Contemporary Dinner Lighting

Because darkness is falling earlier these days, let’s talk about certain slants of lighting (with apologies to Emily Dickinson). I’m thinking of ways to brighten the dining area in time for the family gatherings that are just around the corner. The variety in contemporary pendant lamps, for example, is vast. Here’s a sampling. The 7- by 11-inch “Aura”

by Resolute from Surrounding Lighting, with its amber-hued whirl shape made from printed polycarbonate plastic, takes a compact fluorescent bulb and would suit a dining alcove. The “Moare”

mesh-covered drum-within-a-drum design from ylighting comes in small, medium, and large sizes (up to 24.8 inch-diameter by 24 inch-high).  It uses an incandescent bulb. The free form WillyDilly

pendant by Ingo Maurer from Stardust Lighting uses stiffened card and plastic, takes a halogen bulb, and is put together by the purchaser. These more dramatic pendants would suit larger spaces.

A more eclectic though still contemporary approach would be to mix a traditional fixture with modern furnishings, as illustrated here

by two “Jamison” chandeliers from Rejuvenation. Some classic reproductions of early chandeliers, like this one from

Conant Metal & Light, are contemporary in their simplicity. A friend has an antique candle chandelier on a rope and pulley so that it can be lowered and lit and then raised to the appropriate height — this might be the perfect solution for adding romance and a sense of history to your evening meal. Another friend scoured junk stores for old electric chandeliers, rewired several,  and strung them up on pulleys in the trees around the house for his daughter’s wedding reception. Now that was a magical evening!

As you browse pendant possibilities think about the kind of light you want and balance that with projected energy use: fixtures designed for compact fluorescent bulbs remain an important eco-friendly alternative to typical incandescent lights, though even more efficient LED (light emitting diode) fixtures are developing fast.

If  you want your light to be on the table itself — with old fashioned candle power — check out these intensely colorful glass votives

from GlassyBaby. They come in a great many nature-based hues. A recent GlassyBaby blog post

even matches a range of votives to a collection of fall leaves.

Candle holders are another way to go. The classic shoemaker’s candle stand

from Shaker Workshops, is ingeniously adjustable (up and down) thanks to the screw pole at the center. The  spare functional design gives it a contemporary look. Or consider a modern candelabra

such as this solid chrome example by Design Mango from Dutch by Design. I like the contrast between the minimalist base and the slightly wavery candles…it’s ultra-sleek and Shaker-simple at the same time.

So now that you have the lighting, what about the room? An open layout means the dining table is all the more important as a place to dine, work, play games, and relax. Thus flexible lighting — often complementing fixed downlights in the ceiling — is important. In this compact row house, Plan 469-2

the table is under the stair, which creates a feeling of intimacy so a small adjustable pendant would work well. For a more open area, either directly in front of the kitchen island, as in Plan436-1

or off to one side in a corner of the great room, as in  Plan 466-3, below

a more expansive and dramatic sculptural fixture would create a focal point to define the dining area within the larger space. For more dining area ideas browse our Thanksgiving Kitchens Collection.

As you explore Houseplans.com, think about how your ideal dining area will function at different times of day and try to imagine it in daylight and illumined at night. With the right lighting you should be able to create a variety of moods to match different occasions.

At Home With Nature

We have a lot of granite in our house but it’s not in the kitchen counter: instead there are egg-shaped stones strewn across the mantelpiece and piled elsewhere in baskets and bowls — like hors d’oeuvres from the Pleistocene Era.

My wife is very supportive (er,  long-suffering) and my brother-in-law shares some of this granitic obsession: he once sent me a large and very heavy box. When the mail carrier delivered it he asked me “What have you got in here, rocks?” And of course I had to reply: “Why, yes.”

