THE VISION COUNCIL

WHY YA'ALL NEED GLASSES

It’s that time of year when the birds begin to chirp, the daffodils start to push up in the iron cordoned little plots of ground lining the residential side streets of Manhattan and the annual eyeglass show opens at the Javits. It’s our fourth year of working with the Vision Council and their PR firm, Images and Details, on constructing and dressing their press booth.

For those who never attended a product convention it’s all about appearance. What you want is to be noticed…in a good way.

That’s why the Vision Council hires Beth Dempsey and her people at Images and Details to carve a path to the press, the manufactures, the vendors and ultimately to the rest of us who’s eyes need the assistance of a pair of glasses to see what we're really ordering at Joe’s House of Crabs and Crustaceans. Beth had done our PR when we originally launched our furniture line and it was through her advice that the Vision Council hired us to design and construct their booth.

This year we were in a new part of the Javits and the management hadn’t quite worked out all the kinks. From day one the space we were to occupy was to be 55’ wide by 19’ deep. We had supplied our drawings well in advance and even met with management at the space to confirm all we intended to do. Never underestimate the power of documentation and asking more questions than may seem necessary. Unfortunately, the management hadn’t checked any of this out with the fire marshal. We were ten feet too close to the fire corridor. It wasn’t until we were finished with our set-up that we were told we’d have to reconfigure the booth before the doors opened the following morning. Sometimes the best path to success is to grin and bare it and take one on the chin for the sake of the team. We begged and pleaded and in the end management let us hold our shape for the press event. It worked out perfectly. Beth was happy. The Vision Council was happy. Someone is doing an article on the booth and that makes us happy.

HOW TO BUILD A CONVENTION BOOTH COLUMN

The best source for inexpensive basic construction components that look both professional and original is IKEA. With a little ingenuity you can transform some standard IKEA expedit bookcase units into expensive looking display pieces. 

Here’s our original drawing for connecting two expedit units using some galvanized pipe, metal washers and carriage bolts. Remember these convention shows last only a couple of days so there can be a lot of smoke and mirrors in putting together a million dollar booth on penny budget. The lower expedit units sell for $69.99, the upper units cost $39.99, and the cost of the bolts and pipe are less than $20 for a set of four. You’ll need a pipe cutter and a wrench to construct the towers. We also purchased insert doors for each of our towers. They ran us $35 a piece or $70 per unit. They aren’t necessary but they provided storage for us and gave a little more weight to the units. Once you’ve got your rhythm down you can knock these units out in no time. And that’s how we did it


AN EDITORIAL ON UNIONS

Living in Wisconsin in 2011 has put us in the middle of the union war. For me it’s a very thin line I walk in my rationale and respect for unions. There are so many good unions. Unions that work at supporting and taking care of those workers that daily take care of us: teachers, nurses, firefighters, and policemen. In Wisconsin I can be proud of the work unions do for these selfless workers. In New York when I have to install a booth at the Javits the word union can take on a whole different meaning. Here union means unreasonably high pay for unnecessary and unrequested help. When I can’t hang a drape, straighten a picture or screw in a light bulb it makes me a little frustrated. I don't like having to bite my tongue when their hourly wage surpasses mine and my doctors as well. Yet you need to make all of these union guys your best friends. Piss ‘em off and you’re headed down the road of no return. I’ve even sunk to making J-Lo butt jokes so I might look like one of the guys. With a fashion scarf wrapped round my neck making me appear like one of the guys is no easy task. The problem here is the unions aren’t protecting people who’s jobs create a better world. They’re only making sure a carpenter or an electrician make more money than three teachers and one policeman combined.  Unfortunately you can't separate the unions and only promote the ones that still do what unions were originally created to do. Sometimes you have to support both the good and the bad.
I still plan on helping get the necessary signatures to recall the state senators who voted to eliminate collective bargaining and the signatures to eventually recall our governor too, but there'll be a little part of me regretting that this will also help that union guy in New York who charged us an arm and a leg for plugging in three little table lamps from Target.
Please leave your comments. I know you have them.


THE GALLERY 

Andre Kertesz

Mondrian’s Glasses and Pipe, Paris 1926

The Estate of Andre Kertesz

A LITTLE EARLY SPRING CLEANING

MARCH IN LIKE A LION OUT LIKE A LAMB

It’s March and winter is on its way out…we hope. This opens up an opportunity to do something wild, like stuff the fireplace with something that you don’t want to set a match to and won’t turn to ash. Using that empty hole in the wall and turning it from black to elegant can add a dimension to the room many people don’t consider. Here are a few ideas we’ve seen where the blaze in the hearth has been lit by a different type of beauty.

When the flue’s been closed, the outside temperature is hovering around ninety and the hearth’s been cleaned but you want to light a romantic flame, think about this. Fill the fireplace with candles and let the real heat come from what’s happening in front of the hearth.

