Pondering the Porter

When the wintry wind is whipping around outside, wouldn't you wish for a chair to keep you warm and protected?  Centuries ago, if you were on call in a cold castle awaiting and admitting guests, you might fantasize about how you might be most comfortable. Happily, some clever soul came up with the idea of enclosing a wing chair.  Central heating and double-paned windows were far in the future.

Ah, the romance of a piece of furniture! At about the age of fifteen, I remember seeing a porter's chair for the first time.  Situated near the front door of an elegant furniture showroom, I recall being enthralled, and having delusions of grandeur, desired to possess the thing. I mused that if I could only afford the $500 or so that it cost, it would make me happy. Suffice it to say that I couldn't afford it.

Versailles Burlap-Backed Chair

Restoration Hardware

The chair was believed to have originated in England, where it then jumped the Channel to great estates and palaces in France. These chairs look fit for a king, but for Louis XV,  I doubt he didn't so much want to make his servants more comfortable as ensure that his guests were suitably impressed and intimidated by his excellent taste and style!

The porter's chair signified your station in life as a servant. Today, it does not discriminate, and in fact, you will find it in the thick of anything regarding high style.

Chesterfield Porter's Chair

When the trade of upholders became upholsterers, all manner of comfort and cushioning was unleashed. Just imagine how much this chair must have helped the poor porter feel cozy and content!

 

With the passing of time, the porter's chair (along with the porter) joined the unemployment rolls.  In the Victorian era, it was  reinvented and reinterpreted as a beach chair.  Here you see an entire herd of them doing hard labor sheltering the well-to-do from the sun and wind. Quite a far cry from the cold castle!

 

 

And why not double your fun and double your pleasure?

 

 

 Atelier Lounge offered by Dauphin

 

In a leap of imagination, the porter's chair has leapt from residential to commercial use, evolving as new needs are required.

 

Another army of porters at work in present day times. This design makes excellent use of the chair's acoustical benefits.  It also lends intimacy in a large restaurant with diners shoulder to shoulder.

Wander's Tulip

Cappellini

Here is an amazing interpretation of the chair disguised as a tulip by the wonderful Marcel Wanders. It is a revolution in design as it revolves on its stem.

 

ID Trim Cap by Antonio Citterio, 2012

Vitra

Another full evolution for the porter's chair.  At work in the office, this ergonomic task chair provides all the basic accoutrements such as helping the poor worker concentrate better in an open office space.

 

Massaud Work Lounge with Canopy

Jean-Marie Massaud for Coalesse

 

Now we're really cookin'!  This pod offers a table, built-in lighting, optimized acoustics, and is totally wired for integration of your techy devices.  You can have total privacy or take a conference call in a completely public space. Added pluses are that you can take a snooze and nobody is the wiser.

 

Haworth Windowseat Chair

Mike and Maaike Studio 

 

I read a silly book in my youth about a woman who became possessed with the notion of owning a Dior gown.  It ended as a sad story, with nowhere for the dress to be worn, and was left hanging in her closet.  Happy to say, the porter's chair is definitely back and enjoying a new lease on life. So why not sit in one and put up our feet?



Call Me Color Blind

In defense of defenseless colors worldwide, I am now going to rant about the rampant racism I regularly witness. Who will stand up for these poor colors that have no voice of their own?  How would you feel if you were unfairly maligned simply for the color of your skin? Do you hold prejudice against certain colors, innocent by their very nature and incapable of malice or scorn in return?  In a taupified world such that Restoration Hardware espouses, do you ever speak out for the underdog when you witness discrimination?  This past spring I have been stupefied by the splendid flowers, by the brave little buds that proclaim, for example, "Look at me, I'm magenta!" They put out their chests, hold their heads high, and show off their colors with pride.

                 Please don't hate me because I'm beautiful!                                                          

When a client makes a grand pronouncement of hating one color or another, I am somewhat stymied.  Hate is such a strong word! And how has green come to be a popular color to despise and deride?  It usually has to do with some wretched hospital experience or being forced to eat canned peas as a child.  Well, I say, look around you, the world is largely green, and even then, the green is fast disappearing.  How can you dislike the color of trees and plants?  How can you loathe the color of growth and rejuvenation?  Former English majors sweat out a living coming up with names such as 'Glamorous Green' and 'In The Meadow'.  No need to spray 'Round-Up' everywhere!

