Now Available at Two Manhattan Locations
Niermann Weeks is now available in two locations in Manhattan! You can continue to see our collection at our NYC flagship showroom in the New York Design Center, and we are now also represented by Agostino Ltd. in the .
NEW YORK SPACES Top 50 Designers Party
Join New York Spaces magazine at their annual Top 50 Party to celebrate the top designers in the NY metro area selected by Editor in Chief Jason Kontos.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
6:00 – 9:00 P.M.
Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams
One Kenmare Square
210 Lafayette St.
New York, NY
(B/W Spring and Broome)
RSVP: NYSEVENT@gmail.com
Click here to find out more about the designers.
NEW YORK SPACES Top 50 sponsored by Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, Bilotta, Harlequin, Waterford Interiors and Sherwin-Williams.
What’s New What’s Next at Niermann Weeks New York – Celebrate as Rue Turns Two!
Please join the Niermann Weeks family and staff at the fourth annual What’s New What’s Next @ 200 Lex program on Thursday September 13 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m in Suite 905 at the New York Design Center. We will be showing our newest products, as well as our upcoming product design directions, and demonstrating some of our hand work techniques.
From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., join the festivities as Rue Turns Two! We’re delighted to be hosting the Rue Magazine staff as their magazine celebrates its second anniversary.
AD Loves NYDC
Please join us in welcoming Architectural Digest Editor in Chief Margaret Russell to celebrate “AD Loves” – Architectural Digest’s favorite finds from the New York Design Center.
TUESDAY, JUNE 19 6-8 P.M.
With cocktails & hors d’oeuvres
200 Lexington Avenue (between 32nd & 33rd Streets) New York City
PARTICIPATING SHOWROOMS INCLUDE:
The Bright Group | Century Furniture | Dennis Miller Associates | Hickory Chair Pearson | Lexington Home Brands | Niermann Weeks | PROFILES | Stephanie Odegard Collection
Guests will be invited to enter a tweet-to-win with one grand prize courtesy of the NYDC.*
Also, please bring a business card to our Suite 905 to enter a special raffle for a new Niermann Weeks decorative accessory!
Please respond by June 18 to events@archdigest.com. This invitation is valid for you and one guest.
*Full rules and regulations will be posted at the event.
Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club 40th Annual Decorator Show House
The Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club will open its 40th Annual Decorator Show House next week. Every year, celebrated interior designers transform a luxury Manhattan home into an elegant exhibition of fine furnishings, art, and technology. The event began in 1973 when several dedicated women’s committee members of the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club launched the Decorator Show House to raise funds for much needed after school and enrichment programs for New York City children. Over the course of four decades, this project has raised in excess of $17 million and grown into a “must destination” for thousands of design enthusiasts and is recognized for launching interior design trends throughout the world. Today, the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club is one of the most prominent and responsive youth development agencies in New York City and a “flagship” of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
We at Niermann Weeks are honored to have some of our lighting in this year’s showhouse in the dining room designed by Susan Zises Green.
Open to the Public May 16 – June 14
Location: The Aldyn Residences at 60 Riverside Blvd (Blvd., NOT Riverside Drive, between 62nd & 63rd)
Hours: Monday through Saturday: 11 am – 5 pm
Tuesday and Thursday evenings until 8 pm
Sunday: noon – 5 pm
For ticket sales and information for all events related to the 40th Annual Decorator Show House, please click here.
Veranda’s 25th Anniversary Party
Joe and I met in Manhattan at the Four Seasons Restaurant to help Veranda celebrate its 25th anniversary. When Lisa Newsom started that magazine as a brand new venture, Niermann Weeks was one of her original advertisers, so we were thrilled to party with the Veranda team and its groupies. Here’s the ad we placed those many years ago, showing off half of our enormous Forged Steel Dining Table. Satisfyingly enough, we got lots of orders from that ad. One lovely customer even ordered three of them to install in her covered patio in a Palm Beach mansion.
In Veranda’s March-April 2012 issue, we focused on the outdoor life again with this ad showing our garden furniture. We started selling these tables, chairs, screen, and accessories as early as 1982, and fortunately each year more gardens and patios need to use them.
So, anyway, back to the actual birthday party. This was my first trip to the Four Seasons restaurant, which is a modernist masterpiece of interior design located within the Seagram Building, an architectural superstar. Because I knew the place was super-special, I quickly looked it up in www.wikipedia.com, which said that The restaurant’s interior, which was designed by the building’s architects Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, has remained almost unchanged since construction in 1959. The restaurant was designated by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Committee as an interior landmark in 1989.
Entering the building, Joe and I walked up a flight of steps into the Bar and the Grill areas, then down a hall past a tapestry designed by Pablo Picasso into the main dining area, which Veranda had rented for the occasion. Al I can say is WOW! To me, much of modernism seems cold and uncomfortable, never, ever adjectives I’d use for this interior. Throughout the main areas, glass windows go floor to ceiling and are covered by swags of metal beaded curtains. A hidden fan keeps the waves softly undulating up to the ceiling, and warm pink lights shine upwards . Blooming cherry trees in raised pots further enhanced this warm ambiance, making everyone at the party look as beautiful as we could look. This interior is truly a feast for the eyes.
