John-be-gone.

There have been many improvements in the past several years to the design, but let’s face it…a toilet is a toilet.  No matter how pretty.  Some of us are lucky enough to have a separate room within the bathroom to hide the fixture.  Me?  Nope.  We are all human…and we do human things, but if I can draw a bit of attention away from the John…I’m going to!

My plan is to use art in the bathroom to distract from the toilet.  You don’t normally consider the bathroom a possible location for your best artwork, but it’s a great concept to consider!  It’s such an important concept that I’m starting with the art selection and placement before anything else in the room’s re-design.  Most of the time, the art will inspire the decisions you’ll make in the rest of the space.  Take a look at the focal points I created in the powder room and master bathroom as perfect examples.

(Above:  The powder room is visible upon entering the condo, and I tend to leave the room’s door open most of the time.  Instead of peeking in at a toilet, I’d like to stop the eye at a very powerful piece of artwork.  This 42″ diameter, vintage metal wall sculpture certainly does that.  To offset the sculpture even more, I’m planning to install a metallic silver wallpaper behind it and paint all the other walls black.)

(Above:  A detail shot of the gorgeous piece I found at Broadway Antique Market here in Chicago.  Took about 4 hours of cleaning, but it was worth it!)

(Above:  See how a large, original piece of art draws your eye right past the toilet?  The darkness in the art references the richly stained cabinetry.  The walls will soon be painted a warm, medium-tone grey (as seen in the swatches) pulled directly from the artwork.  Ignore the other stuff in the photo…it’s all soon to change!)

Cornered.

I love when a floor plan presents me with corner to fill.  They’re always great spots for a little retreat from the main seating arrangement.  I get an opportunity to define the corner’s purpose, and layer in interesting pieces to make it special.  In my living room, I have a corner outlined by open wall on one side and floor-to-ceiling draperies on the other.  The perfect backdrop for something sculptural.  I don’t need media equipment or furniture for storage here.  What I need is an extra little seating spot to relax with an iPad or a comfortable spot to have a phone chat.  Of course, it must stand on its own as a beautifully designated little area separate from (but still in balance with) the main seating group.  Take a look at the corner I’m working with.

(Above:  My living room’s furniture plan illustrating the corner I’m working with.)

I’ve decided to furnish the corner with a sculptural lounge chair for additional seating.  Here are some things I kept in mind while sourcing the proper pieces:

Tips:

1.  Make sure the piece is in balance with the opposite side of the room.  For me, I have a chandelier hanging in the opposite corner.  I also have floor-to ceiling drapes along the window wall.  My chair needs to have a high back to balance both of these surrounding elements.  It can’t be a low piece!

2.  How will it relate to other furniture in the room?  All my other seating pieces in the living room are fully upholstered.  To do another fully upholstered piece in the corner would seem heavy and repetitive.  I need something with exposed arms, wood, thinner lines.

3.  Make sure the chair is grounded.  A chair by itself would seem lonely.  To give this space a bit more function and purpose, I’m planning a small side table.  The table must NOT overpower the chair in any way.

4.  Light it up!  I have no lighting in the corner.  To enhance function and illuminate my selections, I’m planning a gorgeous little cast glass table lamp for the corner grouping.

5.  Is the corner adequately filled?  Since I’ve chosen to do a small table lamp and not a floor lamp, I have to compensate for not having enough height.  My chair back is high at 39″, but I need more interest on the wall.  Artwork is essential to the grouping.  It makes the space feel fully furnished and complete.

(Above:  A newly produced Lamino Chair available through Design Within Reach.  Beech frame and sheepskin upholstery.)

My winning selection?  A vintage Lamino chair designed by Yngve Ekstrom for Swedese.  The form is sculptural, and it commands a great deal of attention on its own.  The lines are fluid and clean.  It’s amazing to me that this chair was designed in 1956!  No wonder it was voted the 20th Century’s best Swedish furniture design in 1999.  I’m glad I own a little piece of history.  Mine is in oak and teak with black leather upholstery.

(Above:  The ‘blank canvas’ corner.  Floor-to-ceiling drapes on the left side.)

(Above:  The vintage Lamino in position.)

