It has been a very very slow process but the house has really started to take form of a finished home, well at least the background. When I stopped by recently there was a lot of work being done, the kitchen was being installed, bedrooms were being painted, the master bath was being grouted, the pool had been installed and the guest house exterior had been finished.  It was all starting to take shape.

One of my tricks for low ceilings in homes/apts is to paint the ceilings with semi-gloss paint, this is not the final coat you see in image but you can see how it increases space.

It has been about a year and a half of construction with delays and now they want to be in the house in 2 weeks! This puts a gun to our heads, but I do understand since it is summer and they would like to enjoy their summerhouse. It’s questionable when the house will be finished as decisions are not being made and delays are continuing (not due to us).

Unfortunately the client had a tree cut down in the front yard that I had fought to save because without it the house is very exposed, hopefully landscaping will help it.  They also installed a driveway without my knowledge and now there is more driveway than there is yard, you could park 10 cars on it!  A parking lot comes to mind…

Kitchen

 

Kitchen

 

Front Room

 

Looking out to backyard

 

Pool & Guest House

 

Stairs waiting for railing

 

Master Bathroom

 

Bathtub waiting to be installed

 

Kid's rooms

 

Boy's Bathroom

 

Driveway

I wanted to thank the folks at Poggenpohl for inviting me to use their showroom for my recent booksigning, they also currently have an array of wonderful new products on display.  We had a great crowd of designers and design lovers and got to discuss traveling and its effect on design and customizing in our industry.  I estimate that we customize about 70% of the items we specify in the projects at our office, this just makes each project much more individual and people can’t say “oh I saw this and that at such and such showroom”.

Do you all customize?  How has it made your job easier or more complicated?

more images here

I was so honored to be a judge at the Pratt + Paper & Ralph Pucci Design Competition and so thrilled to see this piece on it.  It is very rare that I have to break my brain when picking the best, but I sure had to for this contest. Every single design was mind blowing and each one was so different and so intricate that it was almost impossible to judge.  The experience was incredible, I hope you all enjoy the article.

Students: 27. Disciplines: four. Material: one. They all added up in “Pratt + Paper & Ralph Pucci.” Pratt Institute president Thomas F. Schutte initiated the competition and exhibition, for which undergrads and graduates studying interior, industrial, and fashion design or the fine arts were asked to use sheets of plain white paper, in any size, to create a garment or a sculpture. Fasteners were allowed, but the construction method had to be evident. As explained by the dean of the school of art and design, Concetta Stewart, the idea was to help students “understand the power of parameters as a catalyst for innovation.”

via

Front Door

Just to give you a sense of proportion, here is the new front door with a standard door leaning against it.

Master Bath

A view of the master bathroom, the tub will be next to the 2 windows and the shower area is on the other side.

Master Bedroom

This is the master bedroom with French doors leading out the terrace and windows looking out to the backyard

Children's Bathroom

Brackets concealed behind the sheetrock wall which will support the floating counter in the children’s bathroom

Living Room

This is a view of the living room where the bay window and walls have been sheetrocked , you can see the foyer on the left hand side

Kitchen

The kitchen has been sheetrocked and is ready for the floors and cabinets to be installed

Back of House

 Updated view of the back of the house, all the siding and roofing has been installed

Chimney Stack

This is the side of the house where you can see there is a new chimney stack

Front of House

Here is the front of the house, the ground has not been graded and front steps are not built yet, on the right hand side you can see the garage.  What you are seeing here gives you a sense of an old house and it doesn’t look like it was just plunked down out of left field.

Garage

Studio/Pool area

This is the garage with studio space for the lady of house to paint. The studio faces the backyard where the pool will be built; we have installed skylights to bring in natural light.

This has been what to me feels like a 10 year process but in actually it has been a year and a half, the battles are still continuing over the last items that need to be decided upon. I dare say I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and now we are going to start the discussions about the decorative,  it is a daunting task but as a friend of mine says – once you swallowed the horse what’s the tail?

I typically work out the lighting and electrical plans after I have designed the furniture plan, this way I can locate the fixed ceiling and wall fixtures in a way that feels balanced and natural and place outlets where I will actually need them.  For general overhead lighting I prefer adjustable fixtures which allow me the flexibility to aim and accentuate particular design features; fireplaces, coffee tables, floor inserts, hallways, etc.  In this house I wanted to place as much lighting as I could in the ceiling so I would not have to rely on table and floor lamps since our square footage was limited and a great deal of it lost to circulation space.

The advantage of a wood construction, as opposed to a poured concrete, is that it allows us to place recessed lighting between the beams throughout the ceiling without having to lose precious overhead room.  I’ve also located junction boxes where I know we will have decorative pendant fixtures, although said fixtures are still to be determined. 

