Backyard Escape: a Modern Tree House

Tower House. courtesy of Gluck+ Architect

Did you ever as a child dream of living in the trees among the birds and open sky? The Tower House by Gluck+ Architects is the ultimate grown-up version of that tree house. 

Built in the midst of the beautiful Catskills, the Tower House reflects the trees and the mountain range surrounding it. The architect deliberately created only a small footprint for the first three floors and placed most of the living quarters on the top floor.  To further the illusion of the house melting into its background, he used green enameled walls for the façade. 

Tower House, courtesy of Gluck + Architects

A minimal amount of furniture graced its interior so as not to compete with the outside scenery. Those chosen included mid-century classics with an emphasis on form and flowing lines. 

Interested in learning more about interior design? Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design.  At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories.

Recycling Beloved Vintage Pieces

Airplane and phone lights by Dog Tag Designs

What do you do with those vintage pieces that you love and collected over the years and just can't throw out?  Well, Dog Tag Designs has a practical solution for you. Designer Tyagi Schwartz recycled a toy airplane and mailbox and transformed them to a functional light.  Below he converted a vintage Brownie Hawkeye camera into a light fixture. In the background is a sold Darth Vader mask turned phone. Don't throw out those beloved pieces - have Dog Tag Designs convert them to lights!

Brownie Phone by Dog Tag Designs

Interior Design Book Signing

Foundations of Interior Design by Susan Slotkis

Interior designer Susan Slotkis will present her latest book, Foundations of Interior Design, 2^nd ed., at the GE Monogram Showroom in NYC.  Slotkis, one of our experts on our recently released Sheffield School videos, has been a New York designer for many years as well as a college professor.  Her book provides young aspiring interior designers with a thorough grounding on the practice of interior design.

GE will host the book signing party in its beautiful kitchen showroom at the A&D Building this coming Thursday, May 23^rd at 6pm. Come and join the author for a great party!

Local Talent at Brooklyn Designs

Cabinet by Eric Manigian

Brooklyn has been the hotspot for an outpouring of small-scaled artisan studios in the last few years.  To celebrate this creativity, Brooklyn Designs has hosted an annual exhibition of local furniture and accessories designers. 

This year, the selections reflect superb craftsmanship and a strong affinity for presenting materials in their best possible light. As shown above, Eric Manigian designed a tall display cabinet out of walnut.  He followed the tree’s veins to create the natural edges of each door, thereby creating a stunning, unique piece. 

Coffee tables by From the Source

From the Source, another local company, used contrasting woods of rosewood and mangowood to create these overlapping coffee tables.  The Kai desk below is also of mangowood but oxidized to give it a unique gray finish. 

Kai desk by From the Source

Additionally, many designers are following green methods and using reclaimed woods as their building blocks for their furniture. Aellon designer, Daniel Husserl, reclaimed the woods from an old Indonesian boat that was going to be junked and transformed it into a striking oval table with radiating strips of wood. 

Coffee table from Aellon

Interested in learning more about furniture design? Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design.  At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories.

Kips Bay Decorator Show House 2013

Living Room by Barbara Ostrom

Exciting textures, prints and materials dominate the recent Kips Bay Decorator Show House.  This year the annual fundraising event is held at the Sharp townhouse in New York’s Upper East Side.  Designers from all over are invited to design one of the rooms to wherever their imagination takes them.

Designer Barbara Ostrom layered her sitting room in a wide range of textures that resulted in a relaxing and inviting space (see photo above).  Covering the floor is a Stark sisal carpet upon which Ostrom added a striking zebra print rug.  The gilded Louis XVI armchairs provide sophistication and elegance.  Ostrom gilded the ceiling with a lattice pattern, adding another layer of complexity. To prevent the room from getting too stuffy, Ostrom added a fun fur-covered footstool. 

Gilt ceiling by Andrei Chichkine with Barbara Ostrom

Family Lounge by Eve Robinson

For her family lounge, designer Eve Robinson reimagined the midcentury look.  Using a few vintage chairs and a sofa designed by Danish Jens Risom from the mid 1900s, Robinson reupholstered them in modern muted purple hues.  The vintage game table is from L’Art de Vivre and the lounge chair is fromLorin Marsh.  Pulling the whole room together is a silver gray hide rug designed by Britto Charette.

Family Lounge by Eve Robinson

Designer Sara Story based her inspiration for the living room on her bamboo patterned wallpaper.  The geometric shapes of the bamboo led her to choose the fun cubist sofas and triangular pillows.  The black and white geometric rug is from Flor. 

Living Room by Sara Story

Sitting Room by Jack Levy

Another space with unique wallpaper print is Jack Levy’s sitting room.  Floating around the room is a quirky wallpaper of colorful fish that somehow tied an eclectic room together.  The tiered side table is from Fornasetti and the floral rug from Beauvais Carpets. 

For more wonderful Kips Bay rooms, check out our Designer Monthly.

Interested in learning more about interior design? Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design.  At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories.