Drake + Anderson

The big buzz in the New York interior design world is the merging of AD100's top interior designer and Hall of Fame inductee Jamie Drake with a former intern of his, Caleb Anderson, forming  Drake + Anderson.  This is a great marriage of passionate, talented design minds!

They will each finish their individual projects as they rebrand the new business.  Jamie has an amazing portfolio of high profile projects and Caleb is a star on the rise.  Jamie's work is known for bright color, high glamour, historical preservation, and mid century modernism.  Caleb is masterful at blending the traditional and the modern with a curator's eye.  The new firm will move forward melding the men's styles as they move into the future.  Caleb's interiors have been called "reverent and refreshing."  In his thirty plus years in the field Jamie has been a prolific designer with furniture, rugs, bath fixture collections, and more.  They each speak of their admiration for one another.  The partnership will benefit as each man brings different strengths to the business while agreeing on making bold design choices with the juxtaposition of old and new and artfulness as an anchor.

Caleb

Jamie

Caleb

Jamie

Caleb

Jamie

The master once taught the student, and now the student may be teaching the master.  I can't wait to see what they create together and how they marry their aesthetic.      

Kips Bay Showhouse 2015 ~ part 1

*

Walking thru the doors of a Kips Bay Showhouse is always special.  You know you are in for a treat, and this year on the Kips Bay organization's 100 year anniversary it is no exception.

 Jamie Drake's foyer grabbed our attention as soon as we stepped over the threshold.

Its dark wine walls mixed with Japanese mica is magical.  The furniture was few but strong, important, and held the space.  The cloud-like lighting floating below a beautiful blue lacquered ceiling are by Ayala Serfaty.

I kinda fell in love with the kitchen.  Never more just a utilitarian space, the design and execution were sublime.  Christopher Peacock's mastery of finely outfitted kitchens is well known. The Tanners Brown, low luster, Farrow and Ball paint was intriguing.  It took on the look of dark brown to charcoal to deep plum as the light changed around the room.  His hand brushed brass hardware was a nice counterpart to the other surfaces; throw in a live edge anything and I am "hooked."

**

Akdo tiles in Balmoral Plaid are a fashionable nod to classic tailoring and warm the hearth behind the stove.  Dacor appliances were featured.  Their smart technology oven is the 1st of its kind.  Synced with your iPhone, you can control its features remotely.  I don't know about you, but there have been so many times I wished I could pre heat my oven while I was still out.

 I realized I have been living without a Nespresso drawer which I will have to rectify immediately!

 I immediately recognized Christopher Guy's furniture gracefully outfitting the eat in area.

**

Bennett Leifer, one of Traditional Home's "rising star's" created a jewel of a space.  Organic in nature, the lounge packs maximum drama in minimum square footage.  Between the deGourney metallic paper with matching sheers (new to the company), crystal lighting and artful accessories, it is a nice respite from all the cooking you would undoubtedly would be doing (or your professional chef will be doing.)

**

Ascending the back stairs you are whisked  away from the Upper East Side to the Crystal Palace in Pakistan.   An Escapist Retreat by the girls of Tilton Fenwick, who's  pattern on pattern style and color palette always delight, features their fabric from Duralee.  This small space packs a big punch, These ladies are on fire....

*

Mark D. Sikes created a cheerful, layered look with equal mix of opulence and casual, Mark was inspired by Italian style icon Marcella Agnelli and features his rattan furniture collection with the British company Sloane.  It's meant to feel timeless and fun. "Nobody wants a stuffy dining room anymore."

**

I loved the traditional style mixed with the more contemporary paintings by Harry Cushing above the antique chests.

The Princess and the Pea bedroom by Cathy Kincaid began with the bone inlaid bed from John Rosselli & Associates.  This richly layered bedroom, with a document wall covering is seeped in beauty and tradition that also has an escapist quality to it.

**

Nobody does embroidery better than Penn & Fletcher.

Phillip Mitchell of Toronto created a gallery landing featuring much from his personal collection.  The space is an homage to his mother who recently passed away.  She loved toile and this Mulberry wallpaper is at once deeply meaningful, soft, contemporary. and a good neutral background for all the great art.

