Funny how themes spread across popular culture…okay, not so funny, just fact. From what’s in Vogue to passing trends, we see the elements and wallow in the offerings. So have you noticed the cupcake craze? Designer cupcakes for crying out loud!! And you ask, why not? They’re little art pieces, individual confections of expression – and so much fun!
Cupcakes remind us of childhood and yet today are not just used for little girls’ birthday parties – they’re wedding sensations! Tiers of colorful cakes in cups – it just says fun! Once holiday opportunities, something to sprinkle jimmies on for special occasions…lick the frosting off first…orange and black for Halloween, pastel for Easter, red, white and blue for 4th of July – they now transcend mere holidays and have come into their own as spectacular presentations of creativity – gifts of decadence – simple, yet sinful nonetheless.
So we have joined the ranks with our indulgent collection of confections by Susan Roden who renders these delicate temptations in soft, swirling pastels beautiful enough to eat, offering the viewer an escape into amorous indulgence. We even have colorful cookbooks on the subject, flour sack dish cloths adorned with dripping frosted cupcakes and many other representations of this sweet timeless trend!
Can a trend be timeless or does it then become something else? If it is timeless then it transcends the suggested timeframe of a trend. And as I write this, I firmly believe that inasmuch as cupcakes are currently being re-evaluated, redesigned, and appreciated beyond their previous niche – they are NOT a trend – merely their newfound appreciation appears as though a trend…when in fact, they are a delightful little delicacy that perhaps is redesigned and improved with age and rediscovery.
I’m surprised that we haven’t seen a little Volkswagen dressed up as a cross-country touring cupcake…maybe it needs to be attached to a national name – like Sarah Lee or something…flash on the LED lights of Times Square…too bad Ben and Jerry don’t branch out into cupcakes…their Jane Mansfield cups could really run-ith over!!! “Get a load of those knockers!” Oh what Duff Goldman could do!!! That’s enough!!!
Celebrate the cupcake!!!
Awaken the Neutral Schemes with Color!
I LOVE this statement…”The craving for color is a natural necessity just as for water and fire.” Fernand Léger – Pantone just posted this quote and it comes on the heels of two very coincidental client meetings that I had today.
One began early with discussions about an ongoing project in a newly transformed contemporary interior carved out of a rather ordinary traditional tract-style home. Big points go to the client, who in this case, knows what she wants and has a great eye for design and finding what she knows will make her happy. The basis however, is NOT about color, it is all about neutrals. We have designed a scheme specifically tailored to her requirements that is calm and serene, edgy and crisp, balanced with interesting fabrics for texture against the otherwise smooth hard elements of glass, wood flooring, painted walls and chrome accents -yet neutral (per her) thus far.
We discussed a possible painting that will bring bold color and from which accents will be derived. But even with that intention, it seems unlikely or unwanted that a boldly colored fabric be used on the upcoming chrome-framed bench along the dark chocolate coffee table, framed with brushed nickel of some metal inlay and framework, and across from the slightly iridescent simple cross-weave fabric on the custom settee with an open back up against the new, low to nearly the floor, uninterrupted fixed glass picture window. “Why?” you ask. Because the idea of the neutral is so her and the option to accent on the whim of a mood or change of the seasons suits her spontaneous tendencies.
So, accent pillows that can be tossed on the settee in any manner of color, pattern and texture, or as bold fuchsia orchid now sits in the center of the round glass dining table surface, a future woven throw draped as an accent – this is the way that the starved for color room will receive it’s lifeblood of color – like the “natural necessity just as for water and fire.”
The second meeting today that coincided with the theme of this observation was a humorous comment about a brilliantly colored open-weave Brazilian lace camisole that I was wearing today about which my client chided me – “I love what you’re wearing – must be the inspiration for the colors in our bedroom.” To which his wife smiled and chuckled because her desires for soft, restful colors of pastel to neutral have been decidedly expressed. The idea of bright, bold colors is in diametric opposition to her vision. Yet, with that in mind, her prized possession in her room is a boldly colorful and incredibly realistic oil painting of a larger than life bouquet of flowers screaming of hot pinks, blues and chartreuse (photo below is NOT that painting – but an illustration of another bold piece of white roses by Federico Leon de la Vega inserted into a neutral scheme) – like the “natural necessity just as for water and fire.”
It seems that even the most determined people wishing to create an interior environment of neutral colors and softer tones crave the undeniable exhilarating punctuation of bold colors. The calm must be awakened with the life affirming inclusion of color!
The Struggle, the Dance of Domestic Design
I’ve consulted in this house for many years. The wife patiently struggles against the architectural grain of her husband in his chosen profession that encourages clean-lined contemporary pieces over her family collectibles (and his for that matter). How to make it all work?
The recent acquisition of a Corbusier “Confort” sofa and chair – the clean lines of the chrome and leather placed upon a brilliant red oriental rug layered on top of burnt orange and yellow clay Saltillo tiles…it could work – yet it’s never done completely. The remnants of previous decisions do not harmonize. The struggle continues… She though compassionately concedes, they (architects) must own these before they die. Like the bucket list of purchases…possessions… She supports this newest statement – but still longs for her traditional environment…the struggle…
“Yes”, I assure her, “the Queen Anne wing chairs can work together with these new pieces.” It’s all about what fabric and what other things, textures, patterns (or not), it’s all about balance. “In fact, often the more interesting interiors do juxtapose disparate styles – but no to the point where it looks like trying and missing”. There’s the art of it all…how to MAKE it work – well.
