Tubs of Color

Blu Collection quartize freestanding bath tubWarm or cool, the focus for contemporary baths is fixtures.

ICFF stands for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, which opened Saturday and runs through tomorrow in New York City. It’s the year’s biggest showcase for contemporary furniture and fixtures on this side of the pond and although it’s huge, it’s always energizing to see all the newest design creativity, products and sources from around the world. Due to illness in the family, I was unable to get downtown this year to do a report. But among the invitations was one from Blu Bathworks, based in Vancouver, Canada, which sent a photo of their stunning minimalist lime green quartize bathtub [top]. This tub, from their Blu Stone designed by Michael Gottschalk, poses the following question for modern bathrooms: instead of having color on the walls, why not have it on the fixtures? The one-piece freestanding oval tub comes in a matte or gloss finish and, at 59-inches long, is ideal for smaller spaces.

Blu Collection red quartize bath tubBlu’s slipper-shape tub is a scaled up showstopper in bright red.

Regia cobalt blue glass bathtubAvant-garde Italian bath fixtures from Regia also are showing at ICFF. Their Jolie “vetroghiaccio” tub, designed by Bruna Rapisarda, is double-skinned and see-through (ghaccio is Italian for icecube) so it can be illuminated by natural light and comes with a cushy “technogel” neck rest on one end. It also comes with special supports for lifting it into place.

pale blue polymer illuminated bath tubA few years back, in a piece on Black Bathrooms we showed a Neo Metro Ebb Collection illuminated resin sink vanity and mirror, which the company still headlines. This French molded resin tub came with integral LED illumination (it was sold by the French retailer Castorama)  to make the super cool blue glow in the dark.

Regia red ice glass transparent bath tub with matching pedestal sinkRed is another transparent hue for Regia’s Jolie tub, which can be paired with a matching pedestal sink. While these tubs of color are far less tame than the Italian Bathtub Chic tubs we posted about in the past, they show how conservative our thinking about bathrooms can be — even when a new one is planned.

(Source: blubathworks, regia, marieclairemaison)

 

Met Monday

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Paint Color Basics

A quick and easy guide to creating a whole house color scheme or finding the right new hue for a room.

It’s prime painting – or repainting – season and each year, as I look forward to updating the house, I find it useful to take a quick refresher course on paint color. This one, from Dunn and Edwards (with which we have no affiliation) is well organized and hits all the important points.

(Source: you tube, juliebreton/pinterest)

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Repurposed Piano Bookshelves

vintage piano repurposed into wall mounted bookshelvesWooden piano cases are remade into charming bookcases.

As a little girl, I spent many hours tinkling the ivories on our baby grand, but later I picked up a flute and never looked back.  When my parents built a new home, it was a hard decision for Mom to sell the piano – it had been in our family for three generations.  While I’m happy it was restored and is making beautiful music again, if I had seen these examples first, it might come to live with us instead.  The interior of this piano case was removed and shelves were installed for books and accessories.  What I love about this wall mounted piece is that the keyboard, pinblock and pins (just above the keys) are still intact.  The piano lyre with two pedals rests on the floor below.

vintage Austrian organ remade into bookshelvesA 19th-century mahogany cabinet was made from an Austrian organ.  The wood grain, decorative labels and original legs ooze charm and character.  Reinventing these musical cases instead of discarding is not only a “green” thing, but allows them to keep playing their song.

For more repurposing, see the Whimsical Bicycle Vanity and Repurposed Shelving.

(Sources:  tgm design, Fat Shack Vintage)

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Displaying Collections

displayed collection of antique weather vanesCollections create an impression when displayed en masse.

It happens to all of us – we fall in love with something, and before long, the objects get scattered around the house.  The last thing many of us want is a themed room, but gathering a collection creates a dramatic impact.  Farm animal weather vanes, aged by nature, gracefully strut across this paneled wall without singing “Old McDonald.”

displayed collection of antique carpentry toolsA grouping of antique carpentry tools evoke an emotional response from the collector when their history includes ancestry.  The contrast of the vintage wooden pieces against burlap wall is perfection.

collection of vintage wire rug beatersAn assemblage of wire rug beaters are visually appealing with their curious, handmade shapes.  Combined, these collectibles create harmonious arrangements.

