Neoclassical Conservatory

Challenges

Our clients are the epitome of the American Dream, having  worked extremely hard to build a thriving business from scratch.  They mortgaged and risked everything they had (home, career, savings) to start their business and carved a successful niche in an intensely competitive market.  They’ve worked night and day, 7 days a week, sacrificing vacations and personal time, for decades.  The reward:   a magnificent custom home, and our reward:  a request from them to yet again decorate for them.  Our clients’ vision for their home was “Grand”:  new classic, luxurious décor.  The challenge/opportunity was massive scale.   The one story rooms are 12- 14 feet high, with lots of square footage.  Normal size items were dwarfed in these mammoth spaces.  Another challenge was that the client had a budget (a healthy one), as there were several other building projects underway too.  The Conservatory is a huge room, 35L x 20W and has many windows, but few of them are centered to other architectural elements. The rich woodwork  and arched ceilings inspired us, as well as the existing wall/ceiling colors, and custom hardwood floors.  The conveyed light fixtures and wall sconces were not grand.  Beyond the “ Grand” vision and housing the piano, the client was overwhelmed with thoughts of decorating this room.

Design Solutions Provided

As with all of our whole room design projects, we started with a floor plan.  We created two areas within the one large room: one a piano/concert area, and another for entertainment.  We chose a gray and gold color scheme, using the existing wall colors and adding a luxe element with the gold.  Our first design was casually elegant, but not Grand enough for the client, so we redesigned the room.  The client chose a 10 on our scale of formality (1=casual, 10=formal), so we amped up the luxe volume to the max.  To the piano area, we added twin, light gray velvet tufted settees positioned for conversing and mirroring the wall angles.  They boast luscious art deco black and cream pillows with funky cut glass black and dark gold trim, and repurposed the clients cocktail table and chest.   For the entertainment area, we maximized seating with rich dark gray tufted rolled-arm velvet sofa, two inspired contemporary wing chairs with combo fabrics (gorgeous pattern on the back for great viewing and solid gray on the front for comfort), two smaller arm chairs with gray and gold cut velvet fabric (small so as to not obscure the view from the living room and morning room), and a bold shimmering gold bench.  A huge glass and metal Greek key cocktail table, and gold and mirror end tables add refined sparkle.  We had a huge angled corner area rug (seamed, cut, serged in the room to ensure perfection) to mirror the room’s angles, and to allow walk space from a side door to the piano area.  We replaced the rustic chandeliers with antique gold and crystal ones, with large related sconces.  The clients’ original jazzy artwork fit perfectly. The husband client, who almost never ever comments, said “We hit it  wwwaaayyyy out of the ballpark with this one”, the ultimate compliment.