the most interesting pieces we found and let you guess about their high or low value.

I loved the color and playfulness of this glass and metal chandelier. It comes from the Avram Rusu Studio. It's the type of fixture that needs a specific home but it I'd love to design a room around this piece. Anyone out there with a mid-century home that needs some sprucing up, I think I've found a chandelier to inspire you.

The Dione Chandelier by Elk Lighting is a favorite transitional piece of mine. The proportions are right on and it has just the right amount of drama. It comes in several finishes and the shade is sold separately. I love the polished nickel and the price for shade and fixture is under $600. It's a great focal point for a transitionally inspired room with enough drama to make it appear much more expensive than its price tag .

These LED fixtures represent a high-low look at the mini light category. Mooi lighting has come out with these incredible globes. They represent the low end where low can hover around the $2000 to $6000 range.

At Domus Design Collection we found these unbelievably beautiful cubes of light dripping with crystal icicles that reflected and intensified the lighting effect. Designed by Jan Pauwels for Universe these lights hit the higher end of this lighting category soaring into the over $20,000 category. All I can say is it's a lot of fun having the opportunity to look at lighting that falls in this category knowing that you're not just window shopping. I'm pushing for two.

This lighting fixture by Ochre is one of my favorites. It's a springtime rain shower of hand-forged brass fittings with magical glass globes. The designers at Ochre will configure the drops in almost any combination you can think of.

If you want a wall of light, they can do that. If you want a multi-leveled circular tornado of light or a single droplet, they can do it. Unfortunately, it would take a very special client to find a home for one of these fixtures; their price resides in the clouds wherefore they come.

On the low end of the financial ladder are these sky lanterns. Who cannot be moved by a night sky lit by a sea of floating lanterns? Even if the light lasts for only a few minutes of fleeting beauty your heart can't help but melt a little at the sight of hundreds of floating fire balloons slowly rising to the heavens.

Another way of lighting a space without having to take out a loan is with these string lights by Ballard Design. A fifty-foot string costs just under a hundred dollars. String them overhead and it's like taking a trip to an outdoor trattoria in a Tuscan hill town. Screw in the amber glowing bulbs and bring out the Brunello de Montelcino.

I couldn't do a post on lighting without including our very special friends Paul and Marcia at Zia-Priven. Their lamps, chandeliers and sconces are among the most beautiful in the industry. They are also one of the few designers whose work doesn't get pigeonholed into a stylistic category. Their work is at times is transitional and at other times contemporary. Even the traditional fits into their wheelhouse. One of the most novel and show-stopping pieces is their Troy chandelier made out of ping-pong balls. It's tradition with a huge sense of humor.

The fixture we finally settled on is a handmade fixture by Lou Blass. Lou called this his Angular Momentum piece. It's made from textured steel welded together in a chaotic mess of arms and bulbs. Our piece measured seven feet long by three feet wide and three feet high. Using silver bottomed lamps the fixture was a perfect fit for our client's needs.

THE GALLERY

Bathesda Fountain, 2004
Lynn Saville, photographe
Represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery

THE COLOR BLOCKING TREND

2013-04-12T10:34:00.002-05:00

DESIGN FOLLOWS FASHION

Watching the trends in fashion is a sure way of seeing the future looks in the interior design industry. This may not be a complete truism but it's not too far fetched to say that what shows up on the runway is soon to follow in the homes and offices of the design world.

It's not that the interior design field doesn't get to wear the mantle of trend leader at times, it's more due to the fact of how much time it takes to make a garment as opposed to how much time it takes to create an interior environment.

Color blocking has been running down the runway for the past year and showing up on celebrities at all the award shows.

That's why now it's time for it to show up in the pages of the shelter magazines. The whole look of color may have been a reaction to a more positive look from the economy, it could be responding to the termination of political indecision on the presidential front, or it could just be that spring has sprung and with spring there's always an infusion of color

I tend to look at color blocking in two different ways. The more general way is to see massive blocks of color used in stark contrast to one another usually without the interference of pattern.

This way color becomes the message, pure color where the combination of color creates the dynamic, the conflict and the interest.

This is where color blocking reinforces an already existing shape.

It draws attention to shapes that might have gotten lost in less dynamic use of color.

It's a throw back to the 1930's and the work of Mondrian where blocks of primary color were surrounded by deep black lines.

More recently on the catwalks during Mercedes Benz fashion week designers were using color blocking to create shape where shapes didn't exist before.

This seems to reference the work of Frank Stella where color transforms shape to curves where squares had been and squares where circles had existed.

This is the more recent trend I'm seeing in the interior design arena. Interior and furniture designers are using color to create shape and interest where there wasn't any form before. Walls are being broken up and divided in places that didn't have division before color came in.

Rugs take on a shape that wasn't perceived until color took control creating a pattern you couldn't see before.

A floor has a different sense of space with waves of color that are now almost seen as steps up to the reception desk.

Even the exterior of this building now has a playfulness it wouldn't otherwise have without the color blocking on its façade.

It's spring. It's been a long winter. It's time for some color blocking to brighten up the world.

THE GALLERY

Frida Kahlo, 1939
Nickolas Muray, photographer
Represented by Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles

MACY'S 2013 FLOWER SHOW

2013-04-07T21:17:00.000-05:00

THE NEW YORK EDITION

The scent of spring flowers, jasmine, lilies, hyacinths would fill your olfactory senses the minute you opened the doors at the corner of 34th and Broadway.

Macy's has been potting the first floor of the world's biggest department store with exotic plants since 1953. It has only been since the last couple of years that the show has been moved outside to temporary structure covered in canvas with a snaking rope line that made me feel as if I should have my id out, my shoes off and my computer placed in a separate bin.

This year's theme was "The Painted Garden",

a tour through southern Asia on back of tattooed elephant.

The colors are as hot as Indian spices.

The smells are as sweet as rose tea.

Take a tour of the raja's silken tent,

the turbaned trinket vendor's stall

and the amazing display of flowers.
The best part was at the exit door where a man in red Macy's jacket handed out ten dollar gift certificates to those who braved the line. Baby bought a brand new pair of shoes.

THE GALLERY

Tiger Paint for the Onam Harvest Festival
Credit: Reuters

2013 DINING BY DESIGN NEW YORK

2013-03-31T19:59:00.001-05:00

THE TABLES

Another year of creative dining designed by some of the best established and upcoming designers in New York City. Dining by Design, a DIFFA event fundraiser for the fight against AIDS, was eye candy for the culinary inspired.

The event is split into three parts: a dinner where invited guests are actually seated at the tables for an inspired meal catered by some of New York's finest caterers, a cocktail party where entry consists of a $200 donation, and then three days of open viewing to the public as part of your ticket to the Architectural Digest Home Show. Rick and I attended the cocktail party as guests of the New York Design Center and also took Emmy and a pair of clients for a tour of the tables when we went furniture and appliance hunting at the Arch Digest Show.

The Arch Digest show was disappointing this year. In years past the show had opened itself up to a broader range of home essentials. This year the show seemed to predominately focus on two aspects of the home: art and appliances. These are essential aspects of home design but I missed the furniture, lighting, carpets and accessories that had a greater presence in past years. This may bode well for ICFF this year. Where it had been losing ground to the Architectural Digest Show it may now have regained its preeminence as the primary show to introduce new ideas in furniture and design. Since we will be introducing a new line of furniture with Black Wolf Design at ICFF this year we may have lucked into the right time for our introduction. Y'all have your fingers crossed.

Here are some of our highlights from Dining by Design, photos curtesy of Emmy Shaver/Melahn.

Entry into the space was through a cascading waterfall of lights suspended on red cords.

For the cocktail party we were greeted by waiters with glasses of champagne at the ready in front of the Ralph Lauren Table.

For the past couple of years DIFFA has selected designers to mentor groups of students from local design schools in applying their talents to creating tables from a fixed budget. Some of the tables designed this year by the student groups were some of my favorites.

This student table and surround was created out of wire coat hangers.

Benjamin Moore didn't disappoint with color splashed and spilled all over the table, the chairs and the walls to boot.

Fantasy was in full swing at this Fragonard inspired garden party

Guests at the this table were not only treated to the eye candy of the space but literally to the candy itself. The walls were clad in thousands of Hershey candy kisses. No one needed to feel a thief in stealing away with a kiss of their own.

Even Broadaway got in the act with the soon to open, "Kinky Boots" kicking off a table of their own.

Here are some more tables to feast your eyes on.

THE GALLERY

Caravaggio Harvest II

Cy DeCosse, photographer

Represented by Verve Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

EASTER EGGS

2013-03-22T15:27:00.001-05:00

DYING EGGS

It's a bit tough thinking about Easter egg hunts when the weather outside is as frigid as it has been this spring. Spring, can anyone believe that according to the calendar spring is here. I'm thinking that this cold weather demands alternative indoor activities, ones held over steaming pots where the only mittens needed are oven mitts.

Let's dye some eggs.

The “Marvin Stewart” of our household has always had a knack for sucking us in to his Tom Sawyer-esque activities. Here's how our egg dying ritual usually goes. Rick has Emmy donate a couple of pairs of old panty hose from her underwear drawer while I scavenger around for a pair of scissors. Earlier in the day we'd make our way to the grocery store and stocked up on organic eggs, some herbs chosen for the graphic possibilities of their leaves, and then our dying agents: beets, onions and black berries. We also buy a gallon jug of white vinegar and a collection of rubber bands. Other than some big pots and a couple of big spoons our equipment and ingredients would be pretty much in place for, what I have to admit, is an activity to make some of the most beautiful eggs you’ll ever see.

Prep is pretty simple consisting of cutting panty hose into four inch squares, slicing up some beets, pinching some leaves off of our herbs and stripping the skins off of some yellow onions. In separate pots we dumped our onion skins, cut up beets and black berries with a mixture of water and vinegar in a ratio of three parts water to one part vinegar. Then it was on to the stove with our sloshing pots where we cranked up the heat to high until the mixtures came to a boil.

While we were waiting for the water to boil we started placing some leaves on the squares of panty hose. We each add our own artistic touch but it was Emmy’s use of oregano spears that seemed to produce the best results. After the leaves were in place we gently laid the eggs down on the leaf and panty hose blankets, pulled the hose up tight around the eggs, and twisted and sealed the little Easter packages with a rubber band.

Our next step in our egg bondage routine is to cut off the excess nylon leaving the eggs look a band of comic bank robbers.

