A Roomy 178 Square Feet

By: Penelope Green

Published: February 10, 2010

Robert Wright for The New York Times

But Mr. Motl, 25, has made the most of this studio apartment in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, which he rents for $944 a month, and has outfitted for about $2,500 in the three years since he moved to New York City. He has hewed to the old decorating dictum that says the more stuff you put in a room (albeit artfully arranged stuff), the bigger it seems. More really is more.

Mr. Motl, a theater major who also studied sculpture at the State University of New York at Geneseo, had planned to pursue a career in acting after graduating in 2007. Like so many before him, he had been testing the waters in New York City during his summers off from school, cobbling together a living and a career path by doing two or three jobs at a time, along with a handful of internships: waiting tables in Bellport, N.Y., his hometown, and in Brooklyn; teaching sailing at yacht clubs up and down Long Island; interning at P.S. 122 in New York, and for Miles Redd, the maximalist designer.

Pretty quickly, Mr. Motl began to realize he would much rather work in interior design than the theater. “Not that I knew anything about it,” he said. “I thought ikat” — a trendy textile — “was a piece of furniture.”

Still, he is an innately stylish guy. “I always knew what I liked and what I didn’t like,” he said.

And he has a sailor’s sense of thrift and handiness that has served him well in his new profession, and at home. When he moved into this apartment, a grubby white box, he removed all the window panes, scraped them clean and reattached each one so they wouldn’t bang or let the cold in (he keeps them sparkling clean).

He also chipped the mirrored tiles off the bathroom walls — “That’s when the love affair with my downstairs neighbor began,” he said dryly — and painted the room midnight blue. He built task lights with a steampunk aesthetic out of components he found at Canal Lighting for less than $200; he also put together a milk-glass shade ($12 on eBay), an Edison bulb ($18 at Canal Lighting) and an electric cord to make the fixture that hangs atmospherically over the beadboard breakfast counter/front hall table/cabinet he built himself.

Mr. Motl knows how to arrange furniture in groupings — an office “area,” sitting “room,” “bedroom” and so forth are clearly defined (though only a few inches apart). And he knows how to hit the sweet spot that turns a bunch of objects — like stacks of National Geographic magazines — into a collection, and how to array those objects so they look sculptural, instead of like a sign that he might be a candidate for A&E’s “Hoarders.”

Mr. Motl has been “collecting” since the age of 5 or 6, picking things up from the curb for his room, visiting yard sales when he had his own money. He recalled being kicked out of an antiques store at age 10, because the proprietor thought he was in there to steal something. “I remember, after running to my mother in tears from the confrontation,” Mr. Motl said, that the store owner defended herself “by saying, ‘What interest would a 10-year-old have in antiques?’ ”

When a professor at school culled his library of ’40s and ’50s Penguin paperbacks — mostly theater titles — Mr. Motl scooped them up. They’re jammed together on the shelf above his bed, books being one of the many multiples Mr. Motl has filled this tiny space with.

Wooden tennis rackets hang on the walls. “I bought one at an antiques store,” he said, “and then felt like an idiot because I kept finding them on the street.”

The blue Marc Jacobs Wellington boots were purchased on sale for $10.

Does he ever wear them?

“No, they’re just there.”

By November of 2008, Mr. Motl wanted just one (full-time) job. He was still waiting tables to support himself while he worked part time for Mr. Redd. A friend showed him a posting on Craigslist by Robert Couturier & Associates, the upscale architecture and design firm.

The ad was for a junior designer, with three years’ experience and knowledge of AutoCAD, the computer drafting program. Mr. Motl didn’t meet either of those requirements, but he did have pictures of this apartment. He got the job

Robert Wright for The New York Times

Living room with the Italian chest and prints from Bobby Todd Antiques

Glamorous mirrored lamp tables and a comfy sofa. Modern lamps add a sophisticated touch

The foyer with plates and an antique mirror from Bobby Todd. The primitive chest harkens back to her original pieces. The mix is great!

Beautiful Italian paintings on hand stenciled walls.

The guest room with fern prints from Bobby Todd and a collection of brown transferware plates. The blue and brown theme is continued from the living room.

Franklin's charming shopping district

We found ourselves in Nashville, Tennessee this weekend for a friend’s 40th birthday party.  A trip out of Knoxville would not be complete without some antique shopping on the way.  As you will soon determine, antique shopping to us means lots of things….exploring the town and any interesting shops, good food, and of course, antiques.  We ventured to the charming town of Franklin, Tennessee, and were delighted with what we found.  We see lots of different towns when on the “hunt” for treasure for the shop, but it is refreshing to see a town that has done such a fabulous job of re-inventing itself as Franklin has.  The downtown is small, everything is within walking distance.   There are shops for all walks of life and all budgets.  Clothing for men, women, and children; bridal registry; antiques; gardening; and other gifts.  There are many restaurants as well.  We chose Merridee’s Breadbasket at 110 4th Ave. South.  It is a great place for a sandwich on homemade bread, good ice tea, and delicious desserts. 

