a chair is still a chair

This is post about chairs.  Just chairs.  Is it wrong that I love them so?

When I'm designing for a client, I always make sure that I ask which items from their current design they'd like me to incorporate into the new design.   I've had a couple of clients who happily purged everything and one who would surrender nothing.  Most have just one item that they can't bear to part with, and its almost always a beloved armchair.  So.  My guess, and its somewhat educated, is that everyone else loves chairs, too. 

There are quite a few that I just can't get out of my head.

The Union Jack chair from Voila! Studios here in Los Angeles is so, so beautiful and eco-friendly. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw these chalk sketches on at DWELL on Design.

Chalk sketches on the big wall.

  The finished product is just as much a work of art.

The Union Jack Chair

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to see "The House that Sam Built" exhibit at the Huntington Library.  I didn't know much about Sam Maloof before I saw the show, but I was happy to discover the extraordinary number of beautiful things he made and the wonderful home he built with his wife.  Now I can't help but see his influence in the work of many of my favorite designers. 

A Sam Maloof chair.

When I saw this chair I couldn't help but see the homage to Sam.  I love it all, from the tone and sheen of the wood, to the neo-retro upholstery.  This is a piece that immediately becomes an heirloom.

Modern Sam

A super-luxe chair designed by a student designer at Otis College of Art and Design.  Lovely.

A fabulous student design.

Extra points for these outdoor chairs designed by Damian Velasquez. They're metal, but they don't heat up when they sit in the sun.  The seat has lots of flex, so its super comfortable.  They stand up to rain and snow and cold, too.  Perfect no matter where you live.

metal mesh club chair

metal mesh slipper chair

 The Tyson chair from Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams is my go to.  Its the right scale for any room and has a soft shape.  I've recently used pairs of these chairs in a house in Las Vegas upholstered with Greek key fabric and in a home in Philadelphia upholstered in stone colored suede.  So different, so perfect for each space, so epically comfortable.

The Tyson chair in smoky suede.

A pair of Tyson chairs designed for a client's Las Vegas living room.

Do you have a favorite chair?  I'd love to hear all about it. 

This is Why

Most of the time I love where I live.   Everyone is curious about Los Angeles, especially if they’ve never been here, but the curiosity is usually tempered with a little bit of distaste.  “Why do you live there?”  is something I get asked quite often. “Isn’t L.A. crowded?  Expensive?  Dangerous?  Don’t you get sick of the pace, the competitive energy, the plastic people?  Isn’t the artifice and excess of the entertainment industry too much?”

Yes.

Sometimes this city is completely exhausting.  I get sick of driving everywhere.  I wait in line almost everywhere I go.  There is crime and violence here.  The very rich live perilously close to the very poor and nobody blinks an eye.  A numbing barrage of advertising and imagery and noise and smells dominate the everyday.  Everyone is hustling for their little bit, and people can be pretty mean.

I often need a reminder.

It is overwhelming. The bigness, messiness, craziness of L.A. begins to take over, and suddenly I find myself thinking that anywhere is better than here.  Why do I live here?

I used to think that I felt this way because I am an introvert or a misanthrope, but now I don’t think that’s why.  I think that what really happens is that I stop seeing what’s all around me.  It is exactly that – all around me -- and I begin to take this place for granted because I DO live here. 

Hope she finds a good home when the building is finished. 

 Nearly a decade has gone by since I first began my life as an Angelino, and some days I forget that not everyone has almost endless sunshine.  I forget that there are places where there are little or no opportunities to do and be whatever or whomever.   I forget that the diversity here, the seemingly infinite combination of cultures, is a challenge (in the best way) and a comfort every day.  I forget how beautiful this place is - the murals and architecture and palm trees and flowers that are endlessly stimulating.  I forget that the  Pacific ocean is a quick bike ride from where I live and work.  I forget that there are people here who live and love and create the way that I do.  I forget.

Then I take a walk around my neighborhood, and I am reminded.  I am inspired.  

I ride my bicycle past this one several times a week.  Its hard not to smile when I see it.

Yes please.

In the alley outside Glencrest Bar-B-Que.  What artists manage to create with spray paint is astonishing.

This is why I live here.  This is why.

The Catalyst

 

I am a sucker for a well designed room.  Its absolutely true.  I immediately begin mentally moving myself in, getting a buzz from the color, light and flow of the space.  All of the pretty stuff aside, good design also comes with a disorienting, wonderful rush of change.  I am a big fan of letting go of old stuff and ideas just to shake things up from time to time.  I'm a bigger fan of investing (some consideration as well as the cash) in a space to make it the best it can be.  I'd like to think that I design from exactly this place.  Let's shake things up.  Let's get inspired by something new.  Plus, its Spring, the season of cleaning and organizing and rebirth. This time of the year always gets me primed for change.  I love it even more when I can be the catalyst for someone else.

I've been crazy busy, and although I spend a good chunk of my time in my studio sending emails, taking meetings, or making endless phone calls,  I’m also out in the world meeting people who make stuff and witnessing the transformation at all of the homes I'm designing.  Three projects are happening -- all at different stages of the design process.  Each home is as different as the cities they're in and the people who inhabit them.  All of them, houses and people, are ready for change.

The living room in Los Angeles is in the final stages, with only paint and art left to happen there. 

This grey suede sectional tucks right into an odd corner of the living room  Its also super-comfy and great for the family that lives on it because it is easy to clean.  My client has a great eye and found a beautiful vintage coffee table (not pictured) on Ebay.  A few more pillows in some cool fabrics are on their way, too.

HUDSON BAY

The paint on both walls will be Benjamin Moore’s Hudson Bay.  It’s a deep lagoony blue that will cool down this really sunny corner.

@ Stansbury Collection in Venice

  

When I'm designing a house near the beach (this one has a view), I like to include some art work about the ocean.  I'm in love with these beautiful large scale surf photos that I found here in Venice.  2 or 3 of these in a couple of different sizes will look great on the big blue walls.  

The home I'm working on in Las Vegas has just begun its transformation.  Paint is on the walls, rooms have been defined and new furniture, lighting and art are on the way.  We've begun to fill the house with the client's personal things, re frame his family photos and hang some of his art.

The Library as it looked before.

The Library as it looks with velvety chocolate brown paint and some of the client's exiting furniture and art.  Soon it will have draperies, lighting and floating shelving on both sides of the fire place to turn it into a proper library. 

A couple of the client's beautiful pieces of art in a red niche opposite the formal dining room.  We've had one of the walls in the dining room painted this same yummy color.

In 2010, I designed a guest apartment just outside Philadelphia.  It has a slick and efficient little kitchen that is filled with beautiful surfaces.

Pretty and functional apartment kitchen.

Quartz counter tops and recycled glass tile back splash.

 

Wide bamboo floors and glossy smoke-colored cabinets with brushed metal hardware.

I'm happy to say I've just begun doing a little work on the big house attached to the cute little apartment.  First task is choosing the same sort of surfaces for some other spots in the house.  I love the beginning of this process almost as much as the final result.  So looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.  

Embrace the change.  Happy Spring!


Melissa