(midcenturyjo's photostream on flickr for Australian Vogue Living)

I’m not trying to channel the book burners of yore but here’s a solution by Dave Coote Design for what to do with your overflow book collection. Using the fire box as an extension of your library can be a beautiful way of showing off your J.D. Salinger and Vladimir Nabokov collection.

If you’ve got a green thumb let it shine in the hearth. Springtime is filled with flowers and that means it’s time to throw out the plastic lilies and put a pot of real ones in that closed up winter fire box.

An unused warm weather hearth can be the perfect place to display a collection, in this case it’s game balls: croquet balls, pool balls, bacci balls. Whatever you have a passion to collect and you can fit in your fire box, put it in and show it off.

If tradition is your firewall and you can’t get past seeing a fireplace as anything else other than a fireplace then stack it with wood, but do it creatively











WORDS FOR THE WISE

Chimney Breast Wall

noun

When your fireplace stands proud from the wall, jutting out into the room instead of being flush with the wall, that little push away from the wall is called the chimney breast – much like the prow of a woman.

Here are some examples of chimney breasts dressed and gussied up standing proud of the rest of their bodies without the use of silicone.

How to wallpaper a chimney breast

Ideal Home

www.idealhomemagazine.co.uk

Milwaukee co-op

Rick Shaver

Shaver/Melahn Studios

www.shavermelahn.com

FOCAL WALLS

When winter’s gone and the last fire in the hearth has been extinguished for the season or if your room didn’t have a fire focal point to begin with than here are some suggestions for what you can do to create an eye-catcher in your room.

When you walk into a room you’ve not been in before there’s nothing more noticeable then the lack of anything of interest. So many homeowners having purchased the fundamentals for a room fall into despair when their space still seems lifeless and uninviting. 9 to 10 the sofa, the lounger, the table the tv sits on, the end tables and lamps all end up no more than four and a half feet off the floor. It’s as if some one drew a line midway between the floor and ceiling and told the world not to decorate above that demarcation. Well it’s time to erase that line and boldly go where many fear to tread. Let’s tackle that space above the sofa and create some personality on those walls.

Artwork is the most obvious choice to draw the eye to that neglected area known as the upper wall. The possibilities are endless from vintage paintings to photography to work the kids did in kindergarten finger painting. The trick here is scale. If you have a huge wall don’t put a family snapshot there and call it complete. Find something large enough to be in scale with the furniture and the amount of wall space or do a collection of images. If you’re going to do a collection make sure you hang them close together so they work as a unit. We usually hang things from one inch to three inches apart unless the pieces are huge and can carry a more open arrangement. To be safe, the tighter the better. Here's what we did for a client in Tribeca.

Hang a found object on the wall. There are so many pieces you can find rejected by others but with great graphic potential, an old iron gate, a Victorian headboard, old industrial gears. One person’s junk can be another person’s treasure. This one is thanks to the Bachman's Spring Ideas House in Minneapolis.

Add a shelf and display your vintage collection, or fill the wall with old books and bits and pieces of nature you can find just outside your door. At the Fredericksburg home of Janet and Tom Proch the entry wall is decorated with family memorabilia, preserved leaves and pieces of nature their family collected from right outside their home. Try to find pieces of different sizes that will give your focal wall variety and lead your guests to a greater appreciation of your taste and talent.

THE GALLERY

Masatomo Kuriya

Peony (#114) 1997

Represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

THE UGLY

I’m starting with the ugly. Once again the journey began in the dark. Once again I tried to silently slip into my clothes so as not to wake anyone, only this time as I twisted into my favorite vest the journey took its ominous turn. My favorite vest, a black and blue blend with a suit collar purchased from New Republic over fifteen years ago. As I awkwardly fumbled with the buttons and searched for the satin cinch straps along the back I felt a thread dangling from the side. The thread became a series of frayed strings revealing a long split down the left side of my beautiful vest. I didn’t know whether to blame the age of the vest or my own age induced expanding waistline now too big for the crumbling fabric of a well-worn vest. It was the first omen of a trip forever known as the ugliest plane ride I’ve ever had and I’ve had a lot. The guilty party – Airtran. I have been a strong supporter of Airtran. I’ve filled out surveys for them and used superlatives to describe their services, but this time the list they're on top of is a list beginning with "s" and ending in "t". It started out with another bus ride from Madison to General Mitchell Field in Milwaukee at 3:45 in the morning well before the sun had risen or the birds of winter had begun to chirp. The 3:45 was the closest I could get to arriving in Milwaukee before my scheduled 8:00am departure time. Badger Bus was right on time and true to their word I was standing in the lobby of General Mitchell at 5:15, the sun not quite ready to peek out above the horizon. I had pre-ticketed the night before so I went straight to the gate, backpack slung over my shoulder, computer bag in hand. Surprisingly the line through security was long for so early in the morning, twisting back and forth and then down the hall. Once again they needed to go through my bag. This time it was my toiletries that I had to pull out and display to the guard on hand. Once through the embarrassment of security my gate remained pretty wide open, all the travelers clogging the security checkpoint were on their way to more exotic locals: Puerto Rico, Cancun, Des Moines. The sign behind the check-in counter showed flight 506 to New York, La Guardia on time at 8:00am, only two hours away. Sometime around 7:30, right about the time they were to begin boarding, they announced that due to weather in the New York area we were going to be delayed approximately forty-five minutes. Not bad but not a good sign. Then about fifteen minutes later they announced the flight had been put back to our original departure time and they would immediately begin boarding the plane, the rush was on. We all squeezed and tousled each other to get to our seats and find enough room in the overheads to stow our oversized carry-ons. Just as they had gotten everyone settled in their seats the pilodt in that standardized captain southern drawl came on over the speaker system and announced, “We’ve been delayed once again due to the unpredictable weather conditions in New York. They’ve asked we have y’all depart the plane. You can leave your bags on board but please return to the gate and wait for our notice to reboard”. I ignored his advice and grabbed my bags anyway. Just as quickly as they got us off the plane the gate attendant told everyone they had canceled the flight and we would all be directed to a new gate where we would all be reticketed to the next available flight. Good news – I was one of a handful who took their luggage with them. Bad news – there were maybe six available seats open on the next flight. One very pissed customer yelled this was the third week in a row he had tried to get on the eight o’clock Monday flight and had it canceled only to find out a competing airline with the same schedule had gone ahead and flown their aircraft. Better news – I got one of the six seats.


