Housing Works‘ annual Design on a Dime benefit will take place on Thursday, May 5th 2011 at the Metropolitan Pavillion in New York City. The event will continue through the 7th, but it’s all about being there for the Opening Night!
I am flattered and honored that Housing Works asked me to be one of the event’s featured designers this year. I will be doing my own space, as well as decorating the space for SFERRA Fine Linens, who is one of the sponsors.
I thought I would take this opportunity to explain a little bit about the event and why it is so important, and discuss my ideas for the two vignettes that I will be creating. Friends and family tickets are available for $75 instead of $150. Just click right here to get them (and you will also be helping to achieve my fundraising goal).
Every year, a small number of interior designers are invited to curate the Design on a Dime vignettes, the entire contents of which are all for sale at discounted prices. One of the big draws for the evening is the opportunity to shop a curated selection of items that have been hand-chosen by design professionals, at prices that are (in most cases) well below what they would be elsewhere.
Everything that we designers use in our spaces must be a donation. Nothing is bought. Nothing is a paid commission. Everything must be for sale. While this is a challenge, it is also what makes sure that the event generates authentic charitable fundraising and encourages creativity. In the words of co-chair Iman, “the idea that decorating your house can build a home for someone else is just fantastic.” I could not agree more. Other chairs of Design on a Dime include Nate Berkus, Lara Spencer and Charlotte Moss. James Huniford is the Founding Chair. It’s easy to see why I am so honored to be included this year.
All proceeds go to Housing Works and their various projects, which provides lifesaving services to homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS. This year, the proceeds will go specifically to a project called the 874 Jefferson Avenue Residence Project. At 874 Jefferson Avenue, Housing Works is spearheading the building of “12 permanent units that will provide supportive housing for single, formerly homeless adults living with HIV/AIDS.”
I am further impressed by the fact that as part of its effort, Housing Works is making sure that architectural heritage and integrity are preserved. The Jefferson Avenue Residence Project involves “the substantial renovation of a three-story brick building in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.” Rehabilitation and preservation in one evening? You can see why this is something in which I am willingly and enthusiastically participating.
The Malcolm James Kutner, Inc. vignette will be what I call “flea market chic.” It’s an assortment of items that somehow work together and all of which reference the materials and items that come up in my work over and over again. Thanks to Studio Printworks generous donation, I will be designing this vignette around their wallpaper called “Optique” in Maize Yellow and Gold.
My friend and decorative painter Dean Barger of Dean Barger Studios, has created and donated a geometric floorcloth in ebony, caramel, and cream colors. He is also donating a custom-made gilded dado railing and three gorgeous panels incorporating silver-leaf. A client recently donated a custom sofa of amazing proportions and scale that will feature in the space, along with a set of limestone and metal tables.
The SFERRA vignette will be organized around the concept of a sophisticated “modern man’s bedroom”, and will showcase a prototype for a line of bedding that I am considering creating in collaboration with this 120-year old Italian luxury linen company. The scheme is, not surprisingly, anchored by a color scheme that is comprised of shades of grey, camel, and cerulean, with an emphasis and insistence on natural materials.
In the SFERRA space, I will be featuring another wallpaper by Studio Printworks, this one called “Woodgrain” in a color called Aspen, which is metallic silver on a chalky grey ground. In the words of Dennis Shah and Temo Callahan, “Nature created wood. Its grained pattern has been used for decoration since man invented the axe.” It’s a perfect material and storyline for an MJK space. What I am most excited about is the luster of the metallic element and the updated coloring that gives this age-old design its modern edge.
The New Traditionalists generously donated their signature walnut Bar Cart no. One (below), and a pair of bedside tables with an ethereal silver overglaze.
There will also be a smart sisal and wool carpet from Analisse Taft at ALT For Living, a pair of Gregory lamps from Christopher Spitzmiller, accessories by Waylande Gregory, and some other surprises.
I’ll be mixing in some donations of my own, mostly from recent travels to Asia and Africa, and there is a selection of throw pillows that I have made for the event, all made from fabrics donated by Jim Thompson. There will be the beautiful silks, but also some of the new fabrics from the No.9 Collection.
The artwork for the spaces is something that I am especially excited about. My friend Kathy Root, who owns KMR Arts Gallery in Washington Depot, Connecticut, has donated a vintage selenium toned black and white photograph of Diane Keaton taken by Neal Barr.
My friend Laura of Laura Kaufman Studio has donated four drawings from her Transitional Objects Series (the telescope, the teapot, the bugle tranform sight, water, breath). I have a number of pieces by Laura, so it is very exciting to be able to showcase her work at this event.
Hopefully, I have raised your curiosity and piqued your interest here! And let’s not forget that it’s a really fun evening, too!
I hope you will come and support me. Support Design on a Dime. Support Housing Works. Support 874 Jefferson Avenue. Get some new furniture, artwork, and accessories, or just shop for ideas. That’s a lot of bang for your 75 bucks. Remember, click here for the chance to buy the Family and Friends tickets for $75.
Post Script: The donations mentioned and previewed above are just a small selection. More things are coming in daily, but this is the list of my donors at the time of this post: The New Traditionalists (beautiful bedside tables and that must-have: Bar Cart Number One!), Christopher Spitzmiller (spectacular natural-colored crackle glaze lamps); Holly Hunt; ALT for Living (amazing bespoke carpet in a sisal/wool,combo); KMR Arts (vintage photo of Diane Keaton by Neal Barr); Dean Barger Studios (custom made dado rail sculpture and panels involving silver leafing and other elements, as well as a Persian-inspired floorcloth); Waylande-Gregory (for graphically gorgeous tabletop accessories); Laura Kaufman Studio (for four amazing drawings that study a forthcoming sculpture and involve the exploration of transitional objects); my clients, who I call the JR duo (and who are donating an amazing set of tables and one of the most amazing sofas you’ve ever seen even if it does need reupholstering); Jim Thompson (gorgeous Thai silk fabrics fashioned into pillows of my design); Studio Printworks (for Woodgrain wallpaper in the SFERRA space and Optique paper in mine!); Suffolk Designer Lighting (an amazing pair of marble lamps); SFERRA (of course, for sponsoring the event, for fabricating the linens to my designs, for some of the artwork, and for the tempting throws in a variety of colors). And then there’s my upholstery and my soft furnighings workrooms: Manzanares Furniture Corp and La Regence. They have been so generous in fabricating the custom items that I need to really make this space – these spaces! – sing their unique and worthy songs. Where would any of us be in this business without such great workrooms. Thank you to all of you mentioned here!