10 years later

Finally, 10 years after we moved in, thirteen years after the last coat of Navajo white, we summoned up the courage to have the space painted. As this room is open to so many spaces, we envisioned chaos, with scaffolding everywhere and paint-splattered animals leaving tacky trails on the furniture and furnishings.

And the color? I had major issues here. The eastern light and huge windows played havoc with the hues. Each wall looked a different hue, a different color even. I'd love a color on one wall at 9 am and hate it by 1. Another would look great on one wall, be subtle on another and disappear on a third. It became a process of elimination and I know I drove the painters crazy, though they were much to polite to say so, even when I changed my mind in the middle of the night and emailed them with the new choice.

What do you know? Turns out the whole process was drama free. Even though some cats love the no-smell BM Aura paint and snuggled up to it at every opportunity, they managed to keep their paws out of the paint trays. Scaffolding? Not necessary. Three men with rollers accomplished the whole job in two days.

The wall color we finally landed upon is Benjamin Moore moonshine. On this wall, and only this wall it looks a watery green, That lasts an hour or so when the north eastern light hits the wall. The same color is on the balcony walls, which look off-white and the double height wall that looks gray. Later in the day all the walls fade to the neutral color in the first photo above, which is a very relaxing shade that showcases the art.

When it was all clean and fresh The Guy decided he had to have this bright and vibrant piece by Long Island artist Stanko, which was framed by rockstar framer Cherie Via Rexer of Ripe Art Gallery. It has a mid-century vibe that really sits well in the space. The only regret I have about this room is that we didn't have it painted four years ago when we renovated the kitchen. On the other had the paint color I had in mind for this room wouldn't have worked nearly as well and i would be repainting right about now...

Classic Miid-century Furniture Reissues

Great news for fans of classic American furniture by designer and manufacturer Harvey Probber. Until now his furniture has been out of production since the 80s, the only way to find his modular sofa has been the occasional sighting on ebay or 1stdibs. This Fall, M2L, a New York distributor of authorized modern furnishings catering to the design trade, has been licensed to produce new editions, including the 1947 Sling Chair above and the iconic 1972 Deep Tuft sectional below. 

Prices for the Deep Tuft Sofa start at $15,000 in plush fabric for a 5 piece or $19,000 in leather. It may seem a lot but this furniture is so well made it will last a lifetime. 

Here at The Cool House we inherited a 1968 12-piece sectional sofa that's still as comfortable and sturdy as ever-although it was reupholstered four years ago. As Probber once said "the true test of great design is time".

Other pieces to be reintroduced include sleek, wood wrapped casegoods and seating from the Architectural Series that were originally produced inFalls River MA in the 1960s.

It's been 10 years since Probber's death when an retrospective of his work was held  at Baruch College in Manhattan. it's certainly time to give these gorgeous designs another, closer look.

Cool House Panorama

Dining Room

Great Room

Kitchen

Playing with the Panoramic feature on the phone.

Odd angles

April to April

The last twelve months have flown by, hardly time to post to the blog what with all the twitter twaddle and facebook folies to constantly update. I knew this would happen, I'm basically lazy so if I can say it in 140 characters or less that's the option I'll take, thank you very much. But on the warmest day of a warm April that succeeded the hottest March ever, preceded by a no-Winter that meant no snow and no photos of 2" icicles hanging from the garage roof (and therefore no threat of decapitation when dragging the trash cans down the drive), I've had time to reflect on the past year. 
Firstly, that Spring-like Winter has meant everything in the garden is blooming a good three weeks ahead of normal. This was last April 16 - in past Aprils we've still been salting the back drive this time of year.

The same view today, the forsythia is over, the hostas are up and the azaleas out. It's also 87F and not raining so big bonus, there!

I even pruned the forsythia the was obscuring the pink azalea but not without a minor oops moment.

What was the tenet about bringing the outdoors in... or making lemonade out of lemons?

The early blossoming Spring holds true for the magnolias, too.

Last year May 5.

This year April 8

Secondly the house is looking more put together, even if all the major renovations finished way back in 2010. A lot has to do with the new placement of art and the way we are using the space. The eat-in section of the kitchen is a spot where we spend a lot of time now we are free to laptop/iphone/tablet roam with wifi, often it seems we don't even bother visiting our offices, we just sit at the breakfast table and do our respective things. Sometimes, though I clear up and it's quite serene

Thirdly, I am still nuts. On one of the hottest August days last summer I swapped the rugs in the den and dining room. On my own because The Guy flatly refused to indulge my crazy one more time.

The orange rug headed back to the den

and the cream rug was dragged into the great room. It felt so good I bought it a couple of new cushions in a mid-century inspired pattern in the sale at Crate&Barrel. It's so much lighter in there that I'm sitting there typing. The newly fixed sliding doors are open and I'm listening to what sounds like a duck in the yard. I'm expecting the fox will appear again tonight. April to April... plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

Hanging the Art: The Great Room edition

Almost seven years ago we moved in to our new home and threw Jacques Brel on the wall where he landed on an existing picture hook. For all the intervening time he's been sardonically silent; mocking me for his off-kilter placement and the dirt lines that marked where the previous owner's art hung. During that time we've collected a lot more art; some made it on to the walls but a lot has been piled up waiting for someone with a decent eye to tell me where it should go.


Last night I invited Nadine Bouler the artist responsible for some of the recent acquisitions, the framer and gallery owner Cherie Via, the Awesome Designer and a couple of modern art lovers to set the art to rights. A glass of wine, a few nibbles and a hammer or two later the great room placement was finished and I had a cohesive look. Where once Monsieur Brel was hanging high and lonely, now Arthur Luiz Piza joins Andrew Geller, Nadine Bouler and Sharyn Bradford to successfully fill the wall.