THE GOOD

New York City. It will always take my breath away.

Michael Kenna

East 40^th Street, NY 2006

Represented by Robert Mann Gallery NYC

THE BAD

I’m using this in the hip-hop context where bad actually means better than good. Here are some highlights of a "way too short" trip to Gotham.

If you only have a day, here’s a shopping circuit I’d recommend from Chelsea down to the lower Eastside. You can start at either end and work your way through, remembering no shops in New York open at the crack of dawn. If you’re an early morning person prepare to do some window-shopping first.

 I’ll start at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 22^nd Street. Now I know this is a chain but Restoration Hardware has come miles from the little knob and bath towel store it was fifteen years ago. The inventiveness and singularity of its design aesthetic is graceful and spot on. They have created a style that has become a major trend with an entire village of copiers. I could spend hours here studying their maps of Paris and London and the uniqueness of their aviator chairs and industrial desks

From here walk on over to the new Limelight Marketplace before it evaporates into another barren suburban-like mall filled with empty storefronts and wagons selling the ubiquitous ipod covers. Right now it’s a warren of hallways leading to kitschy treasures, white on white spas and food shops selling chocolaty kahlua cookies and white chocolate brownies drizzled with edible gold leaf.

You’ll need a breather after this so take a minute to walk through Union Square. Sit on a bench or the steps at the south end and listen to a novice guitarist or get a  free hug handed out by a few free spirits with only happiness to give out. On Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays the square is filled with one of the best farmer’s markets this side of the Atlantic.

From here walk on down to East 7^th Street just to the left of Third Avenue where Linda, Duane and Suzy have been making Mid-century based fashion for over thirty years. At their store, DL Cerney, they use vintage fabrics, lush wools and outrageously gorgeous prints on their fashions for both men and women. I have at least a half dozen pairs of Hollywood pants and more forties retro styled shirts than you can shake a stick at. Linda’s Southern Illinois brassiness and Duane’s smooth Tennessee calm are the perfect foils for an afternoon spent trying on everything in the store.

All this walking should build up a sizeable hunger. Right around the corner from DL Cerney is a place I’ve never been able to resist, the Pommes Frites Store on Second Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets. The Belgian fries are double fried, crisp on the outside and meaty in the center, served in a paper cone. They have a list of dipping sauces including my favorites: Parmesan peppercorn and the traditional European mayonnaise. The guy behind the counter had me try a new flavor black truffle mayo. It lived up to its expectations. 

You’ll need the walk downtown after the caloric intake you just inhaled. I usually opt for the smallest cone and I rarely make it down to the bottom before the richness of the fries wins out.

My last stop is a newly gentrified block on East 2^nd Street between Avenues A and B. Right in the middle of the block, east of the S&M shop and the Tarot reader are two new stores. I know these guys from Andes and their reverse expansions back into the city only make New Yorkers and us visitors all the richer. First, The Old Village Hall, owned and run by Scott and Erica Hill. Sprouting from a seed of an idea and passion germinated in their initial shop in Andes, New York, this store has a clear vision based around these two creative talents. Silk-screened t-shirts both new and reclaimed, totes, scarves (I walked away with one), pillows and custom fabric subtly done with literary motifs either text or image based drip from the walls and clutter the floor. The layering of color and the intentional imperfects in printing make for some of the most gorgeous and unique fabric found anywhere here or abroad.