But in the waning days of summer my thoughts often turn to the seasides and lakeshores where these stones were found, and a little of the vacation feeling returns. I even use one of the rocks as a paperweight on my desk. (I guess it could also be a sort of “writer’s block,” which seems to snowball now and then.) It’s an easy way to incorporate nature — and perhaps even a refreshing Zen moment — into your home.  I am inspired by a painter like Alan Magee, who turns such a simple subject into high art, for example, in his “Convergence” shown below,

which seems to merge painting and sculpture with geology and memory. But I can’t paint so I collect.

Stone and pebble accents in living environments have a long history — just think of the pebble mosaics in some ancient Greek and Roman houses and especially in their communal baths.

This example is from Pella in ancient Greece (Macedonia) courtesy miriam.mollerus at Flickr Creative commons. And by the way, the best book on home life in Roman times that I have read is Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found (Belknap Press, Harvard, 2008) written with immense verve and a good deal of saucy wit by English classicist Mary Beard. The descriptions of cooking and bathing rituals are especially vivid.

Here’s a somewhat more recent application of the pebble idea: an outdoor shower defined by a wall of pebble stone

tiles from Zation Stone, by Los Angeles designer Justin Davis of True Design Build. (Photo courtesy Sunset.) The tiles enhance the outdoor feeling.

A floor of well grouted stones in the shower

is good for  massaging the feet while you stand under the shower head (example also from Zation Stone).

Stone accents are always possible in the garden, whether as a small Japanesque fountain

like this Natsume basin from Stone Forest, or to support a dramatic fire vessel

from the same company — the big stone has been cleaved in two to form the base for the steel grate.

You can even find a wide variety of pebbles mounted as cabinet and drawer pulls,

like these knobs from Pulls Direct. Or this hook

from Uncommon Goods.

The trick with using rocks as accents is not to overdo it — to suggest nature, not start an avalanche…I guess that would be good advice for me too!

Have another pebble. They’re delicious.

What Makes A Good Kitchen?

Julie and Julia, the new Nora Ephron film from Sony Pictures opening this week, is the perfect excuse for thinking about kitchen design. Julia Child’s kitchen in Cambridge — which she donated to the Smithsonian in 2001 and which was reincarnated for the movie by set decorator Susan Bode Tyson — is all about function, livability, and character. Created originally by Julia and Paul Child in 1961, it’s a space for working and entertaining and is neither period-traditional nor sleekly modern but purposeful and personal. I think it still has an important lesson to teach us: Make your kitchen work for you and not for some architectural dogma or decorative effect. The central table — “comfortable for six, ideal for four,” in Julia’s words, doubles as a work surface. (Photo below courtesy Country Living Magazine)

There’s not a slab of granite or elaborately tiled backsplash in sight! It has a country casual air: blue-green cabinets sport small paintings on some of the fronts while honey-toned wood chairs and trim and a large freestanding butcher’s block add warmth. Pegboard-covered walls put whisks, cleavers, (photo courtesy the Smithsonian blog)

fish-shaped molds and all the pots and pans in a well organized and easy to reach display (still a great idea!). A large  commercial Garland range (photo courtesy Smithsonian website)

dominates one corner with an oven that can hold two roast turkeys. The kitchen is almost without a style: a well-organized collection (think ingredient list!) of disparate objects, work surfaces, and appliances.

So what makes a good kitchen? As Julia says in the Smithsonian’s introduction to her kitchen: “I’m very proud…if I can influence anyone to keep into the kitchen and make it a real family room and part of your life.” I think the answer is, at least partly,  simply a room you can work in and really want to live in. I think Julia’s kitchen is an example of good design that’s not necessarily following an esthetic  rulebook. It just seems right and vividly expresses the personality of its owner.

Some other kitchen examples to whet your appetite: San Francisco interior designer Lou Ann Bauer specializes in color and finish details as well as functional organization.

Here’s one of her designs with trimmed cabinets and a central table; it could almost serve as an update of Julia’s kitchen. In another example she incorporates antique furniture, painted cabinetry, and an English farmhouse sink for a warm eclectic look.

