Collecting For Collins

This week, Grace and I got a new client to collect furniture, light fixtures, accessories, fabrics, wallpaper, and paint colors for. We were given the task of finding these items for the Collins family. Chango & Co. has already had their first design scheme/concept presentation with the Collins', so we were only required to find a few things that were not finalized in the first presentation.

The entire concept and design direction of this project is based on a Mid-Century Modern dark wood dining table that the client is adamant about keeping. All of the fabrics, furniture pieces, and light fixtures have to fit with this piece of furniture. Susana is not the biggest fan of Mid-Century Modern furniture, so she asked us to find pieces that were modern, but had a classy and sophisticated, traditional feel to them as well.

For the living room we had to select a comfortable yet still modern looking chair and some possible baby blue fabrics to upholster it in. Also for this room, we had to decide on a color scheme. We knew that she liked baby blue and gray, so those colors were what we began with. Grace and I went down to the fabric room and pulled all of the blues and grays that were either solid or had a modern and fun pattern on them. Susana also explained to us that she might want to do a dramatic drape for the living room, so we selected some floral but still modern looking drapery fabrics that were colorful and bold. We chose various coffee table options as well for this room.

Moving into the dining area, we needed to find a dining bench that fit with the table that the client loved, both in style and size. Susana plans to add an upholstered cushion to the bench, so we chose some fabrics for that as well. Susana said she wanted to bring in a pop of color here, and that the client preferred stripes, so we tried to find some yellow, orange, and multicolor striped fabrics. The chandelier that Susana previously chose for over the dining table was unfortunately sold, so we had to find a chandelier that was similar in style and size here.

Next, we moved on to the master bedroom, where we had to find some alternative options for the nightstand, as well as a wallpaper and paint color to go on an accent wall. Next, we were in charge of finding a floor lamp for the little girl's room, and choosing some wallpaper to go in there. As for the foyer of the house, we searched for a 12"D console table (which is extremely hard to find) and a light fixture for the foyer that didn't compete with that of the dining room.

After we collected all of the furniture, light fixtures, fabrics, wall papers, and wall colors that we could find that coincided with our color scheme and theme, we laid all of our options out by room on the table for Susana to review when she got a chance. Unfortunately, we never got a chance to sit down with Susana last week due to the fact that she actually gave us a day off on Tuesday because the company had to travel to a photo shoot in which we were not needed for assistance, and also because of the holiday weekend. We will sit down with her this week however, and review our findings in preparation for Presentation #2 later this week.

Here are some pictures of the final scheme/design development laid out:

Top Left: Master Bedroom

Bottom Left: Girl's Room

Right: Dining Room

Left: Living Room

Right: Family Room

Fabric for Pillows and Curtains in Living Room

Las Vegas' Game-Changer

Interior Design Magazine’s editor in chief Cindy Allen takes us through the soon to be open SLS Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to show us what it will look like when its’ doors open. No one has actually been inside, but Cindy, with the help of SLS Hotels senior vice president of development, Joe Faust, offers a realistic representation of the hotel’s interior. Before Cindy’s tour begins, Joe informs her that the hotel will be “the new Vegas…[normally], you check into your room and you’ve got about a nine mile walk to your room, here you’re gonna be dropped off at the front door, and you check in, and it’s just a very short walk to all three of our guest hotels.” He explains that as soon as a guest checks in, the staff is going to cater to their every want and need by telling them about the all of the restaurants and nightclubs that the SLS has to offer. There really is no need to ever leave the hotel. The first area that Joe shows Cindy is the “wow-zer” entrance. This entrance isn’t your typical check in with a grand chandelier entrance; it is gigantic with many different things to do right as you walk through the door. Many areas of the hotel have grand facades that are surrounding them, however they actually don’t have a ceiling. This gives the customer a more open and free feel when doing various activities. There is also a grand casino with a bar right in the middle to cater to guests. Cindy and Joe finish off the tour by announcing that the new hotel with truly be a “Game-Changer” for Las Vegas. 

