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Tuesday, April 29, 2014

2014 Symphony Show House–a transformation of the master suite


As mentioned in my first post about the 2014 Symphony Show House, the house has been a show house twice before, and was the Art House in 2009.  I visited it when it was the Art House, and remember the master suite in particular because of the unusual bath tub that was sunk into the floor.
It seemed to be quite a dangerous set up (although it would be wonderful to have a fireplace by the bathtub)– I can imagine stumbling over there in the middle of the night and falling in! I seem to recall that during the Art House, a person was posted by the bathtub to make sure that no visitors walked into it. Image via the real estate listing.

Another picture of the master bath – what is hanging over the tub? It looks like a stream of water is coming out of it. This picture might be from a previous show house or the art house – note how the fireplace surround seems to be leather.


A view of the master suite from the real estate listing.  When these pictures were taken, this house had two master suites, a his and a hers, both along the front of the house.
When reflecting upon the master bedroom while writing my post yesterday, I realized that this space had been completely reimagined and transformed.  I wish I had realized this before visiting the house, as I would have taken different pictures, but I will try to piece it together the best I can on this post.

Here is the new master sitting room, which occupies the space that was formerly the awkward open bathroom space.  What a great idea to turn this space into a sitting room, and what a beautiful transformation!  Interior design by Jimmy Stanton of Stanton Home Furnishings.

Architecture Tourist helped put all of the pieces together when he posted a short video that he took of the space – here is a screen shot of the new master sitting room and a feel for how it relates to the master bedroom.  The master bedroom itself was decorated by Traci Rhoads Interiors(the press kit did not contain pictures of this room and I did not take any - you will have to visit to see it for yourself!).

So if the bathroom for the master suite was replaced, where is the new bathroom space? I don’t know this for sure, but based on pictures from the real estate listing (pre-show house) and pictures from the show house, I think that the former secondary master was transformed into a luxurious bathroom and closet suite.

Here is the real estate photo of the secondary master, which is also along the front of the house.

I didn’t take pictures of this room, but luckily found a few pictures from blog posts about the show house.  Lori May Interiors posted this lovely image on her blog, which gives an even better view of the mirror above the fireplace.  It is indeed the same mirror as the one in the real estate listing.  If this is the same room, then that is just about the only thing that remained the same in this space!, Clay Snider Interiors and Design Galleria Kitchen and Bath Studio completely transformed this space to become a luxurious master bath and dressing room.

Here is a great photo of the rest of the bathroom, from Architecture Tourist. Behind the shower, there are two separate toilet areas, one for him (entered on the left side) and one for her (entered on the right side).  It’s a clever way to utilize the space, and the addition of this bathroom suite truly makes this 1926 house up to date for the lifestyles of the 21st century.

If you watch the short video from Architecture Tourist, you will see how the spaces flow.  Between the new bathroom suite and the master is a hall, which has a his and hers closet on either side.

If anyone was involved in the Symphony Show House and can confirm my theories, I would love to hear from you!

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The ASO Decorators’ Show House & Gardens is open April 26-May 18. For more information on tickets, hours, and parking, please visit the event website at http://decoratorsshowhouse.org/.


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Monday, April 28, 2014

2014 Atlanta Symphony Show House and Gardens–the Grand Salon


The buzz for the Atlanta Symphony (ASO) Show House began last year, when a Philip Shutze and Neel Reid designed Italian baroque style house on West Paces Ferry was selected as the 2014 Decorators' Show House.  The house has a long and illustrious history, and was designed for a prominent Atlanta family in 1926. In recent years, the house has raised funds for many charities and has been used as a high end event venue.  It has also been the ASO Show House several times before, in both 1979 and 2003, and was the Art House in 2009.

The house is still called “The Pink Palace” as the stucco was originally pink, although the color is now a neutral sandy tone.  The house has been on the market for quite a while; it is now listed at $7 Million, which is a large reduction in price from its $20 Million pre-real estate crash price tag in 2007.   The real estate listing for this house can be seen here; it is listed by Keller Williams.

I thought it would be interesting to look at some before and after pictures of some of a few of the rooms (and in some cases, the bare room compared to the decorated room) to see how the designers for the 2014 Show House have truly transformed the spaces.  In this post, I’ll start with the Grand Salon.
Before: Here is a picture of the Grand Salon from the real estate listing. This is a long room, with great architectural beauty. However, it is also a passage way to the solarium and the morning room, so careful consideration needed to be given to the arrangement of the furniture and the flow of the room.  Note the hand painted linen that is on the walls – it is original to the house, and is quite beautiful.

 
After: The Grand Salon by Westbrook Interiors, as pictured for the press kit for the Show House.   Designer Barbara Westbrook noted “The Grand Salon has the most amazing hand painted linen wallcovering, which is original to the house. You cannot ignore the rich palette of deep turquoise, blue, obsidian, and persimmon’'”.   This room provided quite an introduction to the house. The colors are moody and rich, the furniture positioned for multiple uses.  Photo credit Jeff Roffman. 

