Fall’s Hottest Design Trends

Everything for the home from dinnerware designed by Angelina Jolie’s tatoo-artist (left), to South African-made wool ottomans that looked like stones, were presented to buyers and interior designers and the press at the N.Y. Gift Fair last week.

Buying ramped up a bit according to this — very hurt — segment of the market. The general consensus was more hopeful than at the previous, January market.

Color Trends from the New York Gift Fair

Sick of your chocolate-brown-and-sea-blue color scheme? We are, too.

And if you’re spending more time at home it’s only natural to want to freshen up the place. Check out my latest post for Richmond Home magazine about color trends for 2009/2010. This week, I’ve revived my When in R•Homeblog to report on what’s happening from the New York International Gift Fair, a twice-yearly trade show for interior designers, shop owners and other tastemakers in home design.

Things got exciting on Tuesday, when I spied designer/potter/reality-show host Jonathan Adler hanging out near his booth. [Remember my post about how Adler designed the Barbie Dream House for the doll's 50th birthday?] Ah, the glamorous life …

Dress Your Nest With Queer-Eye Style

Ever since he popped on the scene in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, interior designer Thom Filicia has been my secret gay crush. So likeable, so real and so adept at giving hopeless schlubs cool-livable style. His look is classic with modern touches. Very now, with a grasp of the past.

If you could afford to hire him — like J.Lo and Mark Anthony did for their Hamptons house, right, which was featured in Vogue Living —  you could have his magic touch. But GOOD NEWS, Filicia just announced he’s releasing the Thom Filicia Home collection via with partnerships with several well-known manufacturers, such as Vanguard. Let’s hope the prices are recession-friendly so we can all have a piece of Thom. More to come on that.

Another great way to get a piece of Thom’s style. His book, Tom Filicia Style: Inspired Ideas for Creating Rooms You’ll Love.

For more of Thom, check out his portfolio here. Or visit Habitually Chic’s coverage of Thom here and here.

The new season of Thom’s show Dress Your Nest starts April 22 on The Style Network.

Black and White and Cool All Over

A little Ikea goes a long way. Or make that A LOT of Ikea.
Richmond interior designer Janie Molster used this graphic, black-and-white Ikea fabric to great effect in her son’s room by repeating it for curtains, headboards and bedskirts. See, even designers shop at Ikea.

 

 

Here’s a latter version of the same room. No doubt an interior designer’s home is always in flux.

 

 
Molster is a master of mixing patterns and colors. I notice she often throws a black-and-white pattern in with other multi-colored fabrics and rugs. Below is a shot of her Swedish-cottage-meets-Southern-debutante  library that we featured in R.Home magazine. Although here the David Hicks fabric on the sofa is actually chocolate brown, not black (available through Lee Jofa).

And the fabulous mix of Iranian, Moroccan and Turkish tribal rugs in the dining room is totally unexpected, especially paired with the black-and-white wallpaper in the foyer. 

This room has evolved, too. Now the chair seats sport fragments of the rugs. A fun, and probably comfortable, idea. Molster also runs an online shop featuring some of her favorite pieces. See more of Janie’s design work here.

Adler Gets in Touch with His Inner Barbie

This morning on NPR, they did a segment on the real Barbie Dream House in Malibu, Ca., designed by chipper designer Jonathan Adler. While I love radio, there is that one big drawback. So I scoured the web looking for an image only to turn up just one nugget, the living room shot below.

One of the more creative elements is on the wall just over the feather explosion; a mirror made of 64 Barbies (below). According to the AP, after a big 50th birthday party for Barbie tonight in the house, the custom furnishings will find a home at the Palms casino resort in Las Vegas where they will decorate a pink Barbie Suite available for bachelorette parties and other girly events. Other pieces will be available in September when Adler launches a “Jonathan Adler Loves Barbie” collection. Wow. Not sure about that one.