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, dressed herself as a cupcake to lead us all in singing Happy Birthday, and she gave all of us a pretty little cupcake of our very own to enjoy later.
Veranda’s second editor Dara Caponigro and second publisher Jennifer Levene Bruno mixed with us all and made sure we had a great bash. Thanks, you all!
Afterwards Joe took me to dinner in the Grill area, where the food was just as beautiful and scrumptious as you would expect. In addition, my eyes found a new object to fixate on, a wire sculpture by Richard Lippold that hangs over the Bar. The wires are all of the same material, just hung in clusters of different heights, so the look of the sculpture changed as we changed our positions in the room.
It was a privilege to enjoy this celebration in this setting, just as it has been a privilege to be a Veranda advertiser and groupie. It made me feel all grown up and important.
Thanks for reading my blog, and be well!
Eleanor
Baluster Table Promotion from Spectrum Ltd.
From now through February 17, Spectrum Ltd. is offering a special promotional price on their Baluster Dining Table!
List Price: $9,750 (Original: $11,000)
Spectrum Ltd. has been manufacturing their beautiful acrylic pieces outside of Washington, DC for over thirty years, and Niermann Weeks is pleased that we now represent the Spectrum Collection in both our New York and Washington, DC showrooms. For more information, please contact our sales associates in New York at 212.319.7979 or in Washington, DC at 202.488.1220. You can also email us at contact@niermannweeks.com.
2011 Hearst Magazines Designer Visions: Cinema Style
This week, the Hearst Magazine Group unveiled the fifth annual Designer Visions: Cinema Style at 1212 Fifth Avenue. New York has served as the backdrop for some of cinema’s most stylish movies. Now, House Beautiful, Town&Country and Veranda magazines – along with some of today’s most celebrated designers – have created three spectacular residences inspired by three classic films. Overlooking Central Park, the residences were designed by Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller for Town & Country (inspired by Igby Goes Down), Heather Moore for House Beautiful (inspired by Factory Girl), and Thomas O’ Brien for Veranda (inspired by Someone to Watch Over Me).
The public has three opportunitues to tour the residences this month. Each donation of $35 provides admission, and all proceeds benefit The Art of Elysium, a non-profit organization that delivers the gift of creativity to hospitalized children.
WHEN: October 9, 15, or 16, 2011 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
WHERE: Designer Visions: Cinema Style residences
1212 Fifth Avenue (at 102nd street), New York, NY
CLICK HERE to Purchase Tickets for Oct. 9th
CLICK HERE to Purchase Tickets for Oct. 15th
CLICK HERE to Purchase Tickets for Oct. 16th
Grand Opening of Niermann Weeks at The New York Design Center 2011
WOW! That’s it in a nutshell. I haven’t been to a design function in twenty years that was so well promoted and attended. Joe and I had to push through the crowds just to enter the building, had to wait for an empty elevator, and had to push through the crowds in the halls and in our own showroom. My heart was tripping with joy.
Our sign on the ninth floor.
The view of our showroom from the hallway with our Andres in the purple cardigan helping a customer Andres has been with us since we opened our first Manhattan showroom, and his product knowledge is as immense as his courtliness.
The beautiful rugs in this room and throughout are on gracious loan by Stephanie Odegard, whose showroom is also in The News York Design Center.
Just inside the door, to the right of this photo, my daughter Eleanor created a vignette that she knew would please me. Our Gabrielle Chair and Ottoman are right there as a comfy, elegant spot from which I could greet our visitors. To the left stands a Henry Royer Side Table holding our Chinoiserie Tulipiere. Joe designed the plant holder as a Chinese pagoda in honor of Charlotte Moss, who like me loves all things Chinese and all things floral.
The plant holder includes a water well in each level, so mine at home displays seasonal flowers: asters right now, and at other times pansies, tulips, miniature irises, roses, daisies, etc.
A lovely customer at the opening bought this diptych Rolling Pathway by Douglas Freeman. I like this vignette for its composition of samples from our various vendors. Including Douglas’s work, you see Niermann Weeks’ Octagonal Mirror, Spectrums’ Edinburgh acrylic table, and Henry Royer’s Frisson Hall Table.
Our Lighting hung through the showroom, and here glows over our ever-popular Steel Four Post Bed with the Fantome Bench at its foot. The bed rests on another outstanding Odegard carpet and is flanked by a pair of our Danish Commodes. The Sienna Chair is by Gemelli Reproductions.
The New York Design Center directory scheduled my daughters Claire and Eleanor for demonstrations from 3-9 pm – oh their aching feet! Claire showed how we by hand wire and attach the beads to our chandeliers, and Eleanor applied silver-leaf on various items to show a step in our processes. As a proud mama, I greedily enjoyed hearing customers sing their praises.
Eleanor had already silver-leafed three of our Baccello Mirrors as door prizes.
Congratulations to our lucky winners!
