fantastical shutters project

Me and Jeff batted around this idea of building a complex shutter system for his kitchen. His taste for interior design is well defined, and he has a serious love for the history flavor. His whole apartment has been carefully worked over and it looks as if it's from... perhaps the 30's? something like that...
anyways, these shutters were to be playful and not be a straight shot at old-fashioned shutters more like a playful Edward Gorey or Jan Švankmajer...
so, this was the rough design I came up with, which Jeff liked.


He wanted a fan and other things to add a strange effect.... Later after it was partly constructed we added a barometer.
I found old wood for the project: Damaged oak from an old loading dock pallet.


With the doors shut, sun streams in from the old nail holes. The fan is in the left corner.





As the doors are opened more, a lot of sun pours through.


The frame is oak as well. I painted it white so it blends into the kitchen walls, leaving the stained oak shutter doors with more contrast.

Close up of the wood color and texture.


Close up of the barometer.

close up of an eggbeater... hey... you never know when you need to beat an egg, right?

really nice porcelain handles that Jeff found. they really add alot...

CATBOX DELUX

Kate is a designer, an artist (and great cook)...
When I first walked into her apt on the LES I already knew I was going to enjoy what she had in store. In her apartment were carefully crafted or choosen pieces. Displaying her love of design and love of experimenting. Colors, shapes and textures all thoughtfully intertwined.

She wanted a catbox, for the litter box... so the pebbles from the litter box wouldn't spread around the room.
But not just a simple container. She wanted it wallpapered on the inside... w/ a plexiglass front.

Roger's masterpiece

roger has an apt on the ues, his front widow faces central park. He is an art collector and artist himself. He also loves gardening and has an amazing plant collecting that overflows from his front window onto the fire-escape. The window grill is something he designed himself to hold planters. When it's open the plant life fill his living room in a natural loving way.
I worked with a faux-finisher and together with input from a handful of designers we completely transformed his living room. I built two bookshelves (the bottom portion with two drawers) w/ mirrored backs. One large cabinet w/ mirrored doors and side. Bracketless narrow shelves for artwork and bracketless triangle shelves. Along with rehabing the fireplace and random other odds and ends.

bracketless narrow shelves and bookshelf.

roger's artwork

large cabinet all mirrored, inside adjustable shelves.

triangle shelves

view of planter window grill open.

view from kitchen.

fireplace with artwork.

boookshelf w mirrored back

bottom portion of bookshelf: 2 draws
.

Lance and Harry

Lance and Harry have been carefully crafting an extremely stylish home in midtown, for it seems, quite a few years. When they came to me with the wish to spice up their office space, I was excited and up for the challenge. They needed more space (as usual), less clutter, better usability etc... After going over a few different design ideas we settled on this one:


Basically 6 boxes set on top of each other (on one corner), and storage/desk support box. I was happy to see that my contribution to there very hip pad was a success. I wish I had more pics of their apartment but that's another post I guess.



-I did a second smaller project for them as well. A simple book self for the bedroom.

Goodbye Blue Monday Wallpaper

This is wallpaper that I designed and silk screened (5 colors) about 2 years ago and was meant for a cafe in Chicago (earwax cafe), but due to change of plans, I was left with the wallpaper and no where to install it.

Goodbye blue monday is an awesome chill-out spot in bushwick, that I
frequent. It's style is a mish-mash of seemingly disparate influences. I thought my wallpaper would work well in this environment, so I asked Steve (the proprietor, manager, and all around uber cool dude) if he would be interested in my wallpaper on his walls. He said yes and so here you are. The quality of the photos is not so great... but you get the idea.
Here's a close-up on the design:

Neils maxed out loft/work room

We took Neils room, which is small for sure, and packed in as much as we could.
I built a loft bed:

Also work desk, and shelves using oak wood and staining it a dark ebony to match the rest of his apt. It turned out amazing:

I included a secret storage area on top of the shelving unit:

Also included in this project was a cabinet for his hallway:


All in all it turned out pretty awesome.

work desk 'mostly' completed

This is a 'longer' term project. Lilly, a jazz musician, needed a desk that would work well for her specific needs. One of the ideas was to add curved elements to the room. We thought that adding curves would offset the otherwise very sharp square feel the room had. Also we liked the natural wood feel that was already there, so we went with more natural wood.
She moved into this space about 2 months ago. The plan was to first build the desk, and then move onto storage of clothes, and general fixing up.
Due to her hectic schedule, We're only able to meet once every few weeks. At this point the desk is mostly done...
(The desk has lots of cool curvy elements. I tried to show them as best I could)
Here are the before pix:



And here are the 'afters':