WHEN COLOR TURNS TO WHIMSY

TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK ON BLACK

It's time for Martha to roll her outrageous pumpkins that no layman could possibly duplicate and every blogger is turning out a post on black candles and toilet seats, I kid you not. So I've decided to buck the crowd, go in a different direction and follow a path more whimsical than scary. What in the world of design can make you smile more than a shot of unexpected, uncharacteristic, or completely outrageous color?

A well-designed living quarter should be an expression of its inhabitant's lifestyle. Some of us show our sophisticated side, some show our more casual comfortable side, while others put on display their sense of humor. Some do it with a hint, a nod to the unexpected. As if the cuckoo clock wasn't enough painting it pink tipped the scales and rang my chimes. Who wouldn't smile like the Joker every morning you walked into this room for a cup of morning Joe.

Others throw subtlety out the door and go full speed ahead with their comedic approach. Granted this is probably the dream of some pre-teen little girl but who secretly isn't going to squeal with concealed appreciation for this room that's gone to the dogs.

Kitchens seem to be targets of amusement for many of us. Maybe it has something to do with our culinary capabilities. If we can make them laugh our lack of cooking skills may be overlooked. I know I'm going to have fun in this kitchen because the person doing their meal preparation here is always going to be cooking for an audience. I think even Julia Child would have felt comfortable here, there's no need for tidiness in kitchen where spilling the tomato sauce would only enhance the kitchen décor. But what's with all these cuckoo clocks?

Maybe it was a sale on cabinet doors that precipitated this Pantone color sheet of cabinetry. The humor here is more sophisticated, the colors are less raw, but the ability to smile at this design solution is still in play.

The sign on the wall here sort of tells it all. A couple of drama queens have taken trailer trash to an award worthy position in the Hilarity Hall of Fame. These guys know how to excess-orize.

We always give kids permission to have fun in designing their private quarters. What kid wouldn't want to spend time in here texting their friends and Vining selfies with a background looking this good?

It's a rare occasion when adults get into the act of color splashing especially when it's in a place as public as their living room. You have to give this color lover kudos for not holding back on this crazy living room. From multiple fabric patterns layered over a leaf inspired rug to the wide-striped walls to the swaged Federal clock draped over the sofa to throwing in those fire engine red pillows, you've got to give them credit for letting their fearlessness show.

An adult bedroom is rarely an appropriate place for bold color statements but this bedroom does it with panache. The subtle soothing grey tones here are enhanced by the staccato pops of canary yellow. Makes you want to know who is that man behind the yellow dot.

No color whimsy post can be complete without a nod to the master of color, Jamie Drake. Jamie may not look it but he's a gutsy man's man when it comes to color. The man is totally unafraid of being in your face with color splashing. Who is going to come into this bedroom and not want to jump into this bed. You know you're going to get lucky in a place that makes you feel this good. Thanks Jamie for making me smile in places where my insecurities reign. Who's going to think about their performance in a space that is so geared toward making you feel like you don't have to be someone you aren't, you don't have to take yourself so seriously, and life is about having fun.

THE GALLERY

Exposition a la Monnaie de Paris, 2009
David LaChapelle, photographer
Represented by Paul Kasmin Gallery

A CASE OF THE BLUES

A LOVE AFFAIR WITH BLUE

There was the possibility of calling this post, "fifty shades of blue". For me there is almost an erotic reaction to blue. The right blue can be like the soft trail of a single finger's slow soothing caress down my bare back from the nape of my neck to the well just above the curve of my cheeks.

It's that pale watery blue that comforts and relaxes like a warm bath where eucalyptus scents the air.

It can be a stairway that elevates you into a blue sky softened by a thin layer of wispy clouds.

The softest of blue can transport a traditional entry into Alice's threshold into Wonderland.

It can be the whipped cream of a kitchen.

There are way more than fifty shades of blue

Blue isn't always somber. It can be strikingly bold and hot when it shows its Mediterranean side

There can be an unexpected whimsical side to blue.

You can buy it at IKEA in more shades than you can count

It's hard for me resist the beauty of blue.



















