Thank You InCollect!

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A word of special thanks to Incollect for publishing a well thought out interview we did together several weeks ago, in which I answer questions like;

Your academic and professional training is very much rooted in architecture. While you were studying at RISD were you planning on becoming an architect? 

How has your architecture-driven background influenced your work as an interior designer? 

Are there any design movements, periods, etc. that you are particularly fond of or find yourself returning to again and again?

What is your favorite room to design? What about that room appeals to you? 

What is your favorite part of working with a client on a project?

The article also includes images from some of my favorite projects — if you’re interested in learning more you can follow this link to the full article on the Incollect website.

Clinton Smith’s ‘The Romance of Flowers’

Veranda

I am certain that most people who work in interior design – either as designers themselves or as members of the press who chronicle our work — have a fondness for flowers, for flowers are as integral a part of an interior as furnishings and art.  The color of flowers, the scale and silhouette, often in juxtaposition, can work magic to enliven a room with any number of moods – including passion and intrigue. The effect can be alchemical.

That is the premise of Veranda editor Clinton Smith’s new book, ‘The Romance of Flowers’, with page after page of rooms which include a wide variety of blossoms that all call to mind affairs of the heart….

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#TBT – New York Times HOME Section 1989

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Last Thursday was the last day of the HOME Section of the New York Times; there are many of us who lament this change, remembering when the section was a very important source of news about the world of design.

I look back with great appreciation for the countless things I learned from this section, never mind that my first real media exposure was in the HOME section in February of 1989 – just two years after I opened Glenn Gissler Design.

I was introduced to the most important and the most influential HOME section writer, Suzanne Slesin, at an opening at Furniture of the Twentieth Century. I contacted her a few days later with hopes of showing her a few recently completed projects.

Suzi came to see three projects, and literally days later  “A Designer Test His Wings; Maximal Style for Minimalist Tastes” appeared on the front page of the HOME Section! Including the jump page the story covered five square feet (!) of New York Times ‘real estate’ including seven photographs, three of which included me.

I nearly died!

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Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2015 - 600-dpi-page-2-NY-Times-2

The HOME Section has been a mere shadow of itself for many years; there are few people who would argue that.  Some even see this change as a death knoll for design coverage in the New York Times.

At least for the moment I am looking at the glass as ‘half-full’, and I am hopeful that the nay-sayers will be proven wrong.

 

#TBT – East Coast Rooms – 2000

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It may be wishful thinking, however as an antidote to the Winter blues here’s an optimistic look back at images of a house designed for Summer enjoyment that might be a welcome respite for us all.

Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2015 - East Coast Rooms
In 2000, author Anna Kasabian came out with her book East Coast Rooms: Contemporary Portfolios from 40 North American Interior Designers 

Kasabian is a freelance writer, journalist and the author of 14 books. Her writings on interior design and architecture, art, food and cooking, luxury and historic real estate, garden design, home and garden preservation projects and New England have been published in regional and national magazines.

 

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An antique English Art & Crafts table and vintage American lamp add a level of ‘architectural’ interest to this modest Entry Hall.

Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2015 - East Coast Rooms - Den-2-John-Hall-Copy-640x497

Sea Grass and linen slip-covers and unlined linen curtains on stained wood rods evoke easy breezy Summer days. The graphic silhouettes of an eclectic mix of antiques – Aesthetic Movement, English Arts & Crafts, French and American – balance the heavier fully-upholstered pieces in the room.

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A pair of vintage steel chandeliers hang over the custom table, surrounded by a set of caned circle-back chairs with arms from Robert Lighton.

 

 

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The iron bed and plaid cotton area rug recalls simple old-school summer houses. The shutters are applied to the wall beneath the windows to ‘correct’ their awkward shape and placement on the wall, while adding more visual cues reminiscent of days gone by.

#TBT – Town & Country 2003

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Caroline Hirsch is a woman with great personal style – a style that includes an enviable lifestyle. I have had the pleasure of creating two homes for her.

She takes meticulous care of her homes, so much so that I jest that with five minutes notice I could arrive with cameras, lights and a few flowers and start shooting photographs immediately.

Shelter magazines are in the business of creating seductive images of rooms we want to be in, and lifestyles we want to have.  I love to create images that seduce, but truth be told, not all homes are as beautiful, or as well-styled as we see in print.

I can however tell you, with great confidence, that more than a decade later this home looks as good now as it did then…

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