BLOG - custom

A few days ago we had a custom built in unit installed for a client. (Hence the inspiration for my built in blog.) After the layout of the unit was designed, I realized that the most time consuming aspect was the be picking out hardware. There are a plethora of cabinet knobs and pulls out there, but most that were readily available had a generic quality to them. After a bit of searching I managed to find a few that I thought were interesting details to add to a custom piece.

This 1970s Michel Pigneres sideboard is an example of who the right hardware details can complete the design.

Tommi Parzinger cabinet c. 1965

The Nanz Company has a beautiful collection of knobs ranging from streamlined to geometric to traditional.

Nest Studio has a similar option at an economical price. They also have some interesting acrylic options.

If acrylic is what you're in the market for, The Paris Apartment has some nice options.

Vintage is always a good option. Above from Etsy, below from Urban Remains.

Whitechapel

Historic Home Hardware

P.E. Guerin nugget knob

Ted Boerner for Rocky Mountain Hardware. Above : Shift Grip | Below : Shift Knob

P.E. Guerin pull

E.R. Butler & Co. knobs

A little glamour from H. Theophile

Horn Handle from Ochre.

Hopefully we'll have pictures of our built in unit (knobs and all) soon!

A lot of you saw our Valentine's post where we featured the sofa from this custom bedroom we designed. Now you have a chance to see the room in its entirety. We are calling this a custom bedroom because we custom designed three pieces of furniture in this room: the sofa, the bed (complete with flat screen TV) and the shagreen side table. Enjoy!

Last week I shared pictures of the fantastic dining table I saw when I visited Antoine Scapira's studio (www.antoineschapira.com).  I couldn't resist sharing a few more of his fabulous pieces.  Above is a sideboard and small side table.  Look at the woodwork on the sideboard, its incredible no?  I love how he works with just about every material imaginable.

This desk was one of my favorite pieces in his studio.  Don't you love how he used the piece of leather that had the cattle brand on it in the drawer?

I love this set of drawers above and its great that he can do case pieces as well as upholstery.  Don't you love the chair with the parchment detail? 

Today I finally made it out to see my friend Antoine Schapira's studio in Jersey City.  I have a zillion pictures to sort through, but thought I would do a quick post on this incredible table he made.  It was the first thing that caught my eye when I arrived.  I have to preface by saying that my pictures do not even come close to doing his work justice! The pictures above show the table displayed in its proper dining position as well as in it a flip top position.  If I were lucky enough to own this table I might display it upright to showoff the fantastically intricate workmanship.   What is even more amazing is how he makes the gem.  See the image below for the before pictures.   He takes various types of wood and moulds them together create a block form.  Then he thinly slices the block into pieces that he book matches together to create a whole table.  How cool right?  Check back soon for more pictures of my visit to Antoine's studio.  In the meantime more information can be found on his website www.antoineschapira.com. 

Exciting things are happening in our office as we enter the holiday season. A Tribeca townhouse that we've been working on for a while is coming along nicely. We just got images of some chairs we created for the project. This red leather desk chair turned out to be quite a handsome addition!

Here's a completed sleek lucite, leather and metal dining chair for the same project. 

One of my favorite things about my job is when a client agrees to go the custom route with any aspect of a design scheme.  Of course there are plenty of beautiful fabrics out there in the market but I just love taking our job as designers one step further and creating something truly unique and one of a kind.  For a project we are working in Florida, the concept for the embroidery of the living room curtains came from the design we did for a new entryway door.  The client actually provided much of the inspiration in the form of a picture he took while in Paris. He fell in love with the beautiful metalwork found throughout the city and captured 100s of images.  The picture below ended up being the inspiration for the new doors.

Once we narrowed down which inspiration image to go with, we finalized the below door design.

As the project progressed we decided that we wanted to incorporate the elements of the door into the embroidery of the living room curtains.  After we decided on a color scheme (seen below) we began to manipulate the pattern and play around with the repeat.

In the end we decided to take out the external diamonds around the border and simplify the design a bit.  The image below right shows the stitch type we are using.  

The strike-offs will be complete in a few weeks and we promise to update you on our progress!