The last act is to drop the eggs into the pots and let them sit for a couple of minutes in the bubbling mixture. The denser the amount of dying agent and the longer the time left in the dye will produce the more intense colors. Once Rick had approved of our work he turned the heat off and covered the pots of the newly tattooed eggs. We left the eggs sit over night and when we woke in the morning we fished out the eggs, cut off the hose and blotted the eggs dry. The result was some of the most beautiful Easter eggs our home had ever seen.

Here's a list of some other natural dying agents you can use and the color result you can expect from the dying process

Cranberries = pale purple

Raspberries = lavender

Pomegranates = light red

Beets = pale pink

Turmeric = bright yellow

Red cabbage = dark blue

Coffee grounds = dark brown

Onion skins = sepia

Spinach = pale green

Blueberries = blue to purple

THE GALLERY

Hyper No8, 2007

Denis Darzacq, Photographer

Represented by Laurence Miller

THE VISION COUNCIL ONE MORE TIME

2013-03-17T21:06:00.000-05:00

2013

Everyone strives to get a bread and butter client, someone who comes back time after time because they believe in what you do. Those are the clients you love working with. The Vision Council is that client for us. They know what they want and they are appreciative for all you do. This is a big thank you to a group whose relationship I will always appreciate.

With that said here are some pictures of this year's press booth for the 2013 Vision East Convention.

THE GALLERY

Truman Capote, New York, 1965

Irving Penn, photographer

Represented by Pace/MacGill Gallery

THE ARMORY SHOW

2013-03-09T09:27:00.000-06:00

THE ARMORY SHOW

There was a bit of mist in the air. I'd grabbed the 57th Street crosstown and walked from Eleventh Avenue over to Pier 94. I'd never done the Armory Show before and definitely not with a VIP ticket, the one Alice said she'd have for me if I'd meet her at the entrance to Pier 92. Pier 94 was the bigger Pier with a grander bar but both Piers were pretty impressive. Alice was the only working artist, assembling one of her ball chain works as attendees walked by or waited in line to check their coats. Pier 92 was assigned the title of Modern Works while Pier 94 was given the more general title of Contemporary Art.

As I managed the treacherous task of crossing the West Side Highway I realized most people attending the Opening Event at the Armory Show don't use the crosstown bus to get there. A line of black Rolls-Royces lined the entry and glamour and money hopped over the wet pavement trailing furs and Armani into the VIP event. I had never realized how tall money is. I stand just shy of six feet and I was dwarfed by both men and women. Maybe it's a new generation and with every ensuring generation a certain amount of gained height seems to appear but I was under the armpits of men in the six-six range most discussing in a language that seemed like German the aesthetic qualities of the women cat-walking the aisles in stiletto heels.

I have to admit I too was more interested in the people than art, not only the tall ones but the ones making the scene a scene, screaming out to be seen in hair spiked two feet over their scalp or wearing colors that bellow look at me. I only wish I had the courage to snap more pictures of the intriguing and bizaare. I've never been able to find the protocol for that kind of guerrilla photography: do you snap first and try to catch the spontaneity and then get reprimanded for having taken the picture or do you ask permission and then end up with a lifeless portrait?

Now to the show. I will never claim to be a Peter Schjeldahl but here are some pieces that made me stop looking at the people and focus on the art.

Mel Bochner

Blah Blah Blah, 2012

Monoprint with collage, engraving and embossment

Represented by Sims Reed Gallery

There's a three dimensionality in his work that combined with the raw color is very attractive

Chiyu Uemae

Untitled, 1959

Oil on canvas

Represented by Whitestone Gallery

The Asian aesthetic is so evident in his work,that attention to detail that can be missed unless you get right up on the work. The meticulous use of minute pattern is amazing. It pulls you to where you get lost and surrender to its soothing nature

Tom Duncan

Dedicated to Coney Island, 1984-2002

Mixed Media

Represented by Andrew Edlin Gallery

This piece is just total fun. It's interactive. It pulls you back to a childhood delight at pushing buttons making Ferris Wheels spin and trains go back and forth.

Deborah Butterfield

Untitled, 2012

Found steel, welded

Represented by Danese Gallery

I first heard about Deborah when she taught at the University of Wisconsin. One of her pieces graces the entry to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Her horses are amazing, graceful and emotionally packed

Cameron Gray

Yellow Mao (After Warhol), 2013

Oil on wood tiles

Represented by Carl Hammer Gallery

Here is another work that needs to be viewed from two different points-of-view. From a distance it appears as an homage to Andy Warhol's Mao prints but as you get closer you begin to see that the image is really made up of hundreds of hand painted tiles of everything from flowers to babies. Cameron works out his pieces on his computer and then enlists hundreds of artists to each paint a tile in a color and theme that he has designated. The results are phenomenal.

Alice Hope

Untitled, 2012

Ball chain; neodymium magnets on steel plate

Represented by Ricco/Maresca

I couldn't end without showing one of Alice's astounding constructions where she explores ordinary materials, magnetism, and the relationships between science and art.

THE GALLERY

Trine Sondergaard

Guldnakke #5, 2012

Photograph

Represented by Bruce Silverstein Gallery

As seen at the Armory Show

DISCOMBOBULATED - TWICE

2013-03-03T20:56:00.000-06:00

A NEAR DEATH

Lets start this posting out with my arrival back in the Big Apple a week ago this evening. I started the journey here on a Badger Bus, a mode of transportation used primarily by college students and one woman who talked from Madison to Milwaukee on her throwaway phone to a friend about how the two of them were going get ripped on tequila and squirt cheese while watching the academy awards in celebration of her recent release from incarceration from a bar fight where she blooded a no-good fat bitch.
Every time we made a stop the driver did his welcoming speech and informed us that the wifi password was the clever "badgerbus". I pulled out me computer and for fifty-nine miles I used my left knee and hand as a stabilizing support for the vibrating bus table while trying to find the badger bus server with a one finger typing scheme from my shaking right hand. I never succeeded.

I did get to open up my computer a the airport and on the plane but I never did get on line. The airports and planes have found some perverse way of blocking my Verizon hot spot devise from working so you can only use their Gogo connection which, of course, comes with a cost.
By the time I got to the apartment I was too exhausted to open the lid on my MAC. Refreshed on Monday morning I set myself up to take a look at my email and get started back to work. I pressed the start button, the screen lit up in that soft fuzzy grey color. The wheel started spinning and then spinning and then...nothing. Time after time I tried to start up my link to the world, my best friend, the thing I rely on to get me through the day, but nothing. It had left me.
This is all in explanation for why I'm so late in posting this week. IO wait patiently, now linked to a temporary life line with a rental computer, while the best experts in the world work over the barely breathing carcass of my beloved friend and keeper of all too many secrets. Get well cards are greatly appreciated.

THE VERA LIST PROJECT

In the meantime I spent Thursday night equally discombobulated, but this time not necessarily because of my missing computer. I had RSVP'd to an event sponsored by the New York Design Center and 1stdibs for the Vera List Art Project, a philanthropic project where artists donate prints for sale with the profits benefiting Lincoln Center. Thinking the event was at Lincoln Center I thought I had all the time in the world to get from the apartment on West 75th Street to Lincoln Center on 63rd and Broadway. Wanting to arrive fashionably late for the event scheduled from five to eight I decided to walk the twelve blocks. I though six was an appropriate starting time. The weather was nice, why not? For the next hour and a half I walked from the opera to the ballet to the symphony and past the opening of Holland Taylor's new production of "Ann" without finding anyone who knew a lick about the Vera List event. It finally dawned on me that perhaps the event wasn't at Lincoln Center but somewhere else. At 7:45 I mad it into the elevator at 200 Lex and up to the 10th floor, home of the 1stdibs showroom, where I got the last glass of white wine and a carrot cake muffin. Here are some pictures of the event:

THE GALLERY

Daughter of the Circus
Michael Garlington, photographer
Represented by Gallery 291, San Francisco

SEX IN THE CITY

2013-02-23T19:12:00.002-06:00

TITILLATION AND QUIVERING

My guess is this title might get me a few more hits than normal. Sex always sells
For me there's a fine line between sex and romance and an even finer line between titillation and quiver that aspect of desire that makes your body shake. Trying to define those differences in the city that doesn't sleep is a very personal and subjective task.
This whole idea began as I was trying to find a short cut between a job on Lafayette and our office on Varrick. I was zigzagging through Soho at mach speed when I saw a crowd milling around cameras at the ready. They had gathered around a small shop called Agent Provocateur. Let me tell you it wasn't the name that drew the crowd's attention. Perhaps the name on its own might titillate your fingers to do a tap dance over your keyboard hitting the search button but it was what was going on in the front window that was creating that quiver effect. This lingerie shop was pushing the envelope on eye candid and desire.

I've seen other shops where the tableaux of real models try to trick you into thinking they're made of plaster and resin. Their immobility keeps them asexual even in the skimpiest of costumes.

I've walked through the Red Light District in Amsterdam where the ladies of the night light themselves up in dolled up windows layered in brocade their faces painted like circus clowns. Amsterdam was far scarier than being either titillating or quivering.

Although Agent Provocateur got the blood running to places on the male anatomy that only Mae West could get away with referencing and if you're old enough to know what I'm talking about you can explain it your grandkids.

The model wasn't holding anything back. She had more come hither gestures and fanny gyrations than Miss Piggy at a green frog convention.

For those on the other side of the fence there's Abercrombie & Fitch's flagship shop on Fifth Avenue. The magnificent staircase of painted fantasies of ivy league athletes done by Mark Beard makes a boy's knees start to buckle as he walk up those stairs one tread at a time.

Mark is a master of perspective and an incredible chronicler of the male physique.

Of course A&F has made a fortune of glorifying the male form stationing six-pack abs at the gateway to their castles of apparel.

Sometimes I'll buy a t-shirt just so I can walk out with an A&F bag.

THE GALLERY

The Women of the Red Light District of Storyville, New Orleans 1912
E.J. Bellocq, photographer
Represented by Julie Saul Gallery, NYC

VALENTINE'S PINK

2013-02-14T09:50:00.003-06:00

FINDING A WAY TO APPRECIATE PINK

This one is getting in just under the wire. Valentine's day has always had me flummoxed. I definitely have a romantic side. I'll cry at chic flicks, heck I'll cry at a Folgers commercial. I'm not afraid to say I love you. I demand romance in a bedroom design, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around pink.

It may have come from my stay in California between undergraduate and graduate work that took me back to the Midwest. There was something about the profusion of pink in that Southern California architecture that reminded me of Pepto-Bismol and that would get my stomach churning.

So for today I'm going to try and get over my aversion of pink and embraces the holiday with a succession of images where pink has done the almost impossible of making me appreciate it or at least made me laugh. You can be the judge.

In design one of my favorite ways to swallow a gulp of pink is to pair it with a complimentary color. It tends to take the sweetness out.

Grey is also a way of butching up pink pulling it out of glitzy and giving it a more sophisticated appeal

Pink also seems to work better when you bring it into a vintage mid-century concept

And then there are those uses of pink that can't help make you gasp

or just make you smile.

So in honor of the day, here's to pink

THE GALLERY

Flying Colours, Part of MAC Cosemtics Campaign
Cindy Sherman, Photographer
Represented by Gagosian Gallery, NYC

CHELSEA MARKET

2013-02-08T17:14:00.000-06:00

TO MARKET TO MARKET

I've been running around the city trying to discover enough Moroccan poofs and rugs to create the illusion of Marrakesh in a tiny breakout room for a company that pushes the envelop on bizarre ways to stimulate creativity in its design team. I can't say that it hasn't been fun but it's been frustrating at the same time. The fun part coming from getting the opportunity to be giddy with color, wild with pattern and pushing my own imagination with suspended Moroccan screens, sparkling bangles on curtains and over-dyed Persian rugs. The frustration comes with trying to find the artifacts of a fad that isn't really in fashion anymore. I've taken two trips across the Hudson: one to Jersey City and the other to Hoboken in search of Moroccan treasures. What I found were warehouses filled with twenty-year-old props used and used again at theme parties from misdirected bar mitzvahs and bachelor parties where the honorees left stains I don't even want to speculate on all over vinyl ottomans and polyester divans.

I finally had to turn to Martha for advice. This is no lie. If you google Moroccan furniture you get an old article for Martha Stewart Living where she, well one of her minions, raves about a Moroccan importer who had set up tent in the dunes of Chelsea Market. In frustration I decided to stay on the east side of the Hudson and brave a windy walk to Ninth Avenue and Chelsea Market. I had totally forgotten how much fun the market is. It's over-the-top industrial chic is exposed throughout the snaking hallways where the scale of real life is abandoned to chains as thick as your arm and faucets only someone the size of Shriek could manage to use.

Theatricality dances throughout with a major feature being a huge stream of running water lit in dramatic red lights.

Then there is a central archway made of a million tiny lights creeping like a gigantic spider web around an antique clock. There are so many lights your eyes can't fully take them in as you walk through the arch. They become a blur of white streaks the way an image on film appears when the camera moves too fast and solid forms become translucent as they rush across the screen.

The Market is the former Nabisco Baking Company. The first structures were built in the 1890's as a consortium of a dozen baking companies. The company and its buildings grew into a complex of over 22 buildings and more than 2 million square feet by the late 1950's. By the early 70's the way of baking had changed from a vertical process to a horizontal one better suited to the long one story buildings cropping up in the outlying areas of New York and New Jersey. In the 1990's the building was bought out by the investor Irwin Cohen and a syndicate of buyers who turned the building into office space for a new wave of technology companies.

This is when the ground floor was converted into a sea of new bakeries, food purveyors and local merchants selling very unique goods.

Locals go here for the staples of life from chacuteries to fresh flowers for the table.

Tourists have also found out about the market and come to walk the halls stopping to smell the herbs at the Epicure Emporium

or warm up with cup of Joe while a cold February wind blows outside.

There so many wonderful places in New York that you can forget about some of them but the joy of rediscovery can be very sweet, especially at one of Chelsea Markets pastry shops.

THE GALLERY

Vesuvio Bakery, 160 Prince St, NYC
Frank H. Jump, photographer along with thousands others

PRIDE AND A CASE OF WEAK MORTAR

2013-01-31T21:30:00.002-06:00

A DEVELOPING DESIGNER

The debate goes on between hereditary and environmental acquisitions of talent. Are you born with the ability to see space and combine pattern and color or do you develop the talent? Case in point: our daughter. Since Emmy was adopted and we didn't use a surrogate there's no blood relationship here, but as sure as I am that Sarah Palin is a tea party conservative, Emmy shows the begins of being a gifted designer. I guess we'll never know if her sense of style was passed down from her birth parents or if it came from just hanging around with us (we've been told by several sources that we do have a knack with that sort of stuff). Emmy seems to be turning into the little designer.

Take a look at her room. The first thing that struck a cord was her understanding of concept. She wasn't willing to go out and buy just anything that caught her eye. She really stopped to ponder what it was about the feel of the room she wanted to create. Her budget was very limited and she had to work with a lot of things we already had, but she knew what she wanted was a sense of joy mixed with nostalgia.

She chose a period in time and although I didn't see her racing to the library to do any pictorial research she paid close attention to her movie references and picked up on the bohemian eclecticism of the sixties.

She then began to space plan her room doing a layout with moveable pieces representing her furniture. By this time she had a strong understanding of how she actually uses her space and how she prefers to live her life. She isn't one to sit down at desk to do her homework. Instead everything gets spread out on the bed where she lies on her stomach typing away on her computer while plugged in to her iphone listening to her music. I always give her a hard time about music but secretly I think she has a very sophisticated playbook ranging from Mumford and Sons on into Adele and Lana Del Rey.

Her room is a vision in color and pattern with a million personal touches that explain her passions and her past. Every little setting is a tableau. Her dressing table is right out of a movie set. Her bed is fit for an Indian princess. I tried to push her to go over the top but she knew when enough was enough and she wouldn't let me sway her.

