August 21, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

This past weekend, I attended the Madison-Bouckeville outdoor antiques fair in upstate New York. It was the first time I'd been to it. For those who haven't been, it's sort of a scaled-down Brimfield with more cows and less modern design. Fun, nonetheless, as the weather held out until about 1:00PM. (It wouldn't be an outdoor antiques fair unless it poured at least half the time.)

I left the van in the city intentionally so that I wouldn't fill it up just because it was there. But I filled the car up instead, primarily with a 1970's craft rocking chair from Vermont. I impressed myself by determining that it would fit in the car without measuring it, or the car. It was pure luck: I do not recommend technique.

With me at the fair were Interior Design magazine luminaries Cindy Allen and Marino Zullich. Cindy had fun, but I think she has fun everywher...Read More
Industries: Accessories, Furniture, Residential

August 18, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

G.C. Mitch assures me that I should be in by December. (I'm equally sure I will be Obama's vice presidential running mate this September). I only hope my house will be closed in time so that I can begin transporting family heirlooms and ancestral portraits. My most prized possession is a post-Russian Revolutionary portrait of the founder of our family dynasty, Harry Siskin, standing so democratically next to his first employee. The other image is of Harry's furniture upholstery store, the Philadelphia Upholstering Company, curiously named considering it was located in Los Angeles. 

 
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Industries: Building Products, Residential

August 13, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

How great it would be if all your ideas came to you right when you needed them? But if they did, would they still be great tomorrow? Although I have a general idea of what the interior of my house will look like, I know that as things progress, and as I progress, it will change. A building needs a foundation, but do chairs? What was Frank Lloyd Wright thinking when he bolted the dining room chairs to the floor? A great interior designer, an architect doth not make.

One of the strongest tenets of my design philosophy (there aren't many), is that an interior should be forgiving of change, whether it's due to something as subtle as a mood swing or as dramatic as a natural disaster.  Granted I wouldn't want the furniture placement of my living room to be decided by an earthquake, but if it works…

The only designer I know of who manipulates architec...Read More
Industries: Residential

August 4, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4)

 
We started building without a complete set of drawings (to say the least). This is something I would NEVER advise my clients to do, because it becomes a race to keep one step ahead of the contractor. Mitch told me that I could move in by December (ahem, of what year?). I’m highly doubtful that my house warming party will be a Christmas event. A Purim festival—maybe.



March madness


But pretty soon there will be a roof, to be followed by wiring. I have to make a decision about whether or not to have recessed lighting. I love the look of a clean, uninterrupted ceiling, but will I have enough light with just lamps? Building a house at age 60 presents certain issues. How will I live in t...Read More

July 28, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

A new home means a new community and new social interactions. I have moved exactly once in my life, when I moved from my childhood home to New York City. That was in 1974. It's been a very long time since I've been the new kid.

I grew up in the upper middle class Jewish ghetto of Beverly Hills. Back then it was a small community and, except for the celluloid citizens, very similar to Jewish suburbs like Great Neck or Bloomfield Hills. Other differences may have been that those suburbs didn’t have tour buses circling the neighborhood, and Richard Dreyfus wasn’t in their high school’s drama club. Needless to say, I still bear some 90210 emotional scars.

Drama Club. Note Richard Dreyfus and Albert Brooks (ne Albert Ei...Read More