A Sunday in the Garden

At the  recommendation of a dear friend this past Sunday, we met at The New York   Botanical Gardens in the Bronx in New York City. It is apparently one of the   premier botanical gardens in the United States and it spans some 250 acres of   Bronx Park and is home to some of the world’s leading plant   laboratories. Having lived in New York City on and off for over twenty years, we both   were amazed to note that neither of us had ever visited this incredible   garden! Well, it was time to change that! Upon entering the MONETS GARDEN, I was thrilled to discover there was a   stunning tribute to the French Impressionist, Claude Monet, whom we both are   big fans.  The gardens have a fantastic   array of showcases interpreting his gardens seasonally and thus giving his   art as inspiration of its own life. One of my favorite parts was seeing Monet’s Garden in the Conservatory,   which is an amazing Architectural gem in and of its own right.  It actually took us into the environment   that captured Monet’s imagination and is often reasoned the basic and   fundamental inspiration for his art.    The idyllic garden is in Giverny, France and the Enid A. Haupt   Conservatory was literally transformed into a floral masterpiece of diverse   plants, bold colors, and dramatic design.    Even a water lily pool was found in multiple locations. The Gardens had the theme spill out into the entire 250 acres with scrolls   of French Symbolist poets, including Mallarmé and Rimbaud. Apparently they   have also included concerts, poetry readings, hands-on activities and classes   for adults and kids, French menus in the Garden Café, and stuff to buy in the   Garden Shop. My favorite object de art in the shop was a miniature sculpture   of the Eiffel Tower with air plants covering it. Now it is really hard to say what else was my favorite after the   Conservatory’s beautiful replica of Monet’s French countryside, however being   a keen Aromatherapist, my breathe was taken away (literally) when I entered   the Herb Garden! The delicious smells and aromas filtered through the hot   summer day, like a delightful memory.    It was truly idyllic and I dreamed of my house in London years ago  when I was once a gardener myself. Ah, to delight in this pastime again at my cottage by sea in the years to   come, my friend Jessica, an avid gardener, listened to my plight.  Her gardening skills are simply leaps and   bounds beyond anything I could hope for but it was fun to have some dreamy   conversations about it non-the less! To the immense and varied ROSE garden which was a delight to view from the   top of a hill in shade, to the oldest section of the Park – the Pine Forest –   was shady and rich reminding me of really old country sides, to the funny   aspect of finding a fire hydrant in the middle of the forest (apparently   installed all over the park in the 1960’s to avoid fire disaster!). Well, it was a PERFECT SUNDAY AFTERNOON.    It was complete with my longest standing friend Jessica, or Peanut as   my family likes to call her, and as always… the day was filled with laughter,   stories and it was truly magical as we were embraced by the plants, and   scents in this restorative and tranquil haven. It is my life goal to always seek things to INSPIRE me and to FEED MY   SOUL.  Well, this Sunday afternoon did   both.  I invite you to take the time,   as I did, and not take too long to allow yourself a day to wander in this   amazing gem whenever you find yourself in this neck of the woods.  And until you can, go see some of the things that caught my eye!

Bringing a Room Back to Life

Increasing my awareness of a HOLISTIC life through working with S. Lee Wright Ltd Holistic Design, I started to see things in my own life that needed to be more Balanced and I set about to increased Harmony everywhere that I could. Taking ‘notice’ of where things were not necessarily ‘thriving’ has become a key part of my design training with Lee and through this new set of eyes, I noticed that a room in a friends Beach House was completely ‘dead’.

Meaning this room has become a “junk room”, a space that filled up with the unnecessary collection of things that the family could not bear to part with, but were not really necessary in their lives on an on-going manner. So there this stuff would go, to be used ‘another day’ and would actually just sit, unused, unloved and simply hidden from life.  Don’t we all have a space like this? Sometimes it is just a ‘junk drawer’ other times it is your entire house; here it was one lost Bedroom!

So, in highlighting this awareness to my friend, very gently, she was in complete agreement that this needed to be rectified immediately! And we agreed to embark on the journey of “Bring the Room Back to Life”!

