I planned to add a tiny bit more sparkle to the Arlington Rooftop women’s restroom.  The overall design of the entire restaurant tends toward the masculine so I wanted this area, right off the entrance to the Main Dining Room, to follow the scheme of the rest of the space, only a touch fancier.  As if it were wearing jewelry.  I found a few perfect pieces, in distressed gold, open and lacy, but not too feminine; to give me just the touch of bauble I was after.

I purchased a matching pair of pendants to hang between the sinks.  And I found gorgeous mirrors to compliment them. Or so I thought. 

This is my rendering of a plan that is not going to happen.  The Agusto Mirrors are from Uttermost. They are skinny and tall, with open metalwork and hints of gold.  I found out today that they are backordered until August.

We ran into this problem with the light fixtures for the mezzanine as well.  Due to the decrease in demand, Philips, the manufacturer of Forecast Lighting, reduced production drastically.  Every style I chose was gone, completely unavailable in the Philips warehouses.    And they won’t be produced until October.  In China.

And another victim of the economy:  this may be old news to some of you, but I just found out Z Gallerie closed in Tyson’s Corner.

In the process of designing the Arlington Rooftop Bar and Grill, I drew up a plan of each and every wall in the building.  This served as a visual aid for my clients, who would need the renderings to help them visualize what I was planning.  It was also used by the tile installers, so they would have a guide for exactly how I wanted the tiles placed. 

It was helpful to me as well.  It made it easy to tally every piece of tile I would need, since all the drawings were to scale.  As I mentioned before, we purchased some of the tiles through auction, so I had to be very careful to have enough to finish an area completely. 

There are enough places that close enough to being finished for me to show you.

I had such grand plans for the exterior of the Rooftop restaurant I’m designing.  Too grand.

The EFIS applicators were struggling with my channeled diamonds.  I wanted nine graduated long thin rectangles of identical width, five increasing in length followed by four decreasing in length.  Smaller diamonds would cap each window.  I didn’t think the design was complicated, but I was wrong.  As it turns out, what I thought was easy–a quilt pattern created by gouging lines 5 feet apart on the diagonal –was mangled only a few days into application. 

And so we have ended up with more of the quilting pattern than I planned, and the area around the windows has simple horizontal stripes.  Very graphic, very simple three layer columns decorate the tight spaces between door and windows on the first floor exterior.  I think the columns help delineate the lower level Indian Restaurant from the new restaurant.  

EFIS is crazy stuff.  Rap on the finished surface and you get a very high pitched, hollow sound.   It feels very unsubstantial and nearly weightless when you rub your hand across it.  But don’t be fooled, I can’t lift a five gallon bucket of it.   The application consists of four separate layers: waterproof adhesive, foam, mesh and topcoat.  The last layer goes on with only four tools. The workers spread it like mud with a trowel and the textured pattern appears automatically.  The color is added in the manufacturing process.

Besides pestering the workers, I spent today choosing lights, arguing about the signage, marking on main level walls what the final surfaces will be, dialing and redialing Atlanta, trying to sweet talk my clients into ordering the sofa I desperately want, and of course, drinking chai, and eating Indian food with Kulfi.