For exterior decorative lighting we narrowed it down to one of these handsome wall sconces for the front and side entrances.  I have a preference, which one do you think made the cut?

Sconce #1

Sconce #2

So we had doors, now it was time for hardware.

Initially Mrs. M and I had conflicting ideas about the door hardware (surprised?), she thought they needed to be traditional and I knew they needed to be modern since the doors were already traditional and modern hardware would be much more interesting .  Mrs. M needed some coaxing and so the search began…

For the interior doors knobs we looked at everything from ceramic eggs and cut crystal knobs to stainless steel levers.  The levers we discarded immediately since those were already used in their city apartment ;the cut crystal knobs were too small in scale, and on and on went the process of elimination until we found a the perfect way to combine what we both wanted.  I paired a smooth clear crystal egg shaped know with a sleek square rose back plate in a polished nickel finish.

Crystal egg knob

The front door hardware went much more smoothly since we all agreed that this need to be a traditional element.  I proposed a rim lock with an egg shaped knob in a polished chrome finish which Mrs. M agreed to and we lived happily ever after. 

Egg knob for front door

Rim Lock for front door

What is your take, traditional, modern, or a mix?

For the M’s NY apt I had designed flush doors in their foyer as when you enter the front door these are the first element you saw. I wanted you to see a flush wall instead of door frames that would distract away from the foyer table.

Mr. & Mrs. M's foyer in NYC

For the Hamptons Mrs. M insisted that all the doors be traditional. I felt simple recessed paneled doors would be more fitting. I proposed these for all doors leading into main living spaces; however I wanted all the closet doors to be flush.  This would make them disappear increasing the volume of the space.  The only exception was the powder room on the first floor, this we would also make flush to blend in with the adjacent closets.

The front door was our biggest obstacle; Mrs. M. had spotted an all glass door on another house in the Hamptons and became obsessed.  I felt the door needed to be solid to balance out the foyer which was already enclosed in two large glass windows. The solid door would give the space a stronger sense.  Personally I prefer black or dark front doors because I feel it creates an anchor and gives the house a sense of beginning.  If you look at Old English homes they usually have front doors painted in dark colors.

Mrs. M decided she wanted the front door to be powder blue with glass panels….

So we went back and forth for weeks until we finally reached a compromise. A traditional all wood paneled door stained in a driftwood color which would pick up the color in the stone inserts in the foyer.

Finish Sample for front door ( actual color hard to read from scan)

How many of you paint your doors and what colors?

I don’t think I’ve mentioned the back porch just yet, this subject set off a HUGE discussion between Mrs. M and I which went back and forth several times.  They wanted an enclosed outdoor space in which they could entertain, I felt that enclosing this area was not a good idea; I wanted the house to feel open to the exterior and be flooded with natural light.  I suggested a pergola since that would filter the sunlight while not dramatically reducing the light quality indoors,  I also wanted to maintain a connection between the backyard and the interior of the house,  they preferred a screened in porch they could furnish and to have protection from the elements.  I tried very hard to discourage this porch idea but the M’s were insistent.

The M’s requested enough room to accommodate dining for 10 and seating for 8 making porch almost a full scale living room,  16’x37’.  After it was installed Mrs. M realized how dark it made the dining room and kitchen areas, we were able to bring in some more light by installing 2 skylights.  We designed a pass-through window at the kitchen with a shelf off the porch side to facilitate entertaining and added a ceiling fan and recess lighting throughout.  

 I decided to make the floor of the porch the same stone as pool surround to blur the lines between the indoors and outdoors.

On the positive side I feel it helped the back elevation as it transformed the back of the house from a very flat vertical surface into something a bit more three dimensional

I would love to hear your thoughts on this dilema, would you have preferred the enclosed porch or the pergola?

Second Floor Guest Bathroom

For this room the M’s wanted more of a traditional bathroom, and we to keep the room neutral as we didn’t know how the room would eventually be used.

We proposed white gloss subway tile from the floor going up the wall 42”, except for the shower were we would bring it up to the ceiling. The walls above the subway tiles would be painted white.  The floors are to be a combo of lime stone tile inlayed with limestone mosaic.  For the sink we did a freestanding open metal leg washstand with a limestone top.

To give a sweeter quality we picked out a pendant blown glass light fixture and an elaborate mirror above the sink.

Boys Bathroom

In the new addition of the house under the new angled roof is the shared boys bathroom. If you remember from the other posts this room does not have windows so first thing we wanted to do is install skylights to bring in natural light.