The trick is to get everyone in the same room at the same time and make decisions that are not concessions so much as they are agreements as to what would look/work best to accomplish the end result – melding the crisp contemporary pieces of modern design and the classic elements of more traditional furnishings…including (from her position)an elegant draping crystal chandelier – well proportioned, this is a key piece around which she wants to create a fabulous new kitchen – in a completely opposite area of the house where it now resides and has for the last 20+ years. He is NOT in favor of this radical departure from the original layout. So this dilemma is not limited to the furnishings but also the architectural space-planning of the over-all layout of the home and how to live in it.
Stay tuned to hear more about the ongoing saga of real-life husband and wife styles and goals, forward steps and lateral moves – the dance of domestic design continues…
All’s Well That Ends Well
The last leaves are about to drop and the intensity of these red ones was smack dab on the mark of an elegant drapery design/installation that we recently completed. And what a trial it was…
After so many years in practice …need I count? I have had the genuine pleasure of working with so very many people on a broad variety of projects and none to date have rivaled the Murphy’s Law series of events of this one.
Wonderful people, smart, thoughtful and creative – a follow-up consultation to a successful one of a year or two past, and an interesting combination of new design opportunities presented a creative challenge. The first item was concern for privacy and possible dressing of dining room windows. At the same time, two adjacent windows – long skinny and operable – begged for some attention.
The solution, (in this Asian-themed fairly formal dining room)was a fully lined, embroidered rich crimson red fabric of side panels backed by lightly textured but translucent full- width sheers – hung by rings on an iron rod with hand-forged hammered ball finals.
The fabric was in stock. It was put on reserve while we received approval to proceed with the order. The urgency of securing the fabric was the first order of business. Once done, the schedule to fabricate could be pursued. The order was placed and the fabric arrived within a week. That was the first phase. Without the fabric, nothing else can happen. You can select a fabric – fall in love with it – and then find that it is not in stock or even if you have reserved it, the stock has been sold out from under you. So in this case, securing the fabric was a coup.
The seamstress – our favorite – was pressed with many other orders and her daughter’s wedding. We said we could wait. She thought that she could have the order out in 6 weeks. And just about that time, maybe seven weeks, she finished the draperies. The client was anxious (not due to any date that we had previously been advised about) and indicated that she had waited “so long” for the draperies. We scheduled the installation and arrived on the scene. The installer proceeded to assemble the iron hardware that had been delivered to the site.
He elected to use his own counter-sinks instead of the ones include by the iron fabricator. The installer’s sinks were larger than the hand-painted screws provided by the installer so that when he put his in the wall and proceeded to install the screws – they spun around in the sinks – oops. At that point, the holes by his sinks were larger than the sinks proved by the fabricator – so an alternative was not at hand. He decided that they would hold for now and that he would come back and adjust the pieces later.
Then we carefully unwrapped the finely pressed to perfection draperies – only to find that they were a couple of inches too short – YES! At which point we could only re-wrap them with great care so as not to ruin the perfectly pressed folds and return them to the seamstress.
As it turned out, the communication about the placement of the double rods and their rings and relative length of the draperies was in error – oops! So the rods remained and draperies were returned to the seamstress with instructions to lengthen them accordingly.
Unbeknownst to us, the seamstress had enlisted the aid of a friend with a larger table as she didn’t want to work on such fine material at such a length on her smaller table. Unfortunately, the friend left town without leaving access to her home so we were 8 days waiting for her return in order to access her house and the draperies left on her table. The client was beside herself.
Inasmuch as we had never determined a date for completion, it was becoming an unusually protracted exercise in time to fabricate and install a drapery treatment – especially in light of the fact that the fabric had been immediately available. It was more about the delay in starting on the part of the seamstress – which at first was not perceived as a problem – but when they were the wrong length, the client was perturbed and more than disappointed and then to have them inaccessible in another’s house was strange – but true – and seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. So that’s where we stood. The client was in tears.
The seamstress came to the site to verify the dimensions, learned that the client was hosting a luncheon in a week and was unable to commit to having them finished due to the fact that they were stuck in a friend’s inaccessible house.
The seamstress hovered over the phone of the absent friend to insure that she would have access immediately upon her return. And as soon as she did returned, the process to modify the draperies began. Within 24 hours the changes were made and the draperies were scheduled to install. The client’s luncheon was the following day. The install went without a hitch. The draperies and their installation were perfection. Except for one other thing, (remember, Murphy’s Law?). The center bracket was too long and projected down an inch into the window. NOT apparent to anyone in passing but the owners knew and it certainly was not the right detail. So it sat in their craw for a couple more days until we could get the iron fabricator out there and with the help of the client, cut, paint and re-install it.
There are many cruel and frightening things happening in the world every day. Inconveniences like this in a privileged world – not intentional – and among many caring and responsible people –who for unknown reasons of coincidence, human error, or some fantastic confluence of energy is a Murphy’s Law that is to be recognized as such, understood – if not laughed about – and moved beyond. However, this particular series of events (and a couple of equally innocent others that occurred for this one couple on their four month design project) unnerved them.
The end product was beautiful. They have expressed their pleasure with the final outcome and we hope that they will appreciate all the effort that went into the compensating accommodations despite and/for the freaky series of Murphy’s Law events that riddled their project. All’s well that ends well.
