Stars of ASID: Recent Residential Design-Award Winners

BY NORA BURBA TRULSSON

Each year, some of the best residential interior designs pass before the discerning eyes of ASID design competition jurors. Here are some first place–winning projects from ASID chapter design competitions in our region.

Lawrence Lake, ASID

Inter Plan Design Group, Scottsdale, Arizona

PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAM SINGLETON

Brick walls and dark wood flooring warm up a Scottsdale loft designed by Lawrence Lake, ASID. The kitchen is raised up a step to become an elevated platform for entertaining. Sofa and ottoman/table are by S.R. Drost.

Larry Lake liked this loft the minute he first saw it, in its raw, concrete-shell form. The interior designer was working on the project, the Third Avenue Lofts in downtown Scottsdale, creating an inviting lobby and a penthouse model for the developer. "When I walked through this particular unit on the fourth floor, I thought, 'I could live here,'" says Lake. What attracted Lake to the 2,300-square-foot, two-story unit was its vast balcony — nearly 2,000 square feet of outdoor living overlooking a vibrant cityscape.

In the meantime, though, Lake had begun preliminary plans for another client, a young woman, to do a loft elsewhere in metro Phoenix. "That project fell through, so I showed her the one I liked in Scottsdale," Lake explains. "Luckily, she liked it too."

The client, who's in the wine business, requested that Lake design a youthful, contemporary residence where she could both retreat from workaday pressures and informally entertain clients and friends. Lake responded with a design scheme that mixes rustic finishes with sleek surfaces and provides places for socializing as well as relaxing.

"We basically had a blank slate," says Lake of the rectangular first-floor plan. As the second floor, essentially a mezzanine, was large enough to accommodate only the master suite, the designer's first task was to create a guest room on the first floor, enclosing a space in the corner of the living area with a series of glass doors. When guests are not in residence, the room, outfitted with a Murphy bed, doubles as a sitting room.

The guest room doubles as a sitting area when the Murphy bed is folded away. Ceiling pendant is from Lumature, Scottsdale.

Lake elevated the kitchen, located in the center of the first floor, on a platform so it overlooks both the living and dining spaces of the open configuration. "We raised it up one step so that it becomes a stage when the client entertains," he says. Additionally, Lake designed a special bar table, with a concrete top and stainless-steel legs set on wheels, so that parties or wine-tasting events could take place in the kitchen, the living area or even on the patio. "We wanted everything to be flexible," he says.

Without diminishing the loft's raw, urban appeal, Lake warmed up the interior by facing some walls with old bricks and had others surfaced in Venetian plaster. Hand-hewn, dark walnut flooring was installed throughout the first level. Load-bearing concrete columns were wrapped in zebrawood. One column was designed to accommodate a small desk, while another holds a television. With the mechanical left exposed, the ceilingscape also includes very contemporary halogen lighting on cables, as well as an antique chandelier over the dining table.

An oxen yoke chandelier illuminates the dining table. Chairs are from John Brooks, Inc., Scottsdale; bar stools are from Blue Crate, Scottsdale.

Upstairs in the master suite, Lake created a sense of luxury with a silver-leaf wall covering behind the bed and bathroom flooring of slate inset with glass tiles. Lake kept the bathroom's vanity open to the floor below, and hung mirrors on cables suspended from the ceiling.

The master bathroom's vanity is open to the living area below. Mirrors are hung on cables. Cabinetry by Kitchens Southwest, Scottsdale.

Working with a palette of red, orange, gold and chocolate for the first floor, Lake suggested a mix of boldly scaled furnishings, combining contemporary pieces with rustic antiques. In the living area, a comfortable, extra-deep sectional by S.R. Drost is positioned for both television and fireplace viewing and backed by a low bookcase that doubles as a sofa table. The coffee table is actually a large ottoman that slides under a narrower wood table. The simple wood dining table is surrounded by a gathering of elegantly curved chairs, as well as a slick red-leather bench by Brayton.

For the master suite, Lake used more feminine colors, choosing pale lavender and silvery hues. Metallic sheers hang from the bedposts, while the bed itself is done in a lavender quilted silk. An elegant Donghia chaise is paired with an earthy, tree-trunk side table.

Luxurious fabrics and silvery hues mark the bedroom. Tree-trunk table is from Blue Crate, Scottsdale.