- Dane Pressner from D’Aquino Monaco, dane@daquinomonaco.com
- Heather Hickling from Jaime Drake Design Associates, hhickling@drakedesignassociates.com
- Suzana Monacella from McMillen, smonacella@mcmilleninc.com
To add to our evening, Traditional Home sponsored a book signing by Matthew Patrick Smyth of his new book Living Traditions. Trad Home’s editor Ann Omvig Maine introduced Matthew before his hand started cramping from all the book-signing he did.
Joe and I stood ready to refill Matthew’s glass of sparkling water. Don’t we look absurdly happy?
Our friend John Danzer from Munder-Skiles of the fabulous garden furniture, also came up to chat with Ann and with a startled looking Joe. Joe should know that my camera is ever-ready!
Our opening was big enough news to attract interior designer/blogger Elizabeth Orgera from Shorely Chic in Darien, CT. Now that’s cool.
Tomas Georgi, the newest member of the NW team, stopped giving tearsheets for a moment so I could include him in this blog.
Joe and I finally left for a party featuring a great bluegrass band, BBQ, and cornbread. We abandoned our daughters who doggedly continued their demonstrations for all comers.
Even the Chrysler Building cheered Joe and Me on, as we trudged to our hotel.
When I left for the train home the next morning, I got to see public health at work in Penn Station. The free clinic for flu shots attracted as many people as the NY Design Center had the night before.
Thanks for reading my blog, and please do come see our digs at The New York Design Center (at Lexington Avenue between 32nd and 33rd streets). Tomas and Andres are expecting you.
Eleanor
Websites for you to check out:
www.douglasfreemanartworks.com
www.gemellireproductions.com
www.henryroyer.com
www.matthewsmyth.com
www.munder-skiles.com
www.nydc.com
www.shorelychic.com
www.spectrum-ltd.com
www.tradtionalhome.com
What I Did On My Summer Vacation
For starters, I hurt myself, so had to spend eight weeks swanning around like a Victorian invalid. I don’t know how those Victorian ladies managed to sit around all day, reading interminable novels and sipping tea. The corsetry alone would have killed me. Towards the end, however, things got more exciting.
First came the earthquake on August 23, which made hardly any impact on me personally. I was hobbling around in the garden photographing flowers, and one wretched yellow flower would not stay still for its portrait. After three tries, I decided it wasn’t ready for its close-up and moved over to a more worthy flower, this zinnia in peppermint white and pink. I raised this plant from a seed and am very proud of its flourishing yellow parts that call out to the hummingbirds, bees, and moths.
While the camera continued to dominate my consciousness, the trees in our forest were mightily swaying and rustling, and the earth made the sound of a heavy truck groaning up our hill. Later that night, the news informed me of the earthquake – d’oh! Then my mind made all the connections about the pictures hanging crookedly on the walls, the paint brushes on the floor in Joe’s studio, etc.
Following this very rare natural disaster (for Maryland), a series of hurricanes dumped loads of rain day after day after day. Our house lost power on the evening that Hurricane Irene roared through, not to be restored for nine (9) days! Joe fled to NYC as soon as the trains ran again, but I stayed home to listen to the generator roar. Our neighborhood loses power so often that most households have had to invest in a generator. We did the year that we twice had no power and twice had to trash the contents of the freezer and refrigerator. After the power came back on this Labor Day weekend, the entire neighborhood then roared with the noises from neighbors removing damaged trees and shrubbery.
As I walked around our place, I saw five downed trees, but not one was on the road or the driveway, thank goodness. During the blizzard in February 2010, trees fell in front of and behind my car, and on the driveway, and on the street. That was a really icky natural disaster, but I did get all my cardio digging out my car.
However, let us return to August 2011. Because we are hosting a fundraiser for the Museumof Maritime Pets (http://museumofmaritimepets.org) on September 17, Joe has been busily preparing our home to look like a consciously designed residence. Over time we get lazy, the paint gets scuffed, the stuff increases on every surface of the interior, and we give a bad impression. One would never know that I am married to a designer. So, even before the earthquake and the hurricanes, our home has been overrun with plasterers, painters, light installers, floor refinishers, sellers of Turkish rugs, and other vendors. Basically I have been living in a disaster area within my home, while Mother Nature has inflicted her own fun and games on us.
The only safe place has been our third floor, our bedroom, so we could at least sleep without construction debris on our bed. Our five cats have also all retreated to this sanctuary, where their trauma just accumulates. As much as I hate the noise and mess of construction, cats are creatures of habit whose every habitual ritual has been overturned. My poor little creatures are freaked. I told the head contractor today that Sept 16 is his absolute deadline. He can do it, and my nervous system needs my home to return to being our safe place.
Last night I excavated one chair in the living room so I could sit quietly and quilt. Before I could unfold the quilt, my kitten Stella collapsed on my feet. Finally she had found an oasis of calm. In just a few more days, my entire household can feel that protected.
Thanks for reading my blog, and please come see us at markets in our showrooms.
-On Thursday September 15 at the Washington Design Center.
-On Tuesday September 20 in our new flagship showroom at The New York Design Center in Manhattan.
If you can’t make them, you can be sure I’ll blog about them and we’ll put photos on the Niermann Weeks Facebook page.
Eleanor
Grand Opening of the Niermann Weeks Showroom at the New York Design Center
New Niermann Weeks Showroom at the New York Design Center!