When you can see your own passions showing up in the soul of your child life takes on an astonishing new meaning. It might be too early to say she's found a path in life, a direction, she-s only sixteen but to see her enjoy our profession and start to pick it up as her own is a reward a parent dreams of.

FATE

We'd been trying to figure out our role in Madison as designers and retailers. Our furniture and interior design have always been our main focus. The retail aspect of our journey here was always a way to the means. We thought the retail might provide us with some recognition and a means to acquiring a reputation and through that a client base. It had started to look like the retail part of our business had done what it could. Location is a big factor in Madison and we were too naïve to think that if you built it they would come.

Our retail clientele started dwindling and our design business started skyrocketing in the New York area. Our diligence with the store had begun to wane. Sometime last week around Friday or Saturday fate seems to have taken over when the front of our beloved little bungalow decided to part ways with the rest of the house. We're taking this as a sign and moving our design works to our home office until we find out we can't stand to be with each other 24/7. The phone remains the same, 608 251-0995. It may take us a little while to settle in but be patient. Who knows, we may end up a pop-up store somewhere where you least expect it.

THE GALLERY

Still from Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock"
Photographer unknown

A STORM IN BLUE-GREY

2013-01-25T09:33:00.000-06:00

CREATING THAT MOMENT JUST BEFORE THE STORM

We've visited this moment before, that time in a weather pattern when the air is so still the leaves are like pieces of steel immobile against a blue-grey sky. The beating rain is still miles away. It's that time that makes you want to go inside to pull up a comfortable chair in front of a big window with a warm cup of coffee and take in the amazing beauty of Mother Nature's spectacle. It's a combination of tranquility and danger.

Wallpaper designed by Little Owl Design in Holland brings that moment of tranquility and danger inside.

Here it spreads that moment into a constant with their paper called appropriately, "Storm".

My favorite designers, Shelton-Mindel, have added the hint of the storm to this design in a more contemporary space. You get the color of the storm and just as in the real world the sun can still shine through in that moment when the storm is approaching but rays of light burst through the clouds like flood lights on a stage.

The moment before a storm can also bring a chill. There can be a sudden drop in temperature. It's that time when you pull out the cashmere throw to wrap around you as you curl up in that overstuffed chair or slip into a bed with throws by Restoration Hardware.

The contrast here pits the warmth of a vintage sofa against the cool of the raw concrete wall. It's the same combination that causes a storm when a high front meets a low and the thunder and lightening starts it's showy side.

Here in Wisconsin we have the Iron Horse Hotel where comfort exists in a palette of stormy colors and materials. Milwaukee may not be the first city to come to mind in design but it's a city that holds design in high regard and contains a cache of amazing design jewels.

A starker more dangerous approach to the storm inside happens in this space using faux metal panels made of ceramic tile by Oxy and available through Nemo Tile in New York. That coldness of steel and danger of graffiti make a perfect interior storm.

Even the kitchen can pull in the essence of a storm through color. This kitchen captures the beauty and peacefulness of a warm rain.

As the temperatures here drop into the negative numbers the thought of summer storm is warming and inviting and a diversion from the winter cold.

THE GALLERY

Cloud Tornado
Marc Yankus, photographer
Available through: sales@photographersgallery.com

"Q" STANDS FOR WHAT?

2013-01-19T14:44:00.000-06:00

"Q"
It was Rick's turn to define a design tip. I would have hit the obvious: quantity vs. quality, a queer eye, or quintessential choices. This would never have been Rick's way; no. He comes up with the "Quiver-leg". Sometimes I just feel stupid.

QUIVER-LEG

In historical styles the quiver-leg is described as a round, tapered chair leg used in the Louis Seize style and similar styles. I find it a very early example of modernism; though it was fluted it was a much simpler, less ornate leg than those that came before it.

Look at the legs of a lot of mid-century modern furniture and there you will find that leg, minus the fluting, used in abundance. The simple beauty of T.H. Robsjohn Gibbings furniture in the 1940's for Widdicomb Furniture company gave rise to the frequent use of this style of leg in the Golden age of Modernism and has continued to be an elegant form to this day.

It is now a classic furniture form and whether plump or attenuated, it adds elegance to any piece of furniture it graces.
We've used it on several pieces in our new Mendota collection.

THE MURALS OF NEW YORK

This started out as a research project on graffiti for a current project we're working on in New York. The graffiti got me thinking about wall art either aerosoled or painted on the walls of New York City buildings done both legally or initially illegally. The history of tag art goes back to its initial illegal roots in the 1980's.

Then in 1993 the Phun Phactory was opened in Long Island city where graffiti signers were given a place where they could legally create their art on the walls of an old factory building. The Phun Phactory is now known as 5ptz (5 Points), an outdoor art gallery, art school and indoor studio space for the graffiti aficionados. It attracts artists from all over the world and tour buses of admirers who line the streets with cameras taking in the vibrant ever-changing façade of this Long Island building

One of New York's most prominent vigilante artists was Keith Haring. I can remember seeing his chalk drawings showing up in Subway stations across Manhattan in the late 80's, early 90's. His cartoonish characters and amazing sense of pattern were ingenious. Another soul lost way too soon, some of Keith's outdoor murals have survived and have been preserved. That's a good thing.

