Nothing like a night out with friends, and a good night’s sleep and a run in the warm spring sun. While I was on the phone with my bestie, discussing my “other job” (the play, remember?) an image popped into my head. I think I found a solution.
The issue I was having with the suggestions I received from my client was anything placed above the tables would block the windows. This got me thinking…windows are glass. Glass. GLASS.
I drew a very quick sketch of glass panels suspended perpendicular to the windows. I imagine them colored and wavy.
Is this possible? I’m waiting for Woodbridge Glass to call me back.
I am really struggling. My client wants me to come up with some way to bring a decorative element over the long row of booths to make that area more intimate. There are tall windows– 14 feet high—and columns of mosaic iridescent tiles between. I have been searching in books and online for inspiration. What little I see is too contemporary.
The bar itself is being custom constructed, based on a design 100 years old. I really don’t want to repeat the moldings and style of the bar in arches over the booths. I need to think outside of the box. Could I make something out of drywall? Could I use fabric or metal or wallpaper or more tile?
Whatever it is, I imagine it will need to be suspended over the ceiling. I mocked this up so I could print it and sketch right on it. I’ve been thinking about this for two days. So far I got nothin’.
Today’s Friday Collage is not digital. It’s real.
I have been working all day on a display board. Enough has been purchased for the restaurant that I can do a decent one, but surely not the final one. I have a vision of how it will look when finished, but I understand that my clients need something substantial to look at.
In the process, I made this mock up of the booths I designed. The overlapped layers are obvious here, but not so much when I printed it out. It has some other problems: the stripes will be tucked in the actual booth, and the pattern will appear much smaller. In 50 days we will compare.
The building on which the restaurant is being constructed is long and narrow. I am very conscious of this as I plan the design and the look of the furnishings. I am trying to add motion wherever possible, and incorporating circles on patterns and in details. There will be penny round tiles upon entering, a huge round table in front of a curved window looking out into Arlington, and the barstools have a line of circles drilled in the back.
When I was in New York, I designed three circular booths for the center of the Main Dining Room. They will each be upholstered in a high quality vinyl with a metallic curlicue design. The colors and the pattern harmonize very well with the glass tiles that will be placed on the enormous columns between the equally large windows.
It was love at first sight when I saw the vinyl. The pattern reminds me of my mother’s very 1962 Boomerang laminate countertops. I am using five colors to create wide stripes on the seatback of the ten regular booths.
Shopping in the New York City Bowery Restaurant Furniture District was a foreign experience. Not just because the shops are run directly by representatives from the Chinese factories, many of whom I did not hear speak one word of English.
My clients are first generation Indian, and out of habit — and because they are so at ease with me they forget I can’t understand Hindi– tend to slip into their native tongue.
Top that off by the STYLE of shopping. Going to New York to buy, rather than sightsee, well, that is unusual enough. But here in the Bowery, nothing is as it seems. Marked Prices mean nothing. I am used to and comfortable in dealing with the typical American shopping experience where the marked price is the reference. Sometimes that is what you pay. Often you pay a very figure-able percentage less, in the form of clear discounts or sales. I rarely pay “retail”, but “retail” is the standard—the place where you begin.
In the Bowery, the marked prices are useless, if they exist at all. The entire deal rests on the bargaining process. I watched in awe as my client worked Linda, the salesperson. And she was a tough cookie. She worked him equally as hard.
Imagine the scene: I sit between my clients exhausted from making so many selections. They discuss the finances in Hindi over my head. They hardball with Linda in English. She, in turn, discusses the propositions with the owner in Cantonese. He gets angry and yells. His son, just a toddler, races around the store screaming. Strange food smells overtake the shop in regular intervals. Outside there is the endless honking of traffic. Little scraps of paper are everywhere. The shop is overrun by clutter, toys, samples, and empty food containers. We spend tens of thousands of dollars and the young woman at the desk does not willingly give us a needed paperclip. Do they offer us parking? Laughable. They only grudgingly allow us to use their restroom after hours—no DAYS– in the shop. A drink? There is a vendor a few blocks down…
I’d go back and do it all again in a heartbeat.
It’s time to order the furniture.
I gave Bette three choices for her guest bath. The wall color and new shower curtain will be determined after we choose these permanent items. 
Light 1 Mirror 1 Vanity 1 Light 2 Mirror 2 Vanity 2 Light 3 Mirror 3 Vanity 3
Bette asked me to help her update her Master Bedroom and Bath. She wants to keep her custom bedding, drapes and furniture. I suggested continuing the deep brown, wide plank hardwood we put in the public spaces of her home two years ago into the bedrooms, and she agreed it was a good idea.
Just a few changes will make a big difference.
Counter Choices Rug Rug Mirror Fabric for Roman Shade Bench Wallpaper
Today was pretty productive already, and it is only 1 pm. My weekend was no different. My weekend was insane. I facebooked this morning that I needed a weekend from my weekend, and it was no exaggeration. Between this bar project, four other clients in the midst of projects, and producing another musical, I only sat still for about 10 minutes and slept little more.
I met with my restaurant clients to go over the drawings for the table arrangements. We made some decisions, and I tightened up some measurements.
We went to see Bud, who is crafting the bar, to finalize wood stains. True to form, this decision created a domino effect. I felt that the first selections of stains were too orange since the bar is being fabricated out of maple, which naturally has a reddish undertone. We decided instead on Old World stain, which is a wonderful rich brown, and not too deep to hide the grain. But as a result, this selection required that the floor stain now be changed to a slightly deeper tone, because the contrast between the floor and the bar stain was just too great.
Though it is never simple, I am really happy with the choices. This maple stain brings out the metallic highlights in the glass tile that will cover four enormous columns. And the new floor stain complements the wood-look tile planks perfectly.
