Things That Inspire: inspirational design

Showing posts with label inspirational design. Show all posts

Friday, February 26, 2010

Erin Paige Pitts: Traditional Home Young Designer to Watch in 2010

Several years ago, while visiting my sister at her home on the Chesapeake Bay, I met one of her neighbors - Erin Paige Pitts. My sister noted that the neighbor was an interior designer who was building a house nearby, but the house was under construction so I did not get to see it.

A family picture (above) of Gregory and Erin Pitts and their children, image via Traditional Home, photo credit Gordon Beall.

Flash forward to last year – and that very house was featured in Traditional Home! Not only was the house featured in Traditional Home, but Erin Paige Pitts, the designer and owner of the house, was selected as one of the Traditional Home ‘20 Young Designers to Watch’ for 2010 (see the March 2010 issue). Design runs in the family, as Erin’s husband Gregory Pitts and his brother own and operate David Edward, an internationally distributed high end manufacturer of wood and upholstered seating and tables. Gregory is Executive Vice President in charge of design and marketing.

After I read about Erin’s wonderful mention in Traditional Home, we reconnected and Erin graciously answered some questions for me to share with my readers. It is always fascinating for me to learn more about the thoughts behind the designs!

Erin and Gregory’s home in Chesapeake Bay home in Gibson Island, Maryland. Image via Traditional Home, photo credit Gordon Beall.

Where do you get the inspiration for your interiors?

Erin: At heart, I am a classicist. I get tremendous inspiration from Robert A.M. Stern, Victoria Hagan and other architects who emulate things with scale and balance. With that being said, I also love French, Dutch and Moorish influences. I am a big fan of McAlpine, Booth, Ferrier and love how they integrate old with new.

The open flow of the family room/dining area/kitchen of the Gibson Island house is perfect for entertaining. Image via Traditional Home, photo credit Gordon Beall.

How would you describe your personal style?

Erin: I am not a trendy designer although I like things that are "current". I love clean lines in architecture and furniture. I always love symmetry and balance. I am never going to suggest an interior that is going to quickly date itself. If I had to sum up my personal style it would be "classic traditional".

The dining area of Erin’s home, with one of my favorite chairs – the Ribbon chair by David Edwards. Image via Traditional Home, photo credit Gordon Beall.

In your own home, what is your favorite room and why?

Erin: I love my living room. It has basically floor to ceiling windows or doors on three sides. It is beautiful inside and there is a great water view from the back, with beautiful mature trees on the other two sides. It is very calming, the perfect place to relax with a glass of wine at the end of a long day. I am not a big fan of a lot of color. I like a neutral base palette (whites, taupe's, natural linen ) that you build some color accents into. I believe your home is the only place in the world where you can really let your guard down and relax and that is my living room for me.

Erin’s beautiful living room, perfectly designed with the indoor/outdoor connection of the room in mind – look out these windows, and you see a beautiful view of the Chesapeake Bay. Image via Traditional Home, photo credit Gordon Beall.

Do you have any favorite paints that you use over and over?

Erin: I love Ralph Lauren's Journal White and Benjamin Moores Revere Pewter, Gray Cashmere. I love Sherwin Williams Quietude. I also use a lot of Farrow and Ball's Clunch, Borrowed Light among others. The best true white is BM Super White; I often use this color on trim.

The family room in the house, which can be closed off with pocket doors. Image via Traditional Home, photo credit Gordon Beall.

Do you have any favorite materials that you like to use on a project?

Erin: I love all natural materials and use them all. I use a lot of limestone and marble. I love any fabric with a linen ground and now linen with embroidery is becoming a trend. When it comes to wood, I love walnut and alder. I like to incorporate caning in cabinetry. I have a project now with pecky cyprus beams, which adds a great feel of the natural element in the space, and adds depth and dimension.

The living room of an Italian Villa for which Erin recently designed the interiors (love those round windows and the sofas flanking the fireplace).

A wider view of the living room and dining room. Interiors by Erin Paige Pitts.

Are you seeing any trends on your projects right now?