 Color Profiling

Once, at the request of the client,  I did an alcove with purple upholstery.  All was well, until at the time of installation, the upholsterer made a stupid comment about it "Looking like Barney". Then the client hated it and wanted it redone.  Such emotional reactions tend to inhibit design solutions. I remember my daughter, Emily, going through a  period when pink and purple were her favorite colors.  One day, with a very serious and concerned look on her face, she asked me, "Do you like brown?" I've had clients dismiss worthy colors  with criticisms such as "Looks like baby poop", when the romanticized name might be 'Cut The Mustard'. Perhaps some of my clients could have another career coming up with paint color names such as 'Victorious Vomit', 'Bileous Bile', or 'One Too Many'.  

Red Man

I love the story of designer William W. Stubbs, who had the assignment to decorate a client's home while the client was out of town.  I'm not sure that Mr. Stubbs mistook his carte blanche for carte rouge, but when the client returned home he found a scheme based on red.  The client called Mr. Stubbs and said, "I hate red! You're fired!"  This story had a happy ending, as the client got to like the red rooms, and Mr. Stubbs was rehired.

Ready, Aim, Fire!

People aren't born hating certain colors.  I believe they were taught to be color racist by their parents and other early childhood influences. Come on now, it's not all black or white in the box and everyone has to get along!

Peach Flesh

Did you know that crayon names could be politically incorrect?  I never questioned the color 'Flesh' growing up in white suburban America, but in 1962, the color was renamed 'Peach' in response to the Civil Rights Movement. 

                                              Orange Man

You might need to select the orange crayon for coloring George.  And be sure to stay in the lines that the plastic surgeon so carefully crafted!  When starting an interior design project, sometimes a good clue as to what colors the client would be most happy living with are contained in their clothes closet. A quick perusal tells the truth. 

Blue Man Group

My favorite color in the Binney & Smith box of 64 crayons was 'Cornflower'.  Speaking of which...there are those who "hate blue". See the sky above you, and the oceans and lakes?   Saying you hate a primary color such as blue is equivalent to wiping out the entire string section of the orchestra. 

Out of an infinite number of colors, we can likely see only 10,000,000. So many choices!  We can expect that certain hues will go in and out of style.  I would like to suggest that though we may have our favorites and overall preferences, that we watch our word choice and no color's feelings will be hurt. Inclusiveness and tolerance will make for perfect harmony!

Star Struck

Oh, if only my math teacher could have been Donald Duck! Unfortunately, back in the day, I was put in the corner with a dunce hat for all the teaching that didn't crack open my cranium. Nowadays, in schools you'll have courses that blend and overlap as recent teaching strategies have recognized that not everyone learns in exactly the same way. In my previous blog, I wrote about how integral math is to art and design.  How would music be as we know it without mathematics?  Oh, to have had art and music in my math class; that would have been heaven! Don't be square and check out this link and see what Donald Duck has to say about the great adventures that can be had in Math Magic Land.  You won't regret it! Around about the 7 minute mark you will find a nice explanation of the Golden Rectangle, but I recommend that when you have the time to view it in its entirety. 

 http://www.schooltube.com/video/4330a09d98c125dcaa00/Donald%20Duck%20in%20MathMagicLand

Geodesic Terrarium

Glass with bronze finish aluminum

Restoration Hardware

www.restorationhardware.com

As a former art teacher, I was always dismayed by students who claimed that "they couldn't draw a straight line."  What is a geodesic dome but a network of straight lines?  These were generally left brain individuals who at an impressionable age were told they were "no good at art". I always tried to dispel that destructive belief and sow seeds of inspiration that we are all capable of artistic creations on many levels and in many ways.  

Polyhedron

polished stainless steel

Restoration Hardware

www.restorationhardware.com

The polyhedron is a geometric solid in three dimensions with flat faces and straight edges.  This shape has fascinated mankind since antiquity, though it fell out of favor in the middle ages. Revived once more in the Renaissance, interest since then has not flagged.  I like throwing these up on a bookcase or tucked in a corner for a little intellectual stimulation and titillation.

