Jeffrey Brooks Interior Design

Cooking class; Kitchen style in five easy (no kidding!) steps

jbrooks — Thu, 02 May 2013 22:21:58 +0000

Kitchen design is a demanding process for most people. Professionals have to think in decimals, fit lots of function into often tight spaces, and steer a crew of trades people to the finish line. Selecting cabinets, counters, appliances and the thousand other bits a home owner needs requires patience and guidance. Once the work is finished there's more work. How do you make your new kitchen your own?
Some cool tips for you;
1. Start with a clear picture of the finish. Instead of thinking about the small stuff last put it first. Find the prints and photographs you want to see while you're baking.
2. Treat the room as if it's a party and think about the spirit colors bring. So, are you energetic?.... laid back?.... business like? .....or old school? You're setting the mood every time you set the table.
3. Fill the utensil trays with the stuff you really use. The less you toss out the better. If you're going to be buying new, look for well made & great looking tools. Domestic design is art & science at it's best.
4. Every towel and tray costs money so take time to get it right! Pick things that put a smile on your face made by ethical manufacturers.
5. Your Kitchen becomes the heart of your home. It's also probably the most used and abused space in your entire house. Don't freak if something spills or chips. Reserve a spot for at least one living thing (besides the kids, the dog, the neighbors and whoever else). No kidding, a plant or cut flowers reminds you that beautiful doesn't mean perfect! Relax.

Holiday Wishes

jbrooks — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:15:29 +0000

This year we have a lot to be thankful for. We have been seen in some of the best publications, we have enjoyed the continuing support of our friends, family, clients and neighbors. Ethan is thriving scholastically and playing his heart out at hockey and everyone is healthy. We wish you the same and a new year full of joy.

- Everyone at Jeffrey Brooks Interior Design

Eat Drink & Party

jbrooks — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:21:03 +0000

(Click Photo for Full View)

Sending out best wishes for a joyful holiday to everyone.

Thank you to all of our friends for their support throughout the past year.

JBID’s feature at Dining by Design 2011

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:47:50 +0000

Since its' establishment DIFFA has raised millions of dollars for AIDS service organizations all over the United States. Prevention education programs, direct-care services for people living with HIV/AIDS , and public policy initiatives, continue their work thanks to DIFFA. "Dining by Design", an exhibit of room settings sponsored each year by Architectural Digest and the AD Home Show. The fund raising event brings together a community of passionate, dedicated people. Hundreds of volunteers, industry partners, students, designers, and supporters from the fields of fashion, architecture, product design (and many, many others) donate their talents and resources to this singular event.

It's an honor to have been invited to participate.

Lots of things sprang to mind after the call came. Ideas about remembrance and healing, progress, urgency, and, social justice started their campaign for front row but how exactly could they become "place" was the question. When a friend quoted Emily Dickenson, "hope is the thing with feathers...." the picture came into focus. "Angels in America" provided some of the visual inspiration.

Given that we had three weeks to put this together and a 10' x 10' raw space with no walls, no floor, and a single electrical outlet, we needed to call in lots of help.

Iszguierdo Studios in NYC was commissioned to construct the 10' spanning feathered wings and the high backed banquette that supports them. Kravet spun pewter sheer drapery panels are hung from concealed framework. LED fixtures were mounted behind the feathered wings. Grey sheepskin pillows from West Elm keep it comfortable.

The Art Deco side tables are gray shagreen with ivory inlay from NewelGallery. They flank the wide banquette seating and hold hammered silver lamps with hand painted shades, courtesy of Horchow. The polished aluminum Dining Table by Paul Evans is also courtesy of Newel Gallery. Dining chairs with ivory painted frames are of the 1940's from Claridge's Hotel in London. Kravet provided the slip seat fabric which is edged in silver banding by Samuel & Sons.

The table top centerpieces are topiary constructions of cabbage, artichokes, asparagus, and mushrooms. They, along with the angel wings, give the dinning room a kind of "other worldly" feeling while still being upbeat and colorful. Lalique frosted crystal hearts are placed here and there down the length of table. As favors for each of the ten guests, I painted small abstracts of people (remembrance), hearts (healing), and hands and set one under each upside down goblet at the center of every place setting. The balloon stemware is from Crate and Barrel. Ralph Lauren flatware on "Constellation" linens, courtesy of D.Porthault, Paris, is paired with silver dappled service plates from the "Ecume" collection by Limoges. Dinner plates by Bernardaud called "Camera Obscura", are an amazing group of pieces that feature photographs of night time, rain soaked city streets.

