A Refined Rustic Kitchen by Fiorito Interior Design

The request from my client for this kitchen remodel was to imbue the room with a rustic farmhouse feeling, but without the usual tropes or kitsch. What resulted is a beautiful mix of refined and rural. To begin, we laid down a stunning silver travertine floor in a Versailles pattern and used the color palette to inform the rest of the space. The bleached silvery wood of the island and the cream cabinetry compliment the flooring. Of course the stainless steel appliances continue the palette, as do the porcelain backsplash tiles made to look like aged, worn bricks. The deep bowl farmhouse sink and faucet that looks like it is from a bygone era give the kitchen a sense of permanence and a connection to the past without veering into theme-park design.

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

If you're thinking of remodeling your kitchen, I'd love to hear from you. Just click on my logo to the right for my contact info. Let's talk about your wish list and see what we can do!

Happy designing!

Three Cabinetry Door Styles To Know

When I am designing a kitchen or bathroom for a client, they are usually surprised at how many decisions are involved, sometimes small ones they never dreamed of. So many details are hiding around every bend in the remodel road, and one of the things that most people have never had to notice or think about is the style of cabinetry they want. Sure, people know they want something simple and modern, or something ornate and traditional. But there is a level beyond that we always need to explore.

The most popular door and drawer styles now are called "inset" and "full overlay."

An inset door and drawer is one that is, as the name suggests, inset into the frame of the cabinet. The front of the door or drawer is flush with the face of the cabinet, as you can see below in a recent kitchen I did for a client (previously here). The result is a sleeker, cleaner look even while using traditional Shaker doors as illustrated here.

Photo by Rick Pharoah

Photo by Rick Pharoah

Photo by Rick Pharoah

Photo by Rick Pharoah

This inset style is currently very popular, but every now and then I hear feedback from a client who thinks the look seems a little busy. They don't like being able to see not only the lines around the door or drawer but then also the face which they perceive as making more visual lines. In this case, I recommend the full overlay door style. This is where all the doors and drawers meet, so one cannot see the face frame of the cabinet at all. This style looks great with more modern slab front doors and drawers. I designed two bathrooms, seen below, that show this off beautifully.

The warm wood of the Walk In The Forest bathroom, previously here, adds a beautifully organic feeling to the minimalist slab doors and drawers, allowing the horizontal wood grain to become the feature. The full overlay doors and drawers here make the vanity feel neat and composed.

Photo by Genia Barnes

Photo by Genia Barnes

Photo by Genia Barnes

The next bathroom, which I called Dramatic (see it here) because of the deep plum wall, features a vanity with full overlay doors and drawers.

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

But you don't have to use slab doors to achieve a nice effect with full overlay doors. A more traditional door profile, as seen below in the Light and Airy  Kitchen, here, I designed for some clients, shows this off nicely. A Shaker door modified with a slender bead looks wonderful in this configuration.

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

The third option is one that most people now avoid because it gives your newly remodeled space a dated appearance. The "standard" or "partial overlay" is one where the doors and drawers are neither inset into the cabinet box nor do they meet to hide the face of the box...they are just small enough to allow about a half inch of the frame to be seen. This is called the "reveal" and to my eye is not only dated but also has the look of a piece of cabinetry from a big box store...and such pieces tend to be poorly made. Not to put too fine a point on it, but standard or partial overlay doors and drawers make the piece of cabinetry look like the least expensive thing a landlord could buy to put into a rental unit. If you stick with full overlay or inset doors and drawers, you will have a space that looks well designed.

Happy designing!

Know Your Chairs: The Peacock Chair

The origin of the chair for this installation of Know Your Chairs is a little murky and not easily traced to a single source. The classic wicker Peacock Chair has ancestors across Asia with elements and similar shapes being woven in wicker and rattan for much of the 1800s. Extant drawings show rounded bases and seat backs, but it wasn't until 1914 that the first documented photograph of the Peacock Chair was taken. A female inmate in the Bilibid Prison in Manila is shown sitting in one and it is known that prisoners at this prison made chairs and other articles of furniture for export and that could be bought by visiting tourists. This late-stage-Victorian/Edwardian period fell in love with the Peacock Chair which would frequently be placed in a hothouse-like garden room or solarium, where this wicker throne-like chair blended in with its surroundings of parlor palms and orchids, plants cultivated for their exotic appeal. The chair seemed to dovetail nicely into Art Nouveau and into the 20s somewhat.

The chair fell out of favor in the 30s with the rise of Art Deco (previously here) and Streamline Moderne (previously here), but came back in popularity in the 60s and 70s where it found a home in a few new genres. It fit well with the hippie Flower Power culture of the time period, feeling like a piece of furniture that was both organic and ethnic. Meanwhile in a separate cultural moment in 1967, the Black Panther Party's founder and Minister of Defense, Huey Newton had his portrait taken seated in a Peacock Chair holding a spear and rifle, flanked by traditional African shields, all on a zebra rug. It was visually arresting and provocative image, and the chair came to be associated with the Black Power movement. It even showed up as Morticia Addams' chair of choice on the televisions show "The Addams Family" and as a prop for m any celebrity portraits of the time.

