Traditional Home Companion » color

Do you Speak Designese?

Rebecca Christian — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:19:42 +0000

Ever notice the way language reflects trends in design? Happily we have retired “bling” and any more we seldom subject readers to alarming interiors described as “eclectic,” where everything from the vase that used to be a chamber pot (quirky) and the bathtub that used to be a cattle trough (whimsical) used to be something else. Now we’re at least “upcycling” those chamber pots!

As a bibliophile, I was pleased when, a few months back, nearly every designer we interviewed used the verb “reads” for the way a design looks. Ie., “With a coffered ceiling and warm paint, the family room reads cozy.” Or, “A casual checked material on the chairs keeps the dining room from reading too stuffy.” And “Because it facilitates conversation, a round table reads friendlier.” (Guess how friendly it reads depends on your family — let’s hope it doesn’t read holding ancient grudges that are aired only at Thanksgiving!)

Museum directors must be pleased with the cache the word “curated” has achieved in the design world, though as an editor whose hall closet could use a tight edit (dog leashes jumbled with orphaned gloves, extension cords, corroded batteries, and a hat that makes me look like Aunt Bea), I like “well-edited” even better: “The home has a traditional shell with interiors that are quiet and well-edited.” No loud interiors, please! We’re trying to write here.

For the last couple of years, we don’t seem to profile designers who are timid with color. They’re all at least “fearless,” if not “obsessed.” A new meaning for OCD: Obsessive Color Disorder. And like the presidential candidates who are always trying to outdo each other’s narratives (raised by wolves or at least by an impoverished single mother), we’ve become fearlessly obsessed with narratives ourselves. One of our recent articles was dubbed “Stories to Tell.” My guess is that fearless color may be going the way of bling: lately we’re hearing a lot about subtle, nuanced, hushed and whispering colors, bringing to mind a martini made with gin while the word vermouth is only whispered in the next room.

Meanwhile “bespoke,” meaning custom-made, is being badly abused by the makers of mass-produced goods who claim their pressboard desks have bespoke details. At least they’re finally giving “iconic” a rest — if everything is bespoke or iconic, nothing is.

And who is the party responsible for starting this “loves, loves, loves” thing? I’d like a word, word, word with them. I for one love, love, love my grandbabies but I only love, love my living room, kinda like my bedroom, and actually hate, hate, hate my kitchen. Maybe I’d like it better if it had “rock-star chic,” “rock-star glamour,” or at least a whiff of “edginess.” I wonder what rock stars say when they want to describe something glamorous? I’m willing to bet it’s not “magazine editor-chic.” I think the person who came up with “loves, loves, loves” was also the first to ask “Isn’t that fabulous?”

Gosh, this reads edgy. Maybe I should curate myself!

Bid On Great Designer Before and After Items (And It’s For A Great Cause)!

Rebecca Christian — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:45:14 +0000

Recently at our Classic Woman Awards luncheon in New York, I had the pleasure of catching up with designer Jennifer Flanders (whose drop-dead gorgeous Manhattan apartment that she shares with two darling daughters we memorably featured in our magazine: http://bit.ly/tmP5fF).

Jennifer Flanders

I was pleased to discover that at our Classic Woman awards program a couple of years ago, Jennifer became so inspired by Classic Woman honoree Susan Fredman’s Designs for Dignity organization in Chicago that she decided to establish the same organization in New York. Designs for Dignity uses pro bono designer services, materials and finishes donated by manufacturers, vendors, clients and showrooms to create beautiful, healing spaces for nonprofits and residences that serve people in need (http://bit.ly/w1l6uS ). Its philosophy is that everyone has the right to live in a home they can be proud of, regardless of financial or social status.

For the New York branch’s project, Jennifer had the clever idea of challenging ten top designers to find old pieces of furniture to redesign, with the idea of auctioning them off at a charity event in New York December 1. (You don’t have to be there to bid on an item; in fact, you can do it online: http://bit.ly/rM2RJC). Here is a chair Jennifer herself redesigned with Amy Statuto.

BEFORE

AFTER

Jennifer says, “We felt this was an apropos way to raise funds because part of what Designs for Dignity does is take advantage of all the waste and excess in the design industry. We are using the fundraiser to show ways in which old pieces of furniture can be given new life and re-used rather than thrown away. We have a wonderful group of designers donating both their time and resources to this event, and we are hopeful that not only will this effort raise funds to help our NY chapter get off the ground, but it will also raise awareness in the NY design community.”

Laura Bohn Associates designed the two-drawer chest below:

BEFORE

AFTER

The event, a cocktail reception and auction where the upcycled items can be viewed, is Thursday evening, December 1, from 6 to 9 p.m at Newel’s new showroom at 425 E. 53rd St. Tickets are available online for $75 and at the door for $90. It’s sponsored by VandM, which sells vintage furniture, antiques, fine art and jewelry from around the world online (vandm.com). Designers represented are Bradley Stephens, Kevin Walz, Laura Bohn Design Associates, Drew McGukin, Christopher Coleman, Etienne Coffinier and Ed Ku of Coffinier Ku Design, Jim Aman and John Meeks, Jennifer Flanders and Amy Statuto, and Doug and Gene Meyer.

101 Things I Hate About Your House

Rebecca Christian — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:02:55 +0000

That headline caught your attention, didn’t it? Me, too. It’s also the clever title of a witty and useful new book by designer Jim Swan, who promises readers he’ll take them on a room to room tour to transform their homes from faux pas to fabulous. He delivers.

Between the comatose houseplants, the blinding entryway light meant to discourage bad guys from wandering up to my vestibule from the nearby freeway but more suitable for interrogating prisoners than welcoming guests, the stack of catalogs on (where else?) the dining room table, the furniture pushed up against the wall like redneck mothers, the faint and to me, a dog lover, not necessarily unpleasant whiff of canine I don’t always remember to temper with a candle scented with what a chemist for Walmart thinks orange blossoms smell like, I saw myself on almost every page.

The books is full of fun color illustrations, like this dowager’s beringed hand in desperate search for a coaster on which to lay her ‘tini.

Swan writes, “Often to be pitied is the guest who approaches, sweaty glass in hand, clearly intending to perch on a pouf and join in the riotous conversation. Perching complete, she looks for that small but monumentally important 3 1/2 inch shield with which she can honor her host and aid in protecting the costly table top on which her dripping drink wants to be placed….It’s fair trade, in my opinion if the French polish on that walnut-marquetry candlestand becomes ghosted and ringed with water spots.”

He also rails against too-high piles of pillows that become kitty jungle gyms. (Um, do they still call them “jungle gyms?” That is my phrase, not the author’s).

The book would make a fun gift for a friend who wants to improve the look of his or her home (and isn’t so thin-skinned they’ll take it as a hint instead of a present.) Or you might want to get it for yourself — Swan’s commonsensical advice tells you what you already know but tend to forget as the detitrus of life piles up around you and the force of habit makes you blind to your own surroundings. I, for one, am going to do something about my graveyard for dead appliances. Order the book ((HCI) for about $13 from amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Things-About-House-Room-Room/dp/0757315674

You also might want to check out the book’s quirky Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/pages/James-Swan-and-101-Things-I-Hate-About-Your-House/374081828267

Modern Shape, Vintage Images — Intriguing Handmade Lamps at a Reasonable Price

Rebecca Christian — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:03:48 +0000

If, like me, you are drawn to flea markets where you can find nostalgic oddments such as old coins, old stamps, vintage card games, and handwritten recipes, I think you will like Monica Burke’s Table Lamps as much as I do. Working at a vintage lighting studio inspired Monica to rewire old lamps and remake them using found objects and nostalgic images from old postcards and maps. Sometimes she uses her own original photography. In her recent work, a contemporary cylindrical shape gives the lamps a modern edge.

Czech Rhino Stamp Lamp by Monica Burke

The lamps are handmade of sturdy cotton with archival grade ink. I first saw Monica’s work when my daughter — who loves handmade things and likes to support emerging artists and craftswomen — gave one of her lamps as a wedding gift. The “Appearing Quote Typewriter” Lamp looks like an old typewriter with a fresh sheet of paper in it when unlit. When turned on, a quote appears — and you can pick the quote. She’ll customize it.

Monica Burke’s Appearing Quote Typewriter Lamp

The lamps are $48 at The Daily Grommet (http://bit.ly/vGUc0Q), and you can also find her work at etsy.com.

Crazy for Color (and Floral Designer Jane Packer’s yummy new book)

Rebecca Christian — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 21:47:29 +0000

I love color — I have bright red patent leather ankle strap shoes, a baby blue bicycle that makes me think of Nancy Drew’s little blue coupe, and cobalt art glass displayed on the moss green “table” behind my couch (it’s actually a worn frosted-glass door mounted on a couple of plant stands from good old Hobby Lobby) . Oh, and at the moment my toenails are painted Mattel pink. So you can see why I swooned over British floral designer Jane Packer’s new book, Color, with such deeply saturated photographs by Georgia Glynn Smith that they’ll knock your tie-dyed socks off.

available at Amazon.com for $14.84

(http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=jane+packer+color&x=0&y=0

Packer, who has designed flowers for clients from rock stars to royalty, approaches floral design with the imagination and assured eye of a fashion or interior designer, using color to evoke mood and intuitively understanding how fashion color trends affect the world of flowers. She notes, “Green has singlehandedly reinvented the chrysanthemum and the much-maligned carnation, reinstating them as desirable fashion flowers. Roses, anthurium and ranunculus have benefited from this infusion of green, too.” (She’s right, I think. At my son’s wedding a couple years ago, the flowers were entirely green and white, and the effect was striking.)

