Fun, Fine Furniture at Niermann Weeks
Lately Niermann Weeks has been making some intriguing custom orders. They’ve pushed at the envelope of our engineering and creative capabilities, stimulating all of our little grey cells.
Look at this custom Rivoli with 18 arms in a custom, soft vermeil finish. For that finish, first apply goldleaf, and then overleaf it with silverleaf. That finish gives a glow like no other.
We started construction after the client and her designer approved these two renderings. The overall size came to 78″ in diameter by 74″ in overall height.
At the other extreme, for M. J. Interior Designs we made a pair of custom Scalloped Bowfront Commodes as nightstands. If you remember your geometry lessons (which were really hard for me), you remember the difficulties of working with curves. This design features both horizontal and vertical curves, and required LOTS of calculations to develop this custom version sized at 26″ x 18″ deep x 30″ high. One door opens to the left, and the other to the right. And then before installation, we changed the hardware and the hinges to a blackened metal, to reduce their contrast with the lovely dark cherry finish.
Going bigger, how’s this for a Parquet Dining Table? I’d love to have a dining room large enough for it, but our little house couldn’t handle a table 120″ long by 44″ wide. This customer wanted a really smooth top so we hand-planed the inset parquet pieces down as far as we could go.
Mine at home is the normal 84″ wide by 42″ across, but customized with a bleached cherry finish. It’s just the right size for us. Let’s thank photographer Ken Wyner for this image.
My chairs are in our ever-popular Annecy style in the camel and silverleaf finish., Joe was really inspired when he created that finish, which seems to go beautifully with an array of fabrics from the pale satin on my chairs to a dense dark hue to a light silvery silk to a perfect fabric for flower children.
I’m proud of this Follot Settee that we custom designed for a gentleman in Washington. His wife and designer liked the look of our standard Follot Chair, but wanted it more grandly proportioned. Easy and fun for us to do! Their upholstery is a fine, dense white
wool, which means they have a much cleaner house than mine. In just a few minutes in my house, a cat would have shed black or orange or grey or white fur all over the seat.
And to conclude for now, at Bunny Williams’ request we reached into our archives for a Sphinx Console design, to use as a vanity in a powder room. She specified a size of 36″w x 24″d x 30.5″h, with the structure strong enough to hold a thick stone top. She also asked us to insert panels of our antiqued mirror. Someday I’ll see this vanity in its finished installation in an article or book about Bunny’s incomparable style, and again I’ll be so proud!
For more information about the fine people with whom we work, please look on the web.
* M. J. Interior Designs, Bethesda, MD
Berner Sutphin Designs – Stately Homes by the Sea Showhouse, Rumson, NJ
We just received this collection of beautiful photos from our friends at Berner Sutphin Designs of Niermann Weeks’ pieces used in a showhouse that they designed in New Jersey. They’re just so wonderful, especially because we don’t always get to see how our designs are used by our clients. These turned out fabulously!
Luce Console, Annecy Arm Chair, Three Armed Italian Sconce, & Leone Urn
Ferrara Chandelier & Three Armed Italian Sconce
Luce Console & Annecy Arm Chair
Julien Mirror
Leone Urn
Sevigne Screen Panel
Niermann’s Weekly – select lighting, tables, & seating ready for shipment in 6 weeks
Selected products ready for shipment in 6 weeks
Niermann Weeks continues its commitment to quality craftsmanship and excellent customer service and is excited to announce our new program Niermann’s Weekly. Niermann’s Weekly is a weekly mailing of selected items available in any Niermann Weeks finish to ship within six weeks. Each Wednesday, we will send out an updated list of items available with this expedited lead time to help you provide excellent service to your customers.
Please contact any of our showrooms to place an order today and to be included in our weekly email. For a listing of the showroom closest to you, please follow this link. Quantities are limited and are based on the availability of our stock!
Niermann Weeks’ Finish Library – The White Family
Joe loves new finishes, and we have accumulated about 500 different ones. The most popular ones we’ve sampled in our showrooms in display boxes.
The difference from one finish to another, however, can be merely a matter of degree, ie. several shades less green tint. For instance, when I showed Joe our 40+ different variations on antique white, then several things happened:
* He became less eager to create yet another antique white.
* NW gave specific names to specific finishes.
* NW actually discontinued some of the minor variations.
* Clients more easily got the finish they intended.
It was a happy day. Our website today shows a mere 30 finishes in “Creams/Tans” and 70 in the “White/Greys” section.
Chalk rust may be the most popular of the surviving antique whites. We call this a crunchy finish, as it’s composed of many different layers of plaster and paint. It’s supposed to look like the remnants of a fabulous gilded finish from the 18th century which has fallen on hard times. The gilding has eroded away, exposing the inner layers of plaster and dirt and rust.
It’s a great finish for a chandelier like our new Vivaldi, hanging here in our DC showroom.
Because of its crunchiness, it doesn’t translate well onto a piece with a larger, flatter surface area, like this Venetian Bed. We’ve developed the more durable Venetian ivory and gilt for beds.
Camel and Silverleaf is a prime example of a whitish finish that does translate well from design to design, regardless of surface area.
It started out on our Neoclassical Urn Lamp which Joe designed with Charlotte Moss.
We’ve now put that finish on:
A custom tall Charlus Etagere
Our standard Annecy Settee and Chairs
Our Versailles Bed
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