A view of the other side of the room.  Part of the incredible feel of this room comes from experiencing it in real life. It is wonderfully layered and textured, with so many beautiful fabrics, colors, textures, and accessories. This is a sophisticated room decorated by a designer at the top of her game (bravo, Barbara Westbrook). Horsley Kaufman pillow on the arm chair. Photo credit Jeff Roffman. 

I snapped a picture of the mantel, which also shows the linen walls.  I wish I had taken a picture of the full view of the room.



I was able to view the Show House on press preview day, and snapped a few vignettes.  Please ignore the cords and backpacks that seem to be present in every shot! This table and table arrangement caught my eye. The lamp is absolutely beautiful. Although I generally don’t love tall drum shades, this one was perfect for the lamp and the space.

A beautiful pillow looked like it was made for the room.  

I loved this natural arrangement of orchids on the console/desk; the muted colors beautifully reflect some of the colors of the ancient linen wallcovering on the wall.   Note the front door, which is seen in the upper left side of the picture. The entrance of the house puts visitors directly into the Grand Salon. Please ignore the duffel bag on the floor, it was not a prop!  It was very busy in the Show House on media preview day, and there were many photographers around.

I was quite smitten with this Porta Romana lamp, as well as all of the accessories on this console.  Note the shape of the stairs (on the bottom left) leading to the sunroom.  It would be wonderful to walk through the house again and take in all of the architectural details.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into the Grand Salon.  There is truly nothing like experiencing a room in real life, so I highly recommend a visit to the Atlanta Symphony Decorators Show House! 


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For more information on the Show House, please visit the web site.  Tickets are $30, and can be purchased at the door. Note that there is no parking at the Show House, on the street, or in the surrounding neighborhood.

Free parking has been donated by the Medici and Forum buildings; parking will be validated at the Ticket Desk at the Show House.

Complimentary luxury shuttle service between the parking area and the Decorators’ Show House & Gardens is provided during normal operating hours.

Parking is located on Northside Parkway just south of the intersection of West Paces Ferry Road in the Piazza at Paces building.
The Piazza at Paces
The Medici Building
3290 Northside Parkway
Atlanta, GA 30327

ASO hours


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Sunday, April 20, 2014

The Easter Cross of Flowers



My church (Peachtree Road United Methodist) has a wonderful Easter tradition, the Easter Cross of Flowers. Everyone is invited to bring flowers and branches to transform a cross on the front lawn into a beautiful symbol of the Resurrection.  I wrote about it a few years ago, and ever since then I receive about a dozen emails each year asking about this tradition and how exactly the cross is made.


 
Here is a picture that I found on the internet, from several years ago. I think that the cross grows in size and beauty every year, but this is a good picture because it shows the flower cross without the usual crowds of people that surround it on Easter morning.  Image source

A view of the Easter Cross of Flowers on the PRUMC website.

I went to church this morning armed with my camera so I could take some pictures. The Easter Cross of Flowers creates a wonderful photographic background for pictures, so it was impossible to get a full shot of the Cross of Flowers alone. However, I did get some close up pictures of the construction of the cross, so hopefully this will help those who have been inspired to create this at your own church on Easter Sunday.

Here are some images of the cross from Easter 2014. 

We attended the 9:45 service, which is the third service of the day.  Although the entire cross is worked on at one time, it looks like the top of the cross is the focus at the beginning; the ladders were removed by the time the 4th service was beginning.

Church volunteers work on the top of the cross from buckets of flowers, and parishioners can add their own flowers to the spaces at eye level and lower.

A close up picture of the structure underneath the flowers – it looks like the wood cross was wrapped and then covered with fine gauge wire so the flowers could be affixed to the cross.

Another view of the underlying structure of the flower cross as it was being assembled.

After church, it was clear that a lot of progress had been made; the cross is almost completely filled in and the ladders were removed.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, creating a lovely backdrop for the flower cross.

I hope you and yours are enjoying this wonderful weekend – Happy Easter!


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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Architectural design: Stairs over the door



One of the top pinned images for the month of January was this beautiful entry, designed by J. Randall Powers.  The comment on the pin was ‘so thoughtfully designed’ – and given the number of pins this image received, clearly many agreed. The composition of the space is beautiful, and every piece selected for this space is just right. But something else that caught my eye was the interesting architecture of the space – how the stairs are placed to the left of the front door and wrap around over the door.  There is no picture of the front exterior of the house, so it is not easy to understand how the entry relates to the floor plan (and if this is even the front of the house – it might not be given that there are no windows above the stairs), but I like how the stair placement creates a two story entry that has nice proportions, and this is probably a very efficient place for the stairs in the house. To see the rest of the house, see the AD article here.

