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Untamed Modern Funk.

Kirk and Joni are kinda wild.  Not like Lindsey Lohan, wild, more like ‘those people who have no fear and don’t really care what people think about them, they just want to have a good time’ wild.  My mom would call them ‘a total hoot’, but i say if they lived in LA i would totally meet them for drinks.  (they live in Simi)  Here’s their story:  they worked in the corporate world for a long time until a few years ago when they decided to leave it to pursue their Hollywood dreams.  I mean, who does that?  Awesome people, that’s who.  Brian and I can certainly relate to that (more Brian, not me, but we were 28 when we moved to ‘Hollywood’), but i think its pretty rare and ballsy to do.  They down-sized and bought a house in Simi Valley that was pretty great.  They are both actors, writers, musicians and comedians – total renassiance people and completely loving life.  He actually joined an all-black improv group (he’s not black, she is).  I know.  So gutsy and awesome.  

And what they wanted was totally insane, in a fun way, but I definitely had to push myself. They loved sleek, funky furniture and lots of wacky colors, and not a  lot of clutter.  At one point Kirk told me that the three things he hated were 1. brass, 2. anything floral, 3. white porcelein figurines and 4. tchokes (i wonder if i’ll ever learn to spell that word).  To which i responded:  ‘Do you have any idea whose show you are on?’  So it was a good challenge for me.   At one point there might have been a sofa in the shape of lips that was pointed to.  They wanted anything untraditional, unpredictable so their friends would come over and say, ‘oh my god, these people are so cool.’  (because they are)

So colorwise I need i could push it a little bit, and i was inspired by these rooms:

I can’t wait to someday learn how to resize these pics and make them side by side.  Someday, squarespace, someday.  

Point being i wanted to push it, but keep the furniture a little more reserved.  A note that i got early on in the season was to ‘choose whether you want the room ‘eclectic in color or eclectic in style’ and lord knows that i like to be eclectic in style (its literally the premise of the show) so the last 8 episodes i was really trying to stick with a more consistent color story.  This is just general good advice if you are scared of being eclectic, but for me it just works better on TV.  Its easier to ‘read’.  So i chose this teal, bright yellow, cool grey with hits of black and white.  

I hate that i left that basket empty under the bench, but i love everything else.  This bench was in Joni’s family for a few generations and unless i’m exaggerating the story (which i’ve been known to do) I think it came from the plantation that her ancestors worked on 4 generations ago.  Yeah, it wasn’t going anywhere, and it wasn’t going to be altered in any way. It was amazing.  I can not find for the life of me who did that print above it, i bought it on etsy but can’t find it in my history.  The giraffes and the leather shields were Joni and Kirk’s (but for the record I LOVE those hyde shields).

 Oh what, this old thing? As if you don’t have a big yellow plastic hand chair.  I know it was a risk, and Orlando looked at me like i was crazy, but i felt like the furniture was getting too serious and these two ARE NOT SERIOUS.  So sometimes you shake it up with hand furniture.  And if you guys didn’t catch when Orlando and I were carrying it in and he said ‘I like holding hands with you’ then rewatch the episode.  He has some subtle gems in this one.  

That beautiful ladder came from  45 Three Modern Vintage (as did the hand). To got Stacy’s store, its amazing (go to ‘where i shop’ for details).  

The womb chair is from Amazon, the Rug is from Chiasso ($795 for an 8×10 i think) and i loved them both.  Coffee table is from Rose Bowl, for $150 and the sofa…oh there is a sofa story here to tell, but i’m in a massive rush, so i’m going to hurry it up.   They needed a pullout bed and i had two weeks to source it, so I had an assistant run to the Sofa Co and I ordered it from the pic online.  DON’T DO THIS.  This is a ‘i’m designing so fast that sometimes i make huge mistakes’ kinda issue.  It was massive.  It ended up looking good, but you shoulda seen the look on my face when i first saw it.  It was frumpy and huge.  I wish they had left in the editing the fact that they were desperate for someone for her 11 siblings to sleep so i had to get a big sofa bed, but they didn’t.  So that explains why it was so big in that room.  

Pouf came from 45 Three Modern Vintage, $100 i think.

The shelving unit was built by my assistant, Chris.  I needed to make that wall balance out the height of the ceiling (and the weight of the sofa) so in came this bad boy.  And then Orlando painted that beautiful piece to cover the TV (which was by far the most successful way to do it yet, i found).  

I propped this bad boy with a ton of national geographic (from my prop styling days, always an easy pop of graphic color and they had a big collection started already),

I am soooooo late.  I have to run, BUT i’ll post dining room tomorrow.

Excuse the typos, spelling, etc.  I’ll try to come back and fix, but i have 10 minutes to put on clothes, do my makeup and head downtown to meet with Open Sky (something i can’t wait to tell you about) so priorities have shifted this morning. So sue me.  Although i would wait like 2 years to sue me, right now you’ll get bearcat’s trust fund which includes 4 sticks with string and bells on it and a copy of Milo and Otis.  She loves that film. 

 

 OH and all pretty pics by Mark Champion.  Don’t forget that name, not that you will, because his name is Mark Champion for peets sake.  

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