Cool furniture, design objects and desiderata

[Spinster Jones]

as for sothebys , it's a sales room . i'd rather look to conservationists and museums . museums incidentally have moved away from black-box concept rooms ( where art viewing is a controlled experience with no incidental influence ) to mix natural (high kelvin) light with typical leds for conservation purposes

Went to Musei Reali in Torino. I'm used to the skylight effect in modern museums, but the Reali had some really outdated fixtures. Made the oils glisten in the light. Made for a quite bad viewing experience in some cases. Kinda threw me for a loop.

And these ones are taken as to try to avoid the lighting.

 

[double00]

found a new vase today ! super enjoying it

 

[Jr Mouse]

View attachment 1794558
found a new vase today ! super enjoying it

Where is it from?

 

[double00]

Where is it from?

local studio work .

 

[Jr Mouse]

local studio work .

Don’t want to support the studio by sharing the name?

 

[double00]

Don’t want to support the studio by sharing the name?

^ i'd picked that at thrift , with pottery i'm basically always in buying mode haha but almost always in-person . the pandemic made it a lot harder to buy in-studio but is thawing now .

if i buy off-studio the usual process is to find the work i like and then figure out who made it , then i can go and ring these folks and chat them up and buy directly if they are still alive and working etc . some are pretty easy to identify others can take awhile and i might own a few before i actually id the maker .

anyways the potter who made that vase is Sandy Segna , i haven't yet met her b/c pandemic and timing etc but i've come to know her work a bit . the egg/nest/ovum form is incredible imho , here's another :



a couple of other local studios who do great wood-fired wares are jay widmer who i've visited out at his anagama kiln , and james tingey who i haven't met yet . the best of pnw imho are betty feves and chris gum ( both passed ) .

 

[bourbonbasted]

Spoiler

Finally wrapping up the MEPs in our renovation and have some fun stuff coming together. I've already exhausted my friends and family with updates, so I figured I'd come gush to random men on the internet. Who needs therapy?

We're fully onboard with the floating basin trend, opting for floating basins in our downstairs bathroom and master. For the downstairs, we found a really cool slab of pecan that has a ton of visual interest and asymmetrical movement. Given we are tiling all the walls in the bathroom, we feel a busier wood will provide relief in texture and uniformity.

Still early days, but here is a view of the grain as well as the preliminary build:

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Vanity will have one drawer. Still deciding on the stain (the floors are mid-to-dark hardwoods and the walls are high-gloss black 4x4 zellige tile) but want to ensure it's light enough to keep the visual interest of the grain. We will be dropping a low-profile (~4" off of counter) stone vessel sink on top of the vanity. Plumbing trim will come from the wall.

We're also building an 8' stone (quartzite) basin and vanity in the master. Similar to the wooden vanity, though it will have mitered edges/no storage. For storage, we will flank it on both sides with vertical slatted towers (image included for reference, though our configuration will be different -- No additional storage under vanity, towers will run floor to ceiling, plumbing trim will be wall-mounted, one mirror with wall-mounted sconces). Really excited about the visual interest/depth of the stone. We've moved away from our initial inclination of honing it (want to keep the intensity of the colors) and will likely opt for a leathered finish. Sink will be built from the stone.

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Thanks for indulging me. Month 6 of this project and I'm getting unreasonably excited for the finished product.

Hoping to have some finished pictures for the threak by the end of April.

I love revisiting this post, reveling in my innocence. "Finished pictures by the end of April." LOL.

But I have some progress pics I figured might be of interest to this crew. Whereas fancy clothes are traditionally the substitute for my personality, this house has now fully consumed my being. This is all I have to offer.

The downstairs layout is pretty open, with sight lines from the double French doors at the front of the house, back to the large window abutting a steel door on the back wall of the kitchen. We'd initially envisioned a full steel structure with scissor doors but ultimately decided it was too industrial for the space. To further soften, we bull-nosed around windows and cased openings.

In the kitchen, pantries and cabinets are floor-to-ceiling with no hanging cabinetry. We will also be plastering the range hood.

To maximize space, we created a "built-in" dining area, encasing the windows with floor-to-ceiling towers. There will be a bench that runs across, with additional storage underneath and a slight jog to facilitate entry/exiting the bench. A fun detail on this -- the floor and ceiling slope ~2" towards the kitchen (gotta love 100 year old homes) so the carpenter had to get super creative with the proportions. I think it came out nicely, all things considered.

The "keeping room" has a walk-through bookshelf. We are spraying the bookshelves and the vestibule on leading to the bathroom in a high gloss paint, so as to give the impression of walking "into the bookshelf."

The downstairs bathroom was my wife's vision. A pretty intense departure from the airiness/lightness of the rest of the house. The tile runs floor-to-ceiling with no crown or baseboard. It's a black Moroccan Zellige. The floating vanity (pecan) came out really nicely, featuring a custom stain we created to flatter the tile. We'll eventually have tall sconces inset into jog on both sides of the mirror.

