Harlem HOUZZ Tour

I don't usually post on the weekends, but I couldn't resist publishing this right away because I'm so excited! I recently wrote a quickie post on houzz.com, the site that allows you to find ideas from designers and DIY-ers all over the country. I'm so honored to share with you the wonderful story about our New York apartment (prior to our Austin move), Houzz Tour: Killy and Oliver's Hip Harlem Apartment: Color, Clever Storage and Editing Turns a Tiny Apartment Into a Gem, written beautifully by Houzz contributor Lily Gahagan.

This is by far the most in-depth look at our (beloved) former apartment, complete with small-space decorating tips and explanations of the driving forces behind our design decisions. Sending out a huge thank you to Lily and the Houzz team!

All photos by Frisson

I'm Blue Dabadee Dabba Daaa...

Does anyone actually know the lyrics to that song?

I'm not blue at all, but there's now a blue room in my house, featuring a special paint treatment! I grew up in a room with pale, pastel-y, powdery light blue walls, so in my adult life, I've tended to avoid the lighter blues, preferring richer, darker and more velvet-y blues. For our home office, Oliver and I chose a rich, but much lighter "Labrador Blue" from Benjamin Moore. It's a lovely color.

But, I couldn't just leave it at that, could I? No siree, I needed to make it more complicated. I wanted to paint clear coat stripes over the blue to create a monochromatic pattern. All this sounds like a great idea until you have to get to it. As you know, we've painted stripes before (ifyou haven't already, read about it here and here), and once it's all done and it looks great, you forget how annoying it was to get there. The same is true for this round of stripes, but I'm glad we're done with taping and painting stripes!

We bought 3M Edge Lock (delicate painter's tape) in bulk this time, because that stuff is not cheap, but it's the best. Buying it in bulk makes it a little more affordable, and we actually used it all.

Because we were painting clear lines this time, we couldn't use pencil markings to guide us, so we had to come up with another solution. Oliver found the niftiest Air Grip Compact Laser Level that sticks to the wall.

It makes a buzzing sound because it's suctioned to the wall by a vacuum, but it's totally worth the noise. Find a flat wall surface – the suction doesn't work if the wall is too bumpy. And if you have to rest the little gadget half on tape and half on wall, like we did at times, someone should hold it in place, as it struggles to suction to two materials at once. We slapped it on the wall, then taped our lines as it buzzed away:

Here she is, all taped off:


For the stripes, we used Minwax Polycryclic in clear gloss, which needed two hours to dry between coats. During breaks, we sat outside on the deck (!!!), where it was sunny and bright, and where we caught some lovely sunsets:

But don't think we were unproductive the whole time! On breaks, we also managed to hang my grandmother's beautiful mirror in the dining area:

Like the bare bulb? This is a work in progress, friends

We installed our chrome and glass shelving doo-hickey to a wall in the living room, unpacked some milk glass and unfurled a rug:

We still have the garbage bag roman shades...one thing at a time...

And we hung our headboard:

We have a lot of wall space to fill up, huh? Not to worry, we have a lot of art.

The directions on the polycrylic container recommend painting a coat, letting it dry for at least two hours, then sanding it lightly with 220 grit sand paper. But we learned the hard way that omitting the sanding part is appropriate here. I'm sure it's right to sand between coats when refinishing furniture or doing other projects, but in our case, the sand paper took off some blue paint, so we had to retouch one area before going over it with clear coat. Luckily, the area we messed up was behind the door, so it's less visible. I always try to test new products in inconspicuous places, both in our DIY projects, and when I'm working with contractors for professional projects. Anyway, we decided to just paint clear coat layers over un-sanded layers. Not having to sand certainly made the job go quicker, but it was still pretty tedious. Howevah, it looks FABULOUS (if I do say so myself)!


Now, we just need some cute desks (we left the one we built attached to the wall in our last apartment) and a pull out sofa to accommodate overnight guests!

Apartment Therapy Mentions Home Office Nook

Another thank you is due to Apartment Therapy for a second mention of our home office, which was featured in their "Good Questions" series, the question being Office Decor: How Many Shelves is Too Many?

