Photo by Michel Arnaud

Thanks to the wizardry of Etienne Coffinier and Ed Ku, a tiny room in an Upper East Side brownstone now lives on as this cozy and cohesive sitting room. The designers, the pair behind the Manhattan firm Coffinier Ku, are known for their French-trained aesthetic and their custom furnishings—not to mention a certain fearlessness when it comes to whimsy (see their room in this year's Kips Bay Decorator Show House). "Overall, we wanted to create a very calm room—one where you could come and truly relax," they explain. "We also love that this room doesn’t shout at you but that you discover more and more interesting design details the longer you spend here."

1. People often worry that large furniture makes a small room feel smaller when, in fact, the opposite can be true. The trick is having something designed for the space. "We designed this large sectional, which runs almost the entire length of two walls in the room," say Coffinier and Ku. "It opens up the room so that it feels spacious, and is highly functional: this piece can fit a very comfortable amount of people for a get together."
2. Because of the size of the room, the designers custom-made select pieces of furniture, such as the coffee table, which seems to float. A cerused oak forms the top of the cantilevered table as well as the sofa arms: "We played with materials to maximize the usable space for a table."
3. "We used white sheers with a loose thread detail from Nobilis from wall to wall, creating an expansive feel," say the designers. "It helps unify the room when the sheers do not only go around the windows." They also help solve the problem of unevenly placed windows. "The right window butts into the corner and the left window had over a foot of wall to the corner. With a continuous sheer, you don’t notice these problems. We also created a curtain pocket with the crown molding so that the head of the drapery is hidden."
4. About that fireplace: "We were lucky enough to have a fireplace in this room, so we decided to accentuate that feature by cladding the section of wall with the fireplace in cerused oak." The wood paneling creates a clean, modern look that eliminates the need for a mantel. The designers also hung a funky mirror over the fireplace, which helps open up the space.
5. To echo the coffee table, Coffiner and Ku designed the end tables with alternating slabs of cerused oak, leather edging, and Lucite. The designers also amped up the drama by putting spotlights behind the tables. "It’s a great trick—especially with Lucite—because the light reflects within the slab."
· Coffinier Ku Design [official site]
· All Why This Works columns [Curbed National]

The Golden Gate Bridge officially turns 75 years old this Sunday, but this will also mark the day that the bridge management will officially acknowledge that Charles Ellis was the man who was actually responsible for designing it.

Back in the 1920s, Joseph Strauss, the chief engineer on the project, hired Ellis to do all the design work (because he had no experience with suspension bridge design of his own). And so Ellis did and, by all accounts, did quite well, creating one of the most iconic structures of the twentieth century.

But, in an episode that has never been fully explained, Strauss fired Ellis after all the design and engineering work was done and had his name removed from all bridge and historical promotional material and then Strauss took all the credit for himself. And for years, bridge management has rebuffed efforts to give Ellis the credit owed him.

But all that will change on Sunday when a shiny new brass plaque honoring Ellis will be officially unveiled. Hopefully this will also mean Ellis' grandchildren can now get that employee discount in the gift shop.

· As Golden Gate Bridge Turns 75, History Revised to Honor Engineer [PBS NewsHour]

Talkshow titan Oprah Winfrey has bitten the bullet and finally listed the grand Chicago apartment she's had on the rental market for $15K a month. Again. According to the Chicago Tribune, Winfrey is asking $2.8M, quite a meager sum in comparison to the $5.6M she paid for the place in 2006, and less than half of the $6M she wanted when she listed it for the first time in 2008.

Now, if you're wondering why Winfrey is so nonchalantly unloading this place, it's because she prefers to lay her head in her enormous duplex nearby and, of course, in her $50M compound in Montecito, Calif. But if star power's a requirement in homes of this stature, fret not: the late comedic actor John Candy once lived in the building.

· Oprah puts one of her Chicago condos on the market for $2.8 million [Chicago Tribune via Curbed Chicago]
· 199 E. Lakeshore Dr., Unit 6E, Chicago [Redfin]
· Oprah Winfrey's Swank Chicago Apartment Now For Rent [Curbed National]

New York has a new tallest building, and now Tokyo does too: during four years of construction, the Tokyo Sky Tree weathered tremors from last years infamous Japanese earthquake, but still managed to open to the public yesterday. Pop star Lady Gaga got a sneak peek at the observation deck a few days before, and missed out on some of the mishaps that accompanied opening day: high winds delayed many of the scheduled elevator rides and views were obstructed by a dense fog. But these flubs didn't diminish local enthusiasm for the project, as many of the 8,000 guests—selected by lottery—turned out in Sky Tree costumes. The tower is now officially the second tallest in the world, behind Dubai's Burj Khalifa, though the highest observation deck is at just 1,422 feet. Of course, that's peanuts when compared to the developer's next big thing: a 22,370-mile-high elevator to space that could be ready for riders by 2050.
· Tokyo Sky Tree Opens [Architizer]
· 22,370-Mile-High Space Elevator to Rise in Tokyo by 2050 [Curbed National]

Location: Tacoma, Wash.
Price: $6,400,000
The Skinny: Snatched by kidnappers while walking home from school in 1935, a nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser became the most famous kidnap victim since the Lindbergh baby, three years earlier. His father, the owner of a large paper concern, ended up paying $200K—that's $3.15M in today's dollars—to secure his release. Weyerhaeuser would go on to become chairman of the family company, while this Tacoma mansion, his childhood home, went on to become a Baptist seminary. The Baptists recently listed the 52-room, 15,600-square-foot pile, known interchangeably as Haddaway Hall or the Weyerhaeuser Mansion, for $6.4M. The estate, now equipped with some less-than-inspiring outbuildings, will require some work to become a fitting family compound, but six acres with sweeping views of Commencement Bay can't be all bad. The home, built in 1923, features 11 bedrooms and eight bathrooms.
· 4501 N Stevens St [Realtor.com]