A great men’s clothing store is F.M. Allen at 347 Main Street.  It is very well done, and feels like an English men’s club inside, complete with fireplace and billiards.  If you want a martini, you can have it at F.M. Allen.  The clothes are beautiful, handmade, and all imported from England and Italy.  Everything is private labeled with the F.M. Allen label.  Thanks to their incredibly beautifully setting that drew us in, I have a new shirt.

Now, to the meat of the post…..antiques.  There is a cluster of antique shops at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Margin Street.  All of these shops are in old houses or warehouses.  New and old mix in most of the shops, so don’t think everything you see is an antique because I can assure, it is not.  For the most part, the shops are charming in this area.  A bargain can be found if you look hard, and don’t be afraid to negotiate. 

There are a couple of antique shops on Main Street as well, and behind Main, on Bridge Street, is the Winchester Antique Mall.  It is in an old house as well, and their merchandise is interesting.  Most everything here is in good condition, and ready to be taken home and loved.  Again, don’t be afraid to negotiate.  At the entrance to town is Alexander Plaza, and there you will find Harpeth Antique Mall.  This is also a good place, although it doesn’t have the charm of the historic downtown.  You may or may not find a treasure.  We actually did find a fantastic Italian secretary here, that is on its way to Bobby Todd.

Below are a few more photos of Franklin.

Historic Downtown Franklin

The cutest Welcome Center ever

Beautiful new townhouses on 2nd Avenue

More beautiful townhouses. I love this lifestyle!

A beautiful antique French iron lantern

Lighting is an integral part of what I do as designer.  It has the power to be one of the most important elements of a design because it can control the mood of a room.  Bright light promotes activity, while dim light promotes relaxation and conversation.  Lighting also is important because it is a great way to continue the look of a space.  

Finding lighting fixtures that are appropriate to a space can be difficult.  A lighting source like New Metal Crafts takes a lot of the work out of the process.  New Metal Crafts is a Chicago resource I have used for years.  On our recent Chicago visit, I was finally able to go to their showroom and was blown away by the depth of their collection.  They have executed many custom pieces for me in the past, and any time I have an antique fixture that needs repair or rewiring, they are the only place I will send it.  Their work is always first rate, and their knowledge second to none.  Lighting is often overlooked as a design element, but after a trip to New Metal Crafts, you will realize how important it can be.  Following are some photos of the showroom and warehouse.

New Metal Crafts

A fabulous pair of Italian lanterns waiting on the perfect home

An endless array of smoke bell lanterns

Detail of one of many "walls of sconces"

More crystal than Versailles

Antique railroad lanterns awaiting conversion

Walls of bronze sconces

Beautiful mica shades on iron sconces

The third floor attic, a treasure trove of antique parts

More treasures in the attic

 

Thanks to Traditional Home for including me in their list of “20 Young Designers to Watch”, in their March 2010 issue.  It is an honor to be included in this group of incredibly talented individuals, and great to be recognized by a favorite publication.  I had the privildege of getting to know one of the editors, Candace Manroe, this year on the photo shoot for a home in Key West that will be featured in the June issue.  Working with one of their great photographers, Werner Straub, was also amazing.  After having owned my own firm for just over 10 years, this has become one of the highlights.  I am most appreciative.

The feature is very clever.  The editors have taken this honor one step further to get their readers involved and are offering a fantastic prize to both the winning reader and winning designer.  As a reader of Traditional Home, you have an opportunity to vote  for your favorite young designer, and in the process win $5000 worth of Duralee fabrics!  As one of the featured designers, I have the opportunity to win more recognition in their publication.  The winners will be revealed in the October 2010 issue.  Voting is easy, and your vote for me will be greatly appreciated. 

Go to http://www.traditionalhome.com/duralee and click “Join Now” to register with Traditional Home.  You have to be registered to vote.  After that, click “Vote Now” in the Reader’s Choice section.  Scroll down to view the designer portfolios, and then cast your vote.  You will be asked to confirm a security code, and once you have entered that, press “ENTER” to cast your vote.  There will be a notice saying you were successful if everything was done correctly.  You can vote every day until March 23 and increase your chances of winning!  Thanks for your support, and thanks again to the team at Traditional Home for your vote of confidence in my ability.

Bobby and I are collectors to the core. Our shop, Bobby Todd Antiques, was born of the things we had no more room to house. Wooden boxes, tortoiseshell, Imari porcelain, Rose Medallion, 18th century French furniture, 16th and 17th century Italian paintings, Persian rugs, Staffordshire, silhouettes, Italian wood carvings, and anything quirky that has genuine artistic value. That is just in the foyer! These are things that we move around, use, and re-use, and they continue to look good and fresh. Years after we started, we are still drawn to the same genre of items. There must be something that is ok with that.

Anyone who would like to see our collection can go to http://www.toddrichesininteriors.com and look at my “portfolio” and “Casa Real” to see what we love and live with every day. Thanks Candace, for bringing this to your readers.