It was confirmed that this bedroom had been “lost” for decades, filled with junk. The bedroom was on the main floor of the house and we created an action plan on how to revive this bedroom to be a part of the family Beach House once again.

The very first thing needed was a place to dump all of the useless trash and furniture. In a small beach community that was conscientious of it’s footprint, and as a Conscious Eco Holistic Designer, we decided that we needed to remove the items that needed to be done in a manner that would have minimum impact on the environment. We chose to get a dumpster and remove all that we could ourselves, ploughing through years of trash to see what, if anything was to be salvaged and re-purposed.

Sadly, most of the items in the room had not a second life in them and the majority of the items needed to be placed in the dumpster. Other items we gave away and repurposed as much as possible. The beauty of a small community is that we were able to communicate what we were doing in a short span of time and anyone interested in seeing if our ‘trash’ was their ‘treasure’ happened almost organically. In the future, I think that I would prepare more in the way of an organized Yard Sale just for this purpose.

However, as our goal was to be completed in one week, we needed to stay on task and utilized the youth of the community to help with the heavy lifting and removal of the unused furnishings. They came in and moved out what needed to go to the dumpster and what needed to go to the storage room.

That left us time for the creative design and the FUN part! The combined skills of my Design expertise and my friend’s Real Estate skills, we were able to create a new space from the wreckage of the old. The removal of the items was in sense a ‘space clearing’ in its own right and our happy energy did the rest!

In a couple of hours of hard work, creative energy and a lot of LOVE, we had a charming bedroom that could be allocated to houseguests with pride. As a dear friend and house guest in this lovely beach house, I can personal say that this new bedroom has been fully RESTORED TO LIFE and I am looking forward to going back to the house and using that bedroom as often as possible.

If you have a room that needs to be Brought Back to Life, please let us know! With our Design skills, Organizational flare and Repurposing Sustainable theme, we are your Space Revivers!

Now Lee wants to talk about analyzing our ‘junk drawers’ to see what this says about us. I think I need to go clean mine out!

Five Elements in Feng Shui – Hong Kong Shopping Mall

I LOVED seeing that a new shopping mall in Hong Kong is designed around the   Five Elements!!!  Such an interesting   concept and one that most Westerns are only starting to hear more about and   understand. The concept is based on the natural environment in which the   world is designed and allowing us to design the built environment around   it.  Not quite the same as “biomimcry”   but a very, very ancient version of the same thing. As a Feng Shui practioner, I have been continually exploring the importance   of the Elements in the world around us and how their BALANCE is key to   everything in our lives – our health, our spaces, or interaction with each   other. The main Five Elements in Feng Shui are the main natural elements that make   up our world- Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, Earth. I saw a great example of this Concept being designed into a Shopping Mall   in Hong Kong and I had to take a peek to see if it would be the same as my   interpretation.  And of course, it is   very different than my view, but isn’t all design somewhat subjective?   However the design is based around the (5) elements in (5) different themed   areas. And they are as follows: the Metal Zone being all about luxury shops and metal sculptures, the Water Zone includes world class restaurants, the Wood Zone is all about wood decor and furniture, the Fire Zone is a movie complex and has an ice skating rink! and the Earth Zone is all about fashion, beauty, lifestyle and a   garden. Not necessarily how I would intrepreate the Five Elements but I adore that   it is the essence of balancing our inner worlds with our natural   environments.  The next time I am in   Hong Kong, I am heading there to do some site inspections and of course to go   shopping and ice skating!

Small Business Grant!

S. Lee Wright Ltd is trying to win a small business grant. In order to even qualify we need at least 250 people to LIKE us on Facebook. Would you please take a moment to give us the thumbs up?

https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/

Type in “S. Lee Wright Ltd” – no state, no city – and we should come up.

A red envelope is used in Feng Shui as a powerful way that exchanges occur. It is a way that money is transferred from client to practitioner at the conclusion of a consultation. Red is associated with life force and vibrates at a high frequency, symbolizing auspicious good luck, blessings, and power. The red envelope also helps to set the intention. Please take a moment to exchange good luck with us and give us your blessