High Style for the Home

Artist Dallas Shaw is annoyingly gorgeous and thin. It’s no wonder that runway looks have made their way into her art.

It’s true, life isn’t fair, but that wouldn’t stop me from picking up one of these colorfully edgy paintings to enliven a room.

One of my favorite blogs, Decorno, just wrote a post soliciting comments on how to choose kitchen cabinets. I can’t blame her – there are so many head-spinning options out there.

These Studio Snaidero cabinets were winners in this year’s Washington Spaces Best of Kitchen Spaces competition, featured in our current issue.

For anyone in search of kitchen cabinets, the comments on Decorno’s post are tremendously useful.

And if you’re pondering countertops as well, there’s a great entry further down in her blog about testing how marble countertops stand up to red wine, tomato sauce, and lime juice. Her conclusion? “I ain’t skeered.”

I was at a gathering last night at the new offices of the British Council, which is tasked with spreading British culture and understanding throughout the world, so it makes sense that artwork made in the United Kingdom pervades the offices.

In that regard, everyone’s eyes were turned upward at the delightful chandeliers that line the council’s hallways, produced by London artist Madeleine Boulesteix entirely from found objects. At first glace, they look like they are composed of crystals, beads, and silver, but upon closer examination one will see teacups, cordial glasses – even perforated metal sink drains.

Photograph by Ron Blunt via The Washingtonian

For an architect of Hugh Newell Jacobsen’s stature, it might seem odd that he focuses the majority of his work on houses, as opposed to public buildings that allow many more people to see his signature. But he likes to keep things small (relatively speaking).

Photograph by Durston Saylor via Architectural Digest

“You get a chance to talk to a client who is not a multi-headed Hydra,” he told the lunch crowd yesterday at Nathans Restaurant in Georgetown, where he was the featured guest at its weekly Q&A Café. The relationship is much more personal and less bureaucratic when you are designing an individual’s house, he added. As he tells his clients, “We’re going to be under your bed for the rest of your life.”

One wouldn’t expect Hugh Newell Jacobsen, renowned for his minimalist architecture, to be overly effusive or emotional when addressing a group, but one would be wrong.

Jacobsen was the featured guest today at Nathans Restaurant’s popular weekly Q&A Café in Georgetown, and choked up at least twice when talking about his half century in architecture. The first time was when he was describing how he had finally found his calling in architecture, after years of mediocre scholarship.

At first, he said, “I told my dad I wanted to be a painter. He looked at me like I wore a dress. He said, ‘You’re going to be here with me for the rest of my life!’ ” But then Jacobsen’s father offered a compromise: combine art with business and call it architecture. “For some peculiar reason,” Jacobsen said, Yale accepted him for graduate school in that field.

“I finally found something I could do. God!” he said, wiping his eyes. Apologizing to the lunchgoers, he added, “My children say I cry during deodorant commercials. Sorry – I get very excited.”

That’s the kind of architect we all would want – someone who loves their craft so much it makes him cry.

It all started last year, when graphic artist Joel Pirela’s 2-year-old daughter was learning her ABCs.

“I thought I could get her interested in the mid-century masters by creating some flash cards with the letters, along with a design and designer’s name for each letter,” says Pirela, who lives in Miami with his wife Maria and daughter Isabella.

What a cool dad. Once he posted the prototypes online to solicit feedback, he adds, “the request to make a poster version was overwhelming. I then switched to poster format and it all started from there.”

Now we can all share in Isabella’s good fortune. Keep reading to see more of his posters, which – more good luck for us mid-century fans! – are on sale through the end of the month.

I love Debbie Wiener. I mean, what other interior designer would tell you to use Wite-Out to cover scuffs on your baseboards, or choose your room colors based on the shades of spills your children and pets make? If you haven’t seen her book, Slob Proof, you should.

You can see Debbie in person at the White Flint Mall in December and January, where she will appear at the Benjamin Moore kiosk to dole out (free!) advice on choosing color. You can even call the kiosk ahead of time to make an appointment: 301.230.0083.

She will be at White Flint on the following days:
Wednesday, Dec. 3, 4 to 8 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 7, 1 to 5 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 11, 1 to 5 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 4 to 8 p.m.

Even if you don’t think you need paint, it’s worth the trip to meet her. She will make you laugh.

I love all those intricately knitted Irish sweaters, but they make me look fat, so I don’t wear them. But THIS is a sweater I can use – on the floor. Design Within Reach is offering the Flocks Aran Rug by Dutch Designer Christien Meindertsma on a limited basis:

Can you imagine walking across this thing? I could take a nap on it.

Check out the detail:

And this is the best – the gigantic knitting needles she uses to knit with the wool of 18 merino sheep to create the 6-foot-by-8-foot rug. 

No wonder it costs $9,000. Get it here.

Terri Sapienza at our mother company, The Washington Post, introduced me to a new design blog in today’s paper called Velvet and Linen. I was especially drawn to a post on displaying books.

I’ve always been back and forth on the whole book display thing – how can you do it well without turning your books into little more than design accessories? This blogger found a great answer – she doesn’t cover the entire book in paper, but simply puts labeled packing tape on the spine, which gives the display a unified look. I love that idea.

