Because of the open plan layout, the dining table needed to be in the center of the room; essentially the center of the apartment. There was space for it, but a heavy table would have deadened the space. We chose an etched and beveled double pedestal Lucite and glass dining table by Assemblage Studio with six Marmount Pull Up chairs with white lacquered legs, upholstered in Malabar new bamboo cotton. Above the table we hung a Jean de Merry Lumiere chandelier in antiqued brass, which hovers like a sea urchin, while two mermaid wall sconces look on from nearby. In the kitchen, the marble tile backsplash provides a clean backdrop for the family meals prepared there. We installed a Wolf range and hood for practicality, and crystal knobs on the cabinetry for fun. The roman shades provide a pop of wildness to offset the whiteness.
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Project 5 Central Park West
Nature Clashing Surrealism Bohemian Sparkle
Title Here Penthouse views can be spectacular, but in my book the real place to be is closer to the tops of the trees, where the views are equal parts earth and sky, like the ones from this sophisticated sixth floor flat on Central Park West. Built in 1898, the original layout had lots of small parlor rooms and hadn’t been touched since a light renovation in the 1970s. This project was my third collaboration with both my client and architect Douglas C. Wright, who opened up the walls to create a lofty, spacious living and dining area that’s in constant conversation with the views. Opening up the space allowed the three sets of canted windows along the East-facing exterior wall to share each other’s light. What’s outside the windows — the trees of Central Park, the buildings beyond, the sky — is a constant reminder of the present moment, with the spontaneity of a bird flying by, a gust of wind through the trees, or a lavender cloud. Glass partition walls allow the light to pass through the apartment through the faux terrazzo entryway, where the walls are painted a blue that glows in the diffuse light, like the pool at Villa Necchi Campilglio at night. In front of you, the dining room is visible, punctuated with a zig-zag lines of the 1960s German pendant light by Florian Shulz, which
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manages to be exaggeratedly large scale and delicate at once. A Thonet-style bentwood bench with caned seat is a perfect spot to drop your things on your way inside. Since I had collaborated with my client on three previous homes, I was familiar with the carefully collected vintage pieces she already owned, and her hungry curiosity about cutting edge contemporary design. Like her, her collection of furnishings is diversely gifted, worldly and deeply sophisticated. And she knows what you mean when you say you want the place to feel Milanese, which is what I said when I saw the space for the first time. She got it, and that’s all it took for us to create a home with a mix of old world classicism and mid-Century Milanese design. Round the corner from the dining room and you enter the living room. It takes a minute for your eyes to adjust. The room is filled with light. On the far end, a marble fireplace is surrounded by a floor-to-ceiling mirrored wall, giving it an almost palatial feel. The room’s furnishings are an ensemble cast of pieces lovingly collected over many years. . Even though it’s filled with some of the world’s greatest design icons the room is deeply personal. Like the family of five that lives there, each piece has its own power and raison d’etre.
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Project 8 Carroll Gardens
Nature Clashing Surrealism Bohemian Sparkle
Magical Rooms When we moved to our Carroll Gardens townhouse, my husband and I had just come back to the States from a year living in Madrid. I had also just started my own Interior Design practice out of our old apartment in the West Village. And were about to have a baby. When embarking on the design of the interior, I did not set out to make a grand statement including all of my philosophies and inspirations. I was thinking about making a home. That it would be a home made up of magical rooms was, I suppose, a given. The walls were painted in depressive colors and the whole place felt heavy and dark when we found it. But the elegant original moldings were intact, as well as the early twentieth Century marble fireplaces, and the classic townhouse floor-through layout, with ceilings 12-foot-high on the parlor level. The first thing I knew was that I wanted to break apart the hermetic energy of the space, and fill it with light. My husband, architect Julio Salcedo, created access to the back garden from both levels. We reconfigured the lower level with double doors leading from the master bedroom out to the garden, and added a small addition to the back, creating a guest bedroom on the lower level, and a deck off the
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parlor-level kitchen, with a stairway down to the garden. Though it’s worlds away, I wanted to make a home that felt deeply personal and cozy, and that captured some of the magic of my childhood home in the forest. I knew I wanted to infuse it with vibrancy and an open-wide connection to the big world outside. And, of course, all of the elements. The magic of the forest, the sparkle of the dance floor, the clashing that catches your eye, the otherworldly imagery, and a little bit of gypsy caravan charm. If you’ve ever had an after-dinner dance party with your kids, at the end of a day in the sun, you’ll know that a kid-friendly home does not have to mean sacrificing the things that inspire you. When making a home, the most important thing is love. If you love it, it will work. If it inspires you, it can’t be wrong.
Project 8
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Wallpaper and drapes in the master bedroom are Iquana by Timorous Beasties, another of my favorite wallpaper sources from the U.K. The silver reflective paper brings a lustrous shimmer into the lower-level room. The iguanas and the monkeys on the lamps, are reminders of the slow pace and otherworldy feeling of being in nature. With a custom headboard by Billie DĂŠcor, the bed is like a houseboat floating on a lazy jungle river. 223
Travel & Textiles
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Magic
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60% Grey
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In case it hasn’t been made clear, I love color. I love color about as much as my younger son loves candy. And — as he would do if he were in charge — I dole it out liberally. But the truth is, I love light as much as I love color, which is why in many of the rooms
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I design, I look for the palest greys — the ones that bounce light and look like air — and I cover the walls in them. Though it disappears and looks like nothing, walls of pale grey often comprise the largest feature of the rooms I design. Within this atmosphere of
Magical Rooms: Fawn Galli
light, pops of color take shape and create landscapes. Patterns become more vivid, and furnishings own their space. Silhouettes pop, so that two exaggerated wing chairs upholstered in hot pink become like butterflies in a cloud.
A pair of yellow chairs, with lines like futuristic racecars from the Sixties, are in full swagger against pale grey walls. Behind them, a row of iris-purple dining chairs with zippers up their backs. A silvery silk and wool rug bounces light too, and enhances the contrast of the color-blocked furnishings. 239
Otherworldly Walls
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Wallpapering the back of a bookshelf is not a new idea but it’s a classic that works; there is nothing cliché about the granny-on-acid feeling of bookshelves backed with an Abigail Borg floral when they’re filled with beloved books and objects.
If you choose a paper that excites your imagination, it becomes entirely personal, and all the more beautiful. Quince blossoms on the wall continue onto the drapes to make for total immersion in the richness of springtime. Black and white wallpaper offer pattern and texture without overburdening the color balance. This overscale photographic pattern on a dark background is like faded white lace on a black leather jacket.
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Magical Rooms Elements of Interior Design Fawn Galli and Molly Fitzsimons Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. 300 Park Avenue South New York, NY Â 10010 www.rizzoliusa.com ISBN: 987-0-8478-6447-8 $45.00 Can: $60.00, UK: ÂŁ32.50 HC, 8 x 10 inches 224 pages 200 illustrations Rights: World For serial rights, images to accompany your coverage, or any other publicity information about this title please contact: Pam Sommers, Executive Director of Publicity, T. (212) 387-3465, psommers@rizzoliusa.com