Profiles

Nov 10, 2009

Design by Michale Wolk, Photography by Dan Forer

Making Design Matter: Michael Wolk

Decorati caught up with “Neo- Modernism” designer Michael Wolk, founder and creative director of Miami-based Michael Wolk Design Associates. How would you describe your design style? “Neo-Modernism” is the term we use to describe our style. It is the blending of the exuberance and dynamicism of American modernism with the grace, elegance and refinement of European tradition. What [...] (more...)

Nov 3, 2009

The Lifestylers: Soucie Horner

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Check out Decorati’s exclusive interview with Chicago design stars, Shea Soucie and Martin Horner of Soucie Horner Ltd, to learn how they refine their clients’ lifestyles through graciously designed spaces. Which comes first: lifestyle or product/design? Is it lifestyle that has generated the design changes, or is design the driving force that affects how we live? We [...] (more...)

Oct 27, 2009

The Buzz on David Phoenix

Posted in Designer Profile, Guest Blogger, Profiles, The Buzz on Antiques • 13 comments

By Buzz Kaplan, Decorati Contributing Antiques Editor and author of The Buzz on Antiques. I met David Phoenix in 2002 when he was already at the top of his game in the Los Angeles high-end design market… Back then, I went to LA to see him because many of my designer clients told me “He’d be a [...] (more...)

Oct 20, 2009

Designing Happiness: Luke Vahle

Posted in Designer Profile, Profiles • 6 comments

Decorati took some time out of Fifth Season Design owner Luke Vahle’s busy day to learn how this New York designer seeks to nourish the souls of his clients through bold, thought-provoking design that positively impacts both the residents and the planet. (more...)

Oct 13, 2009

The Study of Elegance: Joe Nye

Posted in Designer Profile, Profiles • 6 comments

By Donna Sapolin Los Angeles interior designer Joe Nye doesn’t hew to a single stylistic credo; instead, he lets his clients’ needs inspire a host of unique solutions. Yet, there is one quality that all his projects hold in common and that is their sense of graciousness. Raised in a Kearney, Nebraska household where the use [...] (more...)

Oct 6, 2009

The Buzz on James Lumsden: Back to the Classics

Posted in Designer Profile, The Buzz on Antiques • 6 comments

By Buzz Kaplan, Decorati Contributing Antiques Editor and author of The Buzz on Antiques. The morning I interviewed Los Angeles design icon, Jim Lumsden, I forgot to eat breakfast and had low blood sugar. So when I arrived at his gorgeous home and office in the Hollywood Hills, I was feeling a bit woozy. When I arrived, [...] (more...)

Sep 29, 2009

Objects of Desire: Laura Kirar

Posted in Designer Profile • 1 comment

By Donna Sapolin Laura Kirar exits a status meeting, shuts the door to her office, and settles into a comfy chair. At the helm of two design businesses-TRU Design devoted to residential and commercial interiors, and LKDL Miami, dedicated to licensing and products-she’s got a lot on her plate. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to know just [...] (more...)

Sep 22, 2009

Style Voyages: Arthur Dunnam

Posted in Designer Profile • 5 comments

Read Decorati’s exclusive tête-à-tête with Arthur Dunnam, design director of Jed Johnson Associates. How did you become interested in interior design? I was always interested in anything having to do with the arts: drawing, painting, sculpture. As a boy growing up in a small town in North Louisiana (an area not known for its architectural marvels!), I was [...] (more...)

Sep 15, 2009

The Buzz on Martyn Lawrence-Bullard

Posted in Designer Profile • 8 comments

By Buzz Kaplan, Decorati Contributing Antiques Editor and author of The Buzz on Antiques. If Che Guevara had a love child with Rupert Everett and that adorable baby became a top L.A. designer, his name would be Martyn Lawrence-Bullard. You know how when you’re in high school, you get voted as “Most Likely to Succeed” or “Best [...] (more...)

Sep 8, 2009

The Tailored Home: Janie Hirsch

Posted in Designer Profile, Profiles • 13 comments

Keep reading Decorati’s exclusive interview with Janie Hirsch to learn about how this award-winning Atlanta designer developed a childhood thirst for design, loves all things French, and is embracing the internet to expand her knowledge of the design world. What was your inspiration for the Westbrook residence? The exterior of this home had a slight Italian influence, [...] (more...)

