The 2014 Design Leadership Summit started off with requisite cocktails and raconteur Fran Lebowitz in a conversation with Deborah Needleman – Editor-in-Chief of ‘T’, the New York Times Style Magazine. Lebowitz, as anticipated, was in full ‘Fran Lebowitz mode’ opining about the state of New York City “post–Bloomberg” and reminiscing, or rather bemoaning, the things about ‘old New York’ that have disappeared…
Textile presentations are often given by ‘outside sales reps’; they can be useful, informative and fun. However when the person who designed and developed the textiles makes the presentation it is an entirely different experience.
ENTER – Gretchen Bellinger!
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This Master Bathroom in a pre-war apartment building on the Upper East Side was designed with an old-school sensibility.
By removing the bathtub to install an oversized stall shower with a vintage-styled shower door in matte nickel, the room feels much larger and lighter, and reflects the ‘take a quick shower’ lifestyle of the owner.
The custom vanity we designed has a stone top with built-up edge in ‘Perlino Bianco’ from Stone Source.
Both the ‘Astoria’ faucet set with lever handles and the ‘Opus’ wall sconce in matte nickel are both from Waterworks.
By using the same tiles in the shower and on the floor one experiences the entire footprint of the room – making it feel more spacious. The tiles are marble mosaics from Sicis with a field of ‘Verde Luna’, with ‘Bianco Antico’ used for border tiles.
The shower wall tiles are ‘Lanka’ subway tiles from Nemo Tile.
Wall and ceiling paint from Benjamin Moore – Historical Color Collection ‘Clarksville Gray’.
In a suburban Westchester house we designed a TV room for three young girls with bright upbeat colors. Little girls however do grow up so we planned the room to be playful now, and more sophisticated later.
The Jonathan Adler Indian Kilim Flatweave area rug is the centerpiece of the room; it lays on top of wall-to-wall carpeting to allow for a change-out later.
The overscaled L-shaped sectional sleep sofa from Avery Boardman allows the room to double as a Guest Room. The sofa is upholstered in rich purple cross-hatch plain weave from Osborne & Little.
The capiz shell chandelier hangs over a West Elm White Lacquered Table; although now discontinued, there are some good choices for kid-friendly rooms.
Havana Swing-Arm Lamps, from Jonathan Adler add additional retro-style.
The room is designed for the pillows and cushions to be used on the floor with kids sprawled about. Some of the accent pillows are covered in a sensational printed stripe from Scion Fabrics, distributed by Zoffany.
Another great ‘neighbor’ in Litchfield County is Bantam Tileworks, the brainchild of Travis Messinger and Darin Ronning, who had previously been running a store in Lower Manhattan that was part coffee shop and part tableware store called Pepper Jones. One of the things they learned from that experience was how much they valued and enjoyed working with each other, and directly with their customers.
This approach to connecting with their customers was immediately evident in the warm and friendly greeting I received from Darin when I recently visited their Store/Showroom/Studio in Bantam, Connecticut…
