When Franki met Thomas O'Brien

Franki Durbin, from Life in a Venti Cup, wrote yesterday of a dinner she shared with a couple of top-notch designers while she was in High Point last week. One of those top-notch was Thomas O'Brien. Well, Franki envied my spot at Fashion Week back in December, but yesterday was my day to envy Franki.

A Barbara Barry mash up

The first designer on the contemporary scene whose aesthetic I really fell for was Barbara Barry. She brought about a simple glamor and I'm convinced her furniture designs played a huge role in a renewed appreciation of mid-century modernism. There's a furniture store in my part of the world with a Barbara Barry showroom in it. When I walk into that showroom, it's as if I've walked into Lisa Douglas' Park Avenue apartment. It's at the same moment that I start thinking about Lisa Douglas that I start to realize that maybe Barbara Barry's not for me, lovely though it is. I'd never turn down a Barbara Barry chair, mind you but when it comes to furnishing my own living room, Lisa Douglas is not the image I'd like to project.

Well that's where Thomas O'Brien comes in. O'Brien refers to his aesthetic as Warm Modern and I can't disagree. He invokes a lot of the icons of modernism in his furniture and furnishings, and he does in a studied and orderly way. I think it's his studied orderliness that appeals to me. It's almost as if he took a thread also followed by Ms. Barry and butched it up a little and came up with something that's wonderfully, uniquely his. Franki titled her blog post about her meeting with him Thomas O'Brien: The Thinking Man's Designer and it's the perfect descriptor. Under all of that seemingly effortless design flows a sea of planning and thought.

It's beautiful, all of it. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I would put in other peoples' homes. In order to do that, a lot of times I ask myself "If this were my home, what would I do here?" But I never stand in my own living room and ask myself that same question. When I get around to it for real, part of that answer is scattered around this post. Without all of the clutter of course.

This small space is brought to you by Houzz

I found a terrific new website for design inspiration and like just about everything I find these days, I found them through Twitter. Houzz is home to 15,000 design photos and what's cool is you can save any of those photos in your own idea book on the site. It's sort of like an electronic clip file. Houzz calls them idea books.

The photos are credited to the designers who created the rooms so from whatever idea book you assemble, you can always tell who designed the room you admire.

Houzz goes through their collection and assembles idea books in advance too. There are idea books that contain only images of small kitchens for example. There are also idea books for color and pattern, or green architecture, or landscaping. Their collection is always growing, and it's a terrific place to go to find inspiration for your next project.

There was a project by Bosworth Hoedemaker in Seattle on Houzz last week and it really got my pulse going. I love older homes and I love clean designs. Bosworth Hoedemaker renovated a kitchen and bathroom in a Mt. Baker bungalow and the results are everything I try to have my designs be. These two renovated rooms honor the architecture of the house in the sense that they use it as a starting point to construct modern spaces. Despite the modern twist on the final designs, they never lose sight of the structure they're surrounded by, nor do they add anything that doesn't belong.

Here's the slide show from Houzz:






This kitchen is perfect.

Bosworth Hoedemaker

The sink wall is particularly beautiful. I love the windows and shelf in lieu of wall cabinets. The room is flooded with light and to me at any rate, it seems that standing at this sink and scrubbing pots would be a pleasure.

The side opposite is pretty slick too.

Bosworth Hoedemaker

Check out the great use of marble tile on the wall and the niche behind the range. It's clean, efficient and just beautiful. My only criticism is the Viking range. Why not just buy a Hummer and be done with it?

The bathroom is every bit as great as the kitchen though.

Bosworth Hoedemaker

This is a case study in how to make a small bath seem downright huge. Hats off the Bosworth Hoedemaker and to Houzz for bringing this great project to my attention.

Just doing what I do

LC Neill, Still River Studios

I wrote a post on 15 September and in it I told the story of a client who was panicking about a back splash that was being installed. She was regretting her decision to follow my suggestion and she had a melt down. It happens. Sometimes, people reach a breaking point and they can't handle any more renovation-related aggravation. I don't take it personally, and I see it as part of my job to walk people through episodes like that.

