Credit crisis 'splained

I haven't harped about matters financial lately, so I think it's high time that I do so now. Here's a really good video that explains what's going on with this credit freeze annoyance. It's ten minutes long, but worth the watch.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

It's a sign of the times my friends

Well you know times is hard when you get an Ann Sacks e-mail newsletter that mentions anything about prices. This month's arrived with something so far beyond the mention of price I had to make sure that it was indeed from Ann Sacks. Well it was and it's true. All is woe after all. Ann Sacks has three styles of wall tile that start at less than $10 a square foot.

Avalon II --2" x 19 1/2" field in beige and 4 1/8" x 19 1/2" field in cocoa

Avalon II --2" x 19 1/2" field in black and white

Hacienda --3" x 4- 3/4" diamond in Normandy cream

Hacienda --3" x 4" San Felipe in café olay

Savoy --3/4" penny round in brick

Savoy --stacked brick mosaic in silkscreen

Savoy --3-7/8" x 3-7/8" field, offset brick and surface bullnose in paperwhite and box liner in black gloss

Savoy --offset brick mosaic in mint

Savoy --stacked mosaic and 3 7/8" x 7 3/4" field in bronze

Reader question: what about mixing metals?

Q: Help! I changed out the ceiling light in my dining room with a brushed nickel finish. The lights in my kitchen & foyer are shiny brass. I'd like to replace the finish in the guest bath with nickel as well. But all my doorknobs and hinges throughout the house are shiny brass. Gosh, will I have to replace all these as well? Or can I mix them up?

What misguided soul is advising you and where does the idea come from that metals need to match everywhere? Oy. 

Well the answer is an emphatic no --there is no rule that says all metals in an entire house have to have matching finishes. While I'm at it, there really aren't any rules period. Design doesn't have rules; it has guidelines and accepted practices but these are hardly universal laws. Further, all of these guidelines and accepted practices share a common thread of intention. Spaces look designed because someone thought about them and imposed some kind of order on a disorderly universe. That's the big picture as I see it anyway.

Human beings are pattern-recognition machines. It's the root of our success as a species, and good design harnesses human brains' automatic pattern recognition skills. Better design manipulates and guides those same skills. I wrote about the Rule of Three a couple of months ago and that Rule of Three is nothing more than a pretty basic pattern (some would say the most basic pattern). Introducing a pattern and then sticking with it is fundamental and it's the easiest way to tackle things like metal finishes.

When I'm working with a client and the topic of metal finishes comes up, it's usually in the context of a kitchen and whether or not the knobs and pulls need to match the faucet and sink. The answer again is a resounding no, but what those metal finishes have to do is make some kind of sense. So the easiest way to do this is to introduce a logic to the room you're working with. By a logic I mean a set of rules you're going to use as a guide.

Here's a good example. This kitchen featured a Wolf range and an equally spendy range hood. My client wanted them to be the focal point of this side of her kitchen, so they are the only elements that are shiny. Your brain and my brain and everybody's brain is drawn to shiny objects. Shiny stuff stands out and things with a matte finish retreat into the background. So when I picked the knobs and pulls, I went with a pewter finish so that it wouldn't draw any attention away from the range and the hood. Once that was established, I decided that any cabinet that had hinges would get a knob. That pretty much means all of the doors got knobs. The next rule was that anything that pulled out got a handle. So the drawers got handles. My client wanted to use some cup pulls, so I made an amendment to the second rule. So shallow drawers got a handle and deep drawers got a cup pull. We kept the same pewter finish on all of the knobs, handles and cup pulls to connect them. On the wall opposite the range, the sink and faucet were the focal points, so I picked a stainless steel apron front sink and a tall goose neck faucet, also in stainless. These two metal finishes are doing different jobs (one grabbing attention, the other avoiding the spotlight) and so they have different finishes. See? Easy.

So the answer to your question is still an emphatic no, your metal finishes don't have to match. They don't have to match but they do have to make sense. So make a room-specific set of rules for your project. It can be as simple as "Light fixtures have nickel finishes, door hardware has brass," and you can leave it at that. 

J'aime beaucoup le mobilier métallique Tolix

Last week, I wrote a piece about the Tolix tabouret avec dossier. Tolix makes a counter stool that I can't get out of my head. My post started off complaining about seeing prices listed in Euros on American websites and how that gets on my nerves because it strikes me as a pose, an affectation. Unlike American bloggers who write headlines in French of course. For the record, I write headlines in French because I'm worldly, not because I'm striking a pose. Hah!

Anyhow, in that post, I mentioned Melissa Adelman's great Antiquaire, a Chicago-area purveyor of fine European antiques and imports. Antiquaire's a distributor of all things Tolix and Melissa and I traded a couple of e-mails after that original post appeared on the 13th. She's an interesting woman and based on the photos of her shop on Antiquaire's website, I feel a sudden urge to fly to Chicago. Seriously, look over her website. I can't imagine a more thorough inventory than hers.

In the course of my correspondence with Melissa and in getting familiar with her site, I

 have really fallen for the entire collection of Tolix metal furniture (that's mobilier métallique to my fellow world travelers). In addition to the counter stools I mentioned last week, Tolix manufactures a full line of chairs, tables and lockers. Everything they make shares the same blend of utility and whimsy and I can't get enough of it.

Tolix was started in 1907 by Xavier Pauchard, who brought the art of galvanizing steel to France. By 1927, Pauchard started making his now iconic metal cafe chairs and tables. Tolix chairs graced the decks of the Normandie and still crowd the sidewalks of Paris. All Tolix metal furniture is still made in the same Burgundian town where it all began, Autun.

At a loss for some counter stools or some patio chairs? Look through Melissa's collection of new and vintage Tolix furniture. It's beautiful, timeless and indestructible stuff.

Give me some of that house love

A friend of mine sent me this video the other day and it has to be the most heartwarming thing I've seen in ages. This short film is a loving tribute to a restoration of a Queen Anne home in Cincinnati. From the mere act of watching, my mind conjures quite a story of who these restorers are. Clearly, they love one another deeply, almost as deeply as they love this house.

I was looking at another friend's photographs the other day and she had a number of shots of her dog reclining on a Duncan Phyfe-style sofa in her living room. It made me laugh and it got me thinking about how easy it is for me to forget that real people have to live out their real lives in the spaces I design for a living. Queen Anne reproductions just aren't my style, but I like to think that the sentiment so present in the video above is. It's an honor really, to be asked to inject a little of that house love into somebody else's life. I can plot and plan all I want but I'm not doing my job very well if the kids can't do their homework at the dining table or if the dog can't climb up on the couch.