Dr. Huey P. Newton, photo by Blair Stapp
(Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of
African American History and Culture)

The cast of "The Addams Family"

Al DiMeola album cover

Cher

Dolly Parton

Julio Iglesias album cover

A pair of Peacock chairs in the Manhattan apartment of fashion designer Arnold Scaasi
Photo from Jan/Feb 1977 issue of Architectural Digest

Now the chair has come back around for a revival of sorts and can found in a variety of design schemes... but clearly works best with a sort of natural, tropical, or Bohemian sense.

Photo by Brave Boutique Ltd

Happy designing!

A Watery Blue Bathroom by Fiorito Interior Design

In March, I showed you a bathroom from a complete home renovation in a condo...that was the primary bathroom but here is a peek at the guest bathroom. In contrast to the gold and dark swirling stone seen in the previous bathroom here, the brief for this bathroom was cool and watery, reflecting the beautiful nature reserve and wetlands nearby.

A blue version of Fusion Wow Dark quartzite tops a deep, saturated blue vanity. Tiles of Statuario on the floor coordinate with a custom mosaic border that picks up the color of the veining. The same material wraps up the walls capped with a coordinating chair rail, as well as gracing the interior of the tub-shower. To reference the protected wetlands nearby, we created two niches, one to be used for showering and the other lower one to be used while bathing, that are lined with special handmade tiles of herons, cattails, dragonflies, lily pads, and frogs. These special relief mural tiles were hand glazed in hues specifically chosen to blend with our color scheme, and add a lyrical touch to this cool, tranquil space.

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Happy designing!

Big, Bigger, Biggest: Make A Statement With Indoor Sculptures

Sometimes there is a special corner in a home, perhaps by a large window, where a very special object is needed. And The Phillips Collection has just the thing. I have been longing to use one of these incredible pieces in a client's home for a while now, looking and waiting for the right large empty corner by a window.

All of the pieces I show below are at least 6 feet tall with some, like the large cast stone circles, topping out at a whopping 8 feet! Made from a variety of materials, these statement sculptures would add a breathtaking element to any space.

Check Mate Sculptures in white, black, and gray

Colossal Charcoal Cast Stone Sculpture with
Colossal Double Hole Cast Stone Sculpture

Colossal Charcoal Cast Stone Sculpture

Colossal Women Sculptures

Large Plinth Sculptures

Stacked Wood Floor Sculpture Set

Black Wood Abstract Sculptures

I have trade access to all of these dramatic art objects, and more from The Phillips Collection. If you see something you like, give me a call!

Happy designing!

Know Your Sofas: The Mah Jong Sofa

Welcome to another installation of Know Your Sofas, and here is a sofa you should definitely know!

Created in 1971 by artist and designer Hans Hopfer (1931 - 2009) for Italian home furnishings brand Roche Bobois, the original Mah Jong sofa was called simply the Lounge Sofa (or Forever Sofa). The concept was for a low-slung modular seating system that can be combined in many different ways depending on what the owner wants. This suited the new way of seating that people were discovering in the 1960s and 1970s when the concept of a stiff sofa or settee was becoming obsolete. People more and more were lounging in their homes while watching television, relaxing, gathering, playing...simply living more casually than in times past. You can see that Hopfer's drawing below shows a sort of cloud-like, pillow silhouette.

The final product took the form of three individual elements--a flat square, a back, and a corner section--that can be stacked, combined, laid out, and rotated to form a myriad of configurations. While certainly low-slung, it looks in the first photo below like the Lounge Sofa started out placed on some thicker bases to bring them up from the floor a bit more...

...but the sofa is now known as the Mah Jong Sofa, named for the resemblance of each section to Mah Jong tiles. The concept of stacking, joining, and rearranging is even stronger now. It is still available through Roche Bobois and since 1990, it has been their best-selling sofa! It can be purchased to sit either directly on the floor or to be laid out on low platforms with inset legs that give the whole structure a sense of floating off the ground. The mattress-style cushions are entirely hand-stitched in an Italian atelier.

The Mah Jong sofa can now be ordered in fabrics designed by haute couture houses! Missoni Home created versions based on their iconic flame-stitch and other signature patterns from the house.

Legendary designer Jean Paul Gaultier lends his own patterns: French white and navy maritime stripes and the intricate curlicues of world currency...

...while Kenzo Takada took inspiration from the beauty of Japanese kimono fabrics for his collection.

You can find out more about this classic sofa at the Roche Bobois Mah Jong site!

Happy designing!