Smack dap next door is another Andes original in Kabinett & Kammer. Sean Sherer and his partner Rick Gilbert just opened the doors to their New York version of curios and antiquities that will either make you drool with desire or flee in fright. I was lucky enough to be in New York for their grand opening. If you could squeeze yourself in and look beyond the elbow-to-elbow crowd you’d discover taxidermied baby zebras, ten-point bucks and skunks staring at you with a mix of pity and rage. Human skeletons hanging in the windows and vintage botanicals and medical charts scrolling down the walls. It’s a combination of Dr. Caligari’s cabinet and some of the most unique objects a designer could desire. After this you might want to head to Bedlam, a bar designed by Sean, and recoup your nerve over a double martini. 

THE GALLERY

Times Square

By Ciaran Tully

Available for purchase at Pink Olive in NYC

AS THE WORLD TURNS

A FASCINATION WITH GLOBES

When I was little I used to picture myself living my adult life in all sorts of exotic locals. From the perspective of a seven year old this meant I was somewhere in my twenties. I’d sit at my desk on those long winter nights when I was supposed be doing my homework, spin my Replogle globe with my eyes closed and then see where my finger would land. My imagination would take over from there and I was off making a movie in Morocco, sipping hot chocolate in Lyons or covering myself in baby oil on the beach at Rio. I’m sure it had very little to do with growing up in Madison and everything to do with wanting to be someone else with a more interesting life. My globe was my escape. My fascination with globes never ended, it only grew. There’s an amazing beauty in that simple form, a sphere covered in the colors of countries some of which no longer exist. Now the globes have grown from a means of escape to a part of our design vision. They’ve almost become signature pieces to our interior design projects. Rick and I have incorporated them into almost every space we’ve had of our own and many of the places we’ve designed for others.

Globes can be a very inexpensive design accessory. Most any multi-dealer antique store will have at least a half dozen globes on hand at any time. Whether we’re walking through a multi-dealer store in Ventura or popping in  and out of the stalls at the Porte de Clignancourt flea market in  Paris we tend to look for globes with history written all over them. We focus on the globes but sometimes the more interesting part may be the base. An old cast iron base or a wooden one are usually more interesting than the more prevalent metal ones, but like any rule there are always exceptions.

When we’re using globes in a design project we tend to go in one of two directions. Direction one is the single globe. Sometimes the globe itself is so spectacular that it needs to stand alone. The other option is sometimes they work better in groups. If we are going to group a bunch of globes together we look for globes with different sized diameters and bases that allow the globes to sit at varying heights. We found that some globes (the ones with the metal bases I just told you weren’t that great) have holes in their bases and this makes it possible to hang them horizontally. Now every time I find a globe with a hole in its base it all of a sudden makes that globe all the more attractive.

Another globe I’ve always been fascinated with is the chalkboard school globe. Every once in a while one turns up in a dusty booth at an obscure antique store, or at auction. They’re usually priced at the high end but I hold out hope there’s still one out there with my name on it. This one is a great reproduction available at Pottery Barn.

Another thing to look for are globes of things other than our earth. Here we did score, years ago, at ABC Home before it was ABC Home. This was when the fourth floor was filled with aisles of antique armoires from Europe. Perched on a Swedish pine hutch was a green lunar globe. At first I thought the globe had a defect, a part of the globe was blank. But I was quickly informed that because the moon does not spin on an axis there’s a part of the moon we never see. Now that we have the ability to travel through space the back of the moon is no longer a mystery but when this globe was made the moon still clung on to its secret part.

We’ve now spent time sitting on the piazza in Siena, riding a camel around the pyramids at Giza and sitting on Shell beach in St. Barts. The wunderlust that those first globes generated will never be quenched and our home will never be without a globe. We’ll still want to spin those paper mache orbs, close our eyes and see where our finger will land.

GLOBES WE LIKE

Wendy Gold started cutting and pasting images onto toilet seats back in 2001. Talk about making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, it takes a remarkable talent to convert a toilet seat into a piece of art. www.artdetoilette.com. Now Wendy has turned her creative energy from the bathroom to the world at large. Globes are now her medium, globes with decoupage whimsy wrapped and shellaced around their spherical outer shells. Her new venture is called ImagineNations and you can find her at www.artonglobes.com. She’s willing to consult with you and produce custom work that’ll make your head spin along with your globe.

WORDS TO THE WISE

Orrery

noun

Named after Charles Boyle, the Fourth Earl of Orrery, in the early seventeen hundreds, an orrery is a mechanical device showing the relative relationship and motions of the planets and moons in our solar system. I'm sure they were the inspiration for Rube Goldberg. Some move with the precision of a Swiss watch while others have a folk art primitive quality. These pieces are usually reserved for the professional collectors.

A LITTLE GLOBE HISTORY

According to site www.aboutworldglobes.com the oldest known globe was made by Martin Behaim in Neuremburg, Germany sometime around the time Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The globe shows Africa and Asia but leaves out the Americas. I guess Columbus didn’t make it back in time to get his discovery included here.