Erin: I always find this to be the hardest question to answer because no two project are alike, and no two clients are alike. As a designer who has their own firm, I certainly have my own aesthetic, but I don’t always get clients who share that aesthetic preference. However, I have learned the most from from projects that were outside of my preferred aesthetic/comfort zone. For example I recently finished work on a Italian Villa, it was more decorative and elaborate than anything else I had ever done; It pushed me to think more in those terms. I definitely grow more on those types of projects.

A lovely hall in the Italian villa. Design by Erin Paige Pitts.

On any design project, what is the absolute first thing that must be done?

Erin: The first thing that must be done is the client must be totally honest with you about themselves and their life. If that doesn't occur, it is difficult to read the client and therefore do a design that will work for them. They also need to communicate to the best of their ability what they want me to accomplish for them. Pictures from magazines can help convey this as well as what I call "the download" which is usually the "kick-off" meeting where I do my best to ask as many questions as I can to understand the client. This meeting usually takes hours!

Erin’s screened in porch, with its view of the Chesapeake Bay. Image via Traditional Home, photo credit Gordon Beall.

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Erin Paige Pitts, selected as one of the "20 Young Designers to watch in 2010" by Traditional Home magazine. It is truly amazing what she has accomplished given that her design firm is only 5 years old! You can vote for her on the 'Young Traditional Readers Choice awards on the Traditional Home site - http://my.traditionalhome.com/photos/photo-contests/young-traditional-readers-choice/1498000021/?photoId=1495100020

You can visit her website here: www.erinpaigepittsinteriors.com

Erin also has a new blog, which can be seen at www.erinpaigepitts.wordpress.com. You can also follow her on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gibson-Island-MD/Erin-Paige-Pitts-Interiors/272176153717?ref=ts

To visit my store, Quatrefoil Design, click here.
To subscribe to my blog by email, click here.
To follow my blog on Facebook, click here.

Beautiful framed intaglios, available here:
http://www.quatrefoildesign.bigcartel.com/category/intaglios

Unique architectural renderings, available here:
http://www.quatrefoildesign.bigcartel.com/category/architectural

Whimsical original crab and lobster paintings, as seen in House Beautiful, available here:
http://www.quatrefoildesign.bigcartel.com/category/art

http://www.quatrefoildesign.com/

Friday, December 11, 2009

An Inspirational Discovery – Raymond Goins

In October, a new friend asked me if I would consider profiling five magnificent homes that are going to be featured on the Cathedral Tour of Homes in Atlanta this January. I happily agreed to the task, and it was a wonderful experience. All of the homes represented transformations in some way or another; four of the five homes had been significantly renovated at some point over the past five years, and one has been beautifully redecorated. As part of the process I had a personal tour of each home with the homeowners, and as much as possible interviewed the architects, designers, and builders.

During the course of my research and investigation, I kept hearing a name come up: Ray Goins. In this room (pictured above, my own photo), Ray was hired to finish the panels in the library as well as the fireplace surround. Ray created an aged effect that truly makes the room feel as if it has been there for a century.

I had to use a flash in this picture (so it appears lighter than reality), as the detail in the fireplace surround could not be captured without it (the fretwork was designed by architect Bill Litchfield). Ray recommended the color palette for the paneling; there is a subtle but noticeable gray-blue undertone to the finish that melds beautifully with the wood, and makes the room truly one of a kind. Ray also created the most spectacular painted floor in the newly created kitchen, complete with specifically designed wear patterns that make the space look as if it was original to the house (I don’t want to give away too much before the tour!).

The following week, I was in another home and had the opportunity to chat with Karen Menge of Pulliam-Morris Interiors, the talented interior designer responsible for the exquisite French inspired interiors in the home. Karen selected a Raymond Goins Memphis bed for the master bedroom suite, and it is a stunning focal point in a room that is filled with exquisite architectural details, fabrics, and furnishings.

After hearing Ray’s name again, I did some research, and learned that Ray is an artist and a furniture maker based out of Atlanta (his products are sold throughout the country); his company, Raymond Goins, creates furniture the way it used to be made, all hand crafted and hand finished. I contacted Ray, and he graciously invited me for a personal tour of his showroom and production facility.

