Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Contemporary DC

In the September Issue of Metropolitan Home magazine, the house of the month is located in my favorite DC neighborhood, Kalorama. The house is from the turn of the last century, 1912, and the couple wanted a more updated interior and turned to architect Gokhan Avcioglu and local designer Lori Graham to turn this into a more liveable, contemporary space.I love the architectural sofa that Lori designed, Camus, which I assume is named after her dog! Make sure to check out this issue when it hits newsstands August 11 for some other great articles, including an article about a new, inventive restaurant in Seattle from chef Matt Dillon!
Photograph of living room by Erik Johnson for Metropolitan Home, September 2009.

5 comments:

Zelda said...

ho Dear ! even the cat is purple :-) lovely

Unknown said...

That is so nice, I like the coolness and the truly modern look!
Anyway, most of the colors are my favorites, sage, white and purple, chocolate brown, just delightful!
I love the mirror, gives a feel like a door way, but muted, so nice.
Well I am back and have so much fun looking up all my bloger friends!
Good to see you!!!
Victoria

magnaverde said...

I like that sofa too, and I like the calm willow-leaf green. Just because that color has been overused--and badly used--by a lot of people in the last decade, that's no reason to avoid it, and it may actually be a good reason to use it--to show the rest of us how to do it right. I mean, it's not the color's fault that Martha Stewart wannabes went crazy with it for a while. Anyway, the green's nice & the basics of this room look good, although curling up with a good book in front of that fire wouldn't be that great, not, at least if you wanna actually read the book. Not after dark, anyway. But that's not what spoils this room for me--the apparent lack of lighting: after all, maybe these folks don't read.

No, here's what's bothering me: the calculated precision of the placement of all those purple accents. They're stiff & mechanical, like they were plotted by a GPS device, rather than by a designer with a sensitive eye, and rather than acting as a delightful surprise in an otherwise monochromatic scheme, they make the room jumpy & hyperactive. It's like a connect-the-dots color scheme. Counting the cat, there are seven purple things scattered around(eight if that diptych is actually two paintings), way more than any room this size needs. And those are just the ones we see in the picture. What's on the other side of the room? Anyway, if three purple things--maybe four--were to go away, it would be a big improvement. Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against purple. In fact, the great John Saladino made his name with prettified color combinations just like this, but he kept the touch light & graceful. Sometimes, the hardest thing is knowing when to stop.

magnaverde said...

I like that sofa too, and I like the calm willow-leaf green. Just because that color has been overused--and badly used--by a lot of people in the last decade, that's no reason to avoid it, and it may actually be a good reason to use it--to show the rest of us how to do it right. I mean, it's not the color's fault that Martha Stewart wannabes went crazy with it for a while. Anyway, the green's nice & the basics of this room look good, although curling up with a good book in front of that fire wouldn't be that great, not, at least if you wanna actually read the book. Not after dark, anyway. But that's not what spoils this room for me--the apparent lack of lighting: after all, maybe these folks don't read.

No, here's what's bothering me: the calculated precision of the placement of all those purple accents. They're stiff & mechanical, like they were plotted by a GPS device, rather than by a designer with a sensitive eye, and rather than acting as a delightful surprise in an otherwise monochromatic scheme, they make the room jumpy & hyperactive. It's like a connect-the-dots color scheme. Counting the cat, there are seven purple things scattered around(eight if that diptych is actually two paintings), way more than any room this size needs. And those are just the ones we see in the picture. What's on the other side of the room? Anyway, if three purple things--maybe four--were to go away, it would be a big improvement. Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against purple. In fact, the great John Saladino made his name with prettified color combinations just like this, but he kept the touch light & graceful. Sometimes, the hardest thing is knowing when to stop.

August 4, 2009 8:00 PM

Thomas said...

this magazine is sitting on my table along with the other magazines i hope to flip through soon-thanks for the little push!