GALLERY

John Chervinsky

All Watched Over…  2006

Represented by Michael Mazzeo Gallery, New York

ROAD TRIP

MADISON TO ATLANTA TO HOUSTON AND BACK

MADISON TO ATLANTA TO HOUSTON AND BACK

This is strictly a Lee Melahn posting, Rick was smart enough to have nothing to do with it. Back in Mid-January an email showed up in my inbox from our Houston showroom letting us know that they were consolidating their showrooms and wanted to know what to do with all our furniture samples. An excel sheet was attached and a deadline of the end of the month was slapped onto the tail-end of the communiqué. Knowing the cost of shipping and in desperate need of a getaway I decided it was time for a road trip to the south…to Houston. A chance to escape the eight foot snow banks of Madison, a chance to put myself behind the wheel of a another Penske truck and drive the twelve hundred miles from Houston to Madison.

Here’s a record of the trip:

February 14^th, Valentine’s Day

The cheapest flight out was via Milwaukee at 6:30 in the morning. That meant taking a 3:45 bus from Kelly’s Market and gas station to General Mitchell Airport on the banks of Lake Michigan. My sister graciously offered to take me to meet the bus. The gracious part due to my first asking her to take me all the way to Milwaukee so when I countered with the shorter drive she relented, the inconvenience didn’t seem half as bad.

Arrival at General Mitchell was right on time, 5:30, giving me an hour to get to my gate for the first leg of the air travel part of my adventure. It seems that in order to get to Houston from Milwaukee you need to sidestep through Atlanta. To first go east in order to ultimately go west never added up to me but since I wasn’t flying the plane I’d have to go wherever they wanted me to go.

 I try to be as prepared as possible when traveling. I had gotten my boarding pass online the night before. I had selected my seat. I had packed my carry-ons making me ready to go. All I needed to do was go through security and get on board. I sauntered up to security, a swagger to my gait on the way to my gate. The line for security was longer than I had expected but I was still ahead of schedule. Boarding pass and driver’s license in hand, I patiently waited my turn. I even let one guy cut in front so he wouldn’t miss his flight. Now Milwaukee has one of those new body scanners but apparently not everyone has to go through it. There’s some arbitrary selection method in place. Signs with images of what the scanners see are posted along the journey from the back of the queue to the point of entry. Each posting shows a front and back image of a man and a woman in that x-ray skeletal way with their private parts somehow blurred out. It made both genders look like they were having sonograms rather than scans for hidden weapons. I’ve never been particularly prudish about my body so I wasn’t about to protest if I had to go through the scanner. Embarrassment averted, they waved me through and had me do the metal detector instead. I was ready to grab my bag and head out to gate C25. Hold on! Not so fast! 

Shoeless and devoid of all my possessions I was waved over to the conveyer and asked if these were my bags, panic slide down my throat and into my churning stomach. What kind of contraband could I have tried to slip through? Could it have been the two rolls of plastic wrap, or the 30 feet of rope, or maybe the metal bullet proof lock? Fortunately I decided to leave the set of metric allen wrenches at home. I realized I had everything necessary for tying up the crew packed neatly away in the bottom of my Takashimaya leather backpack. I was never so thankful for having bought new underwear the day before as the security guard unpacked every last article in the bag to get down to the bottom and the devices for hijacking I had hidden there. I would have gladly opted for the scan rather than this public humiliation and airing of my “clean” laundry. It was the cardboard handle on the plastic wrap that set off the alarm. The x-ray machine thought I might have brought a bottle of liquid on the plane. They weren’t concerned about me tying anyone up, they were worried I might get thirsty. The guard offered to repack my bag but I decided that would only add on more humiliation for both of us. I took my belongings and shoes over to the recombobulation area and did the repacking myself.

Atlanta was much less eventful. Off one plane and directly onto another as a sea of effervescent teenage girls walked in front of me from concourse C to concourse D all with Minnie Mouse ears and big red bows with white polka-dots attached to their heads. I think someone got to go to Disneyland.

Houston socked me in the face the moment I got off the plane. I was totally over-dressed; a henley tee, plaid wool shirt, canvas vest and a thick black winter sportcoat. I had already left my nine-foot scarf rolled up in my backpack. I had just come from eight-foot snow drifts and a week of watch Super Bowl XLV where the commentators wore earmuffs and their breath make those clouds of freezing smoke when they spoke. The seventy degree temperature was not what I had expected. To top it off when I arrived at the showroom the  air-conditioning had already been disconnected. I hope you can feel the rivulets of sweat rolling down my back. Thankfully the showroom manager had helped to arrange for two big muscled guys to help move all of the furniture from the showroom into the truck. Three hours later I was on the road behind the wheel of my twenty-two-footer.

I thought I could make it out of Texas before I’d have to stop, but by eleven o’clock the appeal of a Super 8 hotel bed won out and I pulled in for the night.