Or if a more strictly contemporary architectural approach fits your taste, consider our Plan 463-1, the Marken LEED Demonstration house by architect Silvia Steurer with Alexander Maurer, where the kitchen incorporates nature.

The spare elegant lines allow the view — shared by work space and dining area — to dominate.

In short, the kitchen is a canvas as well as a platter. Find your room recipe and bring it to life.

For a fascinating article on how we may in fact be cooking less and less — despite the hugely successful cooking shows on television that are the successors to Julia’s pioneering work — see the piece titled “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” by Michael Pollan in last week’s New York Times Magazine. That might mean that when we do cook, it’s more important than ever. Last night my wife and I sat in the kitchen and tucked into a small cheese souffle that I had made. It was delicious — even if it didn’t rise as high as I would have liked — and we enjoyed it. Merci, Julia.

Unlocking What’s New At PCBC

The  Pacific Coast Builders Conference, now concluding in San Francisco, is where builders, developers, manufacturers, architects, and designers gather to exhibit new products, listen to speeches, learn, and network. So I couldn’t resist using this image as a metaphor: PCBC as a collection of keys to the culture of home building. Here’s a quick review of what I saw.

Keys To The Castle. The decorative hooks and handles shown above are part of  Soko’s Hearst Castle Collection, which debuted at PCBC. They’re based on keys and other ornamental ironwork at the famous Spanish cathedral-style edifice designed by renowned architect Julia Morgan for mining heir and newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon, on California’s central coast. Soko president and creative director Cari Jaye Sokoloff told me these particular items were inspired by the original keys to the Castle’s front and back doors –talk about security with style! The collection commemorates  the 50th anniversary of Hearst Castle State Park; part of the price of each piece supports the park.

Cari spent a week at the Castle, scanned a wide variety of fixtures into her computer and then manipulated them in CAD to create her collection of handles, pulls, and decorative accessories, like the seahorse pulls, above.

Some of the originals were designed by Julia and some were collected by the obsessively acquisitive W. R. himself, who, after first saying he wanted to build a simple bungalow with a view to the sea, ultimately asked his architect to work vast warehouses full of architectural fragments — from Renaissance ceilings to classical temple fronts and the odd marble sarcophagus — into his own personal hill town. (The image above is by jacksonpe through Flickr’s Creative Commons.) More than one hundred rooms and thousands of objects: not to mention the outdoor and indoor pools. It’s not a McMansion, it’s a McCountry — and should be on every home builder’s itinerary.

The Solar Roof Is Evolving. The latest twist, from Custom-Bilt Metals, is called Fusion Solar.

Photovoltaic thin-film laminate is integrated with standing seam metal roof panels for a sleek appearance. It’s bonded directly to the standing seam roof panels in the factory. This diagram shows how it works as a solar panel:

Sinks Are For Sculpting. The latest to capture my attention are part of Toto’s “Waza Noir” collection, which was launched at KBIS last month and was also on display here.

They’re powder-coated cast iron in black and are inspired by the “Sumi” black ink used in traditional Japanese calligraphy. To me, the one above resembles a three-dimensional brush stroke.

And here’s one that’s a simple round vessel.

Contemporary Fireplace As Flat Screen TV. You can place it almost anywhere on a wall for a flickering focal point. Here are two examples from Regency’s Sunrise series.

These shallow (12  3/4 inches deep) direct-vent gas  fireplaces are very flexible.

Garage Clean-Up. The garage is attracting more attention from manufacturers as everyone looks for ways to use this space more efficiently.

Versatile Building Products, Inc. showed off streamlined cabinetry along with their garage floor coating systems. The video on their website showing the one-day transformation of an old garage — including resurfacing the floor and installing new cabinets — is well worth watching.

Ties That Bind. Maybe it’s my Western upbringing, but I’m partial to rope moulding. If used sparingly it can lend character to a room, to a fireplace, or to cabinets. I found a good range of rope molding sizes and styles at the Outwater Plastics Industries booth.