We’ve Moved!
Niermann Weeks New York has relocated to the New York Design Center, 200 Lexington Ave, Suite 905.
Please note that we are currently using two temporary numbers while our main number is transferred to the new showroom. In the interim, you can call us at 646.293.6684 and fax us at 646.293.6685. We will let you all know when our main number is back in service.
Niermann Weeks NY 200 Lexington Ave, Suite 905 New York, NY 10016 Tel 212.319.7979 Fax 212.319.6116Niermann Weeks in Manhattan
My train arrived at New York’s Penn Station at high noon, typically such a bad time that I had given myself an hour to get to our showroom near 59th St and Second Ave. Incredibly, the fourth cab in the queue got me to our showroom in just 25 minutes. That’s got to be a new record for rush hour. In fact, I arrived so unexpectedly early that Joe was unprepared to hide from my camera.
Our daughter Eleanor Niermann had just finished re-arranging the showroom, so I wanted to see how she’d changed our merchandising around. On the wall furthest from Joe, her new vignette really showed off our Visconti Console. Its attenuated lines form a graceful, three-dimensional X that supports a thin slab of walnut on the top. Joe and I had purchased its inspiration in Paris, a teensy Italian mid-century table. We scaled that table up and into a console more useful for an American home. The size is now 66” w by 16” deep by 33” high. I’ve always envisioned this Visconti Console as a pair in a home, placed opposite each other in a foyer or dining room, holding a lovely display of treasured photos and souvenirs.
Another display that caught my eye was this variation on a theme with our Roman Garden Table. It’s unusual to place our Capucine Chandelier overhead this table, but I really like the juxtaposition of the delicate curves of the chandelier floating over the chunkier curves of the table. At home I also top the table with a Quatrefoil Planter. Its waterproof liner gives me the versatility to show a plant or to chill the dinner beverages.
We’d had a run in recent months one our Milano mirrored cabinet. People like the combination of the sleek French walnut cabinetry with the funkiness of our antiqued mirror. The Octagonal Mirror is also an oldie but goodie, and the Kent Sconces have a special place in my heart. Joe and I got the inspiration for them on a delightful tour of country gardens in southern England during one of our wedding anniversaries. (How will we celebrate #43 this fall?)
After looking around, then my eyes went up to enjoy the shadows cast by our ceiling fixtures like the Iron and Crystal,
the Thistle and Folia ceiling fixtures,
and our Biarritz Ceiling Fixture
As I dashed out for train home, my eye lingered on this vignette of our Louis XVI Bed with the Fantome Bench at its foot. I have a friend who considering this very combination of bed and bench for her own home, so she’s already gotten a copy of this photo to show her husband.
Again the cab swiftly delivered me to Penn Station, where I always enjoy these mosaics and murals. To see them, go in the entrance on Seventh Ave at 31 St. On the walls along the escalators are mosaics done in the style of the ancient Romans but showing scenes of gritty New York.
Thanks for reading my blog!
Eleanor
Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse 2011 opens this week!
The Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club will open its 39th Annual Decorator Show House this week. The high-profile renovation project will take up residence in an Upper East Side mansion, 163 East 63rd Street, from April 28 – May 26, 2011. The striking, neo-Federalist style residence was once owned by John Hay “Jock” Whitney and boasts unique historic details acquired during his travels abroad. Each of the 16 rooms in this four-story, 10,000-square-foot mansion will delight design enthusiasts and anyone looking for decorating inspiration. We at Niermann Weeks are pleased to participate with Barbara Ostrom and Amanda Nisbet in this year’s showhouse.
Open to the Public
Thursday, April 28 to Thursday, May 26
Monday through Saturday: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday evenings until 8 p.m.
Sunday: noon to 5 p.m.
General Admission Tickets $30 dollars including Journal
For ticket sales and information for all events related to the 39th Annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House, please click here or call 718-893-8600 ext. 245.
Glamorous Wallpapers in House Beautiful
We just received the October 2010 issue of House Beautiful, and really enjoyed the personal spaces featured in this issue, as well as the restful autumnal tones throughout. After the scorching summer we had here in Maryland, we’re all extra appreciative of the cool, crisp hint of fall in the air.
House Beautiful October 2010
One of the articles that caught our eye was a feature on Glamorous Wallpapers, and we were delighted to see that papers from both Anya Larkin and David Goldberg Design were selected. We represent Anya Larkin in our New York Showroom and David Goldberg Design in our Washington, DC Showroom. Both companies are based in the New York City area, and their hand-painted designs are a wonderful compliment to our own hand finished lighting and furniture pieces.
House Beautiful October 2010 - Glamorous Wallpapers
We just installed a beautiful textured striated fresco paper from David Goldberg Design in our Washington, DC Showroom, and we’ll soon be putting up new displays for fall from Anya Larkin in New York.
NW DC showroom David Goldberg display
David Goldberg Striated Fresco - oak
Niermann Weeks Floor Samples Available
We have some great deals on discontinued and older floor samples right now in our two company showrooms and our representative showrooms across the country. Select items are reduced up to 70% off!