Obviously, this is a very subjective topic! Because our home office was in the middle of our living room, we took a more decorative-minimalist approach to the design. We needed certain things at our disposal, but Oliver being the masterful office-setter-upper he is, set us up with all kinds of wireless technology. For instance:
• Our giant printer was hidden in the console table by the entry, which is also where my files and binders lived
• Our scanner was on the lowest shelf of our "cocktail bar," covered by a nifty textile
• I kept my scraps, papers, samples, etc off the desk with the help of a cork board we re-covered
• All the computer components and cables were mounted to the bottom of the desk, so we weren't constantly stepping on wires beneath our feet as we worked. If you got down on the floor, you could see our the parts and wires all zip-tied and screwed into the underside of the desk:


I would venture a guess that at this point, most people have computers at home, whether they work on them or not, and finding a spot for them is always a challenge. Some choose to float around with a laptop, bringing it to the dining table, to the sofa, into bed, while others prefer to carve out a little spot exclusively for computing. I am part of that school. Even if you don't have a whole room you can dedicate to computing, it's easier than you might think to beautifully integrate a designated work area into your home without taking up too much visual space or looking too office-y. Here are some favorite home office images:

Use an open bookcase to cordon off a workspace, which lets light in, adds storage but keeps the work area separate:

Via Domino

Re-purposing a snappy piece of furniture is a sure-fire way to slyly integrate a home office into the rest of the house. Whether it's an armoire, a secretary, a credenza or a console, using a beautiful piece to store your goodies makes the living/working transition seamless–and easy to hide when you're done:

Via Living Etc.

Wallpaper or paint the inside of an old piece for an unexpected jolt of color

Via Living Etc.

You can also work in a spot to sit in an existing bookcase - just remove a few shelves, add a chair and shoot off some emails!

Via Deborah Burke


Via Design*Sponge

An under-the-stair solution fills a potentially awkward, unused (or mis-used) space with something productive!

Via Shelterpop

Got a closet you're not using? (I don't understand that concept, but perhaps some of you have more space than I :) Add some shelves, a built-in desk, et voila! Mini-office with a door you can close when you're done!

Via Martha Stewart

Using furniture for your workspace that works well with the rest of your furnishings is important. If you're just sitting down to email for a few minutes here and there, perhaps a giant, office-y Aeron chair isn't necessary, and you can get away with a more interesting dining or side chair:

Design by Todd Romano


Via Domino

But, if you're going to use the chair a lot, it's definitely important that it be ergonomic and comfortable. There are plenty of chic options, especially in the vintage realm. I don't often tout the mid-century modern look (I like it, but it's a tad overused) but I have to say those mid-century industrial designers had a way with office chairs that are functional AND good-looking!

Via Domino


Design by Jacinta Preston

You can also re-cover a ho-hum office chair with a more interesting fabric, as in the photo below. Chances are, the chair in the back didn't start out with that gorgeous brown and white upholstery:

Source Unknown

Another approach is to embrace the fact that your workspace is plopped in the middle of your living space and really made it sing with jazzy wallpaper, bold colors, zippy furniture and beautiful table lamps–but don't sacrifice neatness! When you're done working, it should clean up nicely.

Via Domino


Via Skona Hem


Via House Beautiful

Thanks again to Bethany Nauert for including us in her quest for answers!

Our DIY Office Nook on Apartment Therapy!

There has been a lot of buzz lately about offices carved out of closets and other small spaces in peoples' homes. Oliver and I jumped on the bandwagon with photos of our own workspace and today it is being featured on Apartment Therapy! Thanks again, Janel!

As many of you know, Oliver and I work from home most of the time, and while we do our best to keep work and life separated, it's a bit of a challenge in our less-than-400 square foot apartment. Our living room came with a somewhat irritating-at-first nook due to a protruding section of wall that contains the "Sprinkler Control Valve,"complete with industrial signage. The nook when we moved in:

As it turned out, that nook was the perfect width for an Ikea table top. Oliver and I painted the gray walls and yellow and white stripes, then Oliver and handy brother of bathroom fame mounted the table top to the three walls and added one central support leg. Oliver and I hung two overhead shelves and painted it all Benjamin Moore Black Satin - a charcoal-y dark gray.