And Jacques Brel? He's bien à l'aise above the credenza, keeping his eye on the glass vase that holds all the recent invitations to art gallery openings...

::UPDATE:: There are some super candid shots of the process on Nadine's blog. Go check them out!

Hot Lava

Once the fabulously decorated great room, it's now full of furniture from the kitchen and dining room - the perfect place to challenge the peeps to a game of Hot Lava!

Perfect Pillows Update

Six weeks or so ago the big blue sectional got a major dose of pretty when these gorgeous pillows arrived. They have been much admired but the Awesome Designer thought we could go the extra step and add some more gold tones for that unique touch.


So with one medium-sized remnant and some real magic (plus exact measurements and a great eye) she produced these four fabulous cushions. Absolutely inspired!

Perfect Pillows

The fabulous fabrics I chose for the great room arrived and were quickly turned into stunning pillows by the Awesome Designer and her workshop. The square checkered pillows ground the more ostentatious rectangular cushions, making the sectional spectacular.


We both feel we should add a third element here - something blue? A touch of gold? We shall see... Feel free to way in with your thoughts!

Design Inspiration

It looks like those umbrella stand pendant lamps in the great room are working their magic again.


Today they inspired the Awesome Designer to pull this fabric, Delineate in Malt from the Couture Collection by Michael Berman for Kravet. Also available in Foam (light blue) and Oyster (creamy beige). Not sure where we'll use it but I think we have to find a place - it was meant to be...

Big Blue Sectional Reveal

Ta-da! Drum roll please for the stunning reveal of the formerly pink super-sectional sofa


After: Original to the house 1968 Harvey Probber sectional re-upholstered with Kravetsmart in blue chenille by awesome designer Julie Napoleon Brown and her team.


New rug is Chinese Chippendale design by Windsor Smith, also through Kravet, a 9' x 9' square terracotta silk and wool blend with a gold design and border. It's amazing what an appropriately sized rug does for the scale of the room. The sectional floats on the rug just as if it were made to measure.


Before: The sectional in its original rose pink fabric, faded by 40 years of sun streaming through those huge windows (and a little pet-related wear and tear); the too-tiny 5' by 8' rug we'd placed in front of the sofa as a temporary solution five years before. The pillows were hiding a huge split in the seat cushion that had been there for longer than that, which we'd originally covered with reindeer hide! Just out of view is a pink throw covering another hole and more than a few cat claw marks


During the re-covering phase the rug became a patch of carpet cast adrift in a sea of parquet. At this point I knew I had to go rug shopping. I can't say enough good things about the whole rug shopping experience at Kravet - they also have a fun blog Inspired Talk that is, as the name suggests, full of designer tips, resources and drool-worthy photos.


My greatest thanks, however, go to designer Julie Napoleon Brown without whom the project would never have gotten started, let alone turned out so spectacularly. She spent time trying to make an off-center sofa fit more cohesively in a trapezoid room; here she is considering the configuration of the 12-piece sectional


and shown here pondering the choice of pillow fabrics.


She tolerated my control issues as I vetoed swatch after swatch and sample after sample, then had to repeat the process with The Guy, who doesn't respond well to imposed change (unless he is doing the imposing) but in the end, as you can see from the photo, is delighted with the redone great room.


As Julie says, it needs a punch of the orange on the pillows and a few well-chosen accessories, which will come eventually (I can generally sneak one thing past The Guy each quarter), but for the moment - and most importantly - it has been cat tested and fully approved.

More Great Room before and after photos here

Shall we dance?

The pink sectional has gone and we have gained a beautiful waxed parquet floor


Notice the difference from the left side (where the sectional was sitting) to the right - or high traffic area. The unused side has a beautiful rich polish on it which I will redo while the big beast goes from pink to blue.


And while we have this big empty space we can send out the rug for cleaning, move the tables aside and have a sliding competition across the length of the floor... or dance and swirl around to this tune from the master on the wall, M. Jacques Brel

No eBay, but some Ikea

To ease the pain of the eBay boycott I made another purchase at Ikea instead. A pink Stockholm throw to cover the scratch marks on the Harvey Probber sofa in the Great Room.


It's mostly mohair and extremely soft, which unfortunately, makes it irresistble to the cats. At least it cost a reasonable $29.99 rather than the $100+ that these things can sell for, so if it gets ruined I won't be too upset with them.

Reverberations

Living Room
Originally uploaded by modernemama

The house constantly astonishes me. Just when I think I have learnt everything about it, it reveals one more surprise, gives me one more thing to adore.
I'd invited some of the guests at the party last weekend to entertain us, and Bob rocked out some Stones on his guitar. The music was great but it was only when his wife, Sue launched into an aria (from the lotus position, no less!) that I realised how good the acoustics in that room are. Her voice just soared up to the second storey and filled the entire space. Of course it helps that she is an opera singer, but all the wood on the ceiling certainly lent a great tone.
If we'd had a piano she would have sung more. And as the photographer pointed out last week, that's what should go on the raised dais in the den. A piano, hmmm.....................

Inspiration

I was fooling around with my new digital camera yesterday and took this shot


These lights are made from umbrella stands the previous owner found on a trip overseas. When I uploaded the photos to my computer, I realized that the copper and bronze tones of the lampshades were the same as the floor tiles I had chosen for the boys' bathroom.



I don't know why this didn't occur to me before. Maybe it was some sort of unconscious inspiration? But it should tie together nicely, at least I hope so.