For more information, please contact your local showroom representative or email us at contact@niermannweeks.com.
Click here to see a list of our showroom locations.
Eleanor McKay is Back!
Hi, I’m back now on a part-time basis. This summer has just whipped by me, while I was busy recovering from surgery to remove a tumor from my uterus. Cancer does give you a passport into another place, a great image borrowed from Christopher Hitchens of Vanity Fair. Soon I hope to relinquish my passport to the strange and wonderful C-Land, but my visit there was certainly ‘real different.’ That’s a mid-western expression pronounced in a flat voice but meaning OMG! Just re-watch Frances McDormand in the film Fargo to understand the Minnesota accent and inflection; she sounds exactly like many of my family’s Minnesota relatives.
I can’t leave C-Land, however, until thanking the incomparable Dr. Neil B. Rosenshein and his team at the Weinberg Center for Women’s Health and Medicine at Mercy Medical Hospital in Baltimore. Those people had a biblical ability to lift the crippling fear off my shoulders, and just let them do their jobs – helping women beat cancer. Thank you very much, Dr. R and your angels of mercy!
On my first afternoon back at Niermann Weeks, Joe gave me a present, our new Coquille Chandelier. Wow! During my recovery I had watched far too many films, and this lovely beaded fixture reminds me of a fantasy film from the 1930’s I can just see multiples of it hanging in the Grand Ballroom of the Prince of Fantasia, with beautifully costumed dancers swirling underneath in their rhythmic patterns. Johann Strauss would be leading a band in playing all the most popular waltzes. Jeanette McDonald or Greta Garbo would be my female lead, wearing long white gloves and swagged in blingy jewelry that repeats the swags of our chandelier.
Coquille Chandelier
In reality, our Coquille Chandelier is now on display in all its glory at our New York showroom (232 E. 59th St, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues). If you can, go visit it and inspect the new finish of Camel and Goldleaf. Tell them Eleanor McKay is back at work, and she sent you in to see the Coquille. Thanks so much!
Coquille Chandelier in New York Showroom
Websites you could also visit include:
www.mercymed.com/womens/gynecologyCenter/rosenshein.html
www.vanityfair.com
Spectrum Ltd. Has New Samples in Our NY Showroom!
Spectrum, Ltd. Samples
Niermann Weeks has new Spectrum Samples in our NY Showroom!
Spectrum specializes in fine, handcrafted acrylic furniture that sparkles wherever it lives, and these new pieces are no exception. Come by our showroom to check them otu with us.
Niermann Weeks
The Fine Arts Building
232 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022
(212) 319-7979
www.niermannweeks.com
Spectrum Scallop Side Table
Spectrum Balluster Dining Base
Spectrum Edinburgh Cocktail Table
Spectrum Moscow Console
Find A Designer Day and the Relevance of Interior Designers in Today’s Market
On Aril 29 I attended the fascinating “Find A Designer Day” event at the Washington, DC Design Center. Traditional Home magazine sponsored the day, and their editor Ann Omvig Maine served as emcee for Barry Dixon’s keynote presentation “How to Work With a Designer”. Barry showed how he interpreted the design desires of his clients in creating three, very different homes. He and Ann also listed the questions a client has for the designer, and that the designer has for the client.
More details on that later, but the larger question is: Why does the design world need such a program? Because the internet has turned our wholesale world upside down, allowing consumers in to what was once to them a closed world. Pre-internet, a designer provided access to the wholesale goods sold only design centers. Now, however, designers serve more as concierges to the homeowner, providing value through their professional training in space planning, scale and color selection, and sustainable and universal design. Quoting Crans Baldwin, the CEO of Donghia, the designer today serves as “a guide to authenticity and luxury” and as a ‘cultural concierge’.
The internet has made shopping for all kinds of goods seem so very easy. It has become a virtual shopping center for the world. On-line you see what you like, research it thoroughly, and then can make the securely purchase with your credit card. That’s all very easy and very impersonal. For simple and complete products like a case of Windex or the newest print book by your favorite author, I think the internet has created a perfect shopping experience. However, I think many of us need trained intervention before purchasing products that include bundles of options, like which version of the Blackberry is best for you, or how to customize a chandelier in size and finish for your lifestyle and the ceilings in your home. Sometimes, a person really needs to see and hold and use an actual product before making an intelligent choice. In my experience with designing a home to be innately comfortable and hospitable, I’ve needed major input from a professionally trained interior designer.
When you read Crans Baldwin’s provocative blog, A Glass Half Full, the April 19 entry includes this statement:
You know, I am not a designer, just an ordinary client involved in the design business. However I value what designers, real designers, bring to the party. They do the homework so I don’t have to think about it. They plan, they envision, they draw, they select and specify, they measure, and they consult me when it matters. They deal with late shipments, wrong shipments, mistakes, finish problems, difficult installations, problem suppliers, last minute substitutions, etc. Buying at retail is different, with different expectations. Working with a designer is like working with any other profession, and it has little or nothing to do with retail….