Video: http://www.interiordesign.net/idtv/detail/810/?utm_source=hero_slide_home

Good Food & Great Views

Last weekend was all about finding some good eats and enjoying some pretty amazing scenery. On Saturday we decided to go to Smorgasburg, a little food vender market set up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, right on the Hudson River. Local restaurants and food vendors come to set up stands for people to stop at and get a taste of their menu. Grace and I and one of our other roommates, Nikki, decided to take a lap around the whole market before we decided what to get. We wanted to make sure we were trying the tastiest options. Our first stop was for pigs in a blanket. Then we headed just across the way to try three types of cheesecake bites. We got strawberry, key lime, and limoncello. My favorite was the key lime pie, it was creamy and refreshing. When we passed a stand for chicken biscuits, we had to stop. This was one of the only southern food stands there. We made friends with the cook there by telling him we were from Atlanta and Athens. He said that he had lived in Atlanta too for a short time and knew that we must know what a good chicken biscuit tastes like. His chicken biscuit was definitely up to our standards, although we all agreed that we still miss Chick-fil-a. Next, we got some lemonade to wash down all the food. We were about to go sit by the water when we saw a sign for a triple grilled cheese that we just could not turn down. It was the cheesiest and most filling grilled cheese I have ever had, but it was definitely worth eating. Our final stop was at the beer and wine stand to wash down the days eats. We will be for sure be making a trip back to Smorgasburg before the summer is over to check out some other tasty vendors.

Sunday was another day of eating and exploring. Grace and I started out our day by walking to the Shake Shack in Grand Central Station. Upon entering, we were in awe of decorative and massive architecture inside. The Shake Shack is famous for their cheeseburgers and custard. I ordered the Original Shackburger, fries, and a cup of vanilla custard. While it was so good and greasy, I could not finish the whole meal, but I will definitely be back for more. After our satisfying meal, we traveled to Central Park, where we worked off the calories we just consumed. The park is so massive we did not even know where to start or which direction to go in, so we just started walking. We came across a beautiful bridge over a lake with ivy covering it, and flowers and trees all around. We also stumbled upon a big carnival for kids going on, with amusement park rides and games for winning prizes. We also passed by some baseball fields with pick-up games going on. Walking around the park we saw so many interesting people doing various things like picnicking, laying out, reading, playing interments, painting, and playing games. It was a great Sunday afternoon activity to do.

Presenting to Cortez

Last week was a very enlightening and relatively successful week for Grace and I. We finalized our floor plans, finished collecting materials and making furniture selections, and headed to Long Island to present our design scheme for the Cortez family. We left early to make sure we made it to the presentation on time, but ended up arriving a half-hour before our scheduled time. We decided to take a tour of the little town and found ourselves on a path that jutted out into the Hudson River. The view was amazing, with the bridge in our skyline. It was really peaceful and breezy, and we saw a lot of ducks enjoying their morning splashing in the water.

We headed back to the house when it was time for the presentation. After we walked in and said our hellos, we began to set up all of our materials to present. On the kitchen table, we placed all of our furniture selections for each room. Our color scheme and fabrics went on the island, and we put all of the different furniture layouts on the console table. Susana decided to start with the furniture layouts, because then we could move into picking actual furniture based on which layout they liked. There was some debate, as the husband and wife's favorite layouts were different. The way that their house is designed, they have an area in between the wall of windows and the island in the kitchen where normally one would think to put their dining table. However, there is also a big open area to the right of the island that sits between the kitchen and the living room. We had two different ideas for this area:

1. (Wife's Favorite): put a 120" long table with chairs on one side and a bench on the other in the space between the island and the window wall. In the gap between the kitchen and the living room, we could put a settee with a coffee table and a small chair. This could serve as another seating area and also provide them with a place enjoy their view of the water.