And here he is, Ray Goins! It was a pleasure meeting him and getting a tour of his wonderful facility. What was supposed to be a one hour tour stretched into three hours; he is definitely a kindred spirit, and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him about his craft and his designs. In this picture, he is standing in front of the antique apothecary chest that he uses to store the hundreds of finish samples that he has developed for his furniture and architectural finishes. I told Ray that this scene reminded me of the wonderful art store Cornelissen & Son, on Great Russell Street in London; the store has been in existence since 1855, and most of the paints are stored in cabinets like this.

A close up of a few of the finish samples (I love the Chinoiserie sample). As you can see, each drawer has a color category. Ray is truly an expert at color, which comes from his artistic background and in depth understanding of the properties of color. Ray often serves as a color expert on a project, and recommends color palettes for an entire house.

Ray is known for his beautiful, beautiful finishes, and for designers and architects ‘in the know’, Ray can create an aged look to both wood and mirrors that makes them look as if they have been in a home for 100 years. Ray also utilizes his deep expertise in historical finishes with a new line of ready-to-install, aged wood panels and distressed painted finishes for ceilings, walls and floors; these can be shipped anywhere in the United States.

In the showroom section of Ray’s operations, the verre eglomise “Marseilles’ screen on the wall was amazing to see in person – Ray turned the lights on and off to show how the screen transforms according to the lighting conditions. The screen is ‘reverse painted’ on a piece of glass (which is hand blown), and when the artwork is completed, the glass then gets hand silvered. From that point, the level of oxidation is controlled according to the client’s preferences for the amount of aging that is desired. The screen in this picture was oxidized in a specific way in order to achieve a golden coloration, but the range of capability is endless. Ray also used the verre eglomise process for other patterns, trompe l’eoil artwork, and landscapes/scenes. The screen in this picture has a beautiful depth and a translucent, almost ethereal quality that sets it apart from an ordinary piece of art.

This piece was another favorite of mine, the ‘Biscarre Etagere’. It is hand crafted and wrapped in linen or burlap (according to the desired look and texture); the surface is then honed and sealed to resist stains. It is available in many different colors, but this one spoke to me.

In my ‘behind the scenes’ tour, I got to see some new product offerings that Ray’s studio is working on. This is the Etruscan screen, designed to conceal flat screen TVs.

Here is an actual screen that is in process – this one has more oxidation, hence the more golden tones. These panels are assembled onto a wooden case that is framed out, and painted on the inside and out; rosettes are placed at the joining corners/sections. The TV is then housed in the piece.

Another piece that I loved – the Cosimo Demilune. The architectural fragments on the wall are antiques from France, and Ray is slowly but surely collecting them for this wall display. Also in this picture is a sneak peek of a new line that Raymond Goins is coming out with – it has not been named, but it is a ‘Raymond Goins by the foot’ type concept of trim and wall coverings, all made with natural elements.

A beautifully hand crafted trumeau from Ray’s line, created with old world methods that seem to be disappearing in this day and age: every piece in Ray’s line is hand made, hand finished, hand painted. As Ray said, he is creating furniture pieces that are designed to last for generations.

The other side of the room had a desk that was the most exquisite shade of Prussian blue – I couldn’t capture the beautiful tone effectively with my camera, it has to be seen in person to appreciate its luminosity. On the wall is a small preview of one of the hand painted screens that is a signature item from Raymond Goins, the perfect intersection of artistry and furniture.

To the side and behind the showroom is the warehouse, where the furniture is designed, made, and painted. Upon entering the warehouse I was greeted with this beautiful scene – five of Ray’s stunning hand painted screens. These screens are all custom crafted and the materials carefully selected. For example, the tree of life screen (second from the left) is hand painted by Ray and his skilled artisans on a stretched piece of leather – the specific piece of leather is very carefully selected for its grain and texture, as it must be quite smooth to be a painting support. The Italian Boar screen on the left is painted on burlap in order to achieve texture and depth.