A BLUE CEILING

We're in the process of renovating our house in Madison...and moving into a new apartment in New York City...and taking care of a new set of clients...and raising a seventeen-year-old who still hasn't gotten her drivers license and needs to be driven to swim practice at 5:30 in the morning...and the list goes on...and on...and on

Part of the renovation was to have been a minor repair to the ceiling in the living area. It erupted into a completely new ceiling. Of course it's blue.
We've been trying to enhance the mid-century cottage aspects of the house. After the thought of minor repairs got tossed out the window we toyed with the idea of adding rafters but with a relatively low ceiling height we opted for slated pine that we stained a driftwood gray-blue. The process was pretty simple once we had worked out the right combination of stains.

Here's what we did. We bought stain grade pine v-groove lumber. We decided the more knots and imperfections the more interesting and authentic the ceiling would appear.

Next we laid out some sawhorses in the front yard Clampett style as the base for our painting stage. We used rubber gloves and had a tub of rags set at the ready.
For our stain we chose Cabot semi-transparent deck and siding stain. We chose two colors: Chesapeake blue and Fieldstone gray. It's a rare day when we can find a color that works for us all by itself. The combination of these two colors gave us the right shade of blue we were looking for.
We bought a couple of those small rollers and brushes, a couple of tray liners and we were set.

We started with the blue, rolled it on one slat at a time,

went back over it with a brush to get any missed crevices but mostly to brush off any excess stain

and then went back over it with a rag wiping off the remaining stain. We had to use some muscle power here. We wanted the wood to be almost wiped dry. What we ended up with was a translucent stain with a lot of the original wood color showing through.

If we had left it here we would have had a very baby blue looking ceiling so we repeated the process with a coat of Fieldstone gray.

This toned down the blue giving us a more sophisticated subtle blue color.
The key with the staining is to do the rolling, the brushing and the wiping without letting any time lapse between each part of the process. You don't want to let the stain set too deep. You want to preserve that translucent quality that lets some of those gold tones of the wood shine through.

Our contractor had just torn a fifty year old rotting wrought iron porch off the front of the house and then ingeniously reconfigured it into a drying rack for us in the garage.

The ceiling is now done. The crown molding is going up and the world's ugliest carpet has now been replaced with real red oak floors. We will keep blogging the progress on the house with both its successes and failures















THE GALLERY

L'Atlas Imaginaire
Didier Massard, photographer
Represented by Julie Saul Gallery, NYC

WHAT'S IN A TIFFANY BOX

THE FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY OF SUSAN JOHANN

The first time we saw Susan's print of "Cordia's Rose" we were hooked on becoming photography collectors. It was on a trip to Santa Fe at a time when money meant very little to us. Life was rich. We worked hard as only youth can do. All-nighters were a part of the price you paid for a room next to Don Imus at the La Fonda hotel just off the square in Santa Fe. We stuffed ourselves on lime and tequila prawns, got naked in the communal hot tub at Ten Thousand Waves, and walked the art galleries on Canyon Road from one end to the next. It was here that we discovered The Platinum Gallery run by John Stevenson. John dealt in photography but specialized in platinum prints signed and in limited editions by world famous artists. John wore his passion on his sleeve. He knew everything there was to know about photography and his eye for quality was impeccable. He described the richness in tone of platinum printing in such colorful descriptive language it was hard not fall in love with the works he hung on his walls at the gallery.

We spent hours with John picking out the beginnings of our collection. The vintage prints were out of our price range but there were plenty of contemporary artists to pick from and at the top of our list was "Cordia's Rose" by Susan Johann. The purchase brought us in contact with the artist and this began an almost 30 year relationship with Susan, her family and us.

Since then we have purchased several additional works by Susan and two years ago hosted an opening of her work at our store in Madison.

Susan is currently finishing up a book of photography on American playwrights but her recent body of work is a series of flowers all shot in a tiny Tiffany box. The prints are large. They blow the scale of the box and its contents to gargantuan size yet the delicacy of the tiny blooms is not lost by this but enhanced, making what you might not see visible.

