hello and welcome to a new edition of designed for the times i'm your host richard christopher scary i'm very happy to have in studio a friend of mine actually not just a client but this client has become a friend and her name is lindsay meant sall welcome to my show oh are you so our topic happens to be today something that i'm finding more and more and when i was in studio before we were we went on the  here to do with our program i was talking about perhaps even myself taking on a new project where i would build something that was a little bit more contemporary or at least more transitional you know lines are getting simpler and i really like more and more i'm liking sort of a clean simpler profile and i was very lucky to get to play with somebody else's house and that is wednesday's project the project i guess from start to finish which you say about two years year and a half maybe everything from the outside the roof we did every surface on this house and it just was spectacular so much so that i was approached by the people that design new jersey magazine and it was in the march issue this year with some shots so it's hoping that maybe we could put up some shots and i can talk about contemporary design and some of the things that we did to sort of bring it back to more of a contemporary a statics and if you could put up the first shot the outside so the outside shot talks about some of the things that we did to the project the first thing we did is we painted a beautiful dark gray lindsay was how many cans how many grace the single hardest color in the spectrum to try to get right because quite simply it's the direct combination of white and black white is all white together the combination of all white and black is the exact opposite so when you put things together the color spectrum comes up and depending upon whether it's shady or sunny or green around or brown around it affects the color you're picking especially when it's outside right so you have a lot of trees around you so it's easy for you to pick up a loser greens so you had to balance that so finally we picked a color that really worked well yes and don't you think taking your time to pick an outside color is really important definitely because when you have an outside color is always changing so it's very important to see it at night absolute in the morning if it's raining and someone so we did that we did the roof right yes we did the roof we did the paint color outside yeah let's talk about the garage door because i think the garage door in your space was transformative well we did the front door first we did the front door first ok so the front door we changed the design the the the front door originally when i originally i don't think it was the original door but the last owners before lindsay and david took it over put sort of victorian front door on the house which didn't suit the house whatsoever so we designed a beautiful front door that sort of had louvered light coming through it was immediately without adding anymore light in that space light just naturally flowed yes and i think that it is you can see right through the house to the back it's amazing right that beautiful woods around because it was wood that kind of did some weird you know it would you say looks like as the house right in the house it's vertical right but for some reason on the garage they chose to put the wood on i mean go  always look funny to me well you know what that was sort of trendy in the eighty's right in the eighty's because i think the garage door was original yes i don't think i think somebody changed at probably the original door to the board to the victorian oval door but i think that the garage door was profile to the door the front door with that beautiful inset glass very horizontal right yes and we did in sort of a leather re kind of butterscotch e how would you describe the color contrast probably like tannish like a tan  right like leather let me tell you folks the look of ten to leather against dark charcoal gray is spectacular really and you say very rich so that if we go into let's we've done the outside let's go into the four or so for taking a look at the space let's talk about what you did in the four year so the first thing we did was we took out the floor yes and when we took out the floor with it we find more easter yes so i have to say that all the people that are looking to a renovation  keep in mind that every time you open up a house whether it's five years old or five hundred years old there's going to be some issues right yes they'll always be issues well the thing was there was never a good or in the in the front of the door right  the tile that we did you know i see this all the time a tile tile has become so good and so sophisticated you really for a flooring service you really can't tell the difference between tile and stone right yes so we picked a surface for the four big right and really look like stone right janja beautiful and we want it and we want a lot lighter so i think that also brought light to the space and then i like to talk about your collection you have a beautiful standing on the other side i have shelves i collected from the cation right and i put them in a jar and i have skull right on there in the center and i found on the property wow and it's funny that even in contemporary you still can have collections of things and it doesn't look quite or does it not because the things are very architectural so it definitely does work in that space so let's transition to our next shot so i can talk a little bit about beyond the for what  all in all would you say you're happy with how your house looks absolutely gorgeous right absolutely you know design a jersey magazine really is that's what they're going to put in a magazine and when they saw the pictures of your home they were floored they think of how many pictures you got some some people get a couple of pictures you have like eight pages a lot of photos as they were they really like the outcome of ok so this this is the the living room shot and i think the living room is just spectacular now the the furniture from i want to credit ethan allen the furniture in that