Free Pass for All Us Pack Rats

By Candace Manroe

Every time I start to houseclean before a party, I’m confronted by my collections. The dust they gather. The clutter they might represent to a more detached eye. The statement they haunt me with—you know, that one about hanging onto baggage and what-not.

But the fact is, I love them. The old black-and-white family photographs in Victorian seashell frames or in smaller micro-mosaic frames collected from travels in Italy (first trip, first frame, trip to Rome with Mother when I was 14; Mother’s been gone 9 years, I still have that first frame) and to antiques shops and flea markets everywhere else; all my books—antiquarian full-leather-bound and otherwise (just short of trade  fiction), that  started as gifts from both grandmothers and have grown to a houseful since—every room book-lined,  each with a different category of books: poetry in entry, family room, and master bedroom; history and art in living room; crime novels, first upstairs bedroom; and so on); my father-the-painter’s brilliant art; turn-of-the-19th-century whimseys (I’m like an ostrich: anything that glistens, sold!); seashells, especially cowries; Victorian seashell boxes and art; Staffordshire; ironstone; etc.

Here’s how bad  the book collecting alone has gotten. My BFF, neighbor, and fellow collector Andi Kunert once had a nightmare about me. Books had so overtaken my home in her dream that my sofa literally was reduced to nothing but stacks of them. No fill, no fabric, just books as form. Quite uncomfortable, she assured me the next Saturday, as we were out antiquing together, me scouring the shelves for more great old books I would enjoy both reading and treasuring as objets d’art. Andi suggested that, based on her nightmare, maybe it was time I backed off the book collecting. I knew I was in trouble hearing any such heed from her. When we watched  GRAY GARDENS (the made-for-TV movie about Jackie O’s increasingly eccentric aunt and cousin whose Long Island home ended up a collector’s and cat owner’s nightmare), separately, in our own homes, and later discussed it, we each pointed fingers at the other and said, “I thought of you!”  (I’m eccentric, she’s a crazy cat woman. We’re both collectors. Maybe that’s why we get along. But, truth told, she’s the one tottering on that slippery hoarder slope far more precariously than I.)

All of which is to say, you can imagine how relieved I was when I was at my TRAD HOME desk one day and flipped through an unproofed copy of a new book, OBJECTS OF OUR AFFECTION, by Lisa Tracy ($25, hardcover, 2010, Random House’s Bantam Books). I haven’t had a chance to read it all the way through, but I was immediately intrigued. It’s a vindication for all of us pack rats.

The book is Tracy’s account of her and her sister’s task of emptying their mother’s brimming-with-objects house after her death. Tracy writes: “Even as we know we should be winnowing, we’re wallowing.” She and her sister ran across an inventory that included silver gewgaws, dueling pistols of Aaron Burr’s, a Chinese chest, a chair G. Washington perhaps sat in. All in all, good stuff.

Here’s what the dust jacket has to say: “Tracy chronicles the wondrous interior life of those possessions and discovers that the roots of our passion for acquisition often lie not in shallow materialism but in our desire to possess the most treasured commodity of all: a connection to the past.”

That’s good enough for me. I would love to know what you think of the book—and about your own collecting experiences.

Photo shows a painted kitchen floor

We work with several different types of painters in the interior design business.  Different jobs require different levels of expertise.  A painter who is experienced at wall and trim paint, getting a silky smooth finish on woodwork, and walls free of drywall seams and nail pops is a wonderful thing, but he is probably not the person you want to do a decorative finish.  My experience is that an expert in that area is very important.  Faux finishing is a talent that requires years of experience to master.  A professional finisher will know where to start with the finish, how long it will take him to complete an area, and where a safe place to stop finishing will be.  You see, you can’t just stop for lunch anywhere along the way.  Stopping points have to be calculated in advance or your stopping points will be visible in the finished product. 

One faux finisher I work with regularly is Timothy Brown of Brown Studios in New York.  He makes monthly trips to Knoxville to work on my jobs, and is considering moving here in early summer.  Timothy’s work is world class.  He was trained by another of my faux painters, Daryl Garrison, who is still practicing in Nashville, Tennessee.  Timothy honed his craft under Daryl’s tutelage, and branched out to form his own company in New York.  There, he has worked for many top interior designers and their major league clients.  He has done work in the Kipps Bay Showhouse several times, worked with nationally recognized designer Eric Cohler, and his clients have included Katie Couric, Michael Douglas, and Katherine Zeta Jones.  Following are a few images of Timothy’s talents.

A painted nursery floor

Layered blocks

Painted monogram

Painted stripes for a playroom

Black and white stripes

Kipps Bay Showhouse

As you can see from the above photos, Timothy’s talent extends far beyond “walls” and includes floors, ceilings, furniture, and decorative items.  These are world class finishes by a fun and talented man.  His precision is amazing.  Who else could paint those perfect stripes with such detail?  Look for more of Timothy’s work in the future.