Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
how did randall and casey meet/get together for this enterprise?

have you worked on other projects?
  

    
I was wondering if some of the colors used in the page layouts (not the
pictures) are subtle hints for colors to use in your house.
  

    
Catching up here...

To answer Marjorie's question in 173 - Once your house is organized,
we encourage readers to maintain it by using what we called positive
household habits. These tips are rituals and routines that help you
keep the clutter under control. Simple things like avoiding draping
coats over a stair rail or hanging them from doorknobs; placing several
trash bags at the bottom of a garbage pail so you always have a new
bag ready; and rotating the dishes you use daily, so any wear patterns
are distributed evenly over a set of dishes, rather than the top four
or five.

We also emphasize that you shouldn't impose a routine that your family
won't learn to do easily. No reason to set your family up for failure.
  

    
and I'll answer briefly about how we became writing partners--before I
have to leave this airport computer for a flight home.
Randall was writing a design column for the Chron's wednesday Home and
Garden section..and I was cotributing feature articles ona fairly
regular basis. there was a meeting of the section's regular freelancers
at the chron offices and R and I stayed to chat after everyone else
left and almost instantly becme friends.
Soon after that  I began shamelessly pumping his brain for ideas for
articles I was writing for design magazines. 
mostly we found that our weird senses of humor meshed.
  

    
(slippage from my co-auth!)

Casey and I met during our old Chronicle Home section freelancing
days. We were asked to come in and give some the editors some
suggestions and ideas. After the meeting, we stayed in the conference
room talking and talking, like two friends who hadn't seen each other
in years. 

As far as working together before, we've kind of dabbled in each
others writing, but not on a joint project until The Organized Home.

The book came about because of The Well! A Rockport editor posted in a
few topics that she was looking for design writers. I think Casey and
I both sent her links to our websites, and had a few chats with her.
Then she was transferred to another division and our info went to
Maryann Hall, our editor at Rockport. She needed a designer to write
about home organization and asked me if I was interested. I was
dubious. I had been chained to my laptop for months finishing another
book manuscript and I was not ready do that again. I like to write, but
I'm not a writer. I was very lucky when I wrote for the newspaper. I
had a great editor, and I was able to basically write what I wanted.
Books are SO different. If I did write the Organized Home, I needed
help, BAD. I asked Casey if she wanted to co-author it, and after our
mutual grumbles about the timeframe (6 months) - we were off.


<arturner> We love the colors in the book, but I think they're better
for the page than for paint.
 
  

    
two more questions: 

what's your personal fave advice/storage solution in the book (or in your 
own home or in a client's home)? 

and what designers do you love in the real world, on tv and in actual 
people's homes? can you introduce me to thom filicia? i think i can turn 
him. 
  

    
(Hey, Mim.  Great idea! Will investigate, tho i suspect most Germans
are prob too frugal to spring for anything fancier than Ikea.)
  

    
My favorite storage idea is the old armoire on page 125 - just a beat
up old cabinet transformed into a storage cabinet for a home office. I
also like the folding screen ideas, too. I'm all into folding screens
these days. 

I've consistently used tansu cabinets as storage for clients. They
work well for tvs, stereo equipment, as extra clothes storage, for
office equipment like fax machines and scanners, etc. And their design
works well in traditional and contemporary spaces. We talk a lot about
them in the book.

The designers I like are Rose Tarlow, the late Jed Johnson, and John
Stefanidis - in that order. And, while I don't really care for their
style - Diamond & Baratta are demons with detail and color. I have to
admire them for that.

I'm have Thom call you (he's single right now, too.)
  

    
Thom does occasionally sigh on the show about being single, which is
impossible to believe (except it might be hard to take having a boyfriend
who worked as much as he does).
  

    <scribbled by rosebud Mon 19 Apr 04 10:43>
  

    
While you are calling Thom, can you have Ted give me a ring?  I want
Ted to meet my best friend, Don.  

 
  

    
alas, Ted has a boyfriend.
  

    
I was wondering about the tansu cabinets:  are they modular?  In one of the
pictures they look like they are just made to be stacked this way or that.
Or do you have to hunt around to find different ones that are the same
height or width?
  

    
Ted's the only married guy in that crew.  You can introduce your boyfriend
to any of the others!

I like Ted a lot.  I guess you can take the girl out of Chicago but you
can't take Chicago out of the girl.
  