Much of the original graffiti of the late 20th century was considered vandalism and many of the original artists were arrested for their expression. On the other hand the depression era of the 1930's also produced a bunch of wall art some of which couldn't have happened without the support of the government and the WPA. A prime example of this is the McGraw Rotunda in the New York Public Library. The Story of the Recorded World, is a series of four arched panels painted on the ceiling of the rotunda, think Michelangelo, painted by Edward Laning from 1938-1942. Thematically the murals are a combination of religious moments and their recorded history through the written word.

Done at approximately the same time, one can once again see the amazing murals of the life of Theodore Roosevelt in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda at the American Museum of Natural History.

The murals painted by William Andrew MacKay in 1935 have gone through a lengthy renovation and have recently reopened to the public.

Similar to the controversies facing the graffiti artists of the 80's, this era of massive mural art was not without its controversy. There is a beautiful mural enveloping the lobby of 30 Rockefeller Center. Originally painted by the Mexican artist, Diego Rivera, titled, Man at the Crossroads, this mural included society women drinking alcohol, images of jail cells and a very controversial image of the Russian leader of communism, Vladimir Lenin. How the Rockefellers missed these aspects of the mural prior to it being completed is a bit amazing to me but, nonetheless, when the painting was completed the Rockefellers were so outraged that the mural was shrouded behind a curtain and then destroyed. The current mural was substituted for the original. Painted by the Spanish artist, Josep Maria Sert, it is titled, American Progress, and depicts a group of more appropriate historical figures like Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

One of my favorite murals is at the back of the bar in the St Regis Hotel. Painted in 1932 by Maxfield Parrish, the mural depicts the nursery rhyme of, Old King Cole. The mural suffered the effects of most bar art during the later part of the 20th century. Saturated with the smoke from cigarettes and cigars, the natural accompaniment of beer and alcohol, The King Cole mural needed some emergency restoration.

The mural is now back in place and the new non-smoking regulations that are now law in almost every city will insure that the mural delights new imbibers for generations to come.

THE GALLERY

Bijou of Montmarte, 1933
Brassai, photographer
Rperesented by Edwynn Houk, NYC

DESIGN TIPS

2013-01-11T12:51:00.000-06:00

THE LETTER "H" IN DESIGN

This week all of the Access to Design designers were given a task of coming up with a design axiom formulated after a letter from the alphabet. I was given "H", Rick has to deal with "Q". The full alphabet will be published on 200 Lex's website: www.NYDC.com. There are then plans to film each of us in a showroom at the New York Design Center presenting our design tip. Can't wait for that part.
Here's my tip:

H is for Height, the forgotten dimension in many design schemes. We all tend to start out looking down on our schemes and floor plans, deciding where we want walls, how we want to move through our spaces, and where we want to place our favorite chair. It's that third dimension that many people find it difficult to come to terms with. That's why a living room ends up looking unfinished and drab because the height of the sofa is the same as the height of the tv console, and that beautiful club chair you just had to have all seem to end at about waist height.

In making a room look complete you have to address the vertical elements making sure you've added variety and keep your eye lifted up rather than cast down. Break up the walls with floor lamps giving the wall a vertical break. Use window treatments to draw the eyes up and soften a harsh stark one-dimensional wall.

Add a tall piece of furniture like a hutch or an armoire to give added storage and a relief from the monotony of a furniture plan bogged down with elements all tethered to a plan that doesn't reach for the ceiling but ends about a third of the way up the wall. Don't forget height when planning out any living space. It can stretch a room from humdrum to totally satisfying.

MORE OR LESS
I have always contended that good design doesn't depend on money, at least not money alone. I've spent a career matching "the proverbial Gap T-shirts with Armani suits "or the decorating equivalent to that fashion trick employed by many even the ever stylish Sharon Stone in order to create beautiful spaces while trying to stay on budget. The trick here is to watch the quality quotient. Finish is usually the first give-away of a poor quality item. Wood should look like wood, stone should look like stone, and you get the idea. These days construction doesn't have to be flimsy to make something for a lesser price and veneers are used throughout the industry whether high or low. Just pay attention to how they are cut, glued up and used. MDF is not a four-letter word but particleboard is. Structure is important. Chairs, sofas and benches should support people of substantial size and tables should never wobble. This week's light fixtures have the feel of expensive jewelry. One is the equivalent of real diamonds and the other may be a bit more like paste but the look is hard to distinguish.

The Mother Chandelier from designer Baran Baylar at Hudson Furniture. $25,000 in nickel, $29,000 in bronze
36W x 60H

Arteriors the Yale 4L iron cascading chain chandelier $1134
15W x 57H

OUR FIRST AWARD FOR 2013

We weren't even aware that we were being considered for this award but it was a wonderful little surprise in my email from the people at Design Shuffle. We were selected as one of 10 winners in the Mid-West region based on popular votes by the Design Shuffle community and industry
Here's a link to the award post:
http://www.designshuffle.com/blog/the-design-shuffle-top-10-of-20130-winners/
Thanks Design Shuffle!

THE GALLERY

Mountains
Ansel Adams, photographer
Represented by Weston Gallery, Carmel, CA

THE VIEW TO ABOVE

2013-01-04T10:11:00.000-06:00

LOOKING UP INSIDE

When I first moved to New York a friend gave me some very good advice. One afternoon we were walking around the city looking at the quaint picturesque shops and streets in the Village. It was like a movie set compared to the gravel roads and strip malls I grew up with back home in Georgia. I kept marveling at the beauty in front of my face but it was my friend who said, "Don't forget to look up". I might have walked right down that street full of shops for a decade of time without seeing the exquisite beauty of the rooftops and terra cotta work that adorned the tops of those shops. It was a series of crowns on top of architectural royalty. The sidewalk perspective belied the detail and glory of the beauty that rested above my eye level. I've been sure to look up ever since. This advice has served me well in my current career as an interior designer. All of this is to say if you're designing or decorating a room, don't forget to look up.