Adler was a good pick for the house, his peppy look mixes bright-whites and saturated tones with bold patterns and campy accessories. I’ve never been able to embrace the total Adler package, but he’s certainly likeable and I found some inspiration from some of his design work. Take a look:

ABOVE: I’m always love to see art arranged in interesting ways. Here he mixes figurative, abstract, black-and-white photography, he throws all sorts of things together. The same theory goes for the patterns, they’re just thrown together. It’s debatable whether it works, but it’s fun.

RIGHT: Here the mix works for me. The blue and orange are toned down just enough by the paneled walls.

 

 

ABOVE: A surprisingly restrained living room. Definitely mellow for Adler. I love those gorgeous sofas, classic lines in a buttery leather.
LEFT: The art makes it for me here. Are those the same woman? Aunts? Or just 60s babes? And that’s a fantastic green velvet on the chairs.

Looking at Architecture in a New Light (or Dark)

Never did the promise of modernism seem so shiny and new as when it was just that (before the roofs leaked and heating those glass boxes got so darn expensive). But before the fall, in 1929, two partners set out to photograph the new modern world like it had never been captured before. Art Deco, the World’s Fair of 1933, Frank Lloyd Wright — they were there for it all. Their shot of Wright’s “Falling Water” is said to have given it that name, see for yourself below. The firm of Hedrich Blessing documented the modernist movement and have one of the largest catalogues of Mies van der Rohe’s work. Although their dramatic angles and lighting did more than document. They brought the buildings to life. Ken Hedrich’s mantra was, “Don’t make photographs, think them.” I’d say he felt them, too. Here’s some of the firm’s legendary work:

 
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water photographed by Bill Hedrich, 1937

The art deco Field Building with it’s dramatic two-story lobby were designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, photographed by Ken Hedrich, 1932

Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, designed by Eliel Saarinen and photographed by Ken Hedrich, 1943

Crown Hall is home to the College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, it’s one-time director. Photographed by  Bill Engdahl, 1956

I love the illusion created by the reflection in this photo of St. Paul County Courthouse photographed by Ken Hedrich, 1933

Chicago’s art deco Palmolive Building designed by  Holabird & Root, photographed by Bill Hedrich, 1939

Chrysler Pavilion at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair photographed by Ken Hedrich, 1933

To see more, visit “Building Images: Seventy Years of Photography at Hedrich Blessing” at the Virginia Center for Architecture through April 12, 2009.

20th-Century’s Most Influential Architects

I developed this piece for Domino magazine but, alas, it folded before the piece ran. So I present it to you here, in a series: 20th-Century Architects Most Influential to Everyday Design. Whether you pay attention to architecture or not, these are the people who’ve had an affect on your life, from what’s on the shelves of Target to what’s in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and where the Olympics are being played. Get to know these great men (and one woman) of design. 

 

Part I

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1886-1969

 

This German-born architect led the modernist movement trying to establish a style indicative of the times, free from unnecessary ornament and making use of industrial materials like glass and steel. He pioneered the skyscraper and ran the influential Bauhaus design school, emigrating to Chicago during WWII. 

 

Mantra: “Less is more” “God is in the details”

Seminal Structure: Seagram Building, New York City, 1958. Designed with American architect Philip Johnson, it’s considered a masterpiece of corporate modernism. Mies wanted the steel frame to show on the outside but because of code restrictions, he was forced to mimic the support beams with bronze-colored I-beams instead. An Alexander Calder sculpture sits in the courtyard. Inside, The Four Seasons restaurant was also designed by the architects and remains virtually the same today as when it was completed in 1959, featuring a who’s who list of mid-century touches including an adaptation of the Mies-designed Brno Chair in the dining room, banquettes designed by Johnson, lounge furniture by Eero Saarinen and private party chairs by Charles Eames.  

 

 

Go See: Farnsworth House, Illinois, 1951 (right). Outside Chicago, this weekend retreat proved that cold materials could create an emotional result.

 

Read Up: Mies and Modern Living, a 288-page book tracing his career and design highlights with previously unrealeased photos.

  

Mies van der Rohe at Work is a reprint of a 1974 book exploring the ideology behind some of his most famous works, peppered with insightful quotes from the architect like: “It is often thought that heaviness is synonymous with strength. In my opinion it is just the opposite.”