Each screen is truly a unique piece of art, and can be customized to the client’s color specifications or even their personal artistic preferences. For example, the boar on the hunting scene (seen on the screen to the left) can be changed in any way, or can even be painted as a deer. The tree of life screen on the right was my favorite. Ray said that while painting each screen, there is a special moment, a special place on the screen where the art starts to come alive; it reminded me of the quote by one of my favorite artists Alfred Sisley - “Every picture shows a spot with which the artist has fallen in love”.

A peek into the product development area, where Ray and team work on prototypes. I immediately spotted the factory carts – they are from the early 1900s, and Ray bought them from an old furniture factory in South Carolina that was closing its doors. Ray and his team use them as their counterparts 100 years ago used them - to move furniture around the warehouse (they are not part of his line).

A few more stunning pieces from the Raymond Goins furniture line – this is the Radke Gothic Cabinet. The front panels are trompe l’oeiled verre eglomise – hand painted by Ray and his artisans.

The Paris bed by Raymond Goins. The frame features a limed finish, which is (without a doubt) my favorite finish for wood.

A custom creation for a Raymond Goins client – the Gothic swing. Note the pretty quatrefoil cut outs on the back. I am not sure why I love Gothic inspired designs so much, but they really speak to me.

Raymond Goins also has a lighting collection. This was my favorite – the scale and proportions are beautiful. The lamp can be custom painted in any color, and the base can be solid or created with a small hand painted scene (as seen in this picture). This is just a small selection of the furniture and lighting offerings from Raymond Goins – please visit his website (email subscribers, click here) for more information.

It was a pleasure to meet Ray and his staff. I found his personal story to be so interesting – he is first and foremost an artist, and that is where he began his career, but the extension into furniture was natural as his furniture is truly three dimensional art – after all, a beautiful piece of furniture must take into account scale, proportion, color, material, and beauty to be truly successful. All of Ray’s products are highly customized, and the company prides itself on its customer service and its ability to create totally custom furniture to suit clients’ specific needs. Raymond Goins products are primarily sold directly through the company, but the product is represented in a small number of showrooms around the country. For more information, first contact Raymond Goins - http://www.rlgoins.com • 1-877-944-6467 • info@rlgoins.com.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Inspirational Design: an interview with Joe Niermann of Niermann Weeks

I have always had a love for furniture and lighting, and am very aware of the role that quality construction, scale, and proportion play in creating a piece of furniture that will last for generations. One of my favorite lines of furniture and lighting is Niermann Weeks. Look closely at any top design magazine, and in every issue you will find at least one, and more often several pieces of Niermann Weeks furniture or lighting used in the designs of the most beautiful homes in America and around the world. It is a favorite of the top designers; the designs are truly beautiful, often based on the most exquisite antique furniture, but interpreted for modern needs and requirements. The lighting is truly exceptional - the designs are unique and creative, and often define any room in which they are installed. Just this weekend, it was announced that Niermann Weeks won the Luxist Readers' Choice Award in the category of best lighting, a well deserved honor.

Through my blog, I have become friends with Eleanor McKay, the CEO and C0-Founder of Niermann Weeks. She will often email me directly after a post of mine has particularly struck her, and we have had some lively discussions about trends in furniture and design in the 21st century. Eleanor's husband Joe Niermann is the Chairman and Co-founder of Niermann Weeks, and is also the principal designer for the company. Joe agreed to answer some questions for me as part of my inspirational design series.

Joe Niermann of Niermann Weeks

How did you decide to pursue a career in furniture design?

A bank in Owatonna, Minnesota, designed by architect Louis Sullivan, was an inspiration for the young Joe Niermann. Image via Wikipedia.

Mostly it was serendipity. I had always been interested in design -- especially architecture. By age eight I was building models in my sandbox and reading everything I could find on architects and artists. I was born in Madison, Wisconsin, home of Frank Lloyd Wright, who became a real model for me. He had apprenticed under another renowned architect, Louis Sullivan, who designed a very famous bank in Owatonna, Minnesota where I grew up. Sullivan had also designed the building where my father worked and several local residences. By my middle teens I had read all of Wright's books and made pilgrimages to building by all the Prairie School architects in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

When I was twelve, I made drawing of a woman and child. It’s pencil-drawn, and I wanted to see if I could make a decent copy. When I was thirteen I was lucky enough to have my first one-man show at the Sullivan Bank in Owatonna, but I didn’t keep pen and ink drawings.

Sullivan's Auditorium in Chicago was also an early architectural inspiration for Joe (image via Wikipedia)

In my early twenties, I had to drop out of school to support myself. I moved to Chicago, America’s architectural capital, and ended up working in an insurance office only a few buildings away from Sullivan's Auditorium (pictured above). The staff there let me roam the building and really study its perfect construction. When I got married, Eleanor and I headed back to Madison, Wisconsin where she was completing her master's degree in history at the University of Wisconsin. I felt we had returned to the heartland of great architects.

In Wisconsin my furniture design work really had its beginning. Eleanor had been appointed as archival curator at the university’s history museum, where I was able to provide restoration services for some of the decorative arts in their collections. Restoration and conservation was then in its infancy. The museum curators and I pooled our skills and knowledge to develop this field. My secret fascination with famous forgers in history also helped explain some technical obstacles restoration must overcome. More importunately, studying original antiques with curators gave me an almost microscopic window into historical techniques of construction and finishing. When we moved to Memphis Tennessee with our two daughters, I planned to continue my restoration work.

However, my real profession began the moment I walked into the store of interior designer Rodgers Menzies to deliver a repair order. I felt like I was discovering another world. With the help of Rodgers, Jimmy Graham, and other generous designers, I quickly undertook a total immersion course into the history of interior design. Very quickly I was able to establish a designer clientele to restore and even recreate old finishes, and develop my own furniture designs. It didn't take long for me to realize that if I could restore something, I could make it. Memphis designers taught me so much and encouraged me to go full-time into the furniture design business. Their introductions opened the doors to our first showrooms in the Dallas and Atlanta Design Center. In 1978 Niermann Weeks, Inc. was born. NW moved to Annapolis, MD, in 1983, where Ann and Jim Lambeth welcomed us into their Washington, DC showroom. Then John Rosselli opened his New York showroom to Niermann Weeks, and soon we were represented in all the major design centers in North America.

What are your sources of inspiration?

The list is endless. It is impossible to list all the designers and styles that influence me, as my mind is like a sponge, storing visual images in a huge encyclopedia I can return to instantly I love Classical Greek and Roman art and architecture as much as Pre-Columbian If it is good design, it gets filed in my brain forever.

Once we spent a weekend at John Saladino's country house. At the end of the first day, John turned to me and said, " You have vacuum cleaner eyes". I think that says it all.

Do you have a particular style you favor?

I am particularly drawn to Continental European classical design from the late 17^th century to the early 19^th century.

What type of projects do you like to work on?

My favorite project is the next one! I never know what I will be called on to design. Primarily, Niermann Weeks makes residential furniture and lighting, although we are doing more and more work for hotels all over the world. The photo above shows our Iron and Crystal Ceiling Fixture hanging in the bridal suite of the newly renovated Jefferson Hotel in Washington, DC. Ceiling fixtures create harmonious shadow patterns that add to the beauty of the light

I particularly enjoy working closely with interior designers, to read their minds and to design what they need. In many instances they have only a nebulous idea of what they want. By sharing ideas and sketches, we evolve totally new designs based on the room size, color scheme, use of the room. I am often able to figure out what they don’t yet know they need. A great example of this is my relationship with Rodgers Menzies. He called me in 1997, desperate to finish a showhouse room on schedule and wanted a light fixture no one had ever seen before. I faxed him a quick sketch but it didn't convey the concept, so I made a full-sized model out of manila file folders to overnight him. This model showed him we had developed exactly what he needed. I gave that design the name Biarritz Ceiling Fixture, which has become one of our most popular designs.

When I’m designing, I start with quick sketches and then make a small model from cardboard and manila folders. This sketch on the right and the model beneath show the development of our Capuchine Chandelier.

The model lets me view my idea in three dimensions: height, width, and depth - something that even the best CAD can't do I make my first model very quickly, in minutes, and then adjust and refine it. When that model is OK, I go on to a full-size model that provides the templates for the artisan who makes the first prototype. Funnily, one of my full-size cardboard chair models met its demise when a client sat on it.

We still have a full-sized section of a custom chandelier for the Mirage Hotel’s Danny Gans Theatre in Las Vegas. The chandelier had to be 15 ft high by 21 ft wide, and was a custom mix of several of my standard designs. The CADs (computer aided design) just couldn’t convey the complexity this fixture required, so we overnighted the model. When the designers could actually see into the depth of the chandelier, then we got the go-ahead on construction.

The sectional mockup.

The installation.

Sadly, Danny Gans died unexpectedly this summer, so I expect the entire theatre will be soon be re-decorated for the next star.

What projects are you working on right now?

For the last few months I have been concentrating on a new collection of chandeliers and sconces, coming up with designs that I think the market needs. Because right now I am working without direct designer interaction, it's been a real challenge to design in a vacuum. Judging from past experience, after a new design is launched, I have to wait months and sometimes years for the reaction from my clients. Over the last 30 years I have developed a good track record but the market is always the final judge. Sometimes a favorite design of mine meets a brick wall and quietly disappears only to be revived years later. My design in 1990 for our Italian Chandelier didn't sell for the first five years. Today it's our biggest selling item, available on our QuickShip program and ordered in many interesting custom variations.

What is something that you should not skimp on when designing a new piece?

Basic proportion is key, then as Chanel said "the glory is in the details". Niermann Weeks is well known for our details and finishes but they are only as good as the basic frame they lie on. When I make my initial model of a new design, I remake it again and again until the proportion is "right". Then I develop the finish and details, working them over and over until the whole design is right. The finishing details become the final exterior skin, and the whole piece is only as good as its weakest design.

In 1996 Palm Beach designer Allan Reyes showed me an antique Swedish chair in his store. Riffing on his original, I changed the proportions of the seat, the back, the height, the construction, and finish; the result was Niermann Weeks’s Gustavian Klismos Chair, one of our most popular chairs ever. Customers have ordered it in many different finishes, even in antiqued silver leaf.

Right now we’re doing an order of 24 in charcoal grey for a Mexican designer.

What trends are you seeing in your projects?

In my on-going seminars at design centers, I have been fortunate to talk with really enthusiastic designers. Their input has given me a whole new basis for my upcoming designs. Their clients’ number one request recently has been for ecologically friendly design. Because Niermann Weeks lives and manufactures in Maryland, one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in the US, our techniques and materials must be as environmentally "state of the art" as possible A real challenge is to keeping our customers informed about our continuing success in limiting our carbon footprint. We’re using water-based materials, farmed woods, recycled and recyclable materials, local artisans and resources, and always looking to make the earth a cleaner place.

Significant changes stylistically include an end to the over scaled glitz required by McMansions, which a friend calls Bastille Moderne . We are also seeing a renewed interest in the simple painted pieces first introduced by NW almost 30 years ago like the faux marble top on our Cascata Console.

I have always designed furniture to work scale-wise in our small house in the country and in our NYC pied-a-terre. If the proportions are perfect, these pieces can easily be "blown up" for public places or scaled down for more intimate spaces like powder rooms and bedrooms .

Variations on the Mirabeau Dining Table (l); Our New York apartment (r)

Our youngest daughter and her partner are major devotees of the 1960s and are decorating their 1959 home in period pieces.

I guess I am too close to the 60's and have difficulty overcoming my basic prejudice about its designs, but to my surprise their project is developing into a beautiful home. I guess basic scale and proportion will always make the crucial difference, and I think we will see more interest in the 60's.

A fad you hope to never see again?

Pompous, overscaled glitz in any style is always the worst.

I would like to thank Joe for this wonderful interview, and Eleanor for making it happen. As I am such a fan of Niermann Weeks products (For the record - I am writing this post as a fan of Niermann Weeks products, and because of my admiration for Eleanor McKay and Joe Niermann. No gifts or services have been received in exchange for this post!), I couldn't resist including a few images of my favorite NW products in the context of rooms by some of my favorite designers.