Archive for the ‘brick house design’ Category

MORRISON HAIR

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Awhile back I posted a bit of a preview of a design project that Laure and I have been working on and after finalizing a few finishing details we headed down to Morrison Hair in Laguna Beach to do a big photo shoot of the finished space and stylish staff.

James and Rachel Morrison couldn’t be better or more talented folks to work with and we loved that their big dream was to create a salon that felt more like a warm comfortable home than a standard commercial space. In terms of the overall design, we wanted to combine a bit of modern lux, California boho, industrial and rustic details, unique vintage pieces with a nod to James Scottish roots and the buildings architectural past. The salon is located in a renovated 1920’s Spanish bungalow with fantastic original architectural details and killer ocean views. I mean really, the process of helping Rachel and James pull together a comfy and stylish interior wasn’t that much of a stretch.

Admittedly, one of the biggest perks of helping out at the salon was getting fancy haircuts. Although, now I’m ruined for all other salons seeing as I only want James to cut my hair forever. He’s that good.

Some folks were curious about where my Adelman chandelier ended up and I’ve had a number of email offers come in to snatch it up, but the lamp now resides in the salons main waiting room. I love seeing it lit up while driving by since it looks AMAZING from the street.

There’s a selection of drinks and treats at the beverage bar for customers to indulge in that includes some seriously good coffee – loads of which we heartily partook of on those long installation nights.

We asked our friend Bianca to make us a very special succulent planting for the main waiting area and if you look closely…

…it reveals a miniature scene of two flamingos styling up some hair-dos.

These gorgeous leather strapped mirrors were sourced from Casamidy‘s AltaVista line.

They are perfect and I want them to be all over my house.

An industrial clothes rack with simple metal clothes hangers hold the salon’s robes for customers to change into. I love this solution, so simple but still sleek.

Besides the Adelman chandelier in the main waiting area we used a number of exposed bulb fixtures throughout the salon, including these simple and super budget friendly painted porcelain light sockets with extra large clear bulbs at the work stations and a Satellite pendant from Schoolhouse Electric with some half chrome beauties in the restroom.

One other custom detail that turned out better than we ever could have hoped, was the brass sheet inserts that line the top of each stylists work station. The brass adds an unexpected bit of shine which reflects a flattering warm light and ties in with the brass hardware used throughout the salon.

I grabbed a quick candid snapshot of the Morrison staff getting their portrait shot by Laure.

They all have perfect hair all the time. It is incredible.

This Tom Dixon light is the business.

Casamidy leather magazine holder is also the business.

For the dry bar we asked the incredible woodsmith Dusty Wheeler to fabricate and install a floating eleven foot raw live edge slab of Alligator Juniper, which turned out to be smoother than glass and possibly the most beautiful slab of wood ever seen anywhere. Dusty also fabricated and installed the brass inserts for the work stations and built an amazing wood top for the shampoo room storage cabinet, which also turned out to be better made than anything I’ve ever owned.

Dude has skills and is easily the nicest fabricator to work with. I want to keep him a secret so that he remains available to work on every project I ever do, but also know he’s too talented to hoard to myself and do truly want him to stay busy and help out as many folks as possible. I can’t recommend Dusty highly enough.

*Um. I do need him for other projects, soooooo, calling first dibs.

This leather bit of heaven is from HD Buttercup.

James & Rachel are goddamn adorable.

Everyone who comes in can’t help but stroke the dry bar.

It’s that gorgeous.

The interiors of Morrison Hair turned out to be everything Laure and I hoped it would be and much more. This was such a creative and fun project to be a part of and we loved working with Rachel and James and the entire staff at Morrison to create a space they enjoy and feel at home in.

I couldn’t be more proud of how it all came together or more excited about upcoming projects with Laure and the lovely Morrison family.

FILED UNDER: after, brick house design, camp, consulting, inspiration, lighting, links, photography, style, travel, vintage

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SUNIA HOMES

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

I’m late to the game seeing as Laure and Apartment Therapy already posted about this project, but hey, who can stop me? No one.

The ever talented and fun’tastic Laure recently shot this bright and modern model house in Echo Park built by Sunia Homes, a new company focused on building sustainable and affordable residencies in California. Per usual, I had a super lovely time working with Laure and got to style the house (with Ali’s awesome help) for the photoshoot. We focused on keeping the interior decor inline with Jerome’s desire for the space to feel lived in, relaxed and as similarly unfussy as the materials and finishes used throughout the home.

Above are a few outtakes from the shoot. You can also check out more images on Sunia’s site.

Styling.

*Anyone spot the stuff from my house? And no, you silly goose, it’s not the Hermes boxes.

FILED UNDER: brick house design, inspiration, links, photography, style, travel

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SLING

Friday, January 13th, 2012

One of the big design type projects Laure and I have been working on so diligently is a very stylish (come on, obviously) salon in Laguna Beach that’s just recently opened up called Morrison Hair. Located in an older Spanish style bungalow, Rachel and James wanted the space to remain cozy, comfy and inviting like a great house, but still be stylish and modern for getting your hair did.

A particularly important and big need furniture-wise for the waiting area was a pair of chairs that were unusual, comfortable and made you desperately want to sit in them. So of course my first thought was these slingy bad bays that I have always wanted to reupholster.

Yup.

THOSE slingy cantilever bad boys. Pictured above in the BEFORE situation of upholstery hell.

For sure these were living in Ugly Town, USA and must have seemed like a complete stretch, so trust that it took a lot of convincing and begging to get anyone to believe they could be comfortable and stylish and awesome and not just a hot mess of browntown disgusting.

BOOM.

Reupholstered and reimagined.

I always knew they had a kind of Max Gottschalk or Paulistano type vibe buried deep inside their tubular chrome frames.

For the new slings, I decided to go with a bit of an unusual material. Any guesses? Hmmmm?

Screw that nonsense since I can’t shut up about it and am way too impatient. So, these slings are actually made with vintage wildfire tarp! I know. What?!

These tarps are used by my local Park Rangers and Firefighters in the San Jacinto mountains – located just a few miles from this Brick House. When the forest catches on fire, these giant heavy duty waxed canvas tarps are used to move burning brush and burnt up timbers or whatever else is on fire and needing moving. Eventually they get beat up and decommissioned and end up in retirement with this local canvas fabricator type guy I found.

I loved that the material already had this amazing patina and color and was this super heavy duty weight that I couldn’t find with newer fabrics. Plus, who has wildfire tarp chairs? Who?! No one.

Well wait, I guess Morrison Hair does now, BUT come on, don’t you just want to sit in them?! They turned out super sexy and are shockingly comfy to boot. Like a big hug from a firefighter.

Oh man, I can’t wait to show off the rest of the salon. Sorry about these few quick snaps I tried to grab.

We have a few finishing touches and a photo shoot to do, but I’m desperate to post the rest of the space. It turned out pretty much spectacular with a few custom features that are killer and was an overall great project to work on with some truly outstanding folks.