CEILINGS IN HISTORY

The religious have always looked to the heavens for guidance and inspiration. No ceiling is more famous than the Sistine Chapel done by the master ceiling painter, Michelangelo. If you were a docent here I'd hope you'd be eligible for free chiropractic sessions for that crick in your neck form always looking upward to this breathtaking vista.

On a more recent note here in New York a piece of overhead history is frequently over-looked by millions hurrying and scurrying through Grand Central Station. The ceiling of Grand Central was painted to represent the astrological sky in 1912. Some time in the thirties the sky was painted and plastered over to hid cracks and the erosion of what was thought to have been caused by the coal and diesel smoke from the trains entering and leaving the station. When the restoration of the ceiling was begun it was discovered that the discoloration was actually the result of tar and nicotine from the millions of commuting smokers that left their mark over decades. Now the ceiling is a spectacular mural in green and gold of the celestial skies unfortunately painted backwards. Oops.

Back in Wisconsin the State Capitol is a wonder of coffering and murals painted by the artist, Edwin Howland-Blashfield. Back when kids were allowed a greater freedom and I was a pre-teen; on weekends I'd take my quarter, walk the mile and a half to the closest bus station and ride to downtown Madison. I'd roam the capitol from the maze of hallways, to the secret museums, to the center of the rotunda where you could look up in awe at the incredible spectacle of the ceiling above.

CEILINGS THAT INSPIRE

Here are some ideas for ways to make the ceiling in your room something to inspire, something to make you want to look up.

There is no rule that says a ceiling must be white. Use color to create drama from above. Using a dark color can make a cavernous space seem more intimate.

Painting the ceiling the same color as the walls can create a sense of spaciousness where the envelope can almost disappear leaving a very Zen quality to a room.

Wallpaper isn't for walls only. Here the wallpaper is brought from the wall right up over and onto the ceiling. The bold pattern in this soft grey room adds interest to a space that could be a little too bland without it.

We've used wallpaper on the ceilings of several of our projects. Here the ceiling is filled with a field of stars making reading in this library an adventure in the outdoors.

Another way to make people look upward is to take away the ceiling and let the structure that would support it be exposed. The pattern of exposed beams and trusses can be very exciting.

Or here where the structure of the ceiling is open covering the mechanical aspects of the space in a pattern based on ancient structural methods. You can see through its laciness in a way that makes what lies behind it a mystery that you want to solve.

This coffered ceiling raises your eye and your spirit as you enter this space. The space is not ecclesiastical but the feeling is one that can't help make you sense a greater presence.

So look upwards in your design work and give your space a sense of rising above the ordinary and stretching your design to attain an extraordinary canopy of interest and beauty.

THE GALLERY

A Perfect 6am Walk
Mathijs Delva, photographer
Available at http://www.mathijsdelva.be

WINTER WHITE

2012-12-28T10:26:00.000-06:00

18 INCHES

We're always dreaming of A white Christmas...this year we got our wish in spades. It seems Madison was the epicenter of a huge snowstorm that blew through the Midwest just before Santa was to glide through on his sleigh. Seems someone thought he needed a very cushioned landing pad so they spilled eighteen inches of the kind of snow every kid dreams of and every snow shoveler dreads. It was eighteen inches of the best snowman making variety, the kind that bonds together so you can easily roll a small ball into a giant one but if you have to shovel it it's like a fifty pound bag of slush with every scoop.

I shoveled, by hand, six times that day and by the last shoveling I was throwing those fifty pound loads to a height even with the top of my head. We've decided a snow blower is more than likely in our future.

WHITE

The snow inspired me to think of white in design (after all, white is all I've been seeing for the past week) and because of the holiday and the limited amount of time I have to but into the blog this week I'm going to just let you look at the beauty of white and keep my pithy comments out of the way this time. For all of you who didn't get to enjoy a white Christmas this is my gift to you.

THE HOLIDAY PARTY

Last year it was the ugly sweater competition, this year my sister came up with idea of hats that represented either a Christmas movie or song. Let the cleverness commence.

My brother-in-law didn't exactly but a lot of effort into his hat nor was it one that took us a lot of guessing to figure out but it was very amusing and Dan is nothing like a Scrooge. My mother's hat on the other hand had us all thinking for quit some time until we put the pieces together like a pictograph and realized the three bells and a rock read as, "Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock".

Our daughter's approach was a little more destructive. She tore the leg off of a Barbie, drew a fishnet stocking on it with a magic marker, fashioned a yellow lampshade with black fringe out of construction paper

and turned out the perfect iconographic image for the movie "A Christmas Story".

But the winning hat belonged to my sister who put together the makings of, "Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go". The trick here was realizing that the picture of the house on her head was actually our own Grandmother's house. I was not looking forward to this challenge but it actually was a lot of fun. Hope everyone had a joyous, humorous holiday filled holiday with as much laughter and good cheer as we did. Happy Holidays to all.

THE GALLERY

White Christmas, 2012

Emmy Shaver/Melahn, photographer

Represented by Pleasant Living