Joe and I understood that truth for the first time when we selected our NY apartment. We are used to living with large open spaces in the country, and so I loathed the spaces shown us in Manhattan. Our world shrank to tiny windows, scuffed floors, ridiculously small “kitchens”, bathrooms marred by eons of other people’s crud layered over by new coats of paint, and an irritating neighbor. While Joe reveled in all the cultural attractions the city offers, I had issues with our living conditions. In order to keep me happy, Joe had to make our humble, dark rooms look marvelously inviting, and miraculously he did all the things that Crans lists in his blog. He dealt with the landlord, selected the wall coverings, scheduled the workers and waited for them and watched the quality of their work, and made the entire space metamorphose. He also created new furniture designs to help illuminate the apartment. Before he created this living room, I likened the space to the inside of a portabella mushroom. Afterward, however, his newly designed interior checked off all the points on my wish list: light-filled, scaled properly, comfy seating, decent lighting to eat by and to read by, pretty, clean, and seeming to be tall and airy. The neutrals reflect Joe’s desire for calm interiors; the bouquet my need for flowers and for color in my home.
Joe Niermann designed interior in a New York Apartment
Ever since Joe accomplished all this interior design himself, he is now content to let a professional designer work with our home. We have learned that being a furniture designer is very different from being an interior designer, and they are worth their weight in gold.
That’s a nice segue back to Ann Omvig Maine and Barry Dixon’s keynote presentation on “How to Work With a Designer”. They spoke in the Niermann Weeks DC showroom, where enough consumers attended so that all seats were occupied and some attendees were required to stand.
Barry Dixon and Ann Maine in the Niermann Weeks DC Showroom
As an interior designer, Barry listens to what his clients want in their home, paying attention also to their non-verbal cues. He showed images of three different homes, explaining how he integrates a home with its exterior. He “tethered the room to its geography” by painting one serene living room in a single shade of muted green, reflecting the grove of magnolia trees outside the windows. As you know, magnolia leaves are shiny green on top while the bottoms are dusty brown. So Barry included accents of sueded brown in the living room, on several ottomans and in the pillows.
Inspiration for Barry Dixon
In this room Barry gave his client a flood of natural light with a pale palette of design, including Niermann Week’s very own Voliere Lantern.
Barry Dixon speaks in the Niermann Weeks Showroom
Niermann Weeks Voliere Lantern
Advising consumers on how to interview an interior designer, Barry’s suggested interviewing three or four designers before making a choice. Things to consider:
* Does the designer have a signature style? If the consumer likes that style, that’s a good sign of success in their relationship.
* Will the designer develop an interior that’s ‘bespoke’ and personalized for the home owner? Show some examples in their portfolio of previous work.
* Do you stick to the home owner’s budget?
* Where do you shop for furniture, fabrics, and accessories?
* Is the designer experienced in working collaboratively with an architect, a point that’s critical in new construction.
* Reviewing the designer’s portfolio, ask and expect detailed explanations of how the interiors developed. If the designer says, “I just did it because it was pretty”, that’s not a good enough answer. Don’t hire that person.
* Can the designer provide a list of references from past clients?
Ann Maine asked Barry how an interior designer prices his or her work. He has an hourly charge of $150 to $300 for space planning and working with the architect on new construction. Many interiors designers are now acquiring products for the home like sofas and tables, pricing that work at the cost of the product plus 25-30%.
Then Ann asked Barry what he and any interior designer needs to know about the potential client.
* What’s their real budget?
* Show a binder of tear sheets and color chips that have appeal to the home owner.
Following Barry and Ann’s presentation, most of us trouped to the Donghia showroom. Most but not all. Consumers had been able to sign up for free 30 minute consultations with interior designers. Bringing their photos, plans, and swatches, they could learn first-hand how much insight a professional interior designer brings to a home’s decoration and function. The two designers stationed in the Niermann Weeks showroom interacted effectively with their consumers, and I think will be hired to help a newly engaged, first-time home owner design his home for his comfort and within his budget. I really enjoyed watching these useful and eye-opening interactions.
Back at the Donghia showroom, their CEO Crans Baldwin spoke on “Jumpstart Your Own Recovery”. Crans has been speaking for over a year at design centers around the country, gathering and sharing innovative ideas used by interior designers to attract consumers to hire them professionally. WOW, he presented a cornucopia of stimulating ideas, and you can read more about them at his blog A Glass Half Full. To condense his point, an interior designer brings vision and talent to the service of a homeowner. I don’t want to steak his thunder, so please follow the link to his blog at the end of my blog.
Then the Century Furniture showroom invited us all to a swank cocktail party where interior designers, showroom staff, consumers, and the editorial staff of Traditional Home mingled for informal chats and useful networking. On the whole, I think all benefited from this series of events at DC’s “Find a Designer Day.”
Please visit these websites for more information:
www.dcdesigncenter.com
www.rosecrans.wordpress.com to see the blog A Glass Half Full by CEO Crans Baldwin
of Donghia.
Spring Market 2010 at the D&D Building NY, May 12th
This year’s Spring Market 2010 at New York’s D&D Building features the keynote: “The Intersection of Quality and Craftsmanship”
An engaging discussion about what defines artisan-quality textiles, furnishings, and interior spaces. We’ll explore how these leading designers curate and discern furnishings and accessories for interior projects and learn about their refined sensibilities and commitment to craftsmanship when it comes to their own product design work.