February 15, 2011

I had the evening hostess put in for a 5:30 wake-up call. I was back on the road by six with no other itinerary than getting as close to Madison as I could. It was somewhere around Texarkana that I realized I’d be going smack dab through Little Rock, Arkansas – home of the Bill Clinton library. All of a sudden the road trip came full circle in my mind. This was to be a trip about our furniture. Back in 2002 we got a call from Kaki Hockersmith’s office about a couple of pieces of furniture she might be interested in for a project they were working on. Everything about the request was very low-key. Kaki was interested in an Emmy desk and an Emmy bed. Weeks later the quote turned into a request. This is when we learned the desk would go into a guestroom in the private residence at the new Clinton Library and the bed was going to be where big Bill would be sleeping everytime he decided to hang his hat in Little Rock.  Kaki later told us when she presented the boards to the Clinton’s, Bill’s only comment in that Arkansonian drawl was, “Eye really Liake that beyad”. I decided I needed to stop and pay homage to the place that housed one of our most famous pieces.

Luckily the Library was in spitting distance from the highway. The lovely lady on my sister’s GPS guided me off and into the parking lot at somewhere around ten. I knew an artisan’s board existed with the names of all those who had worked on the Library. I didn’t know it was right as you entered mounted on a marble wall. There in column five, seven names from the bottom was “Rick Shaver”. I snapped a picture of Rick’s name. A security guard walked over and asked about the picture. I explained how we had designed a bed and writing table (although they refer to it as a desk) for the private residence and I wanted to take a picture of Rick's name as a gift.

“You might want to ask the people at the main desk if you could see your furniture.”

His philosophy was it wouldn’t happen if I didn’t ask. He was right, of course. After fifteen minutes of phone calls and security checks they decided to let me in to the private residence. A tinge of disappoint slipped in when they informed me that all the pieces had been put in the guestroom. It took away the titillation in saying Bill was sleeping in our bed. (I;m leaving Hillary out of this for obvious reasons). We were just about to rise up the private elevator to the residence when the fire alarm went off. I’m egotistical enough to think I had tripped some warning alarm. I was sure FBI agents would start swarming around the elevator and I was about to be put under arrest. The elevator did go into lockdown but instead of an arrest all of us were told to evacuate the building. For forty-five minutes we all stood outside the building waiting for the all clear to re-enter the building. By this time another one to two hundred people had come up to the building wanting for their turn to get in to see a piece of Presidential hsitory. This was going to add another hour to my wait now that there were two hundred more pockets of change and cellphones to be run through the metal detectors. I was concerned I’d never get back on the road. When they finally gave us the all clear we all queued up to get back in. Ann, my guide and host suggested I go look at some of the exhibits when I got back in while she once again prepared to have the residence unlocked. I was willing but I was a little afraid my bladder might not be as ready as I was. By the time I made it through security, a bathroom sounded more enticing than eight years of Bill Clinton. I raced to the nearest bathroom and just as I got to the urinal that damn alarm went off again. Now I was convinced it was me. They had found me out and it was only a matter of time before I’d be handcuffed and face down on the mensroom floor. I backed off that urinal and left the bathroom without getting any relief. Of course, the minute I left the restroom the alarm went off. I never did get to pee.

No FBI agents showed up but Ann did and said the residence was once again ready. She took me back up, unlocked the door and ushered me in. As opposed to the traditionally styled exhibits of the Oval Office and Cabinet room in the public exhibition spaces, the residence was sleek and contemporary. Ann walked me through the entry and living spaces and then into the guestroom. The custom Emmy writing table looked beautiful  in the corner of the room bathed in sunlight, but the bed in the guestroom wasn’t ours. Maybe Bill was sleeping in our bed. Ann looked a little hesitant as she said the door to Bill’s room was usually locked but she walked me to the bedroom to check and see. She turned the handle and to our surprise the door opened, There, against the wall, was the king-size Emmy bed. I put aside the sordid history I had been imagining about what that bed might have seen and instead focused on how beautiful the bed looked and how proud of Rick I was. I had known before we went up that picture taking wouldn’t be an option but I burned the image of the bed on the backs of my eyes. I’m taking that image back to Wisconsin along with a truckload of furniture and the ability to still boast Bill’s sleeping in our bed. 

WORD FOR THE WISE

escritoire (eskri'twar)

noun

A fancy word the French made up in the late 16th century to describe a small writing table with drawers and compartments. 

GALLERY

Jaquess Henri Lartique

Zissou, 1911

Represented by Staley-Wise Gallery

www.staleywise.com

THIS ONE'S FOR THE KIDS

A KID'S ROOM I COULD LIVE IN

Design by John & Vivian Bencich of Square Feet Studio

Photo by Jeff Herr Photography

Designing a room for anyone under the age of eighteen is often a difficult task. The current standard seems to be set by television programs like Extreme Makeover where if you haven’t reached the age of consent you’re relegated to sleeping with the Pirates of the Carribean or worse yet…Miley Cirus in her pre-salvia smoking days. Nurseries are a different beast with physical requirements necessary for bringing an infant safely into the world but beyond that I don’t see the need for synthetic sheets and plastic bins with Barbie doll decals plastered from top to bottom. Now don’t get me wrong. Kids are kids. We’ve got a fourteen year-old and the last thing we’d want her to do is to grow up too fast. They do that on their own, but we think good design can coexist with childhood.

