19 September 2018

Design on a Macadamia Nut-Sized Budget: Bug Out Lamp

Decorating the farmhouse in Captain Cook, Hawai'i on a macadamia nut-sized budget is an enjoyable sabbatical of merry scavenger hunting for me. I am attempting to avoid all 'regular" furniture stores and take advantage of the island's nomadic population. Many people fall in love with Hawai'i when they are on vacation and move here permanently on impulse. With no planning and research into what careers they can jump into (not many) and the cost of living (bleach at the grocery store is $4!! What??) They soon realize there's reality even in paradise, give up on the dream and hightail it back to mainland.

Unfortunate for them, but lucky for those of us staying behind, the cost of shipping furniture and home goods back to the mainland can give you a serious case of sticker shock. So, many pieces are donated to the several thrift stores dotting the back island streets. The shops are a treasure trove of gently used goods just ripe for the picking.     
One of my favorites is a large warehouse specializing in furniture and lamps, mostly resort furnishings that were binned by hotel staff during redecoration projects. Rummaging through one day, I found myself in a sea of lamps -- all gorgeous and all with price tags more than $150 but reasonable for their quality. 

I fell in love with one in particular-- a pale yellow one decorated with fine-handed bug illustrations-- like dragonflies, grasshoppers and locusts. I rushed to find the worker in the store before anyone else grabbed it. She was in the second building.   
Out of breath, I approached her and said, "You have a lamp in the other building with bugs all over it..." Before I could continue, she gasped "Oh my God, I am so sorry!" she kept apologizing, not allowing me to get  a word in. I didn't understand why she was so upset, the bug lamp was one of the most unique pieces I had seen.
I mustered out, "No. it's ok, I want it. How much is it?"  She looked at me with an eyebrow raised, questioning my sanity and finally, after the longest six seconds of my life, responded.

"$40" was her reply. 

I was shocked in the very best way, yet still confused with her outburst. I gave her the money and rushed to grab the lamp, heading to the car. Halfway home, still reveling in my bargain find,  I burst out laughing, finally realizing the misunderstanding-- that my description of this gorgeous lamp made her believe there was an infestation of insects crawling all around the beautiful lamps she had procured. 
I'm sure the woman searched the lamp building right after I left for any termite damage or blight of flies and quickly realized all was well, but she may never know how much I cherish this lamp. It now has a special place on my bedside table so I can see it every morning and chuckle about how I managed to get a fly-swatting good deal on it. 
   



10 September 2018

Where Art Thou?

When I was young, entering my older brother's room (when not forbidden) was like embarking on a journey into another decor macrocasm. I could admire a completely different design landscape worlds away from the neat, symmetrically hung framed photos and shelved Barbie-dolled collection on my purple walls. A blacklight Led Zeppelin poster and glow in the dark zodiac stars jumped straight up in my face when I walked in. His oh-so-impressive vinyl collection hung chaotically in wood milk crates against the wall. That was my first memory of his world-- what he chose to put on his walls. His creative eccentricity and anarchic rejection of contemporary artwork left an impression on me-- and my design aesthetic-- for years to come. 
Because my brother stuck his middle finger up to the conventional (and conservative) wall art wisdom of the time, I became a strong believer that art-- whatever the taste-- commands the room. It is the thing anyone coming over will remember most. I mean, even Neanderthals knew the importance and longevity of its memory-- each scribble on their cave walls made a statement that persisted through time. 

So why the bloody heck do so many of us regard art as an afterthought when we design a room?
I argue that art is indubitably the most important part of the room plan-- that wall art should be the first and main piece of your design and the rest of the room decor should, if not bow down to, at least accentuate it. 
What the cavemen (and my brother) didn't know, and we do, however, is that the number one most important facet of any room decor is, COLOR. It is also one that we ruminate forever over. 
The weeks-long enigma of choosing the perfect shade is a kindergarten-grade equation when you have first and foremost planned the art that will hang in the space. Use the colors in the art to choose the palette of the room. Picking a few shades out of the art will allow you to toss out a few hundred of the cardboard color swatches you lugged home from the DIY store-- and let the art decide if you should go for that red sofa or the grey tufted settee; or if the teal rug will work in the space.    

And like most things, when it comes to wall art, SIZE matters. Big walls crave big art. Don't be scared to bring in a piece that will take up a majority of wallspace. 