This panel will include: Pamela Jaccarino, editor-in-chief of LUXE Interiors + Design, and panelists Bunny Williams, Laura Kirar, Thomas Jayne, and Stephen Elrod.
For more information and details, please visit the Decoration & Design Building’s Website
Savel Fabric’s Jakob Schlaepfer Line
Niermann Weeks is fortunate to represent the wonderful Savel fabrics in our showrooms.
Savel is really Sallie Hall and Andrea Elish, a mother/daughter team, who travel the world finding artisanal fabrics of extraordinary texture and tone. Last year I wrote about their Saladino for Savel Fabric Collection, which has been a big seller. By popular demand John will even be expanding his collection this year.
Now I want to write about Savel’s collection for the famous Swiss fabric company Jacob Schlaepfer. (From now on, let’s just abbreviate the name to JS.) JS came into business in 1904 and rapidly gained fame for lace-making, embroidery, and innovative fabric techniques for haute couture. As time has passed, most of the famous couturiers have depended on JS for specialty fabrics. The names include Armani, Romeo Gigli, Yves St. Laurent, Chanel, Ungaro, Christian Lacroix, Prada, Dior, and Marc Jacobs. Recently when JS decided to launch a décor line of fabrics, they selected Savel to represent them in the US,
In 2008 Niermann Weeks launched JS for Savel, first in Los Angeles and then in New York. The JS website brags about the range of their prize-winning offerings, like classic St Gallen guipure lace, textiles studded with rhinestones, or our unique sequin embroideries. Then there are textile innovations such as ink jet prints, laser cut, composés and experiments using metal, varnish and paper. These extraordinary handcrafted fabrics can be used either as textile art installations or in drapery, wallcoverings, or upholstery. After reading that kind of copy, De Beers Diamond Jewellers has appointed JS to design and supply a textile as the new corporate standard for all de Beers shops worldwide.
Now, let’s look at what all the fuss is about. Savel’s Andrea Elish stands here in front a frame of JS’s Lara Meissen pattern.
Savel's Andrea Elish in front of Jacob Schlaepfer Textiles
This photo does not catch the amazing clarity and complexity of the images on the fabric. This detail may give you a better idea, but you really need to come see this fabric in person at Niermann Weeks’ NY or DC showrooms. The images are so clear and so realistic that your hand just wants to handle them. Your eye forgets that you are really looking at an incredibly skillful fabric design.
Jacob Schlaepfer Textiles
If you like minimalism better than a riot of color, then look at this JS fabric that won the European Imagination Prize in 2009 for outstanding textile. It’s a three-dimensional creation of foam tipped with gold leather and applied to transparent tulle. Selected from 1200 submissions, JS got the award for the most daring and most surprising fabric in terms of material, technique and finishing.
Jacob Schlaepfer Textile, Winner of the 2009 European Imagination Prize for Outstanding Textile
In NY the JS display and our showroom manager, Sani, greet you at the elevator entrance:
Jacob Schlaepfer Textile Display in Niermann Weeks' NY Showroom with our Showroom Manager Sani
The late lamented magazine Metroopolitan Home loved the JS line.
Jacob Schlaepfer In Metropolitan Home Magazine
Surely you need to make your headboard as fun as this one in the City Garden Hotel in Zug, Switzerland? I’d do it at home, if I thought Joe could handle all the color and pattern. Looking up at that fabric would put me in a good mood for the rest of the day, come what may.
Jacob Schlaepfer textiles upholster a headboard in the City Garden Hotel in Zug, Switzerland
And now let’s close with my all-time favorite image. In Moscow a pool is being “roofed” with a customized version of the Glinka pattern. Not only can these Russian swimmers use the indoor, heated pool all year round, but they also swim under an almost-photorealist sky. Lucky people!
Jacob Schlaepfer textiles used to form the ceiling of a swimming pool in Russia
Since I hope you are now intrigued by Savel’s Jakob Schlaepfer collection, please refer to these websites for more information:
* www.citygarden.ch/en for lots of installation shots showing JS in use
at a new hotel in Zug, Switzerland, near Zurich
* www.debeers.com
* www.jakob-schlaepfer.ch
* www.savelinc.com
And don’t forget to come see the fabric in person, so you can swoon as I do.
* In NY we’re in The Fine arts Building at 232 E. 59th St (between 2nd and 3rd)
* In DC we’re in the Washington Design Center at 300 D St SE.
Niermann Weeks Welcomes Anya Larkin to our NY Showroom
Niermann Weeks welcomes Anya Larkin as the newest addition to our wall coverings collection in our New York Showroom.
Anya Larkin is a most passionate designer who brings the highest level of artistry to everything she touches. Wall coverings, like fine works of art, add feeling and depth to a room. It is a pleasant emotion – created by layers of uncompromising craftsmanship. Larkin patiently mixes subtle reflections of light, with thoughtful, intellectual patterns and textures reminiscent of the sublime Zen of oriental art. For Larkin the wall and the spaces in between are vast canvases for her endless artistry.
