UTAH STYLE MAGAZINE AGAIN!

I am so excited and so grateful to be featured in Utah Style magazine's 'Style File' section for the second time in my four years of calling Salt Lake City home.  And I am even more excited to be featured for my new furniture business- Christa Pirl Furniture.  If you are not familiar with the publication, check out their website, they always have great features and design tips here.

FAB FEDERAL HEIGHTS BATHROOM RENO

I was so happy to be able to work on a bathroom renovation in a beautiful historic home in the Federal Heights area of Salt Lake City.  While the basic layout of the bathroom worked well for the space, the 1980s fixtures, light pink tile, and large vanity all made the space feel small and dated.   The goals were clear, open the space with a smaller, open vanity and glass shower enclosure, and update the space with new fixtures and finishes, but maintain a connection with the house and its Neoclassical elegance.

BEFORE-

AFTER-

SOTHEBY'S FIRST DESIGNER SHOWHOME

I love to see Sotheby's expanding their marketing into non-traditional auction house realms, with their recently opened gallery and now their first designer showhome in New York.  And what a wonderful concept, with six designers able to raid the upcoming sales lots and select items for the showhome!  Can you imagine having full access to the Sotheby's warehouse for furniture and art shopping?!  What a dream come true for any designer that appreciates antiques and fine art.  Yes, I would be in absolute heaven.

And the best part about what Sotheby's is doing, is that they are promoting the use of antiques in a contemporary context, a philosophy and cause very close to my heart, and they actually make a wonderful statement about this on their website-

"We hope that these spaces will demonstrate how good pieces of fine and decorative art can transcend time and space and that the dialogue between these pieces within a contemporary context not only allows the viewer an opportunity to reflect upon the pieces’ historical and art historical importance, but also gives these pieces new meaning and significance in the world of today."

My only regret is that I am not going to be there in time to see it this spring.  My next NY trip just barely misses it.  Oh well, its on the calendar for next year! (Oh, and of course, there is the other regret that I will likely never be asked to be a contributing designer... but one can always dream!)

More info on the showhome here.

STUNNING AND GRACEFUL OSLO ATTACK MEMORIAL

I was so happy to see an elegant, beautiful and highly poignant memorial selected for the 2011 Oslo attack memorial.  As 50 percent of the blood in my veins is Norwegian I was quite interested to see what was to come of this memorial.  Despite the nod to the Vietnam War memorial by Maya Lin in Washington DC, I believe this memorial by Jonas Dalhberg is wonderfully original and really does capture the horror of the events that transpired in peaceful little Norway a few years ago.  While it might symbolize the feeling of loss for families that lost loved ones, I believe it also perfectly captures the break that Norway as a whole felt, the loss of innocence the country had to face when this attack occurred by one, crazy, lone wolf attacker.  He truly did create a scar in the landscape of the country and culture.  Read more here.

And I think this design is SO good I am not even going to mention the fact that Dalhberg is Swedish. Oops :)

TUFTING ON SOFAS & CHAIRS

I understand.  I know.  Tufting on grandmas Victorian furniture often makes it look even more dated and dowdy.  However, when pieces are transformed into something more contemporary with a new, bold fabric, that tufting adds infinite personality, depth and style.

Recently I have come across several pieces by others that have removed the tufting in order to update a piece.  While I understand the logic, I am very sad by the loss of the great design feature.  Here are two I have recently come across-

From Elle Decor online-

And this piece from Chairloom-

I really find it so unfortunate that these pieces have lost their tufted backs.  The tufting was part of the original design of the piece, and really should be kept as an integral part of the design.  After seeing these, I felt compelled to find some other pieces that maintained their tufted backs and still transformed into contemporary pieces, and found these on houzz-

And I understand that some are not sure about adding pattern to tufting, but I find pieces with tufting and a modern patterned fabric even more enticing.

For a client a few years ago we added pattern to this deep tufting-

And I look forward to seeing the end result of this piece-

for another client which will soon be reupholstered in this Robert Allen fabric-

And here are a few other interesting pieces from pinterest-