Art that is too small for the wall will get dwarfed. Art should be bold, make a statement, be a conversation in the room-- not cowering indecisively like it's not sure it belongs there. 

A statement like that will also provide the essential FOCAL POINT of the space, drawing all eyes upon the prominent wall.  
You can easily mix it up as well to add interest and TEXTURE to your room. Wall art is not banished to just flat art prints and paintings, it can be a schizophrenic mix of materials -- woods, plastics, metals or even bones can bring life to plain flat white walls.
Sculptures, taxidermy and organic materials are three dimensional and add depth and spirit. They allow the light and your eye to bounce off their layers, expanding the zone by adding eccentrically interesting surface areas as well as providing leaping off points for conversation.

When it comes to Color, Texture, Focus and Interest, wall art dominates the character building of your space, defining the room as designed rather than just functional. Reconsider using art as a postscript to decor and reimagine it as the important and most memorable feature of your space-- a kick-off inspirational piece that will conceive an incredibly intriguing and unforgettable room design. 

09 September 2018

Listen Up!

Nietzsche was right, "Without music life would be a mistake."

And so would an interior design plan that left out a listening room that allows you to escape into your vinyl-scented nostalgia of long-saved and treasured LPs.


As unique as your taste in music may be, however, a true listening room that will deliver the best soundwaves your way should be set up by a set audiophile's blueprint. These design rules may make the punk inside you pull out all your tongue piercings in protest, but will make for a better listening experience.



First, think of you and your speakers as one, with your favorite listening chair the tip of an equilateral triangle, with yourself, the left and right speakers as close to equal distance apart as possible. The tip of said triangle is straight between your ears-- so position the speakers at ear level, away from walls a little.

If, like Steven Tyler, you believe "everything worth doing is worth overdoing" and you bought seven speakers for a surround sound, then just build two triangles in front (the main speakers) and behind you, the two smaller speakers at your sides and the center speaker straight out on front of you.

Before you put the needle to the record, add some spikes on the bottom of speakers-- they will decouple the sound from the floor to minimize the bass rattle.

You never ever have to sacrifice good design for great sound, and should let your style vibes run wild and crazy and barefoot and free in this hedonistic room because a minimalist approach won't be best for sound quality.

I'm not saying you have to add a little country to your rock n' roll, but a few rugs or cork flooring  and a cushy sofa will help the way the music travels around the room, 

"The only truth is music”, said Jack Kerouac but we know we need a little more glam in our rock to design a perfect room.

02 September 2018

Raise the Roof!

During the minimalist-dominated decades that we've experienced in our interior design lifetimes, we've gotten used to slapping some white paint on our ceilings and calling it a day. The top half of our rooms were the forgotten child--to be not seen and not heard, to fade into the upper limits of non-imagination, as we vowed to never again look up come hell or high water (well, maybe water). But leaks aside, the ceiling became a place no designer dared to travel, leaving the largest space in the room devoid of dressing, naked and bare.  

But recently, we've grown tired of looking down at our shaggy piles and chevron weave rugs and yearned for a grandness that can only come from above. Facing the risk of a neck crick head on, we have finally noticed the highest echelon of room design--
The Ceiling. 

Giving some needed love and attentrion to the summit of our eye space is not a new design trend, but one clipped from the more luxurious of ages-- Versailles, Robert Adam’s homes in Scotland, Otto Wagner’s post office in Vienna, and Grand Central Terminal's astrological heights of grandeur rule the roadways of opulent canopy. 

To draw the eye to to the top of the room doesn't require you to forge "The Last Supper", as you dangle upside down from a scaffold. A statement that will bring down the house can be made with a much simpler gesture. 

To give your ceiling the design interest it deserves, its as simple as dipping a brush into a a graphic paint color...
 ...bringing out a headbanging shiny Metallic...
...sticking mirror tiles overhead to bounce the light around the room...
...or using wallpaper that either keeps in the hues of the wall paint or just extend the wallpapered walls up and over to the next level. 
Pimping out the upper part of your room adds intrigue to the forgotten space, allowing the eye to take in the entire room, leaving no part behind. The ceiling is the last of the interior design frontiers that will cap off your space in fashion. 


Digg! My Zimbio