Last, but not least, Lake turned his attention to the spacious balcony, which wraps around two sides of the corner loft. He furnished a series of seating areas, a dining space and sunbathing spots using a mix of outdoor furniture styles and fabrics. "It functions as another room. Everything is meant to stay out there in all kinds of weather," he says.

The balcony is spacious enough to accommodate several furniture groupings. Seating from Inside/Out, Scottsdale; coffee table from Blue Crate, Scottsdale.

Now that the loft is completed, Lake still likes it — albeit on behalf of the client. "It's more important that the client likes the project," he says diplomatically. "And she does."

Jeffrey P. Elliott

Denver, Colorado

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASON JUNG/ESTETICO

A James Mont sofa, covered in a Jack Lenor Larsen mohair provides comfortable lounging in the media room. Woven rattan chairs are by Orlando Diaz-Azcuy for McGuire.

Outside of an auction-house expert or an antiques dealer, interior designer Jeffrey P. Elliott is probably one of the most knowledgeable people in the West when it comes to 20th-century furniture. It's no surprise, then, that his infectious enthusiasm for great old furniture has spread to his clients, turning them into avid collectors.

Such is the case with one of Elliott's most recent projects, in which the clients, a couple with two sons, expanded a fledgling collection into a gracious showcase of James Mont furniture. The project, a new three-level, 6,500-square-foot home in a country-club development in Denver, started innocently enough. In 1998, Elliott had done interiors for the couple's previous residence, steering them toward a few Mont pieces, including a pair of lamps and a coffee table. Two years later, when the clients opted to build a new, larger home, they were hooked on Mont's inimitable style — and asked Elliott to track down more pieces.

Elliott had become acquainted with Mont's furniture during buying trips to New York, where he scoured galleries, antiques stores and even thrift shops for 20th-century finds. "[Mont] had this bulky, large-scale look, a lot of which was Asian inspired," explains Elliott. "When I first saw his pieces, I kept wondering why he wasn't bigger with collectors, why no one seemed to like his work."

Mont, it seems, was somewhat of a character in the world of furniture design. According to a Christie's auction catalogue, Mont was born Demetrius Pecintjoglu in Turkey in 1904, studied art and architecture in France and Spain, then emigrated to the United States in the 1920s. He ran an electrical supply shop in Brooklyn, when he was discovered by the legendary underworld figure Frankie Yale, who commissioned him to do a house.

A Mont sectional and coffee table anchor the living room.

By the 1930s, Mont, with some nefarious backing, had opened a showroom on Fifth Avenue under his Americanized name featuring his heroically scaled custom furnishings. During his 40-year career, Mont worked with clients such as Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Lana Turner and even Bob Hope. In the 1940s, his explosive temper led to a conviction of assault against a female business associate, who committed suicide during the trial. During a four-and-a-half-year prison term in Sing Sing, Mont passed time developing new finishes and decorations.

"He was the bad boy of the furniture world," says Elliott. "Editors didn't want to cover him back then." Nonetheless, Elliott managed to pick up numerous pieces for the new house from two dealers in New York, and the home's interior style began to take shape.

While the project began in 2000, it took several years for the development to be built out. After architect Steven Cole designed the elegant, Mediterranean-style home and the footprint was established, Elliott went to work on the interiors. To serve as a backdrop for the Mont pieces, as well as other vintage furnishings, Elliott channeled the look of grand homes as they might have appeared in Europe during the 1930s and '40s. "I wanted a stripped-down, but gracious, soft traditional look for the interior," he says.

Elliott specified espresso-stained millwork; squared-off, Shaker-style cabinetry; and limestone fireplace surrounds. Underfoot, dark oak flooring and woven wool/jute carpeting reiterated the simple, traditional theme, while grasscloth wallcovering and linen draperies are meant to be evocative of the 1940s. "Grasscloth was modern back then," Elliott points out.

Vintage chairs grace the piano room, while grasscloth wallcovering gives the room a sense of pre–World War II modernism.

Working with a neutral palette sparked by yellow and gold hues, Elliott had the Mont pieces painstakingly refurbished and reupholstered in fabrics such as mohair, velvet and even a metallic vinyl. The living room is anchored by a 10-foot-long Mont sectional, covered in a chocolate mohair, and an Asian-inspired, chunky coffee table. Greek key–based chairs and a table by Mont join head chairs of Elliott's design in the dining room.

