The Ferrone Home and Corinne Robbins Style

For years now my dearest friends, Nick Ferrone, a real estate broker for Corcoran in Brooklyn Heights, and Stephanie Lewin, a clinical psychologist in Manhattan, have furnished their Cobble Hill loft with mid-century modern finds, many of which came from my shop.  Not only have they purchased many pieces from me, but they have also invested in several paintings of mine which are hanging in Stephanie’s office. The abstract paintings help her patients with their therapy.  

Nick and Stephanie are such good customers that I have let them in on a few of my secret contacts, including my favorite "picker," my relatively inexpensive upholsterer, and one of my refinishers from a list of many.  They also get free services such as storage, restorations arrangements, shopping tips, and decorating advice. In return though, I’m taken out to dinner a lot. Thank you!

Nick and Stephanie's first purchase with me was a vintage Candelabra by British designer Tom Dixon. Good eye, guys! I believe that piece is pretty rare--it looks hand crafted. Their next purchase, which has always been one of my favorite pieces, is a pair of 1950’s wicker chairs and table by Finnish designer Eero Aarnio.  The early Aarnio design is typical of his sculptural signature, and this set happens to be in excellent condition. 

Stephanie and Nick also bought a set of six “Julianne” chairs by Johannes Anderson, the Danish designer, to go around their contemporary dining table. The biggest purchase was a beautiful sofa by Edward Wormely for Dunbar. This sofa is just stunning! The petite faux bamboo brass and marble table is an eclectic compliment to the sofa. 

Their most recent furniture purchase from me was a small walnut case and white door Florence Knoll Credenza. Somehow it all works. Their place is like a mini museum, but still comfortable and homey. Perfect!

The Seagram On Park

The Seagram building, at 375 Park Avenue and 53rd Street, is one of my favorite buildings in all of Manhattan. It's one of the few sky scrapers with a plaza in it front of it. It was designed by Mies van der Rohe and built in 1958.

The Seagram Building's plaza at 375 Park Avenue

Made of bronze and glass, it's like a modern sculpture in the sky. The beauty of the building is the plaza in front of it. It acts as a platform or a pedestal of sorts, giving the piece (the sky scraper) room to be viewed. When you look through the lobby from the outside you can see right through to the back of building, giving it a light, floating feeling. The additional office space needed was built behind the main building--a smaller building on 53rd Street, home of what used to be the famous Brasserie restaurant where I used to go as a kid, and is now The Four Seasons restaurant.

Mies van der Rohe, who emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1937, was such a genius. So much so that many architects designing Manhattan office buildings took from the original Mies design--minimal modern glass and metal.

Open For Business!

So, I'm open for business in the Hudson Valley now, and I can't believe the sign was handmade--by me!

To save a little money, I decided to make my own sign. I took the letters from my banner on 1stdibs and blew it up in Word. I printed it out, cut the letters and traced them on thicker paper (I used file folders), then cut out each letter. I then traced it on a piece of masonite. ...Okay, the guy at the lumber yard cut the masonite, but I did everything else! I primed the masonite white after it was cut, then I painted a couple of layers of gray oil based paint on both sides.

Once the gray paint was dry I traced the letters on to the gray background and taped the letters off with blue edge tape. I painted the letters in white; the rounded edges were painted by hand and for the hard edges I used the tape. Once dry, I hung it in place. The little "modern" sign below is scripted by hand also -- in my handwriting. Voila!

Shop hours: Saturdays 10-5 and Sundays by appointment
Location: 1977 Route 295, Canaan, NY

Pinterest

I just found out about Pinterest because someone pinned my George Nelson "swag leg" side table on 1stdibs!

Madame Petit's Mini-Museum

My mother was a big time collector of 18th and 19th-century antiques and furniture. She also built collections of smaller items, such as silver pill boxes, Chinese snuff bottles, and ivory netsukes -- little Japanese sculptures first invented in the 17th century.

But my personal favorites in my mother's collections were her miniatures and opalines. Her collection of tiny portable paintings of royals were usually created on ivory no bigger than 3"x4" and encased in bombe glass. I guess it was my appreciation for painting that drew me to these. Not only is each one delicately crafted with amazing detail, but you have the added interest of the people depicted in these portraits; I find them so fascinating. It was fun discovering who these people were and who painted them. Many famous artists of the time painted miniatures.

My mother's other collection which I admired was her pink and green opalines -- decorative opaque glass from France and made during the 1800s. They were so Marie Antoinette!

All of the glass pieces had a function and were highly stylized as well. But what really makes a collection is how it's displayed. How cute is my mother's pyramid/salon style! I love the formation of miniatures on the wall, cascading down to the 3-D pieces on silver boxes on the commode. I have never seen anything like it before. It's my mother's mini-museum.

How to Set a Table... My Way

When I was a kid we always had a formal dinner. I learned how to set a proper table just by having to sit at one every night. I threatened my kids when they were growing up  that I was going to send them to etiquette school; there was actually a summer camp at the Plaza Hotel that taught kids how to serve high tea and I seriously considered making them go there. Though they never attended, I always believed it was important for them to know which fork was the salad fork when dining with their boss someday, and what side of the plate the knife goes on when throwing a dinner party.

With the 2008 recession still in my house in 2011, I have a policy: Use what you already have to decorate a table. We tend to go out and buy new decorations every time we entertain, especially during the holidays. But we can get creative. I turn it into a game. What can I do with what I already have?

Here’s the answer. Keep it simple and colorful. The things I end up purchasing every year are seasonal napkins to brighten up the place settings. Flowers either come from the garden if I’m in the country, or I buy them at the local Korean market when I’m in the city. Pumpkins are always a decorative plus because you can eat them later or reuse them; they last 3-4 months as long as you don’t carve them. Seasonal fruit can also be used as a centerpiece that guests can pick at during the meal or after.