Upstairs, the master bath is coming along nicely. This is admittedly a more Instagram-friendly view but we're really pleased with the rounded cased opening. There will be a dry-bar in the recess next to the cased opening, leading out to our patio of the master.

As I said, I've been assaulting friends and family with these pics for the past few months, so I figured why not show them to strangers on the internet as well. Hoping (REALLY hoping) to be in by the end of July. I'll add some additional shots as things come together.

 

[sftiger]

in by the end of July.

Our 2020 gut reno was meant to be finished by April, then the summer, and we ended up moving in right around Halloween (and they still needed two more weeks to wrap things up after that). Godspeed.

 

[bourbonbasted]

Our 2020 gut reno was meant to be finished by April, then the summer, and we ended up moving in right around Halloween (and they still needed two more weeks to wrap things up after that). Godspeed.

I refuse to like this post. My condolences. July feels realistic but I also know that means nothing.

Hope y'all are enjoying your house!

 

[sftiger]

It's been great. Bought it right before COVID so probably good for the property value, although had we known 2+ years of WFH was going to be a reality we would've bought a bigger place. 20/20 hindsight and all.

 

[bourbonbasted]

We snagged this house at the height of Covid hysteria, which was great from an investment perspective. It's still not a massive house at ~3,000sq ft, but I really couldn't imagine wanting much of a bigger home, especially in the city.

 

[Oswald Cornelius]

In the kitchen, pantries and cabinets are floor-to-ceiling with no hanging cabinetry.

As it should be. High ceilings with gaps between the tops of cabinets look ridiculous and are a waste of space. This looks like a great build and would love to see more progress photos.

 

[brokencycle]

I love revisiting this post, reveling in my innocence. "Finished pictures by the end of April." LOL.

But I have some progress pics I figured might be of interest to this crew. Whereas fancy clothes are traditionally the substitute for my personality, this house has now fully consumed my being. This is all I have to offer.

The downstairs layout is pretty open, with sight lines from the double French doors at the front of the house, back to the large window abutting a steel door on the back wall of the kitchen. We'd initially envisioned a full steel structure with scissor doors but ultimately decided it was too industrial for the space. To further soften, we bull-nosed around windows and cased openings.

View attachment 1795061

In the kitchen, pantries and cabinets are floor-to-ceiling with no hanging cabinetry. We will also be plastering the range hood.

View attachment 1795062

To maximize space, we created a "built-in" dining area, encasing the windows with floor-to-ceiling towers. There will be a bench that runs across, with additional storage underneath and a slight jog to facilitate entry/exiting the bench. A fun detail on this -- the floor and ceiling slope ~2" towards the kitchen (gotta love 100 year old homes) so the carpenter had to get super creative with the proportions. I think it came out nicely, all things considered.

View attachment 1795063

The "keeping room" has a walk-through bookshelf. We are spraying the bookshelves and the vestibule on leading to the bathroom in a high gloss paint, so as to give the impression of walking "into the bookshelf."

View attachment 1795064

The downstairs bathroom was my wife's vision. A pretty intense departure from the airiness/lightness of the rest of the house. The tile runs floor-to-ceiling with no crown or baseboard. It's a black Moroccan Zellige. The floating vanity (pecan) came out really nicely, featuring a custom stain we created to flatter the tile. We'll eventually have tall sconces inset into jog on both sides of the mirror.

View attachment 1795067

Upstairs, the master bath is coming along nicely. This is admittedly a more Instagram-friendly view but we're really pleased with the rounded cased opening. There will be a dry-bar in the recess next to the cased opening, leading out to our patio of the master.

View attachment 1795068

As I said, I've been assaulting friends and family with these pics for the past few months, so I figured why not show them to strangers on the internet as well. Hoping (REALLY hoping) to be in by the end of July. I'll add some additional shots as things come together.

Looking good - I love that it isn't just one massive open space. I didn't see any holes cut over the island. Are you not doing any lighting over it?

That pecan is gorgeous, but I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the black tile (but I hope your family loves how it turns out).

 

[bourbonbasted]

Looking good - I love that it isn't just one massive open space. I didn't see any holes cut over the island. Are you not doing any lighting over it?

That pecan is gorgeous, but I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the black tile (but I hope your family loves how it turns out).

We are indeed. Two hanging pendants over the island. The electricians have the wiring in place but won't cut until the fixtures are onsite for installation.

The black tile has a lot of variation to it that doesn't really show in the dark (when the picture was taken). It's definitely dramatic and deliberate, but that's what my wife was after. I'll admit it came out a lot better than I was expecting it to.

 

[Gibonius]

The black tile wouldn't be my choice but it looks great. If you're going to do something bold, you gotta commit to it.