Working her way through the rainbow, Packer offers gorgeous floral takes on red, white, green, yellow, pink, and blue, and gives step-by-step directions for ten eye-popping projects, including a three-tiered “cake” made of scarlet roses. Here’s a topiary tree project from the Green section:

It doesn’t sound too difficult. You’ll need a container, florist foam and tape, a bamboo post, sunflowers, hydrangea flowers, and some snake grass or glossy leaves. There are simpler suggestions in the book, too, like presenting a breakfast tray with egg cups into which you’ve put not eggs, but half eggshells, filled with enough water to hydrate a tiny bloom. In other vignettes, cherry blossoms burst out of a rubber rain boot, and in a ruby vase full of brilliant parrot tulips, Packer has nestled crystal brooches among the blooms to reflect the jewel colors of the flowers and the vase. For the project below, Packer painted tree branches pink and hung them with jars of pink flowers. She’s used alstromenia in the higher jar and nerines in the lower ones, but you could use almost any pink flowers, she says. Wouldn’t the pink branches make a pretty arrangement for Easter or a bridal or baby shower?

Packer has flower shops and floral design schools in London, Tokyo, and New York, as well as a flower shop in Korea (jane-packer.co.uk). You can also buy her designs from janepackerdelivered.com. I especially love this arrangement of roses in a turquoise hatbox, a variation of red roses for a blue lady.

a fun arrangement from janepackerdelivered.com

I, for one, can’t wait to try her autumn wreath with oak leaves and perry pears from her book. I’m already jonesing for toasty palettes, and I know the project will put me in the mood for fall.

A paint chip by any other name would look as good

Rebecca Christian — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 20:07:34 +0000

Not since Juliet has the psychology behind naming been questioned as intriguingly as in a recent piece about the small, and sometimes odd, little world of naming paint colors http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/us/30paint.html. The article has a nifty interactive multiple choice quiz where you are shown a color and guess its name.

Who woulda thunk that Weekend in the Country would be brown, Hey There would be yellow, Dead Salmon would be taupe and Arsenic would be green?

Farrow & Ball’s Arsenic

The fact that some of the names don’t sound all that attractive doesn’t matter, marketers say, as long as they capture people’s imaginations. I suppose the same could be said for book and movie titles, like Steve Martin’s Cruel Shoes and the kid movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Dorothy Parker, who got sick of reading about heroines with russet curls or ebony manes, used to refer to her hair as hair-colored hair.

I once bought moody blue-gray carpet that really didn’t work very well in my house and stained like a son of a gun because of its beautifully melancholic name, “October Storm.” Last year, when I had the exterior of my twenties-era Arts and Crafts house repainted, I chose from Valspar’s historically accurate Craftsman palette, with much better results.

Valspar Craftsman Colors

(alas, not my house)

Like many women, I’m a sucker for nail polish and lipstick with pretty names. Even though it’s a little dark for me, especially in warm weather, I can’t resist the Revlon lipstick “Cherries in the Snow.” There’s a dessert by the same name. I wonder which came first.

Today’s cosmetic colors are whimsical and sometimes a little weird. Essie Nail Colors has Starter Wife (pastel pink) Jamaica Me Crazy (spirited magenta), Pillow Talk (nude), Tart Deco (Coral), Damsel in a Dress (deep purple) and Trophy Wife (teal). A comic blog, Shoebox, suggests lipstick names Stubborn Bloodstain, There’s Something on Your Lip, and my fave, Old-Lady-Scalp Pink.

Essie’s Starter Wife Nail Color

For the Goth girl, Urban Decay has a line of lip products with downright scary names: Envious, Greedy, Trainwreck, Buzzkill, and Paranoid. I guess wearing Trainwreck is no worse painting your house Tornado. If you’re going to tempt fate that way, better keep a bottle of polish and a fistful of paint decks handy in the southwest corner of the basement so you have something to do while waiting out the storm.

Design on a Dime!

Amy Bleier Long — Thu, 05 May 2011 19:13:49 +0000

We are proud to again sponsor Design on a Dime, a fantastic fundraiser benefitting Housing Works, which is an organization working to end AIDS and homelessness. More than 50 top designers have created vignettes and every item in the vignettes – including new housewares, furniture, and linens – are for sale at 50-70% off retail prices. Proceeds of sales benefit a new housing project in Brooklyn which will provide a home for previously homeless adults living with HIV/AIDS.

Suysel de Pedro Cunningham and Anne Maxwell Foster of Tilton Fenwick (one of our 20 New Traditionals) designed a vignette for us (sneak peek above).

The opening reception tonight is completely sold out, which is great because the event is a fundraiser, and the largest crowd ever is expected. But the sale will be open to the public, for free, through Saturday night:

Friday, May 06, 2011 – Saturday, May 07, 2011 10am-6pm

Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W. 18th St. (btwn. 6th & 7th Ave.) New York, NY

If you’re in Manhattan this weekend, shop these spectacular rooms and support a wonderful cause!

Fiesta Forever (happy 75th!)

Candace Ord Manroe — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:49:23 +0000

Fiesta's "marigold" and "sunflower" pitchers. Marigold is this year's new color in celebration of the dinnerware's 75th anniversary.

Here are few fave facts about Fiesta ware I picked up recently.

1) It’s been in production 75 years. Happy birthday!

2) Between 40 to 45 percent of all brides register for Fiesta.

3) Any purchase comes with a 5-year “chip” warranty. Seriously? Unbelievable. How can they do that for families like mine? Answer: the product seldom chips!

4) It’s the number-one collected dinnerware on E-Bay. That doesn’t really surprise me.

5) It’s still made entirely in the USA, in Newell, West Virginia. (Only the metal parts on Fiesta’s colorful flatware, introduced three years ago, are made in China, but that’s not Fiesta’s fault; it’s due to a lack of American metal companies.)

6) Did you realize all Fiesta ware is ovenproof? Guess I didn’t. And now the Fiesta Bakeware line of cookware can progress directly from the freezer to an oven of 500 degrees. (There’s little flint in the pottery so that it defects the heat.)

7) 88 percent of all customers buy two or more colors with their first purchase. Mix-and-match is definitely Fiesta’s “thing.”

Fiesta’s best-selling color caught me off guard: scarlet. I would’ve guessed an earthier tone.

9) The second best-selling color is “lemongrass.” Sharp, punchy, lovely, and just a couple of years in the line.

10) This company actually receives letters from grateful shoppers saying, “Thanks for being made in the USA.” And: “Thanks for making me happy.” Nice. Again, Fiesta, happy birthday. Available at department stores like Dillard’s and Macy’s.

Hip, Hip, Hibiscus

Rebecca Christian — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:35:49 +0000

The hibiscus is an immodest, look-at-me sort of flower, so impossibly showy and over the top, even for a tropical, that it’s even used as inspiration for tattoo art. It’s as temperamental as the soprano in an opera, too, only blooming in late summer. I like it anyway. So I was pleased to find out about this one, a Rose of Sharon hibiscus, with blooms more subtly colored than most and beautifully variegated foliage. Called Miss Jilene, it is cold-hardy enough to bloom until first frost. It does well in full heat and sun in zones 5-8, but also blooms in partial shade. Nationally distributed for the first time this year, it will bloom its first growing season and is available exclusively at Nature Hills Nursery for $32 (http://www.naturehills.com/product/miss_jilene_rose_of_sharon.aspx).

sweetness and light

Amy Bleier Long — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:41:01 +0000

When asked to do a feature vignette at the Lampworks showroom in Manhattan, designers generally bring in a cabinet here, a console there, and it’s all a slightly serious undertaking (Albert Hadley has done one). Interior designer Felicia Zwebner, founder of her own firm, Art De Triomphe, decided to attempt her most ambitious installation ever and go outside the box and off the floor.

Her initial inspirations were fall, but not pumpkins and hay bales, and the outdoors. Her love of France led her to ideas of eating outside and vineyards. A little bit of Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland and the vision was complete.

A canvas floor cloth is painted to look like the sky, and the stairs are a rushing waterfall, both by Faux Time Design. Ceramic mushrooms and butterflies dot the faux rock formations. An extra bit of whimsy is the French-inspired taffeta hot air balloon.

Tilt your head 90 degrees to the right and take in the “blue stone patio” with table fabricated by Window 25 and Pierre Deux wheat-back chairs, Kravet fabric (as the tablecloth) with Samuel & Sons trim, as well as the birch canopy. There are so many sweet details, such as the burlap seat cushions also from Window 25; I love the tiny one on the child’s chair. It took a lot of effort and finger-crossing to pull off this wall-mounted scene.

Of course, the light fixtures are the real stars. Hung or mounted at different heights is a mix of new, custom, and vintage indoor and outdoor pieces in varying scale. A favorite fixture was the Vaseline glass-and-iron pendant from 1925. You can see its milky-colored sphere in the center of the above image.

Felicia’s installation could have fit perfectly in our October Enchanted Forest story, don’t you think? It’s a totally fun way to show off the beautiful range of products at Lampworks, and it should be up until late winter, if you get the chance to stop by. Lampworks owner Bebe Regnier says that this sort of display is exactly what draws her to Felicia’s work: “Everything has precise detail. It’s its own little world, like she’s created a movie set.”

The Lampworks showroom is located at 231 East 58th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.