This is how I arranged my holiday tables in the past. 

THANKSGIVING DINNER

For Thanksgiving Dinner, I had green 1960s Italian handblown wine glasses, which were my mother’s hand-me-downs. They were set on a red and white runner on top of a red tablecloth. The table featured little green and white gourds, a white pumpkin and Macintosh apples in the trifle stand.

CHRISTMAS EVE

On Christmas Eve, instead of a traditional tablecloth, I used black fabric with gold embroidery that my mother brought back from one of her trips to India. I placed mini Christmas lights around the top of the table along with wine bottles, clementines and white tulips as decoration. There were Vignelli wear plates, which were a wedding gift, and Iitalla candlesticks and glasses from Finland. I also cut down plain white index cards to use as name tags at each place setting.

FOURTH OF JULY

Fourth of July was was super minimal. The dining room table was brought outside and covered in simple white linen. There were white plates from Fish’s Eddyand silverware byDansk. The yellow napkins were bought at Ikea and placed on top of the plates in a diamond shape–rather than folded on the sides–for maximum color effect. The classic bistro glasses were an homage to my French grandparents who drank wine out of glasses just like these every day. I also used them as vases for tiny daisies from my garden placed on either side of the centerpiece.

By the way, if I’d known I was going to blog about these table settings one day, I probably would have made them more elaborate. But there’s a lot to be said for doing things organically and letting them be just as they are.

Genius Jacobs Built-Ins

Recently, I went to California to visit my college roommates and very close friends Matt Jacobsen and Liz Glotzer. They moved to LA right after graduating from Bennington College (there is no way I’m coughing up the year), she went to grad school for film, and he followed with an interest in the history of costumes. Today they are married with two amazing boys and live just east of West Hollywood in the hills. (I hope I got that right–I only asked a million times.)

Jacobsen is the son of renowned architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen and is the proprietor of oldmagazinearticles.com. Glotzer is now a well-known Hollywood executive. She is the daughter of antique dealer Elayne Glotzer, owner of Double Vision in Venice Beach–a charming shop showcasing one of a kind objects and jewelry–and her brother Michael Glotzer is an LA picker with a warehouse full of mid-century furniture.

Together,  my friends designed and decorated their new home with passion and flair. My favorite spot is sitting in front of the Hugh Newell Jacobsen bookcase. Its elegant visual presence draws you into the room. The display is massive, but because the books are shelved in small cubes, boasting strong but minimalist form and color, it invites the viewer to come look, survey the collection, and pick out a book.

These signature built-in bookcases are inspired by wooden antique egg-crates and are designed from floor to ceiling. Perfectly symmetrical, the outer frame, slotted horizontal shelves, and vertical supports are almost paper thin.

A self-proclaimed bibliophile with interests ranging from France, WWI, and England to Art and Architecture, Jacobsen’s need to continually expand his library was, perhaps, the mother of invention when he created his signature “egg crate” bookshelves. Employed in many of his house designs, the innovative shelving is designed like a truss and comprised of 3/8-inch-wall cubes that will allow books to be removed and reinserted in the same or different locations. By removing one cube from the “French” section of the library, for example, one could relocate books about French cuisine to the culinary section of the library and make room for new titles about WWI. This saves completely reorganizing a large collection of books—a task that would be necessary with traditional shelving. The shelving grid also provides a sense of order, while the books themselves create a beautiful, natural wall of color. *

What can I say… Genius!

Knoll Textiles, 1945-2010, at Bard Graduate Center

From my assistant, Blaise:

In 1943, Florence Schust convinced Hans Knoll that she could turn his furniture company around and on an upswing by  partnering with architects and incorporating interior design into the company’s mission. It worked. They married three years later and together they founded Knoll Associates. When Hans died in a car accident in 1955, Florence took over the business and continued to design. The company flourished under her leadership and acquired designs and commissions from designers such as Hans Bellman, Eero Saarinen, George Nakashima, Harry Bertoia, and Isamu Noguchi.

Florence Knoll was a student of architecture who earned degrees at the Architectural Association in London and the Armour Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago). She studied with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, among others.

Famous for her “total design” philosophy and space planning and storage innovations, Florence Knoll revolutionized interior design and produced collections that have become 20th century icons that are somehow timeless. She has received the National Medal of Arts and the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal for Industrial Design, among numerous other awards.

Knoll’s successful venture into a third division of the company–textile design–has now prompted a new show at the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture (BGC). Knoll Textiles, 1945–2010, which will run from May 18th through July 31st, is “the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to a leading producer of modern textile design.” The exhibition focuses on Knoll’s leadership and risk-taking practices, the innovation in textile materials, production, and marketing, and the way that the Knoll textile division was ingeniously used to promote that “total design” philosophy.

Find out more about Knoll, Knoll textiles, and the upcoming exhibition at The Bard Graduate Center’s website.

Mustang or BMW?

His Mustang?...

Last fall I was driving around Columbia County in Upstate New York, and I came across this gas station on Rte. 82 with vintage cars for sale. A client of mine said he was looking for a red Mustang convertible. Boom! There it was. I had suddenly come across someone else’s mid-life wish. Not knowing exactly how serious he was, I thought, is he going to go for it? I took a few pictures for him, but he never followed through. As the old saying goes, you snooze, you lose.

...Or my BMW, bitches?!

Personally, if I came across my vintage dream car, I would have sealed the deal. But my car wouldn’t be a Mustang. It would be a BMW like this sweet 1967 Bavaria!