The ten years I have known Jeff his office has been all business, Edward Jones green and white.

However, when he moved into his new office we added more color and individualization. This office reflects his interests and has an assortment of areas that tell his individual story.

Both of these walls of pictures help to tell his personal story. The pics above are of Jeff’s swearing in ceremony in the House of Representatives and  his collection of “Me and  some famous people.”

As he plans to have casual business meetings in addition to his regular working meetings, he wanted some comfortable seating areas and some casual interactive areas. The polished concrete floors, the open ceilings and the glass walls, were conducive to this look. We added several colorful hand knotted Heriz rugs and red leather furniture and really didn’t need much else. This picture of the conference room waiting for the table shows off the beautiful geometrics of the rug we choose for that area.       Jeff wanted a foosball table, just for fun, and as he didn’t need another table or seating area neither one of us could think of a reason he couldn’t have one…we think it is a great addition to the office area. We found some Wall Street murals at art.com and added them to our foosball area.

We tried to stay true to the architecture and keep everything casual and interesting. By keeping things simple and adding color and pattern we think we achieved our goal.

FYI:

Heriz rugs are Persian rugs from the area of Heris, East Azerbaijan in northwest Iran, northeast of Tabriz. Such rugs are produced in the village of the same name in the slopes of Mount Sabalan. Heriz carpets are extremely durable and hard-wearing and they can last for generations. 19th century examples of such carpets are often found on sale by major auction houses in United States and Europe. New Herizes are thick, tough, and often reasonable in price. Such rugs age well and become more and more beautiful with age. Part of the reason for the toughness of Heriz carpets is that Mount Sabalan sits on a major deposit of copper. Traces of copper in the drinking water of sheep produces high quality wool that is far more resilient than wool from other areas.

Heriz rug weavers often make them in geometric, bold patterns with a large medallion dominating the field. Such designs are traditional and often woven from memory.

Similar rugs from the neighbouring towns and villages of the Heriz region are Afshar, Heris, Mehraban, Sarab, Bakhshaish, and Gorevan.The grades of these rugs are primarily based on village name. Serapis, for example, have been considered the finest grade of Heriz since the beginning of the 20th century.^[1]

Save the Pink Bathrooms.Mamie Eisenhower: Unwitting creator of THE iconic color of the 50s, “Mamie Pink”

July 5, 2009 by 50s Pam

Mamie Eisenhower: Library of Congress image

MAMIE PINK: The iconic decorating color of the 50s, arguably. Ubiquitous in fashion as well as bathrooms and kitchens. The mid-century trend to pink seems to have come directly and irrefutably from Mamie Eisenhower, first lady from 1953 to 1961. Pink was Mamie’s favorite color. She wore a pink gown with 2,000 pink rhinestones to Ike’s inauguration. Ike sent her pink flowers every morning. Her bathroom in Gettysburg was pink down to the cotton balls. She re-decorated the private quarters in the White House in pink. So much so that reporters called it the “Pink Palace.” The color also seems to have been known as “First Lady Pink.” As a result of all this pink-think, there was probably no question that American women (and marketers) would pick up on it. It also was a color trend right in line with the exuberance of the time — and even supportive of the return of women to the home after WWII and their complete remaking of the American domestic landscape.

In fact, my own informal research from scouring marketing materials from the period indicates that pink kitchens and baths arrived solidly in ’53, reached a total frenzy in 1957, then pretty rapidly started to fade after that, as other trends took hold. A typical adoption curve for a trend like this.

State of the art, 60s pink bathroom… gone…sorry folks, it was time.

8×8 Waxed French paver floor, custom tile, marble counter and shower trim, soaking tub from Sunset.

Save the Pink Bathrooms. …membership only a click away.

Last year, while I was in Florence, I found myself in a dinner table discussion about the Golden Ratio, not a usual dinner discussion but ours nonetheless. I was a guest at a dinner held in the Accademia Gallery in Florence. The table was placed the length of the Michelangelo Gallery where, not only was David standing at the head of the table, the unfinished sculptures Michelangelo had been working on when he was summoned to Rome to paint the Sistine Chapel were along the sides of the gallery.  Consequently, our dinner table discussion was centered around David and particularly around the size of David’s hands. I was amazed that no one around me had ever heard of the Golden Ratio or how this concept is central to the size of not only David’s hands but of the placement of every knuckle in his fingers. Every inch of the extraordinary 17′ tall meticulously sculpted figure of David is executed within the rules of the Golden Ratio. Thus, this discussion brought to mind the design questions I am ask about regularly and where the answers to those questions come from and how I just know something is going to work or not. …And I remember my education of Art, Art History, and Design exposed me to the Golden Ratio forever ago, and somewhere from within this concept comes my answer. 

David’s 24″ right hand.

I will also attach a picture of the dinner table at the Accademia last year held in the Michelangelo Gallery with the magnificent David standing at the head.And… desert which was also beautiful.