Raimond Lamp by Raimond Puts

stainless 'spring steel"

distributed by B & B Italia/Moooi

www.moooi.com

Oh those Dutch!  Always ahead of the design game, definitely in outer space while the rest of us mortals muddle around on the ground. This chandelier is a perfect recipe composed of mathematical ingredients and lit by tiny LED lights.  Puts lives on a houseboat with his painter wife in Amsterdam.  He is a self-taught designer, and at the ripe age of 70 (yes!) presented this light at the 2009 Milan furniture fair.  It was the star of the show.  He says, "My thoughts are in measurements.  Before I start anything I need to produce precise drawings."  That's always been my inclination when starting an interior design project. I like to measure everything and then start adding, multiplying, dividing and subtracting. I no longer believe that I'm "no good at math" - I just didn't have the right teacher!

Oh Gee, Geometry 101!

...the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties, relationships, and measurement of points, lines, curves and surfaces...a shape, configuration, or arrangement...from Greek geometria "measurement of earth or land, geometry, from ge "earth, land" + metria, from metrein "to measure"...

Bedroom of Axel Vervoordt's Castle 's-Gravenwezel, Antwerp, Belgium

"Peace Ball"

Circle painting by Jef Verheyen

Interior design by Axel Vervoordt

I always look for basic geometric shapes, patterns, and arrangements to help ground an interior design concept.  It never fails to make things simpler and and invokes relief when asymmetry and curving lines are running rampant.  I find the simplest designs the most complex, and ultimately the most satisfying. Mathematics, as it was taught to me as a child, did not come easily. However, geometry seemed logical and I grasped onto the principles intuitively. 

Parsons Table

Home Decorators Collection

When designing a room, we start with the shape of the room.  Is it a box?  A rectangular shape?  Are the window panes in a grid pattern?  How are they subdivided?  Can we relate the architecture with what we put into the space?

Rafael Area Rug

Home Decorators Collection

Grids are always good.  A rug is a good place to start when designing a room.  

Interior design by Geoffrey Bradfield

Bradfield's New York townhouse

Artwork is another great way to inspire the design concept. I love the minimalist painting juxtaposed with the six apples on a classical mantel.  Geometry is the pure mathematics of points, lines, curves and surfaces.

Out on a neighborhood walk, there's a triangular street blockade looking quite comfortable out of doors in nature.

Mason Wood-Top Desk

Williams Sonoma 

This basic table, or sawhorse, gets translated into a desk.

7777 Old Bonhomme, St. Louis Missouri

This is where my accountant Reece has his office.  I always enjoy the feeling of being under a geometric spider web.

Table by Robert Bristow

Ralph Pucci International

 This subdivision of space mixes things up a little bit, allowing for more sturdy bracing.

Polyhedron Model

Restoration Hardware

I advised my Boston client to throw one of these on the top of her built in bookcase.  It is a form that has fascinated great thinkers for ages.

The pause that refreshes.

So go ahead, analyze your favorite rooms, and note the relative arrangements, angles, symmetry, shapes, lines, and volumes. Is there a nice balance of basic geometric forms with figurative and free-form?  A great room can always be reduced to simple geometry! 

Hunkered in My Bunker

Dow in the Dumps

June 24, 2011

Well, I'm hunkered in my bunker trying to ride out the economy and the new face on the business of interior design.  It's a brave new world for designers, and for old dogs like myself, there are many new tricks to learn!

 Sink or Swim  Seminar

Our local chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers recently featured national president Michael Thomas to speak at a meeting hosted by KDR Designer Showroom.  Having met him years ago when I was on the board and chapter president, I knew that he would be generous and frank in sharing his knowledge.  He acknowledged that design firms of all levels have been affected by the dives of the Dow.  Michael as well has dramatically changed his practice; for instance high-tailing out of Florida for greener pastures.  He's tackling the ever-changing technology driven by the internet to address issues such as sustainable design and aging-in-place.  Lately, I've noticed a lot of designers offering different services related to design, trying to diversify and re-invent themselves.  A lot of designers, showrooms, and manufacturers have simply gone down, never to be seen again.  It's the end of an era.