Sep 1, 2009

Modern Organic: DESIGNLUSH

Posted in Manufacturer Profile, Sponsored • No comments

Keep reading to learn how DESIGNLUSH’s co-founder and president Stephen Mitchell is redefining modern furniture with contemporary organic pieces, as well as pieces inspired by antique techniques. Click on the photographs to view select products. DESIGNLUSH was born out of the passion of its founders, Thomas Ruscica and I, for custom, contemporary design and the realization [...] (more...)

Aug 25, 2009

The Collected Interior: The Buzz on Suzanne Kasler

Posted in Designer Profile, Guest Blogger, The Buzz on Antiques • 10 comments

Check out Decorati’s Contributing Antiques Editor, Buzz Kaplan’s, tête-à-tête with top Atlanta designer Suzanne Kasler. Photography by Frances Janisch. SEE SUSAN’S PORTFOLIO ON DECORATI Describe your design style in five words or less. Inspired. What are three most important elements of sophisticated design? Scale, proportion, and attention to detail. Your interiors are so strikingly different and new. Where do you [...] (more...)

Aug 18, 2009

Cinderella Ellsley: Romancing the Range

Posted in Designer Profile, Kitchen and Bath, Profiles • 4 comments

By Karin Edwards .A Connecticut kitchen by Ellsley uses French flourish to soften the all-American dream of one roomy space that transitions easily from cooking to relaxing hangout, or formal entertaining. . Cinderella has nothing on Beverly Ellsley. Take one look at the centuries-old French parquet flooring that tops a kitchen island of her making and it’s obvious [...] (more...)

Aug 11, 2009

California Classic: Kathryn Waltzer

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By Donna Sapolin When a mid-west couple decided to move west, they purchased a 5,500-square-foot English Tudor house in Pacific Palisades and then turned to Los Angeles designer Kathryn Waltzer to lend it a more down-to-earth outlook, one suited to a casual lifestyle that revolves around the needs of a brood of three pre-teen boys. The [...] (more...)

Aug 4, 2009

Classical Redux: Mick de Giulio

Posted in Designer Profile, Kitchen and Bath • 2 comments

By Karin Edwards . There’s a hole in the floor of the 14th Century fortress in Verona, Italy that mid-20th century designer Carlo Scarpa rescued from false, fantastical Victorian renovations into a museum of uncommon architectural integrity. Peer inside the hole, as Mick de Giulio did, and you’ll spy centuries of construction layers. Return to the art [...] (more...)

Jul 28, 2009

Glamour Wars: Jamie Drake

Posted in Designer Profile, Profiles • 6 comments

By Donna Sapolin . Interior designer Jamie Drake hops off the curb to flag a New York City cab and answers my call. The urban din—bustling crowds, honking horns and screeching brakes—could rattle even the most inveterate multi-tasker, but Drake manages to calmly and deliberately articulate his design vision while dashing from one pressing errand to the [...] (more...)

Jul 21, 2009

Fusion Kitchens: Troy Adams

Posted in Designer Profile, Profiles • 5 comments

By Karin Edwards . Fusion menus delight with a blend of Eastern flavors and Continental cuisine. It takes more than a few far-reaching ingredients, however, to create a fusion kitchen in the mind of designer Troy Adams. Yes, his kitchens juxtapose exotic natural materials including basalt, lava stone, bamboo and cork with machined stainless steel. But the [...] (more...)

Jul 14, 2009

Vive Le Luxe: Helene Aumont

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By Donna Sapolin Sitting astride one of the Dutch Friesian horses she owns, Helene Aumont trots through the vineyards near her ranch in Santa Ynez, California. It is early in the morning and she is taking some personal time before heading into the bustling office of her eponymous furniture design business, the Helene Aumont Collection, where [...] (more...)

Jul 7, 2009

The Ring Master: Katherine North

Posted in Designer Profile, Profiles • 3 comments

By Donna Sapolin Few designers point to the circus as a key source of inspiration. But San Francisco-based designer Katherine North is quick to identify this extravaganza of color and international showmanship as one that wields a significant impact on her design perspective. Her great great uncles were the Ringling Bros., her father owns and operates [...] (more...)