The progress of this kitchen should prove interesting as it is two fold. The beautiful new kitchen and the recycled old. If the pictures keep coming, it should be fun to see them both develop. Beautiful new Custom Wood Products cabinets have been delivered and are being installed, and the old cabinets have gone to be adjusted to fit in their new location. Workers in both places are trying to meet an early March deadline.

NEW KITCHEN…PLAN DEVELOPMENT: The development of this new kitchen was over all somewhat of a challenge as it is part of a large family, multi purpose room that contains a serious amount of golden oak…very tall crown, paneled wainscot, and floor. We moved through several possibilities of color and finishes before settling on the cabinet finish shown.  The finish chosen is a four-step process of stained wood, painted over, and rubbed through in areas, then glazed. This process gave the soft, white comfort we needed to work with the existing oak everywhere else.  The areas of rubbed through wood hark back to the existing oak color and tie the finishes together. The new kitchen is already settling in and looking like it always belonged.

Fabulous, organized cabinet interiors give an efficiency that was missing before. Every interior area has been planned to maximize the overall kitchen efficiency and every plate, pan, knife, and chopping block have a specific location to make this kitchen efficient and pleasurable.

THE RECYCLING BEGINS:

Three hundred miles away the old kitchen is getting a second chance to nourish a family. This young couple, conscientious recyclers, are more than satisfied with their good fortune.

Once it is re-seasoned,  the recycled chopping block center island, saved from another project, will be a very popular and handy addition to this kitchen.

Even though there are an assortment of things still to finish…painted beadboard wainscot on the walls, paint above it and on the soffit, crown and trim, and a new ceiling light fixture, one week later this family has a functioning new kitchen.

RECYCLED KITCHEN…COLOR THEORY  and PLAN DEVELOPMENT:  It is important to realize, when using recycled and saved things, the development of the color theory and the over all plan for the project is generally already dictated by the existing parts, and flexibility must become the key word. This was the case on this project for sure. The  recycled golden ash cabinets, easily went with the peanut butter ceramic tile left from another project and created a strong cohesive unit. However, with the existence of these key pieces, a black dishwasher, and some monetary constraints, a somewhat limited selection of  budget friendly flooring from Home Depot created a dilemma of sorts. As our goal, always, was to create a smart new up to date kitchen, we had to rely on some good strong color theory to make this happen. The flooring and Wilsonart laminate we choose, keeping the ultimate goal in mind, built on the existing peanut butter color while adding black and charcoal and a slight color suggestion of  purple. We plan to paint the beadboard and the existing floor and door trim, Sherwin Williams Cloak Gray 6278 (a dark purple/gray) in a semi gloss finish and the upper walls and soffit Sherwin Williams Special Gray 6277 (lighter purple/gray) in a flat finish with a flat finish white ceiling. Thus, we have worked backwards into a good sound color theory plan that pleases the couple. The direct complementary color scheme of  peanut butter and aubergine (greyed shades of yellow and purple)… will allow a red discord, her favorite color…and still maintain a good strong color theory that meets our ultimate goal of smart and up to date. I guess, the purpose of this discourse is to once again reiterate the importance of good color theory and  careful planning…planning gives the best results…always.

Last night…the message.

This text message should reassure you.

The start of a new project always provokes anxiety, never before has it started with a text message like this one. This project, nearly four hundred miles away, will prove to be interesting as my client sends progress updates. This will be the first time I have posted a project from beginning to end, but if my client sends the pics, I will post the progress.

We are using “Brick-it” on the walls. The application of this material should prove interesting to watch. The application is either going to be really, really easy as they advertise, or really, really hard as my client fears. Check it out at http://www.Brickit.com.

So keep watch for the posts and progress

Day three.

Today I checked out the progress of the Brick-it installation and it was astonishing. Two walls were nearly up and more than half the grid was in place. It does appear to be as easy as they advertise. The mortar should be interesting as it goes in a Wilton frosting bag with a #5 tip. The wall that is up is fabulous. We worried about what would be the right choice of brick but we are very happy with the antique New York brick, part of their limited edition collection.  It could not be better.

The wall washing lights show off the texture of the brick walls.

My favicon is an iPhone pic of the eastern section of the ceiling in the entrance to the Uffizi galleries in Florence. Some of the areas in the gallery entrance are the remains of the Romanesque church of San Piero Scheraggio, which was partly destroyed to build the Uffizi. However, this particular fresco has the beautiful soft modeling and more romantic lines that began around the time of Boticelli in the 15th century, so I would assume it to be “New” rather than part of the church of 1299. Aside from the fact that this fresco was beautiful, it was also blue, my lifelong favorite color. Thus, the image of this lovely old fresco became my Favicon.

My Pindler and Pindler Rep was here this week with beautiful new cotton fabrics. Pindler and Pindler is just one of the many lines of fabrics we have in our sample library. As the latest available fabrics come in, I plan to post pictures. We will see if I manage to get that done.

A recent bedroom project involved this custom wall piece. We had ordered it with the all wood interior, however it arrived partly black…it was hard to send it back as it was very beautiful…but the all wood was stunning. Fourteen inches deep, it fits nicely against the wall and added a huge amount of book storage to this readers bedroom.