I also love interspersing books with accessories, as Designer Darryl Carter does – ever so sparingly – in his study, which we wrote about in the magazine.

Another popular trick is displaying books by color, which looks great, of course, but somehow I’ve never been able to get on board with it. Does anyone out there really do this?

From Domino Magazine

Michele of local blog My Notting Hill wrote a post this year about covering old books in vintage paper. This is truly a design statement here – I’m not sure those books will get read. But I have to admit the effect is pretty.

And just this week, Michele posted photos of a hotel in South Africa, in which books play a supporting role in a huge menagerie of curiosities. Some of the books appear to be covered in white paper. Not for everyone, but cool to look at!

I have a problem. On one hand, my home tends toward traditional. I was just at the Stark Carpet sale over the weekend, where I bought a gorgeous Persian rug for our basement, and some amazing Brunschwig & Fils fabric for my dining room’s window treaments. And I’ve got my eye on an antique storage ottoman with a mahogany frame and the most incredible linen upholstery. It would be so perfect for our basement.

So that’s me as a homeowner. But as a magazine editor, I almost always gravitate toward modern looks. What’s going on here? Maybe these items exist in some sort of a modern-home dream state that could never exist in my reality.

Anyone else ever feel this way – that you have modern urges you’re afraid to act upon? I would love to know that I’m not alone.

And with that, here’s my current modern eye candy – Calligaris, an Italian company I discovered at the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, NC, last month. Enjoy.

A splendid Fall on the Mall, from DC Metrocentric

Fall is definitely here, and I could feel the hints of winter as I stepped out into the bracing cold this morning. All I want to do is curl up in something warm and feel pampered, so that will be my theme today.

Let’s start with some serious comfort.

These cable-knit cashmere throws and pillows from Williams Sonoma Home are just the ticket for a cold day. You can get them here.

For something more unique, try local Designer D. Bryant Archie’s sumptuous throws, most of which are made in Peru from hand-loomed baby alpaca. Get them here.

With the culmination of the election this week, Washington, DC, was certainly ready to celebrate. So, with BoConcept, and our wonderful clients and friends, Washington Spaces rejoiced in the style of one of the original mavericks – James Bond.

From left to right: Washington Spaces Associate Publisher Heather Heider, John Kiernan of Blue Line Studios as James Bond, Washington Spaces Editor in Chief Trish Donnally as Odd Job, Washington Spaces Account Executive Mary Sue Jedele, Washington Spaces Senior Editor Jennifer Sergent, and Tricia Hutton of Wildwood Landscape.

BoConcept DC rolled out the red carpet and brought out the velvet ropes to celebrate the launch of the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, featuring furniture from the 2009 BoConcept collection.

The sleek and curvy Alpha sofa will appear in the new James Bond movie.

If you have high-end taste, but fall just a tad short of a high-end budget, get ready to shop this weekend.

Niermann Weeks, along with London-based Andrew Martin, begins a tremendous sample sale tomorrow for the trade and it opens to the public Saturday and Sunday:

Keep reading for more sales

The morning after the election, Lynne Cheney didn’t waste any time planning for her family’s move out of the vice president’s mansion on Jan. 20, 2009. She paid a private visit to Eleanor McKay, co-owner with husband Joe Niermann at the high-end furniture manufacturer Niermann Weeks, at their factory in Millersville, MD.

Frank Babb Randolph designed the vice presidential residence for the Cheneys, and has worked on their new McLean home for more than a year. Photo from this article in Architectural Digest.

McKay said Cheney bought “a mess of chairs and side tables” for their home in St. Michaels, MD, and their newly-built home in McLean, VA, which was designed by Architect Christian Zapatka and is being decorated by Frank Babb Randolph, whose own home we have featured on our pages.

Unfortunately, Randolph said this morning, the Cheneys have no intention of showing off their completed homes. “Sometimes, the best things aren’t meant to be shown,” Randolph said. But we did get to see two sweet little arm chairs with chestnut-brown upholstery that Mrs. Cheney bought yesterday at Niermann Weeks, which McKay had purchased at the Paris flea market. At the time we were there, a workman was using a pressurized air hose to clean them of built-up dust and dirt. McKay noted that Mrs. Cheney is a small person, and the arm chairs are a perfect scale for her.

Apparently, McKay said, Cheney and First Lady Laura Bush have been spending much time lately furniture shopping around town. If I were being forced to move in less than three months, I would be, too.

We are always amazed by the caliber of talent in DC’s design and building community, but it was on full display last week when more than 100 people in the trade gathered at the home of Daniel and Carolyn Steinkoler (which was featured in our fall issue) to celebrate the winners of Washington Spaces’ 2008 design competitions for architecture and remodeling.

Thomas French, who designed the Steinkoler’s whole-house renovation, chats with Carolyn Steinkoler. All party photos by Jennifer McFarland

This was no stuffy awards presentation. Architects, builders, remodelers, landscape and interior designers, and artists flowed through the Steinkolers’ spacious Wesley Heights  home, with many meeting each other for the first time and trading business contacts.

The real highlight was the fact that this event, in addition to several others we’ve hosted this year, proved fertile ground for talented professionals to meet and network with each other. In this tough economy especially, we want to do everything we can to support their businesses, so they can keep producing the glorious work we show on our pages.