Don’t miss Displaying Large Collections for more ideas.

(Sources:  Kelly and Olive, Antonio Martins, New England Home)

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Oak Gets a Modern Makeover

cerused oak cabinet kitchen by Jeffrey Alan MarksMid-20th C limed and cerused oak finishes for kitchen cabinets find a new 21st C kitchen audience.

Oak cabinets are inching their way back into kitchen fashion after having being painted or ripped out and sent to recycling for most of the last decade. But they’re not the same shiny-orange builder’s-grade boxes found in tract homes. The newest look for oak is light and subtle — though it can be ebonized – with a satin finish. While it reads as natural wood it turns on oak grain highlighted or washed with white pigment.

L.A. celebrity designer Jeffrey Alan Marks created an elegant transitional limed-oak kitchen [top], showcasing the blond oak on the cabinets, custom vent hood and the island where it is beautifully matched to taupe-gray polished marble. A wall of supernal Degournay swimming fish paper with a silvery background, luxe drawer hardware and natural-fiber seats on counter stools keep the sophisticated scheme consistent.

close up of a limed oak table by Jean-Michel FrankThis finish began its slow creep back into kitchens from the high-end furniture market after oak pieces by mid-20th century design icons Jean-Michel Frank and others hit their height as collectibiles around 2007. Ideas can take a while to trickle down and, inevitably with revivals, there are variations and reinterpretations made possible by development of new products such as stains, glazes and waxes.

Originally, lime (an ingredient in mortar) was used to highlight the wood grain. So was white paint pigment (whiting) made from chalk and mixed with wax. When white lead was used the surfaces were called cerused. Other products, including diluted paint and various stains also may be applied. For practical purposes the terms and whitening materials are interchangeable today. This close up I took of a 40s-era Jean-Michel Frank table that was up for sale in a Christie’s auction which shows exactly how the rift-sawn grain of the wood is filled in.

minimalist limed oak kitchen cabinets by AIDArchitectenCabinets in a minimalist kitchen in Antwerp offer a modern variation on the cerused theme by reversing it so the doors are gently whitewashed while the grain is tempered to the oxidized gray of old wine casks.

minimalist limed oak kitchen cabinets by AIDArchitectenAnother view of the kitchen shows the subtle effect of the finish on a big, slab-front pantry-cabinet wall which gives the effect of the natural wood look Belgians love,      but tweaked.

Jean-Michel Frank cabinet sold at Christie'sAnd here’s the clear inspiration — a Jean-Michel Frank minimalist cabinet that sold at Christie’s in the $30,000 range.

how to identify plain sawn, quarter sawn and rift sawn oak Because this finish varies with the wood grain – which results from the  way wood is sawn — an Oak 101 chart shows distinctions between plain sawn, quarter sawn or rift sawn oak. Plain-sawn is standard and rift-sawn the most highly prized.

pickled oak cabinets in a kitchen by Venegas and CompanyOverall whitewashing – as opposed to highlighting – yields a pickled look, which I happen to love. A gray undertone helps keep the undesirable pink undertone out of red oak (white oak is blonder) and the result is hip enough to harmonize with techy 3D porcelain Geologica backsplash tile.

cerused ebonized oak kitchen by Warmington and NorthFans of black-and-white modernist kitchens may go for partially ebonized and cerused oak cabinets which marry well with marble and are a more forgiving than the currently trending black lacquer finish.

rift sawn oak plank cabinets in a modern kitchenCerused, rift-sawn oak planks give country-style batten cabinets an unusually mellow look that blends well with calacatta marble countertops and backsplash and imbues the entire space with a crisp, modern edge. I can’t help but think that Jean-Michel Frank, creator the straight-edged Parsons table during his tenure at the New York City design school of the same name (also my alma mater), would be pleased to see the way his furniture style progressed into fitted elements for one of the most-used spaces in the house.

(Source: JAM-Design, aidarchitecten, Christie’s Auctions, woodstairs, venegasandcompany, warmingtonandnorth, housebeautiful)

 

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