living room has come from ethan allen and one of the things that i thought about with these and now and i don't know if you shopped ethan allen before i do remember and correct me if i'm wrong i would suggest want to go take a look at e the perception of ethan allen is what colonial right and not contemporary and traditional right sure yeah i've been in there years ago and but they've changed they really have changed it since shit looks into the living room right and then when we got the furniture i thought i'll put it down there see how it looks and i like it so you know what that's do you have to try things it's like you know you go to try to address this right maybe she wanted to i'd never wear this you have to put it on the same thing with your accessories repurposed them if you change one thing it makes that those things look that much different definitely you know notice here no window treatments very soon at all just the stone and really simplicity in the furniture but very good pieces foundation pieces yeah let's move on to the next shot god but i don't know but that was always the thing metromedia and it was work spirit and it happened like probably yeah definitely definitely did you think that for a lot of my homeowners they never know what to expect when we're doing a home renovation problem you don't have children right that right that's a plus right you know when your children it's very difficult i think the shot that they're putting up is your dining room and another room that i really very much like i love the scale of the chairs in the dining room it's not it's not a wimpy chair it's a very comfortable even slightly wider chair i would say which is trending a little bit people are starting to use even their n chairs as much a chair and a half that's a little wider almost looking like a bench and having that sort of wider piece very straight very clean but the chairs are a little bit wide on your wrist not the swipe but the look is very nice and the table talk about the table i was very impressed by the quality of the table on take a look at that all in all if you were going to do it over again is there anything that would change because we're a little bit down the road with what you've completed anything that you would change or so i think very much which you did already holds up as if we did it yesterday i think it's so well done i think it carries and i think if you do if you really think about your innovation you certainly had a clear vision of what you wanted right yes so i think when you have a clear vision and you do things well they do last even contemporary they definitely last so that we have another shot at they're going to try to just look from the monitor here and see if we can talk about it well as you asked me is there anything else i would have done differently so that's our kitchen chat that's the that's the center island which we did in a black we did shake or cabinets which i always talk about on our program here how shaker cabinets can be they're contemporary traditional transitional and we went with a white and black motif the floor is actually tile but doesn't look like stone it really rich look at oversized tiles we did a pliant says we're all on stainless steel and a built in refrigerator which is lovely and a beautiful stone a beautiful stone for the center island which i think really showcases the black and let's talk about the window i don't think you can really get that from the shot but the window was something very important to talk about what we did because we took a functional window and we turned it into a picture window that's actually the best part of the whole  area right to accommodate the wind and we did this very interesting window that was horizontal and just lovely and sort of really brought a new dimension to the space because you're in one hundred  goes back to the front door and the garage door right the simplicity of line and continuing the element of that horizontal shape which relates to my the front door the garage door and the beautiful window which is sort of like the christian you know i think of the kitchen and really brings it all together i think the next shot we have coming up is of the the eating area of the kitchen yes the eating of the kitchen so let's talk about that space i think that's one of the things that you have a very clear vision but i sort of had to talk my way through a couple things now that was a pear tree that well some of it was right right some of it so what we did was we actually pushed back and relocated the pantry and made that a bigger eating area yes there was there was a window in  we scared to lose a parent tree now now now but i think that was key getting that if i think it is about actually more space and open right just open yes and then making that a designated area now the table is a lovely table the top of the table is actually live it which people now know live edge pretty well at the time not so much yeah now this is fairly new on the right got it now a lot of people are doing and the base every time i show people the picture they love that bass right and just that the combination of something that's natural and then an industrial element the metal coming together is amazing you know a lot of the elements that we chose and you chose for your home are elements that could be considered cold but when it was all brought together somehow there's a lot of warmth to that space don't you i think south and i think part of that was the pop spring in that warm orange town i think took all that black and white and sort of softened it slightly even though it's very architectural and very transitional i think it all flowed and work together let's talk about the window treatments you had didn't want any window treatments in your space whatsoever because i'm in the way writing right down right  people are very windows right but i did at the end ask you just to do a little bit of a solar shade yes you did and i think it really finished it off pretty well they did i'm so glad you convinced me because it was just it's just a little bit of a finishing touch and it fireplace now the fireplace innards something you did with that fireplace