Yours truly and Michael Thomas, President ASID 2010-2011

The fact of the matter is that the rich are getting richer and rest of us are not.  This bodes well for high-end interior design projects, but when you crunch the numbers of how many potential clients are out there and how many potential designers are competing for them, it's a dog eat dog world! Soon after writing my "Cheap, Cheap, Cheap" blog, even internationally-known designer Vicente Wolfe commented on having to resort to catalogues such as Wisteria and Restoration Hardware to bring in some of his projects on budget.  One can respond with fear and negativity to the prospect of seemingly dwindling profits, or one can evolve and re-invent themselves to accommodate the necessary changes to survive, and perhaps even prosper.  Good design has never been more important than now, and I look forward to contributing what I can to make the world a better and more beautiful place.  It will probably have something to do with interior design, art, and music...what's not to love about that? 

Cheap Cheap Cheap!

Pecking for crumbs in this crummy economy,  we as designers are reduced to begging for one-size-fits-all, if we're lucky, of taupey linen-look swatches.   Yes, I am like a magpie,  flitting hither and yon, scouring the landscape for bits of flotsam and jetsam with which to feather my clients' nests.  That it has come to thumbing the various high style catalogues available to everyone and anyone has me stupefied.  I marvel at design that was formerly available only to a select few, now being offered at bargain basement prices.  As an elitist snob since birth, this is a new twist for me to adapt to.  But adapt I will, to survive, because at heart, democracy and equality has always been my clarion call.  

The deafening chorus of clients cry "Cheap, cheap, cheap!"  And they want it "Now, now, now!"  China, India, and Viet Nam are ever ready to heed the call.  Where did it all begin?  About 30 years ago, I wager. 

I could look to the democratizing of interior design with such pioneers as Philippe Starck.  And then Michael Graves started designing for Target, too,  and who else did  I see there recently but Marcel Wanders! Martha Stewart embraced K-Mart of all places. That doyenne of taste-making jump-started the do-it-yourself business that has culminated in such phenoms as HGTV.  These names of sophisticated, functional design are now on the tips of tongues of millions.  How could I complain about everyone finally singing in tune?  How could I complain about a chicken in every pot?

First IKEA store in Sweden, opened 1958

IKEA, has been at the forefront since 1943.  Today it is the largest furniture retailer!  This is a brand that oozes high design with unbelievably low price points.  The multitudes can have an extremely stylish interior for next to nothing. 

  

It's a brave new world.  And one of disturbing extremes when the great divide between the rich and the poor becomes greater and greater and the middle class erodes on both sides.  The bible of interior design I would say is Architectural Digest.  Though started in 1920, it was a stodgy quarterly publication that didn't garner much general interest until Paige Rense took over as editor in 1971.  I remember being completely converted to the field of interior design as a career choice when I first got hold of an issue, and no, it wasn't in a black plastic cover!  It is amazing that peons are permitted to enter into palatial homes where cost is not an issue.  Art and antiques alone shoot into the stratosphere.  These are interiors, furnishings,  and designers that the catalogues try to copy on the cheap.

Which came first:  the chicken or the egg?  And this barn sells a lot more than pottery!  Though started in 1950, it wasn't until GAP purchased it in 1986 that a lifestyle brand was created and a whole new game plan for interior design.  

 

And then there is RH. When the "new look" of the catalogue came out a few months ago, I was shocked.  The Dutch have invaded and conquered!

Restoration Hardware in St. Louis during remodeling

I felt taupe-i-fied when I walked into the new St. Louis store. Gone were the little gimcracks and knickknacks.  It looked very much like it was trying to be a designer showroom, but open to the masses. I was wanting to purchase some gray towels, but was thrown off by the taupe ricocheting around.  Taking them to a window for the natural light allowed me to see the real color.

Bottom line, all this stuff in the catalogues looks great in their fantasy stage-sets, but how do you put it together in your own home?  How do you coordinate a design concept appropriate to your home's architecture, evaluate scale, do a floor and lighting plan, harmonize textures and colors, put in the right art and accessories, and personalize it as well? How do you make it look like you didn't just order the Sears #5 Living Room?

At the end of the day, I say, you still need a good designer to put it all together.