    
Tansu varies. Some were built into houses (like cabinetry,) some are
freestanding furniture. Some are large, some are very small. There are
stepped tansu that look very similar to the one in the book (which is
by Roche-Bobois and is not an antique.) The ones that are large enough
for really great storage tend to be made to stack one on top of the
other - which also makes them very easy to move.

I tend to stack tansu largest up to smallest, rather than in a
haphazard jigsaw puzzle way. But that's just me and my Libra
sensibilities.
  

    
does livability/practicality/storagey issues figure into your love of the 
designers you love? one thing i find jadorable about my future husband 
thom is he tries to respect the taste adn style of the clueless straight 
boys and figure out who they think they are and then he designs from 
there. one thing i love about vern on trading spaces is he ALWAYS thinks 
about storage. i get excited whenver there is a diamond & barrata layout in a 
design mag because it is so thrilling and psychotic, but i suppose that 
level of pattern is practical and livable in many ways--how on earth would 
you ever see dirt or stains? and i guess the people who hire them (or any 
desire with a strong image or characteristic look) know that the look and 
practicality or lack thereof will work with their life. 

so, when you design, are you constnatly balancing 
practicality/livability/desire to respect client's "taste" with your own 
desire to just go crazy and do your dream room? 
  

    
is this a dating service?
  

    
if it can get me a night with jeremy irons I'll declare it one.
(just to discuss his ideas on decor, of course)

just walked in the door...will address other topics in a bit
  

    
Actually my friend Don has a crush on Kyan.  I just want him to marry
Ted so they can invite me over to fabulous dinner parties and martinis.
 
  

    
Kyan? He's going to look like Fred McMurray when he gets older.
  

    
Hmm, I'm told that Fred MacMurray was quite cute as a young actor, so
you could be right.

> I've consistently used tansu cabinets as storage for clients.

Oh good, now I don't have to ask my question about where to store
clients.
  

    
I should have added, "out of control clients"
  

    
re: marjorie's <181>
one of my favorite pieces of advice is a short sentence in the family
room chapter, but it applies to any area of any size home:

As you wander through flea markets and antique shops, consider the
unusual.

of course it could be expanded to "through flea markets and antique
shops and the Container Store and Target, etc, etc"
Force yourself to look at items whose lines/color/patina appeal to you
and ask yourself: How could this piece solve a storage/organizational
problem? 
I have a friend who's quite good at this. Before I met Randall, she
gave me some furnishing suggestions for my house--and one of my
favorite finds is an old table/sheet music holder that I use as a
bedside table in my guestroom. It has a small drawer and belwo that are
six vertically-divided sections, intended to hold the sheet music. I
use them to hold books and magazines I think my guests might enjoy. 

As to my favorite designers:
amongst the dearly departed: Billy Baldwin and David Hicks.
amongst the living: Rose Tarlow, John Saladino and Randall Koll. oh,
and a dear friend who is not a professional designer, but a retired
fashion photographer: Georges Dambier, the owner of my favorite inn in
the entire world. He converted his ancestral family farmhouse in the
Dordogne Valley into a small inn--and the decor just thrills me:
ancient thick stucco and stone walls, a mix of antique and contemporary
furnishings, signed Bernard Cathelin lithographs on the walls--all
very pared-down and site appropriate decor, much sparer and more
masculine than what one usually imagines upon hearing the term Country
French.
  

    
re: 191

<so, when you design, are you constnatly balancing 
practicality/livability/desire to respect client's "taste" with your
own desire to just go crazy and do your dream room?>

I know this sounds like a boiler plate answer, but I never have my
"dream room" in mind when I work with a client. Yes, I know almost
instantly what a rooms needs, and what should be where. But I need the
client's feedback, otherwise I'm lost. Their input only solidifies my
ideas, kind of fine tunes them. Usually, I can see that the client
needs certain cures for storage ills, and the lot. But, if I also know
how a client uses a room, that helps immensely. I also do little quick
fixes that a client doesn't necessarily know they need. For one client,
we used a huge (and I mean HUGE) Balinese basket on their kitchen
island to hold bags and boxes of cookies and snacks (they were just a
wild jumble with no boundaries.) Or, we've hid old plastic laundry
hampers and replaced them with a better looking ones. I also like to
check in with a client after a few months, to see if everything is
running smoothly and all the storage/furniture/etc. works, and make
changes accordingly.
  

    
Because I have too much stuff, a lot of it ends up on the floor,
"stored" under a little table, say a stack of books for example. I'm
guessing that's a no-no in The Organized Home. But are there ever times
when it is OK to store stuff on the floor? And if so (please, dear
God, let them say is it's OK!!), what's the best way to go about it?