Tchochkes

Last week I wrote a post which some people thought was rather harsh (and extremely funny) about the design firm, SpiceIT. I’m not going to apologize for that post. I still think that it takes a lot of chuztpa to put twigs in a vase in a room with only a bedroom set and call it interior design. What design? You picked out the bedroom set? You hung a net shmata from the ceiling? Not interesting, and certainly not design.

However, This week I’m going to show their living room designs, and some of these I do like.

I love color, and you don’t get much happier colors than those used in the salon above. The space is young, exuberant and inviting. I would have loved living in a place like that back in the day as a singleton in Tel Aviv.

With that said, it doesn’t say designer space to me. One hires a designer to create a look that they could not do on their own. Something divine, transcendental, incredibly different. While the space above is sweet and funky, it also wreaks of student - which is not the target market for interior designers.

The living room, above, looks almost like the pages of IKEA, only not quite as interesting. I have to admit, they lost me here. There isn’t enough color to warm the space, and the overload of IKEA furniture makes it dull. Where is the creativity?

This is what bothers me about their work. You can’t just go, pick out pieces that are already shown together in a showroom, and call it design. Design is about pulling in the unexpected, about subtlety, nuance, ambiance, and interest. Buying everything from the same shop, and slapping it together so that it looks like the showroom, is none of those things. Yes, I love IKEA and I think they do great work. I have friends with fabulous spaces where most of the stuff comes from IKEA - but not everything does. They pull things in from souk ha pish pishim in Yaffa, or tchochkes from their travels, and they create an interesting space. The space above is fine for what it is, but it is also quite dull.

My favorite part of the space above is the breakfast bar on the back wall. Otherwise, the bricks add some interest, which is good. The colors are subtle and interesting. The carpet has a nice texture. It’s ok.

Overall, the salons are better than the bedrooms. Of course, considering what I thought of the bedrooms, it really isn’t saying much.

Zoli Havazelet Neuman is an Israeli interior designer who I found while doing a random search on google.co.il. Her work leaves a blank canvas for the homeowner to put their personal touch on (read that whatever way you would like - you would probably be right.) The salon (above and below) have a ‘carpet’ of wood inlay giving a coziness to the space. I would have liked a bit of color, but designers have to go within the realms of their clients taste.

The fake brick wall above has me torn. I can understand why the spaces would be separated in order to create a more formal dining area. I understand how the brick ads interest and texture. I just don’t know if I actually like it or not. I’ve always thought of brick as an outside of the house material. It should be red, and the home should be located somewhere in the Northeast US surrounded by trees and a white picket fence. Here brick is used as the modern equivalent of wallpaper, only it can’t be changed as easily. My concern is that this will end up being a fad, and once the fad is over it will look sad and dated and will be a pain to change.

I love the color mix on the walls of the TV room above. I find it funny that the TV is the focus point instead of the cool old school looking furnace. That is a strictly Israeli thing IMHO - here one can’t be bothered acting as if the room is used for anything but TV, when any other country would want to focus on the oven and have the TV as an afterthought.

I like the clean walkway above. The white built in drawers are a practical addition and the chairs have a nice shape. I also like the wood detail bordering the room.

The kitchen design is simple, but effective. The set-in handles are interesting and I love the pot-rack. I’m not totally certain what the point is of the hood over the stove when there are two windows which can be opened…

Once upon a time there was a woman with small boys who liked to destroy things (the boys liked to destroy things - not the woman.) This woman was dreaming of a new sofa - the perfect sofa - and she found that sofa. The sofa so beautiful that no others in the land compared. It was called ‘Coach’ and the maker was Roche Bobois.

I still dream of that sofa.

Of course, our woman had married a prince who made sure that they did not live in minus, nor did they spend extensive money on things that their beautiful children would surely destroy, and so the Coach sofa would not be theirs.

I would actually go to Roche Bobois in Herzelia Pituach every six months or so to check and see if the sofa was still there. They stopped carrying it about a year ago.

Still, the Pitaro Hecht Group (importers of said sofa and many luscious others) have amazing things.

I’m dying over the entire room above with from the gray and black carpet to the sofa to the turquoise hall table. What a gorgeous room.

I’m not as in love with the white sofas, but they are very chic right now.

The leather sofa is more traditional, and will look even better as it ages and gets a rich patina.

Once the kids are bigger it would make sense to buy things from Roche Bobois. The quality is excellent and the styles are classic. As they say, cheap gets expensive. These are pieces that are made well enough to pass down to your children.

BVD has a new homepage article about Mika and Gideon’s home pictured to the left. The furnishings are cool, but there are elements which are leaving me cringing and I just can’t seem to get past them.

The room to the left is great. Just change the drapes, take the bows off the walls, change the artwork, and viola - you’d have a really great space. People seem to think that more is better, but it’s not always so. Sometimes more is just more.

On the other hand I quite like the hallway to the right. The purple makes a nice statement with the crazy table. But it’s not overwhelming. All of the elements are simple and in harmony.

I also really like the loveseat by the window to the left. The combination of everything here is visually striking. The lushness of the follage is the one place where over the top is a good thing.

I’m feeling guilty about yesterdays post regarding what not to do with an orange sofa. Someone wrote in stating that they liked the sofa (which actually made me really happy - it’s always nice to know people are reading the posts and not just looking at the pics.)

I wanted to make good to Modelit, and show a few things from their website that I actually liked (or at least didn’t find an affront.)

The living room to the left is a tad bland color-wise, but the neutral tones are not offensive in anyway and the sofas look very comfy.

The pool sofa below is just yummy. I love the lime green accent pillows.

Vastu is a very cool furniture shop located in Moshav Batzra (over by the prison) that carries furniture which is country home / shabby chic in flavor, but doesn’t have the same look that everyone else is carrying.

When I first started this site I wasn’t sure if I should let out my inner ‘meany’ when it comes to interior design.

Where do I have the right to tell someone that something is simply awful? I saw this picture a week ago on Modelit and I have been debating with myself since, whether I should post it and tear the whole thing apart, or keep my opinion to myself.

My mean side won.

It’s not that the sofa by Cheateau d’Ax is awful - which it is in that European sort of way - but that the room they put to show off the sofa just scary. That lamp? OMG, that lamp!

The orange sofas match the orange lamp, match the orange base of the floor vase, match the orange lines through the rug, match the orange tchochkes on the table.

It’s like someone puked an orange factory and here is the result. I hate the shape of the sofas, but undoubtedly they are comfortable - ugly sofas always are. G-d only knows why.

This, on the other hand, is a room by Conran and while it’s not actually a room to live in it is a better example of how to mix pieces. Yes, they have orange in the carpet - but it isn’t the exact same shade. And note, there isn’t any more orange in the room.

This is an example of what to do.

Elle Decor the British edition features more small spaces than their American counterpart, and since my living space here is smaller than where I came from, it is my prefered choice for magazine (not to mention the style of the UK is much more colorful and creative).

These two pictures come from Color Ways by Jennifer Chowdhury.

I love the overwhelming use of color in both spaces. The plexiglass room divider in the space above with the is an innovative way to seperate a space while adding interest and pulling in design elements.

The tapestry as art to the right is also fabulous.

IKEA hacker is exactly what it sounds like - he (or she) finds all of the great IKEA hacks on the web and posts them.