Come in and experience these beautiful works of art first hand or at Anya’s website: www.anyalarkin.com
Niermann Weeks
The Fine Arts Building
232 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022
(212) 319-7979
www.niermannweeks.com
Niermann Weeks and John Saladino are a Great Match for Savel Fabrics
John Saladino has been spreading his design genius around lately. Niermann Weeks held a party for him in our New York showroom to celebrate his newest fabric line, Saladino for Savel. It’s a couture collection of exquisite fabrics in the subtle colors for which John is famous – grays, periwinkles, pinky browns – in mohair, silk velvet, linen, wide-width sheers, and subtle patterns. For me, John’s palette soothes the soul, and the feel of his fabrics is as comfortingly soft as a baby’s skin.
Saladino for Savel at Niermann Weeks Showrooms
Niermann Weeks represents Savel’s line in both our DC and NY showrooms. The mother/ daughter team of Sallie Hall and Andrea Elish for 20 years has combed the mills of Europe to present artisanal fabrics to an American audience. John chose well when he chose Savel for his fabric collection. You can see a smattering of their range at the website www.savelinc.com
At our showroom fete for Saladino for Savel, John held a dialog with his audience about the impact of light, color, and texture in interiors, and how the interior nourishes the soul of its residents. After an hour of formal dialog, we all gathered around a late lunch to keep talking, although we did drag John and his assistant Jane Seamon into this photograph with me, Joe, and falls of John’s fabrics. To enjoy more of John’s virtuosity, go to www.saladinostyle.com.
John Saladino, Jane Seamon, Eleanor McKay, & Joe Niermann at Niermann Week's NY Showroom
A week later we all gathered again in New York for the opening of Hearst magazines’ joint showhouse, Designer Visions: Cinema Style. On opening night, the exterior courtyard featured stills from the films that inspired Thom Filicia, Richard Mishaan, and John to do the interiors in the three adjoining townhouses. John repeated the image in a cozy study on the ground floor of his interior for Veranda, inspired by Girl With A Pearl Earring.
Designer Visions: Cinema Style, Girl With A Pearl Earring
Guests packed opening night, just like peanut butter in a jar, but I managed to get some photos, but only of details. New Yorkers must be starved for good design ideas, judging from how many of them attended this event. Because of the throng I fought my way through John’s work, but completely missed the work of Thom Filicia and Richard Mishaan. Sorry, gentlemen; I’m sure you did great jobs! Dear readers, you’ll just have to go see their townhouses for yourselves – open through the end of the year at the Soho Mews.
To create a pleasing stop to his living room, John hung his Savel fabric, Stonewash in Natural. It did a good job in softening the sound and the feeling. The visual is soft but the power is strong.
Saladino for Savel
Savel’s Andrea Elish was smiling as she enjoyed the fall of her fabric. Standing next to her reminds me that I got my mother’s 5’2″ in height, not my father’s 6 feet. In another life, maybe I’ll be taller.
Savel's Andrea Elish and Niermann Weeks' Eleanor McKay
My photos don’t do justice to John’s interiors. His signature wall treatment. scratch coat plaster, adds depth, texture, and patina to several of his walls. Joe and I plan to repaint our downstairs this winter, but I know I’m too impatient to prepare that texture on all our walls.
John Saladino Signature Wall Treatment
After John was interviewed by TV crews, this study was temporarily abandoned, allowing me a larger view of his design. John is as height-challenged as I, so he left enough pillows on the sofa for people like us. He also used iridescent silks on his pillows, reflecting a different color depending on how the light falls. The lamp placement would let me happily sit and read, as long as a cat or small dog could join me. The light glowing from the pillows, the lamp, in the painting, and off the walls, reminds me of the luminous quality of the pearl from Vermeer’s painting. Finally, John’s romantic dinner setting for two seemed like an added blessing in this space.
Saladino's Romantic Dinner Setting for Two
As I pushed out of the study through the crowd, kind people parted long enough for me to snap these two tabletops. Being married to a design freak, I can imagine the time, pain, and anguish invested in making these vignettes perfect. The steps include: find the right objects, clean and place them so their patina is just so, find the right flowers, make sure the overall composition balances, add a hint of spontaneity, etc.
John Saladino
John Saladino
For more information about this showhouse, which is open through December 2009, please see www.designervisionsonline.com. The magazines will also publish a story in several months on the project they sponsored:
• Thom Filicia for House Beautiful, based on the film The Big Chill
• Richard Mishaan for Town&Country, based on Dinner at Eight
• John Saladino for Veranda, based on Girl With A Pearl Earring
John Saladino is my friend and so my praise may not be trustworthy, please see this unsolicited praise of John’s work, reproduced from Things That Inspire, posted on October 27, 2009.
New York Showroom Spring Open House May 19th
New York Showroom Open House
Niermann Weeks invites you to visit an open house in our New York Showroom on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009. The Showroom will present many new designs from Niermann Weeks, and represented lines will also demonstrate their newest products. Come join us from 9 to 5 for product demonstrations and light refreshments in the Fine Arts Building.
Niermann Weeks
The Fine Arts Building
232 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022
T 212.319.7979