When I design a room, I see it as mine. It's my vision after all and since I'm responsible for it, I consider it to belong to me until it's completed. As the job progresses, I start letting it go and by the time I'm doing my final walk-through, I've let it go completely. That may sound odd, but that's the process I usually go through during the course of a renovation. I tend not to go back to see them after my clients have moved back in and settled their stuff into whatever it was that just got renovated. It's odd, I really lose interest in them as soon as they're not mine any more.

There are a handful of clients I've had over the years who have evolved into friends, but for the most part, I never hear from people again after I leave for the last time. That's OK too.

Anyhow, from time to time a client will reach across the distance I put between myself and their completed job. One such client was my hysterical homeowner from September 15th. I received this in the mail yesterday:

Dear Paul,

Thank you so much for my beautiful kitchen. I'm really enjoying everything in it. You wouldn't believe the people who've been in our home. My friends here ask if they can bring their friends or families over to see our kitchen. People from Pittsburgh, Ohio, New York and Canada have said it's absolutely beautiful. Most people said the design and cabinets are high end. My one friend said the back splash is to die for!!!

Thank you again,

I cannot tell you what a day brightener that was.

Win a George Nelson Ball Clock

I came across Lush Pad on Twitter yesterday. Lush Pad is a marketplace for Modernist furniture and furnishings. Got an original Hans Wegner chair lurking in the attic? Or maybe you'd rather buy a couple of original Bertoia stools. You can do both on Lush Pad. If you have a thing for Modernism, check out Lush Pad.

As an added incentive, in a contest sponsored by Modernism Magazine, Lush Pad is giving away a Nelson Ball Clock like the one pictured here. Though this clock's not an original, it's a licensed reproduction by Vitra and it normally sells for $355. All you have to do is tell them your favorite modern designer and you're in.

George Nelson was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1904. He's considered to be one of the founders of American Modernism and a lot of his iconic pieces, like the Ball Clock, are still in production decades after they debuted.

I came across this interesting history of the Ball Clock on Design Within Reach yesterday:

George Nelson often collaborated with other designers, and in the case of the Ball Clock (1948), Nelson was at a dinner party with Isamu Noguchi, Irving Harper and Bucky Fuller. As the story goes, they were all sketching and "we'd had a little bit too much to drink," said Nelson. In the morning, they saw a drawing of the Ball Clock on a roll of drafting paper. "I don¹t know to this day who cooked it up," said Nelson. "I know it wasn't me. It might have been Irving, but he didn¹t think so. [We] both guessed that Isamu had probably done it because [he] has a genius for doing two stupid things and making something extraordinary out of the combination. It could have been an additive thing, but we never knew."

So run on over to Lush Pad and enter for a chance to win this baby.

Sears' Blue Crew, the conference call

If you've been following the unfolding story regarding the Sears Blue Crew, here comes the last update for a while. However, just because I won't be writing Sears posts every couple of days doesn't mean this is over. Oh far from it. But before I get to that, if you need to get up to speed, click here, here and here.

Let me start out by saying that I am beyond impressed with Sears Appliances. I see them in a whole new light. I mean, how many members of the appliance industry would open themselves up to a panel discussion with a group of designers and architects who'd been hand picked by blogger who'd been done wrong? I appreciate the trust of Mike Léger from Sears particularly. I had no intention of having this be a finger pointing session but he couldn't have known that. So hats off to you Mike. Kudos to your whole team and your whole organization while I'm at it. You guys showed me a side to your company I never knew existed. Bravo.

I want to thank everybody from the designers and architects panel who agreed to participate in this conference too. So to Kristin, Susan, Kelly, Jamie, Ann, Mark, Rachele, Pam, Richard, Mike, Peter and Alex; I say thanks for your willingness to help turn a frustration into a path to a solution.

Our conference call yesterday last for an hour and it could have gone on for a few more if you ask me. This was not a sales job or an attempt to make customers out of us, rather it was an honest request for feedback. We covered a lot of bases and our allotted hour was up too soon. In moving forward from here, we're going to continue to meet and to come up with more ideas and solutions. 

We have a lot to learn from one another. We work different sides of the same industry. How few opportunities there are for these sides to interact hit me as I was calling into the conference yesterday afternoon. It was good to play a role in providing one. More please!