2. (Husband's Favorite): put a four person seating area in the space between the island and the window wall to serve as a socializing/eating area for guests. This would also open the kitchen up to be more social. In the gap between the kitchen and living area, put a round dining table with a great chandelier above it.

Finally, they decided to go with using a long table in the dining area. Although they agreed adding the social area near the kitchen would be an interesting and fun idea, they thought that being able to accommodate their big family during holiday meals was more important. Also, it had always been a dream of theirs to have a big, beautiful dining table.

After the furniture plan was chosen we moved onto the furniture. We were able to make decisions on most of the pieces, although we left still needing to do some searching for others. We moved onto the fabrics and color scheme next. This was a rather disappointing presentation, as they were not too excited about the sea-greens and beiges that we had chosen for the home. We explained to them that because they live on the river, the colors outside would compliment the colors inside as there were many grays, beiges, and sea-greens coming into the room. We also told her about the idea to use a linen sea-foam wall paper and white flowing drapes coming down over each window, but she said that using wallpaper was a bit scary for her. She told us her vision for her house had more navies and bold pops of colors rather than the muted sea-foams. It might come off as too dark if we add darker navies and colors, however Susana said she was willing to start over and promised that when we came back for the second presentation, we would have something beautiful to show her. The Cortez's did like our elevation drawing and idea for the built-ins and fireplace, although we have to go back and make a few tweaks to it.

Overall, the presentation went well we thought because we did decide on a lot of furniture pieces. Susana said the fabric scheme is a relatively small part compared to finding furniture that a client likes style wise, price wise, and size wise, so we completed most of the work for the project already. Our focus for the rest of the week was finding navies and bolder pops of color for the Cortez house, as well as making further furniture and accessory selections.

A New President for a Leading Firm

Last spring, our Advanced Kitchen & Bath class had the opportunity to travel to the Hansgrohe Aquademie. Hansgrohe is a German-based leading manufacturer of kitchen and bath appliances. During our visit we learned that it is a family based company that rarely hires anyone outside of their lineage for the German location. However, here in the US, Hansgrohe has recently appointed Erik Cristensen as president/GM. Although he is not family, he has two decades of experience in the flooring and building products industries, as well as an impressive record in logistics, operations and the establishment of global distribution. Christensen also holds the company in high respect, as he believes they have shown immense growth that he attributes to a hard-working team committed to producing high quality and sustainable innovative products. Christensen was the former vice president of Armstrong World Industries, where he instigated a high quantity of sales. He plans to produce the same strong performance while overseeing a team of 250 Hansgrohe employees.

“I am really excited about my new role as president of Hansgrohe, North America. Hansgrohe has a very long tradition in the industry and is a leader with consistent performance year after year,” Christensen proudly says. “What truly drew me to the company is its spirit. I have found a passion and dedication that permeates everything the company does. From customer service, operations, sales, and marketing, through the interface with channel customers, that common thread of excellence really stands out.”

Some of this “passion and dedication” that Christensen is referring to can be seen through Hansgrohe’s accomplishment in changing the modern bathroom to be more functional and comfortable. With innovative products such as the adjustable wallbar, multiple-spray handshowers and showerheads, the QuickClean function and AIR and water-saving EcoRight technology, Hansgrohe has obtained the ability to create a sustainable and user-friendly bathroom. With bases in over 130 countries and 3,200 employees across the globe, Hansgrohe has a prominent presence in the kitchen and bath design world.

