Category Archives: Rooms

Design Diary: CFDA Does The Aldyn

The new glass tower on the Upper West Side, The Aldyn (click through to the article on Curbed NY; it’s pretty funny) has invited designers to decorate a series of rooms on its 14th floor for a CFDA charity showhouse.

Tours of the rooms opened to the public today. Admission is $25 and benefits the CFDA Foundation.

Diane von Furstenberg living room.

Diane von Furstenberg bedroom.

DVF place settings, part of the DVF Home collection, will available next February.

Jonathan Adler children’s room. Happy, happy.

Sitting area by Nicole Miller.

Lambertson Truex study.


Lambertson Truex, which just launched a bag line for Tiffany, uses the famous robin’s egg blue boxes at each place setting.

Elie Tahari’s sumptuous fur-covered bed.

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Images via Racked NY

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Fine Print: Lars Bolander’s Scandinavian Design

The Vendome Press, September, 2010

Swedish interior designer Lars Bolander, who has showrooms in New York City and West Palm Beach, recently published his first book, Lars Bolander’s Scandinavian Design.

The book is quite beautiful, featuring a mix of spare modern spaces and traditionally furnished Scandinavian rooms. While the aesthetic is incredibly different, one quite modernist the other a more restrained, almost urban version of shabby chic, the designs share common elements, like muted colors, light floors, beautiful lighting, and an overall soothing sensibility.  (All four Scandinavian countries are represented. Can you name them?)

I interviewed Mr. Bolander for “The Inside Source.” I’ll link here when the piece is live later this week. [UPDATE: Lars Bolander on TIS.] Meanwhile, I didn’t want to hold off showing you the beautiful photos. Hopefully you haven’t seen them all on other design blogs yet.

The second image, which pictures a quintessential Gustavian living room, is my favorite. I love the bold blue wallpaper in the bedroom shot too. And, that glass corner bathroom with the overhead rain shower is pretty terrific too.


Photo: Steffan Johansson

Photo: Simon Upton

Photo: Staffan Johansson

Photo: Staffan Johansson

Photo: Solvi dos Santo

Photo: Solvi dos Santo

Photo: Solvi dos Santo



Photo: Lars Ranek

Photo: Ake Eson Lindman

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Montage: 20 Spaces with Swings

I’ve been noticing swings in interiors rather a lot over the last year. The plexiglass ones have a retro ’60s look and the rattan harken back to the ’70s. I prefer the cleaner, more architectural designs. I sprinkled in a few summery outdoor ones too.

Brian Andriola

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Design Diary: Tommy Hilfiger’s NYC Apartment

Harper’s Bazaar shot Tommy Hilfiger, his wife Dee and baby Sebastian at the family’s newly re-furbished duplex at The Plaza. They purchased it in 2008, and tried to sell it last year – for a mere $50 million – but now seem thrilled with the space, which the designer describes as”old-world atmosphere complementing the old-world Plaza.”

The condo, perched on the 18th and 19th floors, replaces Hilfiger’s Greenwich mansion, which he sold recently for $20 million. He still has his Mustique getaway and they’ve also purchased a smaller weekend retreat in another Connecticut suburb. After all, all the other kids (he has 4, she has 2) are either grown or at boarding school. Hilfiger describes this palace-like apartment as “cozy.”

The decor incorporates 20-plus Warhols, a Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Harry Benson photographs of Truman Capote’s 1966 Black and White Ball, which took place at The Plaza, and counted Babe Paley, Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra as guests. There’s also the original New York Times sign in the study, furniture that once belonged to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and a crystal sailing-ship chandelier in the nursery.  It’s all so very grandiose.

Photos by Douglas Friedman

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Design Diary: Patricia McDonagh for This Old House

Earlier this year interior designer Tricia McDonagh emailed me about a project she had been working on with “This Old House.” To help celebrate its 30th anniversary season, they wanted to help the community where it got its start. The show’s crew worked alongside affordable housing nonprofit Nuestra Comunidad to to renovate a vacant, foreclosed house  in Roxbury. Tricia furnished the interiors in her flawless, clean and elegant style.

The refinished façade of the 1870s Second Empire house.

It was an absolute wreck. Have a look at the “before“pictures. The two units will be sold separately, at an affordable price. The original shingles were replaced with fiber cement siding, and the dilapidated slate roofing (which was salvaged) was replaced with recycled rubber architectural shingles.

The crew restored the hand-carved wood banister and newel post in the entryway.

These plaster ceiling medallions throughout the house were either be restored or replicated.

The rooms all have Tricia’s spare, sophisticated touches, like muslin covered furnishings.

The artwork over the sofa, which looks like a tie dye scarf, is actually beaded porcelain on rice paper by Dharma Strasser MacColl from Walker Contemporary in Boston.

The crew was able to salvage the original marble fireplace surround. They removed it for cleaning and repairs, then reinstalled  it.

It’s absolutely gorgeous. I love the subtle color from the silver cups and plant.

The dark walls make the room look rich and cozy. Love how the white shapes of the furniture pop against it too.

A gleaming white kitchen. The original kitchens were on the second floor; the new ones are in the center of the units’ first floors.

Love the nailhead detail on the bed and muslin upholstery.

The old millwork of the window casings and panels were replaced with replicas featuring the same dimensions and profiles. There were ugly dropped ceilings that were removed. Now the rooms have an airy, lofty feel.

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All photos by CASEY Photography.

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