Space Lifting

I painted my hallway this past weekend and have just finished hanging the artwork.  My husband and I love art and have collected many pieces over the 23 years of our marriage, some having investment value, some not, but all selected for the subject matter and joy it brings into our home.  Art should never be selected for its "decoration" value for it will eventually end up in the basement, the consignment store, or your next garage sale.  This is a poor waste of $$$ as the framing alone is pricey when done properly and often times is more expensive than the art when buying a print of an original. 

Artwork is meant to be seen.  Being viewed is it's only real purpose.  My upstairs hallway is long with ample light at the  landing from the open two story foyer, but when you turn right instead of left, you enter 15 feet of windowless space.  The hallway terminates at the Master bedroom and Study.  Turning left puts you into the bedroom, where turning right offers a small hallway with a french door that opens into Scott's study.  The small hallway also offers a color opportunity to strike a new mood and draw the distant wall closer by making the hallway not appear to be long and narrow.  When my daughter's bedroom door is open it does allow some natural to enter the center of the hallway, but the light is marginal even on the sunniest of days.  The prior owners had painted the hallway a pleasant green/gray color.  Many pictures had been hung in the 10 feet of wall space so the primary wall was full of nail holes.  Rather than add to the golf course of holes she had already created or try to fill and paint over the holes in a color I did not intend to keep, I utilized the existing holes and simply lived with the odd arrangement of artwork until the plan of change had been determined.

"Necessity is the mother of invention."  Complacency set in and the unintended consequence was not painting the hallway until an event was to take place in our home that would open it to the public for many to see.  As a known interior designer and

educator of young minds to the profession, I simply could not allow untold numbers of people to see my home and not have it at its best.  A commonly asked question by friends and clients is how do you know when it is okay to change from one color to another with so many of us living in open plans and not wanting all our walls to be the same color.  Inside and outside corners is the usual answer to that question.  Color transitions help to define a space.  It is important to note that strong and numerous colors may not be recommended for those individuals planning to sell and move within a couple of years, but long term residents can transcend a room for a small amount of money and effort providing joy and comfort where there previously was none.  A home's color palette is a response to one of the Principles of Design, harmony.  Harmony exists when through

a master plan one has achieved both variety and unity.

Within my home are a variety of furniture styles within an open floor plan.  The common "cheerful" color that I determined would bring a sunny fresh feeling to my hallway was a subdued shade of yellow similar to light rattan.  My inspiration (remember the kitchen at the Jersey Shore having an inspiration) was an Asian folding silk screen on a high shelf in my foyer opposite the upper landing.  During the daytime the creamy yellow color gives the impression of sunlight where there is none and widens the narrowness.  The small hallway leading to the study still retains the original color of green at this time, but my final finish will be to bring the warmer green in my dining room (also open to the foyer) to the back hallway giving warmth and interest while showing off the more masculine wildlife artwork leading to the study.

Finally, the artwork needed to be hung.  I took all the artwork I had removed, plus all the artwork I had stored and laid the pieces out to decide what is re-hung and what goes away or finds a new home.  In the end I decided to also walk through my house and see what artwork I should move to new locations. 

It has become my habit to buy a piece of street art when I travel.  Often it is original art that portrays a scene distinctive to the city or country I am visiting.  My current collection includes the famed harbor in Copenhagen lined with colorful 4 story buildings, Stockholm's "Old City", The Ballastone Inn in Savannah, and Capitola by the Sea in my beloved Santa Cruz county and former home, just to name a few. 

When the artwork was laid out, I discovered that somehow I had acquired numerous pieces of art that held large amounts of pink, a color I currently had nowhere in my home, so I boxed up most of the pink artwork for safe storage.  The hallway now boasts my travel artwork where I can see it each day as I pass through the hall giving me pause to consider what view I may want to add when I travel to Paris in December.  Hmmm......snow drifts on the Seine?

Separation Anxiety

Tonight as I write this post, my baby sister is placing the last piece of furniture on a truck and setting out in the morning for her journey to Florida.  Yesterday she officially retired.  She is 55, healthy, pretty, and looking forward to spending the next few months or years seeing the USA with her husband of 3 years, "one blade of grass at a time" and then even making an occasional jaunt across the pond to play in Sweden visiting family and friends who live there. 

Since leaving our childhood home a few decades back, this house is one of only two homes she has lived in that truly had her life blood in each and every room. She tended the beautiful gardens and embraced the "vacation-like" village she has called home the past 8 years.   After the unexpected loss of our father 18 years ago, she decided to make some changes in her own life and left her home in Kansas City landing in the Philadelphia area.  A new position, a career ascending to higher and higher levels and a house at the beach were part of her unfolding plan.  She discovered the Jersey Shore and chose to have a commute to work when she wasn't being sent to South America, Europe, or Asia. She never minded the drive because each time she came home it was like being on  vacation.  One Friday night in February she met the man who would become the love of her life.  In the middle of major construction to her beach house, she was now balancing work, the remodel, and her new love.