A brilliant example of how to balance design with adolescence is this room designed by architects John & Vivian Bencich of Square Feet Studio for their daughter. Here’s a room a young girl can grow in and transition from Justin Bieber to Bono. Here’s how "Our Team Sees It".

Color

As with any hue on the color wheel there are an abundance of shades to pick from or create. To the untrained eye this room is going to get labeled with the undeserved title: pink. Now take a longer look and see the dustiness of the pink in the curtains then smell the fruitiness of the raspberry in the carpet and see how far from Barbie Pink this room has come.

Too Much of Good Thing 

What John and Vivian were able to do here is to show restraint. They picked an excellent balance between their dusty, fruity rose tones and white, an icy clean white that allows the room to breath and not make you feel like you’ve just gulped down a huge spoonful of Pepto-Bismol.

Breaking the Pattern 

Notice the window seat cushion and the bedside lamp. When you’re using such a powerful color scheme you need a visual break. The aqua and gold tones make you appreciate the lushness of the predominate color. Add to that the pattern on the bedskirt, bed pillow and window cushion and your eye gets to dance around the room without getting bored or fatigued.

Softens Like a Fine Wine

The ripples of champagne and framboise fabric soften the window wall where a traditional smaller curtain covering the real window wouldn't have done the trick. It also deadens the sound from ipod impromptu concerts at ten at night. Using grommeted panels on dark wood rods brings a sophistication to the window treatment that will allow the room to age and grow from a teenager's playground to a young woman's boudoir. 

Invisible Storage 

Not only do the curtains soften the room but they have a function as well, they hide storage areas making it easier to do a quick sweep before guests arrive giving the room that sought after clean and uncluttered look. Including drawer storage under the window seat and a bedskirt that brushes the floor line, there's plenty of additional space to hide the thousands of trinkets a girl can’t live without. The exposed bookcases allow for the personality of the child to show through but with so much “behind closed doors” storage available the bookshelves are easily maintained without too much room for conflict between parent and child.

A Sense of Belonging

An antique bed, a crystal chandelier, and a vintage poof give the room a sense of history. These pieces anchor the room. I don’t know if they are family heirlooms or not but in my mind the bed has had several generations of family use. There’s an eclecticism here that takes it away from the seven piece juvenile bedroom set advertised on local TV at Crazy Lenny’s Warehouse of Discount Furniture all for $399.

Final grade: A-, we’re tough

FINDS FOR KIDS

The Node Chair by Steelcase

Available with or without the worksurface the Node chair by Steelcase was originally developed for the classroom. We think the classroom can wheel its way into your child’s bedroom or wherever they plop down their books and plug in their computers. When I was a kid it was the tip-n-rock. Seating for kids has come a long ergonomic way from back then. Priced on the high end the Node is available in 12 seat colors, 3 base options and 5 worksurface colors. It can come with hard casters, soft casters or glides. Mix and match in almost an infinite slate of possibilities and you’ve got a great study station your kid can roll to any quiet corner of the house.

STORES FOR KIDS

Bu and the Duck

106 Franklin Street (Tribeca)

New York, NY

www.buandtheduck.com

Opened in 1997 by Susan Lane, this store was just in time for clothing our daughter, Emmy, born July 3, 1996. The European philosophy of buying quality not quantity is evident at Bu and the Duck. Each piece purchased here is worth the cost you need to pay for exceptional quality and unique design. With an aesthetic inspired by the 1930’s every piece of clothing will become an instant family heirloom. As Emmy grew out of each piece of clothing purchased at Bu it would get wrapped in tissue and placed in a cedar lined box waiting to be handed down to a new generation.

Bu and the Duck has unintentionally styled so many of our early family photos. Our hearts now ache but our pocketbooks are thankful their clothing only goes up to size 14 in kids.

GALLERY

Diane Arbus

Boy with Toy Hand Grenade, 1962

Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

GIFTS, GIVING & PARIS

CUTTING A SNOWFLAKE HEART

The first time I did these was for a Valentine’s benefit for Alpha Workshops. The request was for designers to produce a piece of art shot from Cupid’s bow for a silent auction benefiting the organization. A few months before I had cut out some paper snowflakes with my daughter so I thought I would give a try translating the technique to hearts. The trick here is to think past the obvious. In our culture the heart has a specific iconic shape. It now replaces the word “love” in ad campaigns and on tattoos accompanying the word “mother”. I’ve tried to shoot my arrow beyond the usual here and hit a target of unique.

What you’ll need to accomplish the same is some paper. If you want the piece to last use acid free archival paper but for the short run a piece of kindergarten construction paper will do just fine. Try to stay away from paper that’s too stiff like tag board or card stock. A thinner paper cuts easier and is less likely to show the folds. Beyond a scissors you can use a matte knife or a hole punch. Martha Stewart makes a whole set of decorative punches and scissors you can use. It’s whatever floats your boat. 