now i didn't have anything to do with the actual physical box that you put in there that you speak to that you did something where it just generates a lot of heat right well it was prefabricated fireplace right and that fireplace generates a lot of it and even though you have a contemporary and very clean surface it's just a place you want to hang out in doesn't so let's talk about the sofa in that space because that's so foot is really a traditional sofa but at the it also long it's the longest one name and then make this perfect i know i don't remember but i do think you actually had an and of a vision at first for a chesterfield sofa and then david kind of touched out of it a little bit in wanting to he think it wouldn't be i do think that the contemporary sofas didn't do as much for the room right now you know i always say that design is a sense of balance and i think you need needed the softness of that sofa with the tufted lines even though it was dark gray and so on i think you needed that for the balance of the sleekness of the fireplace that you created i think there was so much sleep this with that fireplace that the sofa being sleek just kind of made it look too i don't know not inviting right i don't know i i think no i think that they co exist beautifully together again design is about balance so i think that that beautiful stuff which is still clean looking but it's a little warm and then the chairs are very nice as well the chairs have sort of straight lines right they all co exist together at garches i think yeah but it's got that lot with lighting right lighting is magic so in your i don't really remember from the beginning but in your original kitchen your lighting i don't remember how it was whether some recessed lights i wasn't sure if there was a fast light spot we took it to like the next level right yes well now change in your electric bill afterwards but often clients want to change out there even if they have high ads from incandescent telly di there's such a dolly does make a difference it does and there are a lot alike in that house and this does have a lot of lights do you find that you use if you ever move to another house would you want it that way or would you wanted against the wall that's a good question because eventually i did wanted against the wall i think you did yeah i did just ok but i did next i wanted it over  refrigerator and i wanted of the whole stove with the of it right right right right and you suggested not doing you know why because i inherited the half that had that neve in the way bought a new viking stove i love the fact that you and maybe david buik pizzas on a friday night you have a glass of wine and you can look at your guy when you go the other way what do you look at but he says you know that yeah you see the wall and everybody's engaging they're having a party and you're by yourself facing the wall so i feel very strongly that that was the right decision for your very gregarious to entertain lovely and then you can be a part of the conversation was happy that you suggested leaving it there but you know what this was this is very much a collaborative effort because you have a vision and i like when people have a vision when somebody doesn't have a vision it's fun for me but once the my job is done i spend a year with you i'm done i want you to be happy with those decisions so somebody like you that has a vision is open to some change but has a vision is probably the best client for a designer to work with because it enriches you but you're creating you're helping them create their vision and that's part of it you actually were the only one that understood my vision i appreciate that nobody else when i want to tell you something that i haven't told you before i enjoyed that project so much now twenty one years you know the kitchens i did you know the bathrooms i did that project for some reason resonated with me and i find in my own personal taste maybe i'm not quite as contemporary but i took from that because i liked the outcome so much cleaner lines more use of the dark grays things that i transitioned into my own life and to my other clients today because that was because some of the things were really in the yours and i really like that because i think in life you're always learning right you're always getting close i'm constantly taking courses for my credits and learning things but a little bit of your vision i like so much i sort of bring that with me which is kind of nice well that i'm glad you told me that exactly thank you and i were so i think we have one or two more shots left that i can show wow i did nothing face right out of the nothing we relocated in the entrance and i think that changed the world yes where you see the the call a coffee machine the do away was their rights and you suggested moving the doorway from instead of in the kitchen into this room the family room into this room major difference and that's the thing i say that i say to people even you know not everybody has the luxury to work with a designer but even if you just get a design plan from resign and get a different perspective and a pair of fresh eyes something like that just give you that solid more of a solid space to create your bar in that area because we relocated your pantry c transformative wasn't all absolutely the other thing is what we opened up your door frames that made the house to make it was twice the size that now when you socialize people can go in and out two at a time yeah it's willing and the flow pantry even can be too deep because i know the people that i pantries are like it's not easy for them to get everything so if a pantry is organized and set up well it could be part of your cabin a tree and actually even work better for you but for you i think in that case having that beautiful dining area of all you have to find the right designer the right one to reflect well i really appreciate you being my guest you bring so much to the table this wasn't an easy this is a little bit of a schlep for you and you did and i don't know about one hour before we shot this they very very kind of you thank you and look forward to more episodes designed for the time