(Above:  A side table with simple form adds more function to the corner and pairs nicely with the chair, while not overpowering it.  I chose the very economically priced “Martini Side Table” from West Elm in black.)

(Above:  Because my chandelier in the opposite corner is such a focal point, I wanted the lighting here to be more subtle.  The vintage cast glass Pukeberg lamp is perfect!  I also allows me an opportunity to further dress the corner with a large piece of artwork.  PLEASE NOTE:  This is not conceptual artwork.  I bought this acrylic frame from an artist and will fill it soon.  I’m still deciding on options!)

As you can see, this corner becomes quite special with the addition of some carefully selected pieces.  They all work well together, and the focus is still on the chair.  The artwork that will someday will the empty frame will complement the composition.  I think that will be another post entirely!  I love the result, HOWEVER…something is a little off.

As much as I LOVE the black leather upholstery on the chair, the contrast between it and the charcoal drapes behind is not enough.  I’m proposing reupholstery.  Finding an appropriate fabric for the look of the chair, while meeting my needs for contrast has been a bit difficult, but I think I may have stumbled on the winner.

(Above:  A stunning linen textured velvet fabric by Christopher Farr.  It’s dark chocolate, but the lightness of the background gives me the contrast against the draperies behind.  It will look fabulous.  Once I decide on this for sure, I’ll post the reupholstered results!)

(Above:  Another shot of the gorgeous profile.  Because it was designed to follow the natural curves of the human body, it’s unbelievably comfortable!)

Mister mister.

After some quite mild temperatures recently, I’m sad to say that Chicago winter has finally taken hold.  It’s time for hearty stews, down-filled coats, hot toddies, and the heat in your home to kick on.  I’m fortunate enough to live in a new-construction building with radiant heating in the floors.  Such a luxury!  However, when it’s really cold outside, I like to turn on my forced air system for a little supplemental heat.  The dogs practically beg for it.  They’re chihuahuas.  They like it warm.

What does it mean for your home when you turn on the heat?  Dry air.  As most of you know, much of my furniture is vintage and many pieces are wood.  A humidifier is essential to maintain the condition of my treasured teak and rosewood furnishings.  It’s also nice on your skin.  Turning to local retailers recently left me very disappointed with the design of American humidifiers.  I compare them to spaceships or ugly kitchen appliances.  This could really kill the design of a room.  Why do most functional items like this look so hideous?  It’s not like you can tuck a humidifier into a hidden corner.  For them to be efficient, they must be placed somewhat centrally in a space.

That’s what brought me searching to find these lovely things.

(Above:  A stunning Naoto Fukasawa design.  Why can’t America embrace this concept of functional beauty?  I would buy this even if it wan’t a humidifier!)

(Above:  Another brilliant Fukasawa design.)

(Above:  This is the model I decided to purchase.  It’s designed by Japanese designer, Takashi Hiroshi Tsuboi.  I bought the large size in black…of course.)

I actually look forward to pulling out this device for the season.  I’m most likely going to use it through the air-conditioning months too!  Can you spot the humidifier?

(Above:  Hint…it’s not under the rug…)

(Above:  …it’s not behind the sofa…)

(Above:  …you’re so close!)

(Above:  Proof that it works.)

Guy stuff.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a female client ask me, “How large can we go with the TV?” or “Where are we putting the speakers?”  Why is this predominantly a guy’s arena?  As a designer, I am sometimes challenged with the compromises between A/V requests and the overall design of the room.  Many people don’t have the luxury of a media room, or a space solely dedicated to watching TV.  How can your A/V equipment live harmoniously in a well-designed room?  It’s all about proportions and scale.

I live with two TV’s…one in the living room and the other in the bedroom.  Both are visible…not hidden behind cabinetry.  I embrace my maleness with this subject, and I certainly enjoy the experience of a large screen.  More often than not,  I suggest clients scale back on their television size demands.  In  my case, I recently realized that my TV’s were too small!

HELPFUL TIP:

Before you buy, take blue painter’s tape and tape out the TV size and live with it for a few days.  OR, do what I did and cut out cardboard to represent the new size.  It’s fool-proof.  Your gut will lead you in the right direction.