  

Written by a NYU professor, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, traces the development of the architect’s work with scholarly essays and plentiful photos and plans. 

 

Get a Piece: Barcelona Chair, $4,328. Constructed of modernist, steel tubing and tufted leather, a classic with many imitators. The original design was licensed to Knoll and is still being produced.

  

  

 

 

The chair was created in 1929 for the German Pavilion (right) at the World Arts Fair in Barcelona. The pavilion, made of glass, steel and four types of marble, was reconstructed and can be visited in Barcelona.

 

 

Charlotte Moss on the Ideal Bedside Table

About a month ago, I visited mega-decorator Charlotte Moss in her Upper East Side brownstone to interview her for  R.Home magazine. What fun! She was lovely and incredibly schooled on design history. She made me want to lock myself in her library until I’d finished reading all of the gorgeous design books lining her shelves. Like most successful people, Moss has obviously done her homework in life. And she isn’t afraid to pull from the past — and admit she’s doing it. She takes her favorite elements from famous women of style and synthesizes them into something entirely her own, that’s elegant, detailed, and always comfortable.

I asked Charlotte to explain this nook in the bedroom she designed for the ”Designers Visions at The Laurel” decorator’s showhouse in which apartments were sponsored by magazines in The Laurel apartment building in New York. Moss decorated an apartment in the high rise for Veranda and it appeared on their cover in November. After hearing her answer, I think this photo is a great example of the level of detail in her work.

The Perfect Bedside Table
Moss sent a letter to all her clients asking them what attributes they like in a bedside table. She synthesized that feedback into this table. They wanted extra space on top so she created a pull-out slide for extra surface area. They wanted to make sure things wouldn’t fall off so she created a gallery ledge around the edge. A lower shelf is big enough for a basket to hold books and magazines. And, of course they wanted drawers, so she made drawers deep enough to hold a box of tissues, and all manner of remote controls. “It’s so nice not to have to have technology staring you in the face,” she says.

The Color of the Caribbean
As for the color palette of the room, Moss says the pale aqua blue with ivory combo felt right because of the glorious light in the apartment. ”The color to me is like floating up in a cloud in a high rise,” she says. The seagrass wall covering is by Phillip Jeffries. The four-poster bed is a Moss signature. “It’s like a room within a room,” she says. “People always say there isn’t enough room, but what you really do is sleep in this room so just because you have a small room you don’t have to sacrifice the bed of your dreams.”

Italy in the Living Room
The challenge in decorating this apartment, Moss says, was warming up a cold, contemporary space. She was inspired to decorate the living room with warm oranges immediately after walking in and spotting the terracotta church roof out the window. And she liked that the whole family of colors seemed to be sunny and warm and sort of enveloping.

“When you do a showhouse you always say, ‘who is this person? Who am I designing for. This, I imagined to be a pied a terre of a couple who got married in Italy and came to New York and walked in, like I did, and saw that terracotta roof.” The velvet on the sofas is by Schumacher and the paintings are of Venice, further bringing Italy into the apartment.

See the Whole Apartment
Check out a 360-degree video of the apartment here. You can also see the apartments designed for House Beautiful by McAlpine Booth & Ferrier Interiors, for the now-defunct O at Home by D.C. designer Darryl Carter and for Town & Country by Stephen Siegel.

Want more on Charlotte? Read my piece in R.Home. For a peek inside Charlotte’s own townhome, visit the New York Social Diary. See a recent Q&A with Charlotte at All The Best.

P.S. I couldn’t resist asking Charlotte what she thought about the Obamas’ choice of Michael Smith to decorate the White House. Here’s what she said:

“Oh I think Michael is a good choice. If I was going to decorate my own house, and I wasn’t a decorator, he would be in my top five because I love his work. There’s an ease to it and there’s intelligence and refinement without being overly done. It’s a great mix and I think that is really where they’re coming from. It’s about simplicity and it’s about that great mix. I hope it really reflects them.”