*

Stop back for part 2

Photos: *Rafael Quirindongo, ** Bruce Buck via NY Times, all others CLI

Designer Vision Showcase ~ Jamie Drake & Carlos Aparicio

Jamie Drake's was channeling Josephine Baker's fictional granddaughter when designing the exuberant  Art Deco inspired apartment.   A contemporary woman of today who would have conveyed modernist ideas, while embodying characteristics of Josephine's.   She was described as a woman who was "breaking barriers in a provocative and glitzy fashion" while still  retaining a sensuousness and exotic forward thinking ideal.  I would say Jamie's interpretation exhibited those same traits, not an easy feat! There were nods to the past , the appropriate vintage pieces and some forward thinking design on Jamie's part as well.   The paler jewel tones were a great counterpoint to the black and gray that found its way into each room and balanced the contemporary art. 

Jamie is known for his masterful use of color, and he did not disappoint.  The coral walls in the great room were a multi-layered process.  Benjamin Moore's opal, along with green, blue, and gold minerals (the kind that eye shadow is made out of) were applied to the walls, then sealed with polyurethane.  It spoke of the colors of the bricks we saw outside the windows.  It was luminous!  I would have loved to have seen those walls at night.  I'm sure they positively glowed.

The bronze, wood and lacquered lipstick console from Hudson furniture makes quite the statement, as do "Jamie's girls" and his lighting for Boyd Lighting

I always look to show houses for great "take aways." Jamie seems to create "moments in art."  This installation you could create for yourself should you choose.  The simplicity of the arrangement of books in the nooks flanking the contemporary mirror are made artful by their arrangement and the mere fact that they face out, showing the pages, rather than in, showing their spine.  It takes on a geometric neutralness.

The "puttin on the ritz" vibe of the roaring 20's was felt the moment you walked thru the front door.   The Clarence House wallpaper, Hudson console table, vintage Murano sconces, and the Robert Kuo vases painted a pretty riotous picture.  You always know you are in for a surprise in one of Jamie's interiors.

I am always enchanted by Black Crow Studio and their custom watercolor canvases.  Being enveloped in the dreamy hues makes you feel like you are part of the painting, not just an observer of it.  The high gloss blue in the closet doors and console behind the bed say drama, but the addition of soft neutrals dampen it enough to still keep it restful.

via Curbed

Jamie created this ingenious custom lighting fixture by Modulightor to fit in the soffits of the ceiling.  Asymmetrical uplighting dancing off the ceiling is as beautiful as it is functional.

Jamie Drake along with House Beautiful are a perfect pair because of their obsession with color.  It is taken to an art form and that is certainly on display in the daughter's room.  So is artist Brenda Gurand's  sculpture or contemporary "canopy" made from steel, paper, silk, and fiber.  With her strong visual aesthetic, she speaks a similar language.

The goodies filling each closet did not go unnoticed.  Roberto Cavalli and Brunello Cucinelli's latest collections were highlighted in the closets of my dreams.

Carlos Aparicio for Veranda had someone like himself in mind when designing the apartment in Walker Tower.  Within the walls of the serene, light filled environment, everything painted a matte gray, a gentleman collector could cultivate and curate a museum worthy art collection.

Aparicio integrates a diverse melange of periods as well as playfulness to his carefully curated selections.  Decorative Arts move easily around the apartment enabling him to tell different stories.

I liked the inlaid wooded screen hiding the utilitarian (but quite beautiful) kitchen.  I wonder if this art collector cooks?

Take note, the stairway is a perfect blank slate for a display of some kind.

The 1950's iron daybed by Mathieu Matégot, the parchment André Arbus daybed in the living room, arts and crafts masterpieces, the Royère's, and Frank's tell a decorative arts story with a masculine/feminine side that is always evolving and shifting.  Carlos explained that the pieces resonate more the longer you occupy the space.

                                               I'd be happy occupying any of these spaces!



Ph: CLI along with

For House Beautiful:

Reprinted by permission from House Beautiful, copyright 2013. All Rights Reserved. Jonny Valiant, photographer.

Reprinted by permission from VERANDA, copyright 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Max Kim-Bee, photographer.