“One of the greatest things about this business is that it’s more than just business. The Interior Design community is really a family of talented, resourceful people who understand how to party with a purpose. It was a privilege to be invited to design a room setting for DIFFA’s “Dining by Design” event.

Working with a tight time line and within a few dozen restrictions brings out the best in me, not to mention the motivation behind this project. Helping to raise awareness and funding for the DIFFA organization is a powerful reward.

The concept behind the room is built around hope, a condition that can become lost to too many people.

Having visited the French countryside a few weeks before, it was easy to feel inspired and more than a little phantasmagorical……………

The whole experience of conjuring up the room’s design, partnering with many of the best resources in the marketplace, and meeting the biggest talents in the field was amazing! Thank you Jan Mac Latchie, DIFFA and everyone who helped.”

The case of the flying chair…just in time for awards season

Jan MacLatchie — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:23:07 +0000

Making your wishes come true is all in the details.

Check out upcoming issues of New York Spaces and Design New Jersey for our new ad campaign that focuses on how we know our clients. By simply listening, we can create interiors that are a reflection of their personal taste - right down to the tiniest detail. Like these dining chairs that seem to take wing. They're a transitional element in a period-based Deco-style interior, and significantly lighten the dining room's formal air when paired with several very earthbound, serious and highly pedigreed antiques including a circa 1929 Jules Leleu dining table and two sideboards, one in rosewood, ebony and mother of pearl marquetry and another with gilt figurines.

Perhaps you're wondering how humble side chairs, in their supporting role, could bring such high-flying character to an already dramatic room? They're by international-man-of-furniture Christopher Guy, whose designs not only grace the world's finest resorts and even the Queen Mary, but have also been on-set in some of the great mystery and spy movies of our modern age - The Thomas Crown Affair, Oceans 13, Tomorrow Never Dies and Casino Royale. No victims of typecasting, they've also appeared in the fall-down-funny films Shanghai Nights, The Hangover and The Devil Wears Prada. If there were an imdb for furniture, these chairs would have a very healthy star-meter!

Taking a dip into the Paris Design Scene

jbrooks — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:22:27 +0000

The main gallery at the museum "La Piscine"

We can't get Jeff to stop speaking in little snippets of French lately. He has Francophile fever,and who can blame him? We were excited when Jeff was invited to Paris recently by the French Embassy Trade Office, and now that we see the inspirations he encountered there, we're looking forward to some fun designs down the rue. Says Jeff, "The first thing that comes to mind here is that we don’t live in a vacuum. In architecture and design, the past, the present and the future coexist. In France, particularly, you see the kind of casual collision of every period and the confidence it takes to live with it." Along with an invited coterie of noted American designers, Jeff got to visit cool spots such as the museum of Art & Industry known as La Piscine - the swimming pool. The building itself is an outstanding example of Art Deco design.

An original ceramic painted screen on view at "La Piscine". Wow.

Jeff notes that "the architect, J.P. Philippon who also transformed the Musee d’Orsay, brought his simple, almost industrial, approach to La Piscine, opening the front of the building with walls of glass and installing the sculpture gallery at water-level with the pool so that the viewer strolls the length of the pool experiencing the works up-close and the reflected image of the entire gallery - which is three stories high - follows along."

This gallery is lit naturally by a pair of towering stained glass windows depicting Art Deco interpretations of the Louis’ sunburst emblem. On the top floor, glass-enclosed rooms display textiles and documentations of patterns made for royalty dating back centuries. Jeff snapped this pic of the sunburst window:

Sunburst Window at "La Piscine"

The museum's website is in French, but it has over twenty amazing photos of the pool when it was open in all its glory in the thirites, just before it closed in 1985, and in all of its romantic, slightly Ghost-Hunter-esque creepiness after it closed. So worth watching the slide show.

Want to tour La Piscine on your next trip to France? It is in Roubaix, near Lille. Explore the possibilities here.