She and I had worked on many design projects for her various homes over the years.  Her Kansas City rancher was her first "owned" home.  She began to acquire quality furnishings, custom window treatments, and even experienced a small kitchen remodel after an appliance failure.   The townhome in Chesterbrook touted a gorgeous innovative fireplace she designed, but neither home came close to the comfort and beauty of the Jersey Shore house.  The initial conceptual plans for the remodel were put to paper the winter after she moved.  I had flown in from California to brainstorm, measure, and start the programming process of design.  The second day I was there, our mother called to tell us that she had 4th stage breast cancer and had been secretly ill for over 10 years.  I mourned her death for the rest of the visit though she actually lived another 4 years.  Her illness inserted an additional difficulty in the design and construction process making it hard to focus and extending the length of time to complete the project by 2.  My sister's plans had been to improve the home for the ease of selling someday and to get to enjoy the home in the meantime.  She planned to work until she was eligible to retire, and then decide whether to move close to my family and start a fun business or to continue to consult with her company and enjoy the house for a few more years.

Cooking is her hobby and her collection of cookbooks is to be envied.  Many wonderful meals and treats have come out of the beautiful room we created.  As an educator, we teach our students to find things to inspire them when designing their projects.  I had saved a periodical with an amazing kitchen design in it.  One of the advantages of knowing someone their whole life, is knowing what they like even before they do.  I took the magazine to her and she embraced the concept like I knew she would.  Living 4 hours apart (I had moved to Maryland) makes it impossible to be present for all decisions.  Having the inspiration pictures from the magazine was the ideal reference when I could not be present

Her future husband arrived  in mid remodel.  His love of restoring sail boats and his knowledge of construction helped her to keep her sanity and stress levels low, plus he liked to clean house; what luck!  Six months after the home was completed, they were married in the livingroom with me at her side.  With both our parents gone and a new husband to share her life with, it was time to accept that all things change, and at the end of the day, it is only a house, but honestly, it was a really great house and I will miss it. In a poor economy she got her full asking price.  The buyer's daughter was an interior designer and recognized what we had acconplished and the quality of workmanship she had demanded. 

 She claims we will see each other more, though I no longer can drive to where she will live.  Time will tell if that is true.  Thanks for the memories you made little house at the Jersey Shore.  When she arrived some doors started to close, but now she has a new life ahead and I for one am looking forward to the next chapter.

Scratch and Dent

What should we tolerate as consumers from the workers who come into our homes and perform installation services?  How do we know when we have a legitimate complaint and what our leverage is to resolve the problems at hand? 

Seven years ago my family moved from one coast to the other.  I may lose my clients each and every time a move occurs, but I don't lose my experience and knowledge, which by this time is extensive.  When people are constructing a new home there are so many variables to deal with and decisions to make, it is nearly impossible for them to stay on top of every aspect of the construction.

 First, it is important to remember that no two circumstances are ever exactly the same.  What should be consistent from one situation to the next is how we maneuver through to a favorable end.  The home my family chose to purchase had many ideal features already in place in a price range we could afford.  Construction of a new home with the same features would offer less square footage at a higher price, so the choice of home we made has proven to be the right choice for us.  All that being said, despite the pre-existing crown mouldings, granite countertops and cherry hardwood floors, there was also the minimally painted walls, cheap door knobs, and weak aluminum hand railing.  The most annoying area of my home though has proven to be the master bathroom.  The size is pleasant, the light from the large window ample, and the basic layout very agreeable.  The problem becomes apparent when one is using the toilet.  The View from the "john" is focused directly on the tile the previous owner selected.  While the tile is neutral and non offensive, the installation is anything but acceptable. The problem is centered around the layout decisions that were made.  The person installing the tile was either ignorant or indifferent to the final result.  What follows is an accounting of the problems.

Wall tile was used on the threshold to the shower.  Refer to the picture of the threshold.  Visually it looked fine until someone needed to stand on the threshold to reach a high object, and "clink", the first crack appeared.  Today there are more than a dozen cracks on multiple tiles. N E V E R use wall tile on a floor.  There is a difference on how the tile responds to normal use.  The tile is typically made of a softer clay and is thinner in its depth.  It is suppose to be used on the walls where no one walks! 

The second issue is the decision of how to deal with the transition of the the listellos on the face of the tub decking where they meet the the shower.  The decision the installer made could not have been more unattractive.  The installer chose to cut the decorative vertical tiles on both ends of the  tub decking, leaving partial pieces on both ends and what appears to be a mosaic of "piecing together" tile parts to transition to the finished edge tile pieces of the shower wall. (note the picture)  I can only assume that the installer started on the left side of the tub facing and by the time he/she arrived at the shower, nearly all the tile had been set and it was too late for them to make the change.  The homeowner should have refused to accept the installation and the installer should have replaced the tile on the tub facing.  Additionally, a severely chipped listello is in the inside corner of the shower, and since I have many leftover pieces from the previous owner, I know that piece could have also been replaced. before grouting occurred.

Someday in the not too distant future, I will have these errors corrected.  Bathroom remodel can be expensive however, even for someone in the business, and then one must also factor in how long we plan to live in the house.  The threshold is the more serious problem as water and dry rot can occur and any inspector worth his weight will require that repair to be made when selling, so we may as well fix it and enjoy the visual and functional benefit we will gain by addressing it now.  Scratch and dents may work on an appliance or new TV to save a dollar, but should never be tolerated in new construction.

Never Stop Learning

When my mother turned 55 she said "I am done learning, I don't want to learn anything new".  I am almost 4 years older than she was then, and I can't imagine having to settle for only the things I have learned up until now for the rest of my life.  She lived another 24 years.  That is a long time to be stuck by the side of the road.  I recently audited a course on learning new digital techniques to apply to a portfolio of my body of work.  I have a large body of work, most completed during a less digital/ technological time.  I may not use this new found information in the same way the younger students will certainly need it, but I see my time spent as an opportunity to apply and further develop those skills to assist in my workplace, to help others on their journey in interior design , or maybe to simply document for my children what their mother has been doing the past 37 years. 

Never stop learning.  Evolve, improve, teach others.

A View From a Room

I just returned from a trip to New Orleans.  Of course the uniqueness of French architecture in the Quarter is the hallmark of this very old city.  Selecting a Historic Inn for accommodations has its advantages and drawbacks.  I found myself in a constant state of wanting to redefine the decisions made by the Innkeepers.  The convenient location had unfortunately made the owners lazy in having a pristine inn one would want to return to in the future.  All this being said, I could not help but look more closely at how the structure must have been in its more glorified days.  When one mentally stripped away the black fencing that surrounded the small oval swimming pool, ignored the mismatched drapery and the bargain bath fixtures, the 200 year old shutters, crystal chandeliers, and stucco walls emerged.

Laying down for a nap one afternoon, I found myself instead of napping, sketching the view from our room, being certain to include the over-painted hinges and window trim.  Vines sprawled over the exposed timber and stucco exterior.  Details of small antique glass window panes in the 10 foot tall french doors and sunburst transom established the feminine grace of the Hotel St. Pierre.  Once I stopped looking at the inside, I could then see the parts of the building that were not altered, and could not be altered,...and it was beautiful.  She was like a aging beauty that could no longer afford the finer things, but was so classic in her lines, the frayed edges of her dressings couldn't deny who she really was.

Someday there will be a new innkeeper.  We can only hope that the new owners will see what I saw those few sultry days in July, a building that is simply holding its breath and waiting for love to return.

The 5th Wall

The most ignored plane in rooms today is the ceiling, known in the design community as the "5th Wall".  Historically it was critical to the room.  There was no HVAC, no plumbing, no mechanical engineering to consider.  Sometimes the ceiling design was the primary focus of the space.  Where ceilings are certainly considered, often times we wish to have them disappear and not intrude into the design of the room.  This is an opportunity that has been missed.  Wouldn't it be nice to go to the dentist office, and look up seeing something pleasant to distract from the job at hand.  Bed canopies used to be for warmth, but today they create a romantic statement giving shape and texture where there otherwise would be none.  I find it almost comical as the folks on TV go house hunting and then oooh and ahhh over a simple tray ceiling when one trip through nearly any historical building will render a result much more complex.

Having the good fortune to visit Westminster Abbey in London, I will never stop regretting not looking up at the proper moment to witness the majesty of their fan vaults.  Now I teach the History of Interior Design to students at a local college where ceiling design is discussed in every chapter until the 20th century when mechanical engineering and the modern age stepped in.  Ceiling design had to happen around the comforts we have all come to enjoy and expect.

Consider how to enhance the space above you as part of your next design plan.  Layer moldings, tape off graphics, engage a faux artist to design around your ceiling fan or register, or simply run a paper border at the vertical crown and on the horizontal perimeter of the ceiling, defining the wall that encompasses your room.  There are no rules in art...think and then just do it.

ASIAN Calm

Why do Asian inspired rooms instill a sense of calm and peace that other stylings do not?  Why is it that an Asian accessory appears to be appropriate in nearly any setting where it is found?  Of course I am assuming that we are not discussing paper umbrellas left over from the last Tiki inspired party, but rather beautiful ginger jars, block prints, silks, chests with brass work or scenery adorning its panels and so on.  A college professor told me many years ago that westerners became comfortable with the mix of Asian decoration from the many gifts that were sent by heads of state, and then put out for display showing respect toward the giver.  We visually adopted the unique art forms from seeing its presence in our daily lives repeatedly.  Blue and white porcelain is very comfortable in a French country dining room.  A silk kimono fills the always difficult space of an open stairwell; each one unique unto itself.  Korean chests, intricate window screens, or a tansu are a natural in either a modern or traditional setting. 

I think the sense of calm comes from the simplicity of design often found in Asian furnishings.  Though extreme detail can also be found, especially in Chinese ornamentation, a simple parsons leg from a table or chair, shoji screens, and low profile chow tables portray minimalism, and minimalism inspires the concept of "less is more" thus suggesting peace.  I rest my case.....peacefully.