One of the projects currently in progress is a contemporary house in Los Altos Hills. Situated high on the top of hill, the property enjoys extensive views and plenty of natural light, as well as open flowing spaces, high ceilings and split levels. 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.
