B

A small scale prototype floor design (of the letter "B") for a restaurant interior, 2002.
The miniature version was made to see that it would look good in the large scale. It did, but unfortunately there was a flood a week after we finished and it had to all be pulled up and replaced with carpeting. However the little version got some walls and a mantle and lived on as a room for Linda's doll.

Below, the design in the restaurant's hall, before polyurethaning (when the wood became richer looking, like above)

Getting layered...

The wall above the desk: three years ago (top) and now.
The New York poster added two years ago, then the Natural High thing last year. This year I'm predicting a postcard tucked into the poster frame. Or a sticker.

The two purple vinyl-and-wool Eames chairs are from two different yard sales, a couple years apart, but both are marked on the bottom "Maine Savings Bank...1974". I suppose when the bank went out of business the employees took their chairs, luckily for us.

Vintage Nike Poster and St. Elmo's Fire.

Vintage Nike Poster (framed under glass) from a thrift shop in Miami.
Judd Nelson's apartment in St. Elmo's Fire, 1985.
There must be a way we can scan the poster and print it out to do the same thing.

I'm not sure what the story is behind the Nike photo, but I think it may be a still from a filmed commercial. I kind of remember it, and there was something about the pose of the guy in the white tank top mimicking a Roman sculpture, maybe. (If anybody knows...)

Being that I had to sit through St. Elmo's fire to get that still, I might as well post Emilio Estevez & Andrew McCarthy's Godardian apartment, which is a little more up our alley...

Ingmar Bergman's note-scrawled cabinet

Which is what my laptop is looking like, with the daily scribblings of our new usernames and passwords.

Thanks a lot, hacker.

Aside from that, Bergman's estate was put on the block in 2009 by the Swedish auction house Bukowskis. Going through the catalog you can see what a well-heeled Scandinavian house should be furnished with. Not just the obvious designers- and actually there was no Aalto- but lesser known Nordic furniture makers and craftsmen, most everything in shades of wood and white.

Two favorites:
One of two Bruno Mathsson Pernilla 69 lounge chairs:

and a 1960's glass sculpture by Goran Waarf for Kosta.


Definitely check out the catalog, and the rest of Bukowskis back catalogs. The photos get incredibly huge (for the absentee bidders) so it's an excellent resource for your reference libraries.

Ingmar Bergman's estate at Bukowskis

Children's Spaces

All kinds of awesomeness from Molly and Norman McGrath's incredible 1978 book on interiors for kids, Children's Spaces- 50 Architects and Designers Create Environments for the Young.

Without a doubt the best book ever published about children's design.

Just looking at it makes me want to have another one.

related: Kids' Stuff, Fletcher's room

Fletcher's room

Like many things in our place, our one-year old son Fletcher's room is furnished with from yard sales, thrift shops, flea markets, and hand-me-downs.
The dressers and cabinets are old George Nelson for Herman Miller- the long glass case originally meant for record albums. The Mickey Myers crayon prints and signed ("For Amanda") Bil Baird Marionette Theatre prints were bought years ago at the Carousel thrift shop in Southport, Ct., which funnily enough is located in the church where I went to nursery school. We found the Stokke crib on Craigslist, from the local window-washer who washes the windows of the local Scandinavian Shop. The mobile has since moved away since I took this photo a few months ago.
Linda's old Eames rocking chair was from the 26th St. flea market and is now home to a Freudian-looking Keith Kustard. The teak monkeys are hanging around a teak floor lamp by Laurel, from a garage sale.

The Kodak Instamatic X-15 camera was a store display from the 60's. The flash cube is actually an electric light.
The wooden sail lamp was made by our friend Fidi.  Over to the left is a giant Marimekko beanbag, and an unphotogenic mass of stuffed animals and books.

The hi-fi system with fun-for-Daddy records including Harry Nilsson's The Point! and my brother's and my old Jim Copp and Ed Brown records, inscribed by them when we were kids and our mother took us to see them perform at Bloomingdale's in Stamford, Ct., in the shadow of the giant Bjorn Wiinblad ceramic fountain.

For more on his room and our inspirations click over to the super nice and extremely patient Jenny Dalton's site: LittleBig Magazine



Below is his room in its previous state as our guestroom:




related:



Julie Merz's room, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, January 1978. From the incredible, fascinating Nooney Brooklyn Photographs, 1978-1979. From the NYPL Digital archive.

Apartment tweakery

-back door-

Farewell old gradient rug (below) from Bloomingdales, 1965 (via a yard sale)- you served us well.

Hello new rag rug (above) from the Crate & Barrel outlet in Kittery. 

Also goodbye dangerous little Saarinen table (below) and hello old Giotto Stoppino tables (above), which are empty for climbing on/making into forts. 

And hello new (old) track lighting, 46 more of which are in the basement.

.

David Hicks on...

A boxed holy trinity of decorating books by the Headmaster of interior design,

 from an estate sale in England a few years ago.

David Hicks at a Schweppervescent tablescape in his London home, 1972.
From an old W Magazine.

plant + levelor + sun = Hockney

Director Mike Nichols' New York City apartment, 1980. Besides the big Josef Albers painting, what I've always liked about this room is the simple plant in front of the sun splashed Levelor blinds, and and how it looks like a room David Hockney might've wanted to paint. It also helps that there's an actual David Hockney drawing on the bookshelf, and the upholstery looks like a Celia Birtwell design. And although it looks like a close-up of the window, below is actually Hockney's newest work- on iPhones and iPads, which, if you're in Paris before January 30th you should check out. It's nice to see him getting back to his plant/blinds/sunlight roots, but in such a crazy
 sci-fi way.
Watch the interview here

Think minimalist. It's more intellectual.

And other state-of-the-art advice from 1984's The Yuppie Handbook.

click to enlarge.

The Ghost and Mrs. Snowblood

Squeaky-voiced 1930's actress Jean Arthur's house in Carmel California, 1976.
Equal parts Lady Snowblood and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,
with a little helping of the Mines of Moria and Fangorn Forest.

And that's just the living room.

Woody Allen's apartment, NYC, 1972

Living room, and part of the large rooftop country garden.
"In a typical seriocomic aside, he once told The New Yorker, 'I think I can say, though this is not for publication, that I have the most beautiful apartment in New York' ."


From Architectural Digest, Nov/Dec 1972.

Aqua non viva

So long glass things on the window sill, hello babyproofing.

Wary Meyers Painting Pillows

Off the wall and onto the sofa! Our latest project is a collection of hand-painted (by me) and sewn (by Linda) down-and-feather-filled painting pillows. The first collection is all Abstract Expressionist, inspired by the works of Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. Approximately 18" square, the acrylic paint is thick in parts (like the actual paintings) and nicely pliable. $145 each.

Click here for the entire gallery and order information.