Jun 30, 2009

Buzz Kaplan’s Adventures in Antiquing

Posted in Guest Blogger, Profiles, The Buzz on Antiques • 17 comments

From settees to French farm tables, expert antique specialist and Decorati Contributing Editor for the Buzz on Antiques, Buzz Kaplan has provided our readers with a wealth of knowledge about the vibrant (and sometimes humorous) world of antiques. Now Decorati is giving our readers the exclusive “buzz” about Buzz Kaplan, plus tips from top [...] (more...)

Jun 23, 2009

The Dramatist: Jean de Merry

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by Donna Sapolin Jean de Merry is a storyteller. Lyrical words were once his medium but now it is new Art Deco-inspired furnishings that spark the imaginations of onlookers with unspoken sagas about people and homes and both the quotidian and glamorous (more...)

Jun 16, 2009

Practicality Perfected: Palmer Weiss

Posted in Designer Profile • 4 comments

By Donna Sapolin San-Francisco-based interior designer Palmer Weiss grew up in Charleston, South Carolina where furnishings passed down over several generations often stand alongside aged collections and newly purchased items, filling homes with an air of unstudied charm. Weiss is no stranger to the painstaking efforts designers take to achieve an eclectic, years-in-the-making look and to [...] (more...)

Jun 9, 2009

Bon Vivant: Mattaliano

Posted in Manufacturer Profile • 1 comment

By Donna Sapolin Decorati conducted an exclusive Interview with Cassandra Flandermeyer, Vice President of Development of world renown furniture manufacturer Mattaliano. Keep reading to get a sneak peak of Mattaliano’s newest products that will be featured at this year’s Neocon World’s Trade Fair at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, June 15-17th. SHOP THIS PHOTO How did Mattaliano [...] (more...)

Jun 2, 2009

Here Comes the Sun: John Barman

Posted in Designer Profile, Profiles • 4 comments

By Donna Sapolin Interior designer John Barman and Woody Allen have something in common. Apart from a home base in Manhattan, a high level of creative intelligence, and the glowing admiration of others for their prodigious talents, each has an acute understanding of the challenges that face visionaries and a forward-looking perspective. In Woody Allen’s latest [...] (more...)

May 26, 2009

The Practice of Comfort: Ted Boerner

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By Donna Sapolin It’s early in the morning on a bright day and furniture designer Ted Boerner is in his San Francisco cottage doing his daily yoga and meditation. His ritual will not only help give shape to the day ahead but also to the designs he is developing. “Yoga has given me a greater understanding [...] (more...)

May 19, 2009

The Tastemaker: Thomas Lavin

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SHOP THIS PHOTO Decorati conducted an exclusive interview with southern California’s avant-garde trendsetter and showroom owner Thomas Lavin. What inspired you to open your own showroom? I felt that there was a gap in what products were presented in Los Angeles and Southern California and that not all showrooms were hospitable. I wanted to open a venue that [...] (more...)

May 12, 2009

The Decor Impresario: Alan Tanksley

Posted in Designer Profile • 4 comments

By Donna Sapolin New York-based designer Alan Tanksley is directing a photo shoot of the interiors he recently completed for a 19th-century townhouse located in Manhattan’s West Village. Today, he is playing the role of Cecil B. DeMille, but if he has an alter ego it is more likely the imagined inhabitant of a library room [...] (more...)

May 5, 2009

Small Space, Big Style: Darren Henault

Posted in Designer Profile • 7 comments

By Donna Sapolin Darren Henault is rolling on the floor with his eight-month-old girl twins, Bunny and Lulu. Belly giggles punctuate his descriptions of the Manhattan apartment he recently designed for Eric Dahl, the owner of Sandringham Ltd.—the company that does all his custom upholstery. As if caring for a pair of babies isn’t enough of [...] (more...)

Apr 21, 2009

Life, Luxury, and Luminocity: Rosemary Hallgarten

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Apr 14, 2009

The Architecture of Cloth: Twill Textiles

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By Donna Sapolin Suzanne Lovell, the owner of Chicago-based Suzanne Lovell Interiors and co-owner with hand-weaver Sam Kasten of Twill Textiles, is staring at a leaf she found this morning while walking her standard poodle, Lamb. Lovell studies its shape and veining along with the hallmarks of autumn’s arrival-blazing frog belly green and eggplant hues. “These [...] (more...)