Sunday, March 25, 2012

Your personal tour of our 2012 DreamHome-Design Craft room!

The overall: Stark Carpets fabricated this rug for me from my custom design.  It turned out stunning!
The last couple of weeks have been especially busy for our office.  We have been installing client projects and our 2012 DreamHome room which opened on the 15th.

Each of the designer's rooms were to be inspired by a piece in the Smithsonian Renwick Galleries upcoming show- 40 under 40.  My room was inspired by Christy Oates' Crane Chair (see our earlier post on the show and Christy).  I decided to create a woman's power office.  My muse was Vera Wang.  Like one of her famous dresses, I wanted to create layers of detail that would be full of quality and sophistication.  I loved working with the other designers (Jeff Akseizer, Christine Philp, Kori Keyser, Scott Cooke, Catherine Hailey, Will McGovern and Miriam Dillon) and found it interesting how they each interpreted their art pieces into room designs.


If you click on the link you can see more of the room details and watch a little video that shows some of the elements in detail.  There is nothing like seeing the room in person though- the layers of texture can not come through in photography.  The beauty of this Design House is that it is FREE!  So all of you out there should grab a friend and head down to the DC Design Center's 5th floor to see it.


Enjoy some of these detailed photos!!!  Did you know that our room has connections to the Dalai Lama?  See below... =)
I designed custom bookcases- Phoenix Handcraft made them gorgeous!  Hines sells this criss-crossed metal based coffee table.  Henredon did the sofa and Michael Cleary provided the awesome stacked acrylic lamps.
The end-table is another custom piece.  Phoenix Handcraft  did the metal and mosaic work.  Notice the great multi-color pillow fabric?  It actually was the first fabric we found for the room.  Stoddard Interiors fabricated the pillows and draperies for me.  The drapery has a beautiful pleat that she does incredibly well.  They look beautiful!
Leather wrapped wall panels, Angel Homsi Leather, in a diagonal pattern- you don't need anything hanging over a fireplace this pretty.

Notice the "puddle" effect at the bottom and the folded detail at the corner of the fireplace frame.  The sparkly bits in the fireplace is recycled glass.
Willem Smith provided the desk chairs.  The Dalai Lama sat in the cream colored one when he visited DC last year!
European Design, Inc in Manassas did the embroidery of our custom criss-cross pattern and did a wonderful job.  It really evokes the inspiration piece.
A Baker table and a Niermann Weeks console set up a pretty niche.  One thing that the contractor I used, PA Portner did for me is paint the trim.  Notice the high gloss shine?  You can finally get water based paint in a true gloss finish!  Yay!
Judy Koessel from Koessel Studios provided the wall coverings for the room.  She is amazing!  We chose a simple grass-cloth styled design for the main walls and this cross-hatched pattern for the accent niche.  Amanda loved gluing these little glass gems onto it =).  I wish you could see the texture of this in person!  Marly's Superior Interiors did a beautiful job installing the wall treatment for me.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

DC Design House preview

Hello readers!  Apologies for the long break.  Let's just say that I've been burning the midnight oil recently.  So while this really should be a posting about our newly installed DreamHome room I have to say that I have failed to take any real photos of the space to share with you all.  I will be visiting Friday and I promise to return with detailed photos to show off our new installation!  Please check back in a few days, I promise you will not be disappointed!
Our next task: the DC Design House project will install in a short couple weeks.  I can share a little preview of our bowling alley shaped deck.  We will be featuring some custom built benches and pedestals, a wall of acrylic art panels, billowy sheers and funky prints.  This swing chair is sitting at my office and is stunning in person, can't wait to install it!