14th Street Millworks

With events for designers happening daily, and new projects cropping up all over the city, keeping track of all the goings-on in Atlanta can be a tall order. That’s why AD PRO is here to keep you informed for the week.

Openings

Square Feet Studio Designs for Next-Gen Dining at Emory University

When Emory University decided to reimagine its Student Life Center, the school tapped Atlanta-based design firm Square Feet Studio to create dining spaces that would foster community. “The Dobbs Common Table creates an opportunity for students and faculty to engage and connect through food and a welcoming environment,” Square Feet Studio’s Vivian Bencich tells AD PRO. The dining hall, the largest on campus, seats 775, but the firm crafted zones called Crossroads, Front Porch, Warehouse, Chef’s Table, and Private Dining to create intimate areas within the cavernous space. The design team worked with local makers including B-10 Union, Corn Upholstery, and DDW Inc. to design custom millwork and furnishings such as diamond-tufted banquettes and solid oak tables. “Our goal was to bring the hospitality, warmth, and scale of local eateries into the Dobbs Common Table so that it felt much like a bespoke dining experience,” Bencich adds.

See the New Installation on the Beltline’s Westside Trail

As part of the 21st annual Atlanta Celebrates Photography (ACP) Festival, the work of more than 40 photographers from around the globe has been installed on the Atlanta Beltline’s Westside Trail. At the FENCE Project, visitors can walk along an outdoor display that stretches more than 700 feet long. The Atlanta installation, which will remain on view through June 2020, joins seven other cities across North America in showcasing this work.

Product Launches

Mainly Baskets Home Adds Outdoor Furniture and Lighting

Atlanta-based Mainly Baskets Home, which has been a go-to source for design-forward, sustainably harvested baskets, has launched a new line of outdoor furniture. Each piece of woven furniture in the new All-Weather line is made with an aluminum frame and handwoven poly-resin and available in four finishes. As with the interior offerings, designers can customize the size, design, color, and fabric of each piece to suit their needs. The brand has also introduced a nine-item line of lighting to complement its other offerings.

Sales

ADAC’s Habachy Designs + Atelier Marks Down Floor Models

Habachy Designs + Atelier is making way for new merchandise sourced at High Point Market by offering select floor models at 20% to 50% off. The markdowns will run through December 23. All of the discounted items—including lighting, pillows, furniture, and more—are marked with a red tag on the showroom floor.

“Everyone claims to be a ‘luxury’ brand,” Frank Pollaro, founder and CEO of Pollaro Custom Furniture, says to AD PRO. “But to me, that’s a very special word that is reserved for the finest example of any given product.”

This definition of the word happens to apply quite well to Pollaro’s work. His business, which he founded at the age of 21, has grown to occupy the highest echelon of bespoke furniture. His team of around 40 includes everyone from furniture makers to gilders to those who specialize in the lost art of eggshell inlay. Here, he gives us the details on three of the custom pieces he’s bringing to New York’s Salon Art + Design fair, taking place November 14–18.

AD PRO: You don’t participate in many fairs. Why Salon?

Frank Pollaro: We don’t participate in anything that’s not at the highest level. The only other show we do is the Monaco Yacht Show. What I love about Salon is, it brings the best of the design world and the most sophisticated people. We’re making highly complex, highly sophisticated pieces, and it takes a very discerning connoisseur’s eye to see and appreciate this.

AD PRO: Tell us about the Radiant Table.

FP: I think we put something like a thousand hours into that table. We had a parcel of Aucoumea crotch wood that had one of the most active and spectacular grain patterns that I had ever seen. The wood grain drives the design, and I think that’s a really nice way to work. We like to let the wood do the talking—we kind of let Mother Nature speak her own voice.

AD PRO: And for the Aquatic Art piece made partially out of eggshells, the shells came from your own chickens.

FP: We wanted large brown eggs, and we wanted a bird that was capable of being okay in the weather here [in New Jersey] during the winter, because they do hang out outside. So, these are hybrid chickens called Red Stars.

AD PRO: How many eggs did you use?

FP: There’s got to be a few hundred.

AD PRO: It’s very intricate work.

FP: Two people worked on that, and it probably took six or seven months. It’s slow going. With that eggshell, we only lay maybe a six-inch by six-inch area in a day.

AD PRO: On the other end of the spectrum, your Club Chair has more than meets the eye.

FP: Half of our production every year is chairs. We tailor each chair to the exact dimensions of the client who’s going to sit in that chair. It’s like a tailored suit. And many client couples will come to us with two very different body types, shapes, and weights. We can make them a pair of club chairs that look identical, but [feel] completely different, because they’re tailored to the body of each person.

AD PRO: The Club Chair is made of teak and titanium—how did you decide on that?

FP: This was born out of a conversation with Larry Ellison that we had probably in 2006 or 2007. We had furnished his yacht, and he and I got to talking about materials. He said, “You know, you really ought to do something using titanium as an accent; it’s completely impervious to all salt.” And we wanted to build it to withstand the elements. These things are being put onto the decks of superyachts, and they’re also being put on terraces in backyards.

London design duo, Tatjana von Stein and Gayle Noonan aka Sella Concept, are renowned for their dynamic approach to design with a passion for strong narratives and thought-provoking environments. This year, they decided to direct their attention to a new project, one which couples both a personal message and a gap in the market they identified when working on a variety of past residential projects.

Hoping to reach a new customer base for the studio, the ‘Ladies Pond’ collection consists of three stools – ‘Bathers 1,2 and 3’ – inspired by the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond on Hampstead Heath, one of London’s outdoor gems. Representing individual ‘bathers, the three stools are handmade from tulip wood before being finished with a stone composite, a lengthy process which takes three days to perfect for each piece. In a variety of heights, each stool has a distinct silhouette and, in collaboration with textile studio Tibor, is topped with a bouclé upholstered seat pad.

The designs were launched last month at Decorex, where the duo took part in creating an installation at the fair, and the studio is hoping this is just the beginning of a new venture for them. Over the vast array of projects they have undertaken, bespoke pieces have been the norm, but now they are excited to bring beautiful creations such as these to a wider audience. “We will venture further into furniture design while keeping integrity as to why we do it every time and thinking about whether we can achieve it in the most sustainable way.” says von Stein, “It is a wonderful way for us to explore form and material outside of brand and site specific projects and working with a wider audience at heart allows us to explore different themes and processes.”

When discussing the inspiration behind the collection, they explain how the Ladies’ Pond is a hidden treasure in the middle of a huge city where women, regardless of shape or size, can truly feel free. Through the shapely, curvaceous forms of the stools themselves, they are hoping to impart a wider and meaningful message. “With the Ladies Pond stools we want to inspire a sense of pride, comfort and sensuality and continue an important conversation that has been going for a few years now about the joy and freedom that can be found in celebrating your body.” von Stein continues, “In this instance, thinking about the ponds and the sense of community they engender, really informed the process, form and material of the final stools.” Simultaneously, the duo, wives and co-founders, were also responding to an issue they had come across themselves. “We realised there was a gap in the market for a unique and stylish bar stool,” states Noonan, “an item that we’ve struggled to find for our own projects.”

Designed in a Jade Green colour way reminiscent of the pond itself, each stool is made to order with a 6-8 week lead time and a retail cost of £2000. These sculptural stools are art statements in themselves and make a timeless investment with a beautiful dialogue behind them. “Exploring form, material and an emotive response was at the forefront of designing these sculptural stools.” continues Noonan, “We worked with fantastic craftsmen to master the challenging art of curves, resulting in a free-flowing and tactile nature.”

The pair are keen to encourage users to immerse themselves into the narrative behind the project. “Our philosophy with everything we do is about transporting and inspiring the person who is experiencing our design, and also incentivising behaviour.” Noonan explains. “We always ask how do we want a person to move through a space? How do we want them to feel? How do we want them to use a piece of furniture?” This meticulous attention to detail shines throughout each project with the studio now attracting attention from across the globe.

Their next project is opening on 30th November in Harrods, working with the luxury sleepwear brand, Olivia von Halle, on the interior and spatial design for the retail area in London’s iconic department store. Creating timeless spaces and furniture is Sella’s forte with a keen eye focused on quality and sustainability. “We love the idea that a piece of furniture can have a lifetime in a house.” concludes Noonan, “Introducing a Sella piece that has longevity in a home or commercial space is a beautiful idea for us.”

Maintaining a considered and conscious approach, the North London based design duo are set to turn heads as we move into a new decade. With a variety of projects on the horizon, they are bringing their touch of class to interiors across the world and now with an added variety of skillsets and offerings.

A Mansfield-based fit-out company has been awarded its largest contract to date in the private residential sector.

Deanestor has been handed the £4.3m project for John Sisk & Son to manufacture and fit out of kitchens and furniture for one of the biggest private rental schemes in Manchester which is being developed by Vita Group.

The £247m project forms part of Circle Square, a £750m mixed-use development on the former BBC site in the heart of the city.

Deanestor will manufacture and install 683 kitchens and about 2,000 fitted wardrobes for the one, two and three- bedroom apartments.

Deanestor managing director William Tonkinson said: “The client required a combination of flexibility and quality with bespoke sizes and designs to suit the space and budget.