Your Fluffy Valentine

If licking and cuddling from a four-legged friend is the only love you’re getting this Valentine’s Day, enjoy it! And celebrate with art.

Sherry and John Petersik, who write This Young House, a great blog about their adventures in decorating, are creative beehives. They’ve developed this cute line of pet silhouettes in sweet, modern colors. And since the silhouette’s are in white verses the traditional black, they have a fresh, mod feel. And $20 for an 8 x 10 will run you not much more than a box of chocolates. Although if you’re hanging with the pooch this V-Day, treat yourself to some Godiva.

(If you’re in Richmond, Quirk Gallery carries the line.)

Random History:Silhouettes came about in the late 18th century in France as an inexpensive way to have a portrait done and are named after Louis XV’s finance minister who was notoriously cheap.

SCAD President Shares Design Secrets of Eccentric Southerners

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Richmond Academy of Medical Alliance Foundation (phew!) luncheon at The Jefferson Hotel with guest speaker Paula Wallace, the founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design. I’m not sure how one goes about starting a college, but in 1978 she did, and now it’s the largest art and design school in the country. Amazing!

 Here’s what’s happening at SCAD: 

Designer Isabel Toledo (recently of Michelle-Obama-inaugural-suit fame) is coming to the fashion school’s fashion week this year; last year “The Wrestler” premiered at its film festival; through its Working Class program, students actually design for major corporations (they do the photography for the West Elm catalogue, for example); they have an amazing shop of student work called Shop SCAD; and an incredible campus in the medieval town of Lacoste in the south of France. I don’t know about you, but I was totally blown away.

And if VCU’s art’s school isn’t jealous yet: SCAD just stole VCU associate dean Joe Siepel, widely recognized as the secret to VCU no. 1 ranked sculpture program. After hearing all that’s going on at SCAD, I can see what attracted him. I wonder if he’ll take me with him.

Paula picked up the antique dressmaker’s mannequin at a French flea market and cleverly paired it with a student’s triptych painting of a clothes line and placed them in the stairwell on SCAD’s to-die-for Lacoste campus.

But let’s talk design… 

Wallace is an educator and designer and her husband, Glenn, an interior designer, has renovated and decorated many of SCAD’s historic buildings around Savannah.

In her talk, Paula outlined her six principles of successful design:

1. Start with Art. ”Art can give your house surprisingly magic.”

The Wallaces began their upstairs hallway decor with four, regal and serious portraits, then kept adding to their collection with less important works and all of a sudden an incredible installation was born. Paula even said they have fun at dinner parties coming up with stories behind the characters. 

 2. Follow your Bliss. 

“Don’t be afraid of color, use it and enjoy it.”

In this Atlanta dining room the ice-blue walls are trimmed in black and a faux-regal border is painted around an antique screen. A park bench and mis-matched chairs welcome all to the table.

 

 

  3. Listen and Talk to the Architecture.

4. Be Eccentric. Express yourself and have fun.

The owners of this coastal South Carolina home hang a hurricane cross above the bed to ward off ghosts (not storms). The modern glass lamp is an unexpected contrast to the antique Italian daybed panels.

 

In their Savannah loft, the Tenenbaum family (yes, those Tenenbaums) hung a bold nude in a warm and textured room.

 

 

 

5. Create Your Own Art Installations with Collections. Wallace used an example of a homeowner who covered a wall with cuckoo clocks: One clock is German granny, many are fun!

In the Wallace’s former beach condo they used old recipes found in an old family home and decoupaged them all over the kitchen table. Children’s life vests are used as curtain tie-backs and a student’s art adds pop to the wall.

6. Make Friendly Spaces. With pools of light, round tables and intimate gathering areas. 

 

Several of the homes she discussed were featured in “A House in the South,” the charming 2008 book Paula co-wrote with interiors writer, Frances Schultz. Each home in the book embodies Paula’s love of fun interiors that reflect their quirky Southern owners. And from her talk, it’s obvious she belives that expressing your personality – and hopefully eccentricity – should be at the forefront when designing your space. Amen to that sister!