The veining of a leaf, the golden hint of decay on the edge of a petal, the touch of pollen on the tip of a stamen are all made easier for the eye to feel.
Each of Susan's images rests on a field of black just outside the sliver of Tiffany blue announcing the upper edge of the Tiffany box.

There's something about the aqua blue of a Tiffany box that lifts the pedestrian to elegant. In Susan's photos the box isn't lit from within which makes the box fade into darkness leaving the rim to define the box. But it's this rounded edge and its aqua blue color that are so universally understood you immediately connect its contents with everything that is Tiffany and sophistication.

Each of Susan's blooms becomes a precious jewel gift-wrapped for our astonishment. They become diamond necklaces, precious jewels or a string of pearls.

Throughout the years Tiffany has designed broaches and pins to replicate the beauty of nature with precious stones.

Susan's approach to beauty only borrows the box to lift her incredible flowers to the height of million dollar jewels.

Life presents us with exquisite beauty. Every time I look at Susan's work I feel like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" as Richard Gere opens that box of jewelry. There's a squeal of such joy. That's the squeal of seeing something that sparkles while lighting up your mind.

Go to Susan Johann's website to see more of her Tiffany series.

THE SMART HOME

ONE SMART APARTMENT

The most recent rage with high-end clients looking at remodeling or starting new construction is making sure their home is a smart home. Making their homes accessible from any where in the world through their iPhones is the new must have. When you can lunch in St. Tropez and lower your living room shades in Ho-Ho-Kus all at the same time there's an immense sense of security and power.
We are working with several clients right now with way more knowledge than I have about all this gadgetry. Give me a flip switch for my lights and a remote for the TV and I'm fine. Beyond that it's all wasted toys stuffed in a dusty drawer whose purpose will only get stranded in the maze of my mind.

But what I can appreciate is that the Savant showroom used by Phoenix Audio/Video to entice technophiles is totally amazing. Designed by Thom Felicia this space is move-in ready and I'd change the address on all my business cards for the opportunity to live here.

Loft living in New York is always challenging. You are usually dealing with raw space where everything is exposed. It's a designer's dream and nightmare at the same time. The charm of the space is in the exposed rafters, brick walls, and concrete floor, all elements that make the space enticing but at the same time make it difficult to work with. You can cover up the rafters with a false ceiling and drywall the walls but then you've lost the reason you chose a loft in the first place. So what do you do with all the mechanical needs required for normal living? Here the designer chose to expose the HVAC running it along the ceiling with a duct that is so beautiful it begs to be exposed.

The rest of the kitchen uses state of the art appliances mixed in with open shelving and cabinetry in a rift cut oak stained a driftwood grey.

The floor plan is a massive open area containing the kitchen, dining area, media center and conversation alcove. Scale is an important element of drama in the space as seen in the over-sized light fixtures in the dining area. A portion of the brick wall is left exposed and then lit giving the space a sense of being extended beyond the drywall frame.

The media area is the third bay running along the near wall. There was no need to worry about sun glare here. All the windows are part of the control system that can be lowered or raised for TV viewing. Of course, it's all remote, you can raise or lower them from anywhere in the world with a mere touch on your iPhone.

Even the coffee tables contain media screens with atmospheric imagery swimming around the room.

Adjacent to the media area is a nook suited for conversation with a circular arrangement perfect for an intimate party of close friends

The bedroom, office and bathroom are broken out into separate rooms. The tranquility of the bedroom is enhanced by the cool colors and panoramic photography.

TVs pop up from their hiding places inside cabinets topped by birdcages. This unit can just as easily do a slow retreat back into its under-cabinet home.

The most mind-boggling aspect of the bedroom is this sliding door that hides a huge walk-in closet.  The three monitors that line the door are curved to follow the circumference of the circular closet. It's one of the mysteries of the space that made me slap my face in disbelief.

Then for the real information fanatics the office has so many bells and whistles it's a as if you're standing on a turnstile spinning round and round trying to take it all in, speakers, monitors, control panels, Oh my.
I have to hand it to Thom. I'm sure there was a fair amount of input from Savant but the ultimate design is breath taking.













THE GALLERY

Frankfurt, 1965
Henri Cartier-Bresson, photographer
Represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery