Larger than Light - Summer 2015 - Red Cross Designers' Show House by Littman Brands

Birthday Cake Castle Hudson Valley celebrates style at the Red Cross Designers’ Show House

Hudson Valley’s captivating Glendale pendant and classic Merrick sconces added panache to the royal remodel of the former master bath on the second floor. Nicholas Skidmore and Andrew Mormile, designers and principals at Forte Interiors, transformed the room with a rich color palette of navy, gold and stained burled Madrone – offering a vintage yet contemporary look to rejuvenate the space. The team chose Hudson Valley for its classic style with modern elements and their aged brass fixtures to add ambiance and depth. The stunning Glendale pendant, which incorporates the mixed materials of aged brass and old bronze surrounding tungsten filament bulbs in a Sputnik design, served as a focal point and added unexpected drama. Three traditional Merrick sconces in aged brass offered a surprising new way to utilize smooth, gleaming picture lights in the bath and added a cohesive symmetry hung over the mirrors in three areas, including a cozy nook. Brass plumbing fixtures offered a modern, minimalist design, bringing out the warmth and sophistication of the aged brass lighting fixtures.

This past spring, Hudson Valley Lighting ® donated fixtures to the 39th Annual American Red Cross Designers’ Show House in Lake Worth, Florida. Top designers from New York to Palm Beach transformed the majestic 7,000-squarefoot home, originally built by architect Addison Mizner’s protégé Sherman Childs in The “Birthday Cake Castle” exterior. 1925. Entitled “La Florentia” Photo: Robert Stephens Photography and nicknamed the “Birthday Cake Castle” for its unique cake-like qualities, the home received its nickname when previous owner Upton Close gave the home to his wife, Margaret Fretter Nye, as a birthday present in 1954. It has numerous features resembling cake, including two “birthday candle” pillars on either side of the grand entrance, thick plaster interior swirls made to resemble icing, and a birthday cake stained glass window. This house was the first historic estate on the Lake Worth registry. More than 4,000 people toured the home and surveyed its features, including an octagonal turret, 52 windows, an impressive grand front stairway and 135 feet of waterfront on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Hudson Valley’s Merrick sconces and Glendale pendant at the Red Cross Designers’ Show House

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DESIGNER Q+A Nicholas Skidmore & Andrew Mormile Designers and Principals at Forte Interiors www.forteinteriorsdesignbuild.com Larger Than Light magazine would like to thank Hudson Valley Lighting for contacting the designers at Forte Interiors to learn more about their design for the Red Cross Designers’ Show House. The following excerpts are taken from a longer interview with the designers on Hudson Valley’s blog. Hudson Valley Lighting: One of the immediately striking things about the room is the controlled color combination. There seems to be a limited palette that serves to strengthen the design. Particularly striking is that wonderful shade of navy blue on the vanity, which is echoed in the marine imagery in the art. Was the house’s waterside location a prompt for this? Forte Interiors: In terms of a color palette, we wanted to pay homage to the historic Mediterranean style and went bold with blue. The home has a lovely setting on the Intracoastal, and the water views further reflect our color selection. Unexpectedly, we infused the color on the vanity, bench and millwork rather than placing it on the walls. Hints of the rich navy are seen elsewhere in the room, such as in the artwork and window treatments. Together there is plenty of contrast without being overwhelming or heavy, as Mediterranean designs can sometimes depict. Nick, on the Forte Interiors website it says your design approach is innovative yet attainable and that you strive to be current yet enduring. Our guiding philosophy at Hudson Valley Lighting is very similar. What led you to choose us to partner on this project? It feels like a perfect match. As a firm, we strive to be innovative and utilize new and interesting materials in different ways. However, at the end of the day, we want to be distinctive – but equally as important, our room designs should be timeless. We feel that Hudson Valley Lighting has a similar design aesthetic and that, combined with exceptional quality, is the perfect combination to partner with on a project such as this. The Glendale, for example, is a more traditional interpretation of the classic Sputnik. The dark metal open frame in contrast to the brass is elegant and unexpected – two qualities we often attempt to transcend through our designs.

pieces in unpredictable places. We knew a standard vanity light wasn’t going to add the distinction we desired. The space has a level Nicholas Skidmore & Andrew Mormile of sophistication, and the unexpected use of the Merrick provided the traditional shape and proportions we wanted to directly contrast with the modern faucets and under-lit glass countertops. This adds interest and hopefully inspires others to think outside the norm when selecting pieces for their home. We did a post earlier this year about the comeback of brass. Have you always been a lover of brass or are you newly converted by its renaissance? Both of us like different metal finishes and are definitely not timid about mixing them. In this particular space, the bold navy blue was selected, and we immediately wanted to introduce a superior finish such as brass. It provides the warmth, elegance and contrast we were looking for. The Glendale tied everything together in this space, as it had the brushed brass, as well as a color tone similar to that of oil rubbed bronze, which is the hardware we used on the frameless shower enclosure. Many people are hesitant to use brass, as they are reminded of the polished brass of the early ’90s. The critical element to any metal is the finish. We will continue to use brass, and we actually just designed a coffee table for a client that has an aged brass finish, and it works perfectly in a space with other metals.

We loved your bold, unexpected use of our Merrick fixtures, which were designed as picture lights but you used here as bath and vanity sconces. Can you tell us about the thought process that went into that? From what we understand, it was quite a hit, and those lucky enough to tour the house commented on it a lot. Our design philosophy for this space and for most bathrooms we design is to treat them like a comfortable living space. For example, we are creative with lighting selections, rugs and even upholstered Hudson Valley’s Glendale pendant

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