James Mont chairs and a dining table are finished off with head chairs of Elliott's design. Metallic vinyl fabric is by Kravet.

In the master bedroom, Elliott found the Mont night stands at a flea market. "They were huge in scale, giant, even in this new house," says Elliott. "The clients' old bed didn't work, so I had to design a large, upholstered headboard to keep the night stands in the right proportion." He added vintage Dunbar chairs to the bedroom, and did the walls in a Japanese-inspired wallpaper.

Elliott designed an upholstered headboard for the master bedroom to complement the scale of the Mont night stands. Flowering Quince wallpaper is from Clarence House. Headboard fabric is Silk Dynasty.

Elliott also worked in the couple's growing collection of artwork by young German artists, and chose accessories and lighting to complement the furniture.

Virtually every room in the house — except for the boys' bedrooms — has a Mont piece or two; but the house, Elliott points out, does not look or function like a museum. "We didn't do a whole room in just Mont," he says. "That would have been too much." While some of the pieces are admittedly fragile, Elliott notes that many are large scale, heavy and comfortable, and with durable fabrics they withstand sprawling boys, not to mention the family's two large dogs.

The house was completed in 2005, but as Elliott worked on the design, Mont's star rose in the world of furniture collectors. "It's no wonder," Elliott says. "He was quite unique."

Lori Carroll, ASID

Tucson, Arizona

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM LESCH

A custom sectional, through McNamara & Hirschman, Scottsdale, curves around metal tables in the living area. Table lamps are Fine Art.

The clients wanted a warm, comfortable home that fit well in the Tucson desert. They also wanted to take advantage of the glorious desert and mountain views afforded by their golf-course site. They asked architect Kevin Howard for an organic, contemporary style for the 4,000-square-foot, three-bedroom home. Howard created a floorplan that centers around an open great room comprising the living, dining and kitchen spaces.

For the interior, they turned to designer Lori Carroll, who has become known for her adept ways with materials and sleek style. "The clients are a couple from the Midwest, who've since made Tucson their permanent residence," explains Carroll, who worked on the project from the ground up. "They asked me for a complete project, and we did everything from designing the cabinetry to suggesting the accessories and art. We focused on simple lines and playing off the home's stone textures."

Antoine Proulx furniture graces the master bedroom. Bed fabric is Nina Campbell; accent pillows are Edelman Leather. Paintings are by Daryl Childs.

Carroll put together a soothing backdrop for the interior by specifying French vanilla limestone flooring throughout most of the house, bird's-eye maple for the cabinetry, granite countertops, and accents of glass tiles and faux-finished walls. Carroll chose to use deeper, richer tones for the finishes and the furnishings to balance the home's daylighting. "This house has a lot of natural light from the floor-to-ceiling windows," Carroll explains. "Lighter colors would seem washed out."

A. Rudin bar stools encircle the breakfast bar.

Besides the cabinetry design, Carroll created other signature elements throughout the interior. For the kitchen, she created an island with a raised, curved glass-and-steel breakfast bar at one end that also doubles as a buffet, and, at the other end, designed a stainless steel–topped cylinder meant to be a "landing spot" for items from adjacent refrigerator. In the living room, Carroll's well-designed home entertainment cabinetry holds artwork as well as the television and was placed in the same angle of view as the fireplace. For the master bath, she designed a back-to-back dual vanity, separated by a free-floating, two-sided mirror.

Designed by Carroll, a back-to-back vanity in the master bath shares a two-sided mirror.

Carroll specified furnishings with elegant, clean lines. She customized the living room sectional so that it was long enough for the husband to stretch out on, and added a troika of sculptural metal cubes to use as the coffee table. In the dining area, Dakota Jackson chairs encircle a Newman studio table. The pale hue of the master bedroom's Antoine Proulx furniture is balanced by the deep bronze tones of the bedding. For the kitchen's breakfast nook, Carroll used two comfortable armchairs and an ottoman instead of a table and chairs. "They like to sit there with coffee or watch TV."

In the breakfast nook, Carroll specified armchairs and an ottoman for more comfort in lieu of a table and chairs.

Contemporary art, ceramics, pots and high-tech light fixtures add a finishing polish to the home.

In addition to the ASID award, Carroll also received a 2006 National Kitchen and Bath Association Pinnacle of Design Award for her design of the home's kitchen.

Glass tiles enrich shelves in the kitchen. A curved glass breakfast bar doubles as buffet space.