Decide on the relative size you want to work with then cut your paper to slightly larger than the outside dimensions of your heart. Fold the paper in half and then start cutting. I don’t plan ahead, like a snowflake no two hearts are going to be the same and the way they form is totally up to Mother Nature or in this case, you. There’s no right or wrong here. 

When you’ve cut away all you want unfold your heart and see what you’ve got. Don’t discard the cutaway pieces; you can use them in your final layout. For your background surface you can use anything from kraft paper to vintage wallpaper. I lightly attached my cutout pieces using a glue stick. 

Then sign it or write a note, put the whole thing under glass and give to it someone you love. If you’re Sue on Glee and completely narcissistic, you have my permission to give it to yourself.

QUEER EYE ADVICE TO MEN ON VALENTINE'S DAY

Here’s our list of helpful hints for gift giving during that tough Valentine season. We’re stretching out a helping hand to the gift giving challenged. You know who you are guys and you gals know if you need to make a copy of this and tape it to the bathroom mirror or the underside of the toilet seat, the one he never remembers to put down, you should go ahead and get out the Scotch tape. In no particular order here’s our advice:

1. NEVER venture into the appliance section of your local department store. Nothing says, “I have a headache” more than a new Dyson vacuum cleaner or a George Foreman grill.
2. Jewelry is always appreciated, but make it personal. Take a look at her jewelry box. If you see an abundance of a particular style or color follow the lead. If you can’t see any trend then go simple, diamond studs, a tennis bracelet, a string of pearls, or vintage bakelite. Please, please stay away from Kay’s Jewelry and Jane Seymour’s Open Hearts Collection which look more like the mark of Zorro than an icon for love.
3. Remember that clothes are really difficult. Unless you’ve been given specific information: exact size, color, and a folded catalogue page circled in red with all the essentials marked. Nothing is more daunting than an ill picked sexy dress that will beg the question, “You don’t think this makes my butt look big?”
4. On that same note a new treadmill or a copy of “How to Lose 15lbs in Two Weeks” isn’t a good idea, flatter the good – stay away from pointing out the flaws.
5. A spa day is always a good choice. Something that will make her feel pampered allowing her to forget about the three meals a day she has to prepare and four loads of laundry sprawled out on the bedroom floor waiting for her when she comes home from her twelve hour shift as head of neurosurgery at John Hopkins.
6. Flowers are a tricky purchase. Rick and I don’t agree on this one. He loves them. It brightens his day. I guess I’m more of a, “The glass is half empty” type. For me they’re a waste of money, a gift that will be dead in three days and all you’ve have left is a mess of fallen petals and a vase full of smelly green slime. Before you go out and plunk down an unreasonable amount of money on a dozen roses, figure out which side of the fence your loved one stands on.
7. Candy is another quick way to go. Almost every city now has a specialty candy shop where you can select the perfect box of truffles. Here are some online suggestions:
1. http://www.mariebelle.com/ The New York version of sophistication
2. http://www.sees.com/ A west coast tradition of superb chocolate
3. http://www.candinas.com/ Made in a tiny town outside Madison but able to compete on a worldwide stage
8. Do something totally romantic. Plan it out. Make a reservation for a night at a local hotel, or an exotic local, or plan to have the kids stay at grandma’s house for a night. When Valentine’s falls on a Monday as it does this year, make your plan for an upcoming weekend, put the gift in a card and savor the benefits twice.
9. For the culinary challenged, buy a brand name cake mix, the kind you only need to add a couple of eggs and a half cup of vegetable oil to. Slather it in pre-made icing and voila! Toss on some candy hearts and a handful of sprinkles and she'll see you in an entirely different light.
10. DON’T POST A NAKED PICTURE OF YOURSELF ON THE INTERNET OR ANY PLACE ELSE. Stay away from wrapping up a photocopy of your penis made on the company copy machine. Even if you have the chest of Matthew McConaughey or the chiseled looks of Brad Pitt ultimately embarrassing pictures are just not a good idea.
11. Make something. Make dinner. Draw a picture. Frame a photo of the place you first kissed. Write a poem. Give something you actually took the time to create. It kind of goes back to childhood. If I go through my mom’s cedar chest, the things she most cherished were the paper mache handprints we made with our kindergarten hands and the cards made from pink construction paper hearts that simple said, “I love you”.

GIVING

Bailey House has been serving homeless people with HIV/AIDS since 1983. Their annual auction and party has been a Valentine’s staple for the past 23 years. Here’s the link to this years event

http://www.baileyhouse.org/auction

Alpha Workshop has been providing training and employment in the arena of decorative arts for people with HIV/AIDS. They will be celebrating their 5th Annual Valentine’s Party. Here’s the link to their site.

http://www.alphaworkshops.org/

GALLERY

Elliot Erwitt

Paris, France, 1989

Edwynn Houk Gallery NYC