As I've mentioned before, Oliver is a master of organization, and it doesn't stop at paper; he has some experience with network architecture, so he can set up a fully functioning, but very self-contained wireless office. All the computer-related mumbo-jumbo is hidden neatly under the desk, and while we have office stuff scattered throughout the apartment, I've done my best to cover it all with home-made fabric remedies. We also mounted computer speakers and holders for rolls of trace paper, which I'm constantly using.

We didn't want too much clutter above us, but we couldn't imagine not utilizing all that vertical wall space, so the shelves actually hold our collection of vintage milk glass vases and bowls, which we used for flower centerpieces at our wedding. I thought I would sell them after the wedding, but I had become attached - it look a year to amass the collection (there is more) and I think they're so beautiful. So, I'm thrilled to have a place to display them! Some of the pieces even hold office supplies, so they aren't solely decorative. We found the little cut glass lamp at Target, and it works great for evenings when we're burning the midnight oil. We found the pair of vintage Pollack chairs at Two Jakes in Brooklyn. The clock belonged to my Grandmother and is by Syroco Inc., the company that essentially invented plastic in the 1950s.

Even though the office space is fairly pleasing to look at, sometimes we just want it to go away. For those occasions, we hung West Elm curtains on an Ikea track and can close the office when we have company, or when we want a visual barrier from work. The curtains also conceal that pesky Sprinkler Control Valve sign and soften what used to be a very ugly corner in the apartment. I made those new pillow covers just in time!

Project: Cork Board Makeover

Please forgive my messy hair. My Aunt Barbara would be so embarrassed for me. She always insists that "the Scheers don't look like ragamuffins!" Well, I kind of do here. Sorry, Aunt Barbara!

Oliver and I have carved out a little workspace for ourselves in our living room. It's a perfectly well-appointed spot,  and while Oliver has done a whiz-bang job of making us a clutter- and paper-free office, I tell ya, a lot of STUFF comes with my work. I'll saunter over to a very clean, neat desk in the morning, and within minutes I'm overwhelmed with papers, samples, notebooks, invoices, etc. He has no trouble at all; his side of the desk is a beacon of tidiness. While working on a project, most interior designers like to see all the elements of a room – or the whole house/office/hotel, for that matter – together to be sure everything works cohesively. Between fabric samples, trims, tiles, paint and images of furniture, there's a lot to pull together and it's nearly impossible to do that without making a bit of a mess, and, in my case, completely taking over the whole living room. As much as I try to stay neat, by the end of the day, it looks like I'm sitting in the eye of a tornado.

For the longest time the wall next to my end of the shared desk was blank, beckoning for a cork board or something to pin up notes, reminders, samples, bills, etc. while I'm still working on them and before they get filed away. On a recent jaunt to Target in New Jersey, we found cork board that would suffice:


But it was ugly and we have a cute desk area, so I couldn't let some bare board bring down the whole look! I had a fabric sample (ok, I have a million) that a client rejected and it was big enough to cover the board. We got some little black carpet nails from Home Depot and set about covering the board.


As if I could keep it that bare for long. Here's what it looks like normally:


I don't know how I got along without it!

A Glimpse in the Times

Photo by Yana Paskova for The New York Times

The client for a project I worked on last year with my friend and work compadre, Thomas Jensen, had a little feature in The New York Times on July 25. The client was photographed in the conference room we designed, so by proxy, I now declare Thomas and myself to be Famous Published Designers. We are just steps away from being household names, don't you think?

John S. Johnson III (yes, one of those Johnsons) is sitting at a custom PaperStone conference table (two tops were pushed together for larger meetings) fabricated by Bettencourt Green Building Supplies. John is sitting on and among Eames Molded Plastic Side Chairs in Lime Yellow.

See more project photos on our website.