Article: http://www.interiordesign.net/articles/detail/36017-hansgrohe-names-erik-christensen-president/

Collecting for Cortez

This week at Chango & Co. was especially hectic, but also especially fun. Grace and I were given our first big assignment -- to create furniture layouts for the Cortez family, and also select furniture, paint colors, wallpapers, rugs, lighting, and accessories. We started this project by recreating their drawn up house plans on CAD and putting in new walls and taking down old ones (decisions that Susana made on the rough drawing). From there, we started creating multiple furniture layouts for the living room, the dining room, and the master bedroom. We printed out our suggested layouts and started picking out possible pieces that would fit the space, as well as the design concept. This house is located in Long Island right on the Hudson River, and the whole interior is encased in massive windows with beautiful views of the water, the bridge, and the city of Manhattan. Susana said she wanted to go for a lake house/river house feel, so we should be looking for furniture and colors that compliment that style. After collecting some pieces and fabrics, we laid them all out on the table and Susana went through all of the choices and said what she liked and what she didn't like. We created a color pallet of sea-foam greens and blues and beiges, and decided on some wall coverings for the entire first floor and the master bedroom. Susana came up with an amazing concept of covering the whole first floor with a textured linen wallpaper of pale sea-foam green and surrounding the interior with beautiful sheers on all of the windows. We had a couple more rounds of presenting Susana with more items and fabrics that we chose, and settled on a final scheme and a ton of different options of furniture to present to the client. We will be visiting the Cortez family this week to go over our final picks, and hopefully settle on a scheme! Although we will unfortunatley not be able to attend the installation of the Cortez house because we will be back in Athens, we are so excited that we got to play such a huge role in designing their house.

The fabric, wall paper, and paint swatch scheme that Grace and I put together to present to Susana

NYC Essentials

There are about a million essential things to do while visiting New York City, and on Saturday I participated in a few. Although I looked extremely touristy while doing so, it was so amazing and fun that I didn't even care! My friend Ann and I decided to get up early and hit the city for some shopping, lunch at the Rockefeller Center Summer Garden and Bar, and of course, to act like a total kid in Dylan's Candy Bar. One of our favorite stores, ZARA, was having one of the 3-month-annual blow out sales, so we had to go. We traveled to Fifth Avenue where we passed some gorgeous stores, as well as glamorous people. When we got to ZARA I was very pleasantly overwhelmed by how gigantic the store was. It has two floors fully stocked with trendy clothes. As soon as I started looking on the first rack, I realized this was going to take awhile. About 30 minutes into shopping I had so many garments in my hand that one of the store clerks asked me if I wanted a shopping bag to hold everything. I graciously accepted, which might not have been my best decision because my bag soon became overloaded. This is when another store clerk informed me that I was only aloud 12 items in the dressing room at a time -- I guess I am not the best NYC shopper. I quickly went to get into the fitting room line before anything else could catch my eye. To give you a glimpse into how many people were in the store, I just need to say that I waited in the fitting room line for 45 minutes. This sequence happened one more time as I continued to the downstairs part of the store. Overall we spent 3 hours in ZARA and I got three new trendy items of clothing -- they were totally worth the wait.

After mustering up an appetite with all that shopping, Ann and I ventured towards Rockefeller Center to get some lunch. During the summer, there is a Cafe with a bar, tables, and lounging couches all covered by huge umbrellas. We got a spot on a comfy couch in the sun right in front of the fountain. With the summer breeze, this was so relaxing and I felt a little bit like a celebrity. And I also had the best Margarita I have ever had in my life!

We still had some time in our afternoon left to explore, so Ann and I looked at our Bucket List of things to accomplish during the summer to pick our next destination. We decided to go to Dylan's Candy Bar. After becoming working girls in the city, we thought it would be fun to act like kids for a change...and to get some candy! The store was filled with sweet-toothed kids and adults. After walking around the first two floors of candy, we decided to go up to the ice-cream bar. We also discovered an alcohol bar that sold drinks with different types of candy mixed in them. Ann tried the Jolly Rancher and I had the Strawberry Nerds Mojito. Although it was the most sugar-filled drink I have had, it was fun to try! They were also serving a drink with Pop Rocks Candy in it and every time she mixed it, the Pop Rocks would explode in the glass. Dylan's was so fun and entertaining, and  I am definitely going to make a trip back!