I came across this image from Luxe, not long after seeing the J. Randall Powers image, and I initially thought they were one and the same. Of course, I realized quickly that they were not, but this architecture has the same idea – the stairs are located to the left of the door, tucked to the side, and wrap over the front door.  There are windows over the stairs as this is clearly on the front of the house. This image was part of a thematic post on luxesource.com on entries, so I don’t know what the exterior of this house looks like.

This wonderful entry of a Palm Beach house, with interior design by Jack Fhilips, is a magnificent example of a staircase over a front door. I like how the placement of the stairs creates a niche for the center hall table and a small closet.

Given that this architectural feature intrigued me, I started thinking about the houses I have seen with this feature. 

One of the first houses that came to mind was on the Cathedral Tour of Homes 2011 (I wrote about the homes in a post here). It was designed by James Means in the Virginia Tidewater style of the mid-18th century, and was strongly influenced the design of the James River Plantation Carter’s Grove (c. 1755).  The entry goes from front to back, and the stairs wrap over the front door.

Here is a picture of the exterior of the house. The window above the front door is actually on the stairs. Photos by Emily Followill.

Here is a picture of the entry hall of Carter’s Grove, which has a similar stair location and design (clearly the spindles in the James Means house were inspired by the original).

A house on the 2012 Cathedral Tour of Homes was this beautiful house built in the 1930s (post about houses here).  Upon entering the home, the unusual and striking design and placement of the stairs is a defining feature of the entry.

Here is what the house looks like on the exterior. The window above the door is on the second floor. Photo credit: Emily Followill.

Yet another home on one of the Cathedral Tour of Homes came to mind, this one on the 2010 tour (see houses here). The house was built in the 1990s, and is a classically proportioned Georgian design, inspired by the John Brown House of Providence, Rhode Island (1786).  The grand staircase is a defining feature of the entry, and wraps around over the front door.

Here is the front elevation of the house; the entry area is defined by the front section of the house. Photo credit for this photo and the one above, Emily Followill.
A classic 1930s Atlanta estate that is on the market also has a stair positioned over a door (although I am not certain whether it is the front or back door). “Windcrofte”, was the home of former Coca-Cola chairman Robert Woodruff.

Here is the exterior of Windcrofte. Like one of the previous houses, the front door and window above (which is on the stairwell) create their own defined area of the front elevation of the house (this is where knowing the specific architectural terms would help!). The real estate listing has more interior pictures.

The Atlanta Symphony Showhouse in 2012 was particularly memorable as it was in a Philip Shutze designed house from the 1920s.  Note that the stairs wrap over the door.  This entry hall has a door on both sides of the hall.

This picture is from the ASO Show House in 2012, and the space was designed by Melanie Turner Interiors.  She had a flooring placed on top of the original floor so she could paint it – when the show house was over, the painted floor was simply removed.

Here is the south façade of the house – the side that faces West Paces Ferry.  The original property went all the way to West Paces Ferry, but the land has been sold through the years.  Although this could technically be considered the ‘front’ of the house, I doubt it was ever used as a main entry, but more as the beautiful façade facing the main road. 

Here is a good picture of the north façade.  This is the side that was used as the entrance for the showhouse, and I feel pretty certain that the stairs wrap over the door on this side (if anyone can confirm this, please leave a comment).

Interestingly, both the front and rear elevations of this house remind me of my sister’s house, which was designed and built in the same era as this house. My sister’s entry hall goes from front to back, with a significant entry on both the front and back of the house.

Another one of Atlanta’s famed architectural treasures is the Swan House, designed by Philip Shutze and built in 1928 as an ‘empty nester’ house for the Edward Inman family.  The entry is a beautiful space, with a floating staircase curved over the door.  I am not certain if this door is the official front door – it is the more special façade of the house that faces West Andrews, and is very impressive. But was it ever used as a front door?   Photo credit Atlanta History Center/Swan House.

The east elevation, through which all visitors enter now (and I feel pretty certain this has always been the main entrance), is quite beautiful.

I think about this classic view of the Swan House as the ‘front’ of the house.  The door seen here is the one seen in the image of the entry – the stairs curve and float above this door in the entry hall.

I couldn’t resist including this image that I found while researching this post – the Swan House was used for both interior and exterior scenes of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – it is President Snow’s house.  There are quite a few Hunger Game tours in Atlanta now, including one at the Swan House.  Image source.

So back to the topic of this post – what do you think of stairs that wrap around and over the front door? Do you see this architectural feature in your area?  If there are any architects or designers out there who can shed light on why this was a feature of certain homes from the 1920s and 1930s, I would be interested to hear about it. I speculate it was due to the face that many of the ‘front’ elevations were not truly used as entries, and designing the stairs in this manner created a dramatic and beautiful view for the door that was primarily used to enter the house. I would love to know!




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