In this year’s upcoming Spring Designer Show House, we are designing the Living Room at The Abbey in Morristown NJ, sponsored by Morristown Hospital. Built in 1904 by the Legal Counsel of the newly formed AT&T, it is a grand space with hand painted ceilings, gold embellished trim and massive columns.
After understanding the function of the room, the needs of the client and the style to which they ascribe, it is my job to dress the room. All of these elements and information play into how we approach the styling and finish of the window. This is where the importance of the dressed window shows its necessity.
I chose this room because I wanted to interpret this kind of grand scale and elegance into today’s living experience. It would be very easy to follow the cues that exist and follow true to the original design. I did not want to create a museum. The challenge is to bring this room with all of its detail into the 21st century. How does this all fit into today’s life style?
I believe that we need and can preserve what is right about our design history and reinterpret it for today’s life style. We cannot know who we are and where we are going without looking back and paying homage to the past. Europe understands this, however, we a struggle with this concept. Homage can and should be paid to the past no matter whether the room is contemporary, traditional or mid-century.
The windows in the Abbey are grandly proportioned and in our view, need to build a bridge connecting the design of the ceiling to what we are creating for the actual function of the space.
We are pairing down the walls that are currently covered in paisley wall paper. This choice deprives the beauty of the ceiling from coming through. To solve this bridging, we have designed an ombre effect for the walls that will start out with intense saturated color at the top drawing on the coloration of the hand painted ceiling and fading as it in this space travels down the wall to a soft taupe beige…the new color choice over the grays of the years prior.
Windows for me bridge the divide between the vertical and the horizontal elements of the room. To establish the importance of the dressed window in this space, we are selecting a taupe and white silk in a classically embroidered fret work from Thibaut staying very neutral so the ceiling and the walls are the architectural backdrop, the artwork so to speak for the room.
We chose an embroidered fabric so that the texture is strong enough to compete with the rest of the strong details in the room. The texture of the draperies connects to the upholstery and the main rug. Once we establish the neutrality on the windows, we will carry it through the room with hits of color derived from the ceiling and walls.
To add yet another layer of texture, we believe that trimming the drapery is an important element when bridging the connection from the walls to the center of the room. We are using a fringe on the inside edge of the drapery and along the bottom. We are then separating a section of the pattern with another sewn in welt of similar color to accent the pattern. This balance contemporizes the finished product so that the room is fresh and current while looking back towards the beauty of the past. Yes, trim is back.
This is the formula that we follow whether we are creating a traditional room, a mid-century room or a purely contemporary room. While I am clear about the importance of the dressed window, I do not believe in making a window “the stand out” element in the room. It throws the balance of the space. It should be full luscious and architectural. I want you to walk into a room and say…beautiful space…not …”whoa…look at the windows” If this occurs the success of the room is lost.
When we are done, we want the inhabitant to experience the feeling of the room and how it invites you in. The importance of the dressed window is integral to this success.