My design of the table base & bench legs were inspired by the youngest members of the household - the family’s three ‘kids’ (including ‘Starlight’ the yellow lab). The legs purposefully have a playful and anthropomorphic quality to them.

It was important to me that the legs not look heavy, as I didn’t want such large scale furniture pieces visually overwhelming the space. Stainless steel was the perfect choice to achieve the feeling of lightness whilst supporting such a heavy table top.

To enjoy the views by having the seating right next to the windows, I designed extra deep benches (with lots of throw pillows for comfort) which maintains a spacious and comfortable feel.  My intent for the benches was to enable multiple uses; not only as seating for family dining, but perhaps a comfortable place to do homework, or relax in the sun with a good book, and maybe dad could even stretch out and take a nap on a lazy sunday afternoon?

I was delighted to hear from my client that her children especially love the benches, and that they keep asking to sleep over night on them.  Im not sure if mum & dad have relented yet though!

Credits: thanks to John @ Kolkka, Live Edge Designs, Lucy from Custom Sewing, David at Interior Decorators Upholstery, and Good Moves Delivery Inc.

Leather chairs are the ‘folio’ chairs from Crate & Barrel. Fabrics: Lee Jofa, Kravet, Osborne & Little, Shears and Windows.

We recently installed part of the project – the new sectional sofa and custom throw pillows.  Since there are still various elements to be installed, I thought Id post a few images to show how the process of choosing some of the soft furnishing elements came about.

The living room has all the large foundation pieces in and has a warm and calm feel to it now, however there are still finishing accessory pieces and art & lighting to be purchased.  A slightly sterile feel can occur in a room when it is left without some key accessory pieces and/or smaller objects that delight. I prefer accessories to be simple and have charm, or a interesting quality to them that relate to the clients ’story’.  And these tertiary objects or things of interest need to be discovered the longer you are enjoying the space, never fighting with all the other elements to be center of attention.

I would love to replace the existing stainless steel fireplace surround (installed by the previous owners) as I think it feels a little cold and charmless, but that unfortunately is not part of the scope of work… at this time!

Credits: The pillow fabric is from Osborne & Little and the furniture is from Kravet (sofa), A.Rudin (leather chairs), Peter Alexander (mohair covered chairs) at Enid Ford, and Bernhardt (coffee table w/ Edelman leather upholstery), the large floor lamp is the Linley – Mortisse Angle Floor Lamp from Lee Jofa, and of course the cowhide rug is from Kyle Bunting Rugs.

The son of one of my clients is 8 years old and his mother wanted to have something in his room to ground the space and give the room some color and interest.  I came up with the idea of a custom headboard to give the room a focal point and a comfortable place for him to rest when sitting up in bed reading.

The son is really into football and I was asked that the headboard reference his passion and tie in with the bedding that the clients already had.  I’m not a fan of literal translations of a theme, so I chose to layer in the football theme by using curves and graphic elements to relate to the shape of the football. Being that the headboard was for a young man I really wanted the final product to be more than just a headboard – it needed to be multifunctional.  I designed a number of places to store items that are important to their son.  The white bands coming from the top of the headboard are constructed from wide elastic bands and stitched across to create sections allowing him to hold an ipod and more.  Large blue pockets can hold books or toys.  The leather section gives him more secret pockets to put special items that he wants to keep close by.  For the design of the pockets I imagined the football soaring towards the goal posts – hence the blue representing the sky, the leather the ball and the white bands the goal posts.

The project has involved me designing some custom cabinetry for the office and in the kitchen/family room, as well as a overall design scheme for the house encompassing new furniture and soft furnishings (selection and custom design), paint colors, tiling schemes, one off designs of bedding and head boards for the two youngest residents of the home and reusing and relocating existing furniture pieces.

It has been an exciting project bringing together the Colorado roots and tastes of the inhabitants and melding them with the contemporary architecture of their new home and their California lifestyle.   I try to steer away from any obvious stereotypes – so no deer heads on the walls here. Instead bring the allusion of the Colarado mountains in by the materials and finishes I used.   A case in point is the fantastic custom cow hide rug styled by myself in conjunction with Kyle Bunting Rugs. I think it perfectly encompases the theme:  Clean, contemporary and unfussy (there are children living in the house!) with a splash of Colorado.  The rug is in the works at the moment, so no images to show yet.

In the living room we needed to update all the furniture so that it is not only elegant and appropriate for the architecture, but also the room’s status.  This is the first room that you view when you walk into the house and as such needed to set the tone.  The furniture needed to have elegance, interest and be top quality.  It also needed to facilitate various entertaining needs.  As such I have re-orientated the sofa so now it has views of the valley and the dining room.  The grouping of chairs gives more freedom when entertaining as they are easier to move around as needed. For group occasions I chose a large leather upholstered ottoman from Baker Knapps & Tubbs to function both as a coffee table and as a additional resting spot.  The leather is a subtly metalized white Edelman leather that gives a dash of verve.

The slightly deco looking chairs upholstered in mohair are wonderful pieces that I must give credit to my client for spotting one day when we were out visiting the Enid Ford showroom at the San Francisco Design Center.  The chairs are not only incredibly comfortable but so sculptural that they serve a double duty – my clients call them the ‘art’ chairs.  Beautifully crafted and incredibly comfortable – perfect!  The leather chairs are from A.Rudin and are equally as comfortable.

The atmosphere that I wanted to create in the living room was one of calm interest.  As such the color palate is fairly neutral – soft beige/sand colors, warm caramel leather and platimum greys.  When using such neutral palate there needs to be interest as well, so textures are extremely important - linen, leather and mohair are used in softened tones.

LIVING ROOM - IN PROGRESS. We are waiting on a beautiful new custom cowhide rug from Kyle Bunting Rugs, a Linley wooden floor lamp, case pieces, custom throw pillows and art work to finish the space.

LIVING ROOM BEFORE

]]> http://penelopejonesdesign.com/blog/2009/09/current-project-los-altos-hills/feed/ 0 http://penelopejonesdesign.com/blog/2009/09/current-home-office/ http://penelopejonesdesign.com/blog/2009/09/current-home-office/#comments Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:19:20 +0000 Penelope http://penelopejonesdesign.com/blog/?p=95 The office space was a new addition to the house and needed all new custom cabinetry and furnishings. There are a few key pieces to be completed before we can take some decent photos of the space.

My Los Altos Hills clients have two children – a boy and a girl.  I was asked to come up with a proposal for the 5 year old girl’s bedroom.  My design included a color & paint scheme, custom bedding design and furniture selections.  The idea was that the pieces and bedding are to be able to grow with her – so not be overtly age specific or juvenile.  The room needed to feel fresh, youthful, bright and stylish.

The young lady of the house had some strong preferences: pink, purple and horses. Oh boy!

My aim was to be sensitive to her preferences and also keep her mum delighted not only by good design but also the longevity and adaptability of the furniture pieces, custom bedding and upholstery.

Here are some snap shots Ive taken during the progress.

The bedding turned out really nicely and I have to thank Lucy my fabricator for her beautiful & flawless work sewing the bedding.

This picture was taken shortly after the wall was finished. You cant tell from this photo but I finished the tree with a iridescent glaze from Benjamin Moore to give the tree added life & a touch of shimmer against the pink field color.