Despite the company’s name these examples come in poplar, cherry, red oak, and hard maple half rounds.

Strategic Thinking. PCBC stimulates the imagination as well as new product-envy. Various speeches sparked discussion.  Fareed Zakaria — CNN host, Newsweek’s International Editor, and  best-selling author –  gave a dynamic, supremely articulate, and contrarian assessment of the global economy, expanding on themes from his book The Post American World: The Rise of the Rest (which I found a compelling read and highly recommend).  And Adam Zwerbach, Global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S, an international advertising agency, spoke about how McDonalds and Wal-Mart are making sustainability part of their corporate goals. Despite economic realities, and the fact that this was a more intimate conference than the organizers might have wished, the general sentiment seemed to be one of  guarded optimism — and that might be the key to everything.

The annual Kitchen & Bath Industry Show — held recently in Atlanta — is the premier launch pad for new appliances, fixtures, and other products designed to enhance the two key rooms in the house. I asked kitchen and bath expert and veteran KBIS attendee Leslie Clagett to list her favorites (some of which will hit the market later in the year).

Leslie got her start in design journalism at Arts + Architecture magazine in Los Angeles (where she worked in the sleeping loft of the Schindler House), then as an editor for various home publications in New York.  The author of The New City Home (Taunton Press), she recently started a very cool and totally addictive daily blog focusing on everything kitchen and bath— KB Culture—where you can see pictures of her own kitchen, designed by her architect husband, John, among scores of other seductive and inspiring images. A shot of the Clagett’s imaginative overhead storage wheel for glassware, paper towels, and utensils — with built-in uplights (I would call it a very high-IQ chandelier) — is shown at the top of this posting. Here’s her review.

Leslie Clagett’s KBIS: Nine New Products to Watch

Some frugal, some fancy: Products at KBIS were a mix, as manufacturers cope with the changing economic landscape. Let’s start with an item whose very name puts me in a good mood…

1. Uplift Mirrored Cabinet by Robern
A seamless mirror glides upwards—and stays where you position it!—

in this elegant medicine cabinet that’s a great complement to Modernist interiors.

2. Precision 16 Sink by Blanco
Measuring 16 inches front-to-back, the refined dimensions of this sink allow ample area to install deck-mounted faucets,

and shows off chic, slab counters, too.

3. Gourmet Work Shelf Sink by Elkay
What’s the point of a sink whose basin is closed off when an integral work surface is in place?

In this design, a sturdy, drop-in wire grid rests four inches below the rim of the bowl, maximizing its utility.

4. Lighted Grill Controls by Lynx
Unless you do all your grilling by daylight, you’ll appreciate this thoughtful detail:

softly illuminated control knobs will help prevent accidental incineration—or undercooking—of your next al fresco entreé.

5. Servo-Drive Waste/Recycle Drawer Mechanism by Blum
Bump the front of the kitchen trash pull-out with your knee or give it a light hip-check,

and it opens automatically, thanks to this handy—or perhaps better said, hands-free—device.

6. Bassino Floating Tub by Kaldewei
No water jets, no music, no lights: This back-to-basics enameled-steel tub is made for quiet relaxation.

Its unusual dimensions (at 78×39x14 inches, it’s longer and shallower than the typical tub) are designed to facilitate therapeutic floating. (I love the showroom shot: Bathtub-As-Island!–DG)

7. Smithsonian Collection by Linkasink
Not only is the rim of this porcelain sink decorated with delicate cutwork,

but the drain detail receives the same treatment, giving ornament a functional spin.

8. Legato Vanity by Toto
I’m taken with the way the top, legs and part of the sides of this console are one,

wrapping almost origami-like around the drawers. Very fresh.

9. Mini Om Range Hood by Elica
A blast of blue that will zip up any color scheme, the pure geometry of this hood is quite easy on the eye.

It will work particularly well in clean-lined spaces, introducing a curvilinear accent to them.