We proposed long white rectangular tiles measuring 3”x 12” which are not normal for me as I like square tiles most of the time.  The tiles would be laid across the width of the room and followed the same pattern up the walls. This would increase the depth of the room as it is very long and narrow. The wall opposite the entrance door is completely mirrored which duplicates the depth of the room.

For the sink we proposed a wall to wall custom concrete trough with 2 faucets and a floating storage cabinet below. Industrial light fixtures installed on the mirrored wall above the sink.

My original concept for this bathroom was to make it complete white box- white counters, white woodwork, white faucets, and so on.  This would have eliminated the boundaries of the space.  After several long discussions, Mrs. M. was insistent on the concrete trough because she loved the look and was fearful that an all white bathroom would become boring (NOT)

Master Bathroom

When it came to the master bathroom I wanted it to have a sense of luxury, a ying and yang of the past and the present but most importantly I wanted it to be open and airy. I wanted to make it feel like a large open space compared to a compartmentalized typical bathroom.

The entire bathroom measures 11’-6”x 18’-6” and the bathing area is 10’-0”x 11’-6”  (This could be a NYC apartment)  The shower alone measures 7’-6”x 10’-0”, we sunk this area 2 inches and kept the rest at the same height.  Opposite the shower and in front of a large double window is a claw foot tub which brings the sense of the past into the bathroom.

This area has a tray ceiling, we decided to install skylights to flood the room with natural light. We designed a tray soffit to conceal the skylights so all you see is light coming from the perimeter of the tray.

We did his and hers sinks with open shelves below and bleached wood drawer units in the center. We suspended pivoting mirrors in front of the sinks with a wonderful 3 shade light fixture hanging the full width of the sink area.

For the flooring we proposed 24” x 24” honed white quartz tile and we wanted to use the same material in polished finished slabs for the walls except for the wall you face when you enter. For this wall we suggested chiseled marble that would be lit from recess lighting on the floor. This would accentuate the crystals in the stone giving it a shimmery quality.

The entire bathroom is white except for the toilet area which we decided to enclose with a frosted glass partition and storage cabinets which would match the glass color.

There have been many discussions on the practicality of a large open shower, the clients being afraid that the whole bathroom would get flooded and that water would splash everywhere.  These discussions have been going for quite awhile and this Saturday as my last recourse I am having them come see my shower.  Where the same situation exists on a smaller scale and I have never had a problem with water splashing anywhere, especially when the showerhead is a rain shower.

This week we presented the bathrooms to Mr. & Mrs. M, as I had mentioned in the last post we knew this was not going to be an easy presentation.  My team and I went through exhaustive processes to make sure we were ready and we had all the materials to make everything as clear as possible. We then crossed our fingers and went into the meeting ready as we could be.

Below are mini descriptions of each bathroom we presented with its elevations and images of the materials we proposed.  We wanted the bathrooms to have a sense of the past but read more contemporary.

First Floor

The Powder Room

We proposed 24 x24 slate gray floor tiles,  3 ‘ high mahogany dado and a mahogany picture ledge along the toilet wall.  The walls are covered in a macadamia colored ribbed vinyl wallpaper.  The pedestal sink is made out of concrete colored stone with a floor to ceiling mirror behind it. 

For this room we also thought a polished stainless steel wall mounted toilet would be a nice juxtaposition against the traditional mahogany dado.  Traditional pendant light fixtures would be installed above the sink. The sense of the room is rich and elegant but still relaxed.

The Laundry Room

This room comes off the mud room area which is all glass and facing the front of the house.  We wanted it to have a crisp quality. We proposed a grey tile that is about 2 shades lighter then the slate in the powder room and bright white textured vinyl wallpaper.

 White painted millworks with horizontal slat details set within a flat frame are on either side of the room. On one side there are floor to ceiling storage closets and on the other side there is the washer & dryer and sink with cabinets have the slat detail as well.  There is a white quartz countertop and a white porcelain farmhouse sink.  To bring in a decorative touch we did shelves above and between the windows, making this a great potting room.  Mrs. M collects white pots and vases and the shelves we added are a perfect place to display them. Having the large scale grey tile floor set off the very white room

The Guest Bathroom

I like guest bathrooms to have a different slant than the rest of the house, it’s important for guests to feel that they have their own environment almost like it has been tailored to them.  For this guest bathroom the departure from the rest of the house was it had a spa like quality.

We proposed 12” x 12” terrazzo tile floor and 12” x 12” aqua colored glass tiles to cover the walls from floor to ceiling. The sink console is made up of two slabs of white quartz and the sink is frosted glass that gives off a slight greenish tint.  There are wall to wall mirrors behind the sink console with two vertical wall sconces along with a white one piece toilet and simple plumbing fixtures and a clear glass sheet that encloses the shower.

Next week I will show you the second floor.