This is a design concept that I’ve been brewing for a long time; an Italian restaurant inspired by real deal Italian-American culture, specifically in suburban areas.
The majority of Italian restaurants in America aim to transport the patron back to ‘the paese’ with a dimly lit wine cellar atmosphere, exposed vintage brick, and warm Tuscan tones. Others focus on first generation vintage Little Italy or the Frank Sinatra/mafioso glamour of Hollywood. And then there are the hundreds (maybe thousands?) more that throw a red and white checked cloth over tables and hang a few vintage posters of spaghetti, grapes and cigars on the walls and call it a day. It all feels overdone.
I’m having a lot of fun collecting imagery to illustrate this concept and I’m loving how the look translates into a bright and airy, kitschy space, elevated to fit any chic neighborhood or up-and-coming chef. I’m calling it ‘The Blue Madonna’.
The Blue Madonna goes beyond the first look at Italian culture in America and highlights the topiary-dotted lawn of Nonna’s awninged split-level house in the ‘burbs.
Here is the inspiration board I put together:
Next I’ll share the details to flesh the idea out – floor plans, sketches, graphics, art features…
I’m in full blown nesting mode these days (as opposed to medium nesting as my normal mode). These supposed productivity hormones are a good thing for the long list of small projects that we’ve left undone since finishing the major renovations around here, including finally fixing up my workspace just in time to have it trashed by a baby.
This room was the last room we tackled in the house and although we finished it up in the fall of 2012 it has remained a hodgepodge of homeless furniture and ‘I’ll deal with it later‘ projects. The arrival of a tiny Natarelli is just the kind of kick in the uterus I need to finally whip this room into shape. Here’s what it looks like today:
In the original floor plan this room was the kitchen. Stained linoleum flooring and a green and yellow vintage kitchen once lived here. We relocated the kitchen to the back of the house to create open concept living and access to the backyard. Here’s the Before from the day we closed on the house, looking at the opposite side of the room.
(Disclaimer for those of you scoffing at the idea of tearing out this cute vintage kitchen: the [very cute, very worn] Homart cabinets are still in the house, being loved and repurposed in the laundry area downstairs. The range, whose oven door had to be held closed with a broomstick, was sent to a salvage company along with the cracked sink and yellow formica countertops. The light fixtures are still in the room.)
For the last two years this side of the room has functioned as a guest room but will be transformed into a nursery early next year for Bambino. (Here’s a sneak peak of our beloved driftwood mobile, made for us by a friend as a wedding present. Rumor has it, my Mom and Michael Kors are the only other owners of these mobiles. Oh heyyy!)
The opposite side will pretty much stay the way it is until Bambino is old enough to fuck with my shit and accumulate a significant dowry of toys. Then it will probably become a total kid zone and I’ll be squeezed out and relegated to the kitchen or basement. But for a little bit longer…
There are a few unique features in this space. For starters, it’s a long and narrow room measuring 18′ long by 9′ wide. There is also a doorway that exits to the driveway. That doorway creates an avenue down the middle of the room, separating it into two spaces roughly 7 ½’ x 9′. (Floorplans would be good, I know.)
We weren’t quite sure how we would be using this space in the long term, so we left the external door in tact but we don’t use it anymore. We also didn’t bother to move the outlets down to the baseboards so they are still counter height – as fit for a kitchen – which annoys the crap out of me, but maybe less than patching and painting which I hateses.
Behind my desk we used IKEA shelving to create floor to ceiling storage and a printing station. My inspiration board is made from two magnet boards also from IKEA. (The shelves are no longer sold at IKEA but these are pretty badass and would be good for an office.
Above the desk I hung a collection of artwork that has personal meaning to us (as all artwork should!). The Cosmic Bunny print is signed and numbered by one of my favorite illustrators, Diana Sudyka. It was a gift from my mom. Below it hangs a snapshot of my late Grandpa and his buddy taken in 1967.
For our wedding a dear friend and mentor, Jeff O’Connor, gifted us this original illustration of a warren of Eastern Cottontails. Bunnies were the main motif of our wedding and his wife, a Chicago-based graphic designer, designed all of our paper goods. Jeff is a natural science illustrator and his work populates several of the exhibits at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Some of his beautiful entomology sketches are pinned on my inspiration board.
Below hangs a collection of vintage postcards including one from Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe, where I lived after college and one from Samoa, where my other Grandfather lived. The framed print is titled Mountains by Karina Eibatova which I blogged about here.
Original Illustration by Jeff O’Connor
I’m enjoying having the space to myself while I can, and daydreaming about a (napping) baby on the other side of the room.
This Monday I graduated to a new level of Bird Nerd. I met up with a group of local birders (aka Grammas and Grampas) in the wee hours of the morning and walked around in the woods looking for…birds. I added 8 new bird species to my life list (nerd-bomber), missed about 5 others because I don’t know how to use my hand-me-down binoculars (nerd fail), and learned that our neighborhood coyotes are actually coywolves (Twilight boner nerd).
One of the new species I collected for my Bird Nerd trading cards was a Northern Flicker, which are pretty common to our area, but I’d just never seen one. They’re large woodpeckers with amazing spotted plumage (nerd for feathers) and fiery vermilion field marks (nerd for regular marks).
I was so pumped about these birds and how cool they look that I created a design concept based solely on their naturally chic, modern palette. The Northen Flicker concept translates well to an Urban Naturalist’s apartment but could just as easily be spun around to suit a locavore restaurant, design boutique or artisanal bakery concept.
It turns out that most bird photographers don’t like you to share their work, so I drew my own Flicker and used it in my concept board. Links are listed below.
Hi there! I snuck away last week from blogging to work on a new client project – a living room plan for an UES apartment that belongs to a lovely (newly engaged) couple who are merging their French Country + Modern Minimalist tastes. Should be a really fun project and I hope to share some details on RBD as the project progresses.
For now, I have my notepad out again and have been thinking about some of the current trends floating around: the glowy hue of pink himilayan salt, the ever-present Eames molded fiberglass chair, and the playful motif du jour – pineapples! Here are 3 ways to spin those trends around and head upstream…
** I used Jenny Wilkinson’s pineapple wallpaper in the powder room of one of my Parson’s design projects last summer. The concept for the TriBeCa loft space was centered around colonial shipping and exploration (hence the pineapple)…and if I ever get my act together, you’ll be able to see it in my portfolio! I just love that wallpaper – especially since it’s paint by number! She’s a genius.
