Marvelous marble

Here are two shots of my favorite marble job of all time. I think I've mentioned this job before but I want to re-post these shots just because I think they're pretty.

This is honed Calacatta Gold Marble and the slabs used to make this counter were some of the best-quality marble slabs I've ever seen. This counter was expertly fabricated and installed by Custom Marble Works in Tampa. Their number is 813-620-0475. I lack enough superlatives to describe their work or recommend them adequately. If you find yourself in the vicinity of Ybor City, pop in there and see their showroom and slabs. It will change your life.

This first shot is a close up of the counter reaching up to the window sill. Notice how the window sill wraps around the corner of the wall and ends in a perfect half-round edge. Attention to those sorts of details is what makes a good counter job worth every penny.

I love how we made the full height back splash behind the range in this shot below. I don't like seeing big slabs of solid stone marching up a wall. Unless of course it's marble that's doing the marching. A marble such as this one is the only kind of stone I like to see on a wall. Mostly because most stones loose their luster and appeal when they're not lit directly. White marbles have a glow to them though. They absorb light and then diffuse it. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. Many thanks to my very happy client who lets me show off her kitchen.

Here's what I mean by a good knock off

This is Christopher Peacock's much ballyhoo-d Refectory Kitchen. It is gorgeous and when he started pushing kitchen design in this direction, it was pretty revolutionary. Before the rise of his Scullery and Refectory designs, the high end of kitchen design was all about Tuscan and other Vegas-meets-Disney interpretations of old world styles. Christopher Peacock launched himself onto the scene as an alternative to all of that noise and brought some restraint back to the world of high end design. Thank you Christopher Peacock. As lovely as the kitchen above is, it has a price tag on it well into the six figures. It is exquisitely fitted, finished, engineered, designed, constructed and installed. It is worth every penny he charges for it and it will last a lifetime. Several lifetimes in fact.

However, the number of people who are willing to spend that kind of money on a kitchen renovation are few and far between. But the ideas he's getting across through his design have some pretty broad appeal. To wit:

Though by no means an inexpensive kitchen, here's a kitchen that would cost half what a Christopher Peacock would. This is a kitchen from Medallion and it's taking its inspiration from The Refectory directly, but it's not stealing any ideas. It's pairing a painted finish with a dark stained wood and if you look at the details, it's really a different kitchen entirely. It's also beautiful, well-designed, well-fitted, well-finished and a respectful homage. All design is derivative as I like to say, and this kitchen from Medallion is a more affordable version of an idea that Christopher Peacock had. But it's a version, not a copy and I think that's what makes what I call a good knock off.

Knock off or theft?

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, who was better known by the single name, Le Corbusier, was one of the great minds of the 20th Century. He was an artist, a writer, an architect, a designer and a philosopher. You can read about him here. 

Although a lot of his ideas about urban planning and architecture have been discarded and debunked, he remains a significant presence in the world of design. What I think was his contribution with the longest staying power and popularity is his Chaise Longue pictured here. This thing has been in continuous production since he debuted it in 1928. You can buy one today if you like, an officially licensed reproduction, through places like Design Within Reach or the MOMA online store. A real Chaise Longue will set you back somewhere around $3000. 

Not only can you buy a licensed reproduction, it is impossible to walk into a furniture showroom today without feeling the presence of Le Corbusier and his Chaise Longue. It's ideas and its lines are in every recliner, every "chaise lounge,"  and every scrap of pool furniture out there.

Target, my dear Target has been engaged in a full court press to bring designed furniture to the masses for the last couple of years and I applaud their efforts. I love the idea of a good knock off, an homage to a great original. But there's a line between an homage and the theft of an idea and I think Target has crossed it. 

Shown below is an official Chaise Longue from Design Within Reach.

Le Corbusier

Below is an image of Target's $500 version. It's a nearly exact replica and it looks to me like the theft of an idea. Maybe I'm more sensitive than most to intellectual property because I make a living from my ideas, and maybe I'm not.

Le Target

As I said before, I love a good knock off. And by that I mean something that's clearly influenced, yet still different from an original. This to me looks like bald-faced thievery. Am I being irrational?

Mobile means more than a place to gamble in Alabama

I can trace my love of the mobile as an art form to a wintry day in the late '70s when I walked into the brand spankin' new East Wing of the National Gallery and looked up to see Alexander Calder's massive Untitled. That's it right here. Look at it! Just seeing a photo of it gets me all hot and bothered again and I haven't been back to the National in at least ten years. Anyhow, as a kid I had never seen anything like it. The idea that a sculpture could move and swallow a space had never occurred to me. An art lover was born that day and since then I've been chasing the same thrill I felt that wintry day when I was 14.

Enter Oras, a sculptor of mobiles on a scale a little more suited to a home. These things are beautiful and they take me right back there. Check them out! Reasonably priced, great art --why not?

And speaking of laundry...

In another shocking example of the national, New York-based media finding something I've known about for years, MSNBC's Your Business recently did a piece on my beloved Northeast Laundry, right here in Saint Pete. I mentioned yesterday that I send out my laundry every week, well guess where I send it?

Leonard and Jennifer Cooperman, owners of The Northeast Laundry, won a small business makeover from MSNBC's Your Business earlier this year. Their prize consisted of a couple of months of one-on-one time with gazillion dollar an hour consultant and Six Sigma guru Greg Brue. From what Leonard tells me, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and he couldn't be more grateful for the advice. Brue spent a lot of time with the Coopermans and their staff and showed them how to take better care of their customers and make more money at the same time. What a great combination.

I used to think that sending out my laundry was a costly indulgence. But then I did the math. It costs me less money to send it out than it does to do it at home. And that's before I add in the amount of time I save. I cannot recommend using a service like this highly enough. If you're in Saint Pete, stop by The Northeast Laundry at 7035 Fourth Street North. Let them take a load off for you. It will change your life. Check out their website here.