“Carefully-planned logistics and project management will ensure such a high number of furniture items will be installed with maximum efficiency until the end of 2020 on this large city centre site.”

The business will also manufacture and install 683 service cupboards in three sizes, and 350 store cupboards, finished in indigo blue.     

Tristan Herbert, senior development manager at Vita Group, added: “These are high quality apartments to meet the rising demand for city living.

“Our requirement is for exceptional quality kitchen and bedroom furniture and a robust installation.

“Design-led aesthetic appeal for the fitted furniture is essential in order to attract tenants and to ensure the apartments look good for years to come.”

Historically, cigar rooms have a stuffy reputation—both literally and figuratively. The image is of a place where distinguished gents retired with each other for a smoke and conversation after a meal. The space was decidedly masculine—mostly because it served as an all-boys club—so the look and feel tended to be dark and leathered.

But today there are no rules—and not just in the design, which can really be anything from old world to industrial.

The function of the space can also be multi-purposed, doubling as an entertaining or bar area. For ways to think about form and function, we turned to the pros. Take your cue from the following tips for a custom space.

More: Creating a Chic Look With Floor Lamps

Go for a Unique Look and Feel

“Textured wallpaper that mimics exotic skins–such as stingray–make the perfect backdrop for a moody, dramatic space. For a second home for a bachelor, we used low-slung, over-scaled black leather chairs with simplistic lines to anchor a dramatic piece of custom artwork. A custom rug with outlining dots made from the same hues as the artwork almost created the feeling that the piece was actually painted in the space. The final result reflected a masculine sensibility, but with a boldness and sensuality that appeals to both sexes.

“Look to oversized and low design profiles for sectionals and chairs where groups can lounge and relax. We see this lounge-inspired look has gained in popularity over the more old-school library-inspired aesthetic that was once the go-to.

“I typically like to use textural wall coverings (think leather panels) and always have a buttery suede or hide in the mix. I also include sculptural and organic elements. For example, in a recent home, we used organic wood pieces as art, which instantly transformed boring white walls into wow moments.

More: Go Bold With Living Room Accent Colors

“Make accessories important. Create special collections to show off memorabilia or collected objects as a dramatic focal point rather than scattering them throughout. Go for a look that’s atypical. While bold or deep colors might not be in the common areas of a living space, they’ll be enjoyed in a temporary escape.

— Anna Ruby, design director at Twin Dolphin in Los Cabos, Mexico

More: How to Pick the Right Kind of Hardwood Flooring

Think About the Logistics

“In terms of where to put this room in your home, there are no rules here, but I prefer the main floor (as opposed to the basement) and a room with windows, as it establishes it as a primary space. There isno limit to the look and feel. I tend to favor a dramatic moody room with deeper colors and some sense of tradition.

“The best ventilation will come from a separate air-handling system. This allows new air to be brought into the room and the old air to be forced out. It will keep the smoke from filtering back into your home system and typically costs about $5,000. [You can also] consider a table-top model.

“If your ventilation system is top notch, there are fewer limitations with regard to materials. If not, we try to use less odor-absorbent materials, such as vinyl wallpaper and wood or tile floors instead of carpet. There’s nothing wrong with an area rug that can be taken out and refreshed from time to time. Leather is my preferred upholstery in this setting.

“Use overhead hi-hats or ceiling fixtures, as well as wall sconces and lamps for the ultimate warm cigar lounge feel. And put all lighting on dimmer switches.

“I love to use perfectly scaled club chairs or smoking chairs, as they were called back in the day. Pair them with a midsize or petite chesterfield loveseat. Layout is determined most often by the architecture of the room. If you have control over that, lay out the furniture so seating faces other seating, not just a TV or fireplace. This allows for conversation and eye contact.”

— Joe Berkowitz, founder and designer at JAB Design Group in Philadelphia

More: Striking a Chord With Stripes

Make Sure You Keep Ease of Cleaning in Mind

“When designing and sourcing for an in-home cigar room, it’s important to look toward fabrics that are not only flame retardant, but are also easy to clean, so that any smoke residue doesn’t find a permanent home in the space. There are some really beautiful leather fabrics from Crypton that would both look and function beautifully in an in-home cigar room. Much like choosing fabrics that can be easy to clean, it’s also important to keep cleanliness and performance in mind when looking at wall and flooring options.

“And obviously, ventilation is key in spaces like these. Ceiling fans are also a must, and an air purifier would be really nice to have in this kind of room as well.

“With intimate rooms like this, you can incorporate a variety of light sources. In my opinion, adding dimmer switches to lighting fixtures can enhance the ambiance of the space with dimmed light.”

— Nancy Charbonneau, principal designer of Charbonneau Interiors, based in The Woodlands, Texas

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