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.

If you are in Paris this store is worth a visit, as my snapshots fall well short of translating atmosphere when you are in the space.

Polar bear anyone??

All were visual delights and I can assure you, all had the most delectable things to taste!

Last night I visited some of the showrooms on the ‘Paris Deco-Off ‘ route and happened to snap a few pics of the beautiful window display at Nobilis showing some of their latest textile collections.  I particularly liked their embroidered linens that play the matte linen base off shimmering threads in the embroiderie achieving a gorgeous & subtle effect.

note: not great photos as they dont really do justice to the beauty of the fabrics – hopefully I’ll get some better ones today or tomorrow!

We also have a large custom designed outdoor lantern in the works – it is going to feature a glorious hand blown, colbolt blue irredescent glass globe and intricate copper metal work for the body and hanging system.

The design is based off a pineapple – which adds a touch of whimsy & fun, and plays to the tropical theme.  The lantern will be the focal element above the dining table which takes center position under a large pergola which also houses the outdoor kitchen.  The metal work is being crafted by the talented artisan Ed Fickbohm and the glass blown by Rob Adamson, both based in Washington state.

Heres a picture of Rob holding the glass globe soon after it was made to show the glorious blue glass work and just how big this baby is going to be!

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.