Remember my post from last week?  Once I changed the cabinetry in the room, the TV size needed to be addressed.  Take a look.

(BEFORE:  The old cabinet with a 27″ TV.  Good for this 40″ wide cabinet.  Even with the TV in place, I still had room for a piece of art above.)

(AFTER:  With the new cabinet at nearly 50″ wide, a larger TV was necessary.)

I selected a 37″ TV for the bedroom.  It’s in perfect scale with the cabinetry below.  Always pay attention to that!  I had originally planned for the TV to rest on the cabinetry with the supplied base, so I could put art on the wall above.  Layering pretty things around the TV was going to make the TV disappear in my mind.  Not with this new baby!  I’m just letting it be a TV.  I mounted the thing on the wall to free up some surface for accessorizing, and now I eliminated my need for artwork above it (it would’ve been mostly covered anyway).  I drilled holes into the wall and fished the cables to the cabinetry below, where all my equipment is hidden.  That’s the key!

 In the living room, my ‘media cabinet’ is a gorgeous 90 inch, 60′s Rosewood credenza by Bramin.  It kills me to put a TV on it, but I really have no choice.  I thought by down-playing the TV size here, it would keep my focus on the credenza.  Well, it did…but in turn it also made the credenza look too long and not ‘anchored’ in the space.  The composition looked weak and sparse.  No good.  Take a look.

(BEFORE:  There’s nothing working together here.  Just a bunch of small things surrounding a huge credenza.  The wall looks bare, and the whole composition is weak.  It just looks like something is missing.  Perhaps this 37″ TV would be OK if I had a large piece of art planned for the wall behind…but I don’t!)

(Above:  Oh yeah!  Me and my manliness went big this time!  It’s much more in scale with the credenza and the wall.  Everything just looks better.)

As you can see, I’m just letting my TV be a TV again.  No hiding, no excuses, no restraint.  With this new 51″ baby, I don’t need art on the wall, and my focus is still on the credenza and my suspended Italian glass sculpture.  Sure, it’s large, but it’s perfect for such a long credenza.  Another successful decision here is the asymmetric placement.  Had this TV been placed in the center of the furniture piece, I would have killed the configuration.  Remember my concept:  Sexy Modern Men’s Lounge.  This is bang on!  Here are a few more sexy shots.

Hello, Ello.

Sometimes you stumble upon something amazing and it forces you to switch gears a bit.  An important lesson I’ve learned:  Be open to unexpected design changes, and trust your gut!  Sometimes a better solution reveals itself when you least expect it.

Each piece of furniture in my home has a story that makes it special to me.  With some…the story is greater than the actual piece!  That was the case for my bedroom media cabinet.  It certainly worked in the room, but it was just another teak piece amongst other teak pieces in the room that are much more fabulous.  I knew a better solution was out there, but it wasn’t a huge priority to find it.  Can you relate?  Do you live with a piece that simply serves its purpose but doesn’t tickle your pickle?

(Above:  My existing bedroom media cabinet.  It works, but it’s not fabulous.)

Recently, while shopping for a client at Broadway Antique Market, I found the solution.  Actually, I believe the solution found ME.  I was blindsided by this gorgeous configuration of modular Ello bronze mirrored cabinets from the 1970′s. Ello was a furniture manufacturer in Rockford Illinois from 1956 until it sadly closed its doors in October, 2010.  I love the history and local connection with these pieces!  Plus, I’d never seen them in bronze mirror before.

As much as it was love at first sight, I didn’t exactly have that ‘you’ll know it when you see it’ moment.  It took overnight for the two cabinet units to register as the perfect solution for the bedroom media unit!  I quickly recalled the dramatic result after I added the bronze mirror to my shelving unit.  These cabinets could do the same thing for the bedroom, and they’d bring in a bit of consistency with the living room.  Goodbye teak…hello bronze mirror!

(Above:  Much more interesting with a glamorous 1970′s sophistication.  Sexy for sure!  When you lie in bed, you can see yourself in the cabinet doors.  Naughty?  Just a touch.  It’s a bedroom.)

(Above:  Only a few adjustments were necessary with the installation of the new cabinetry.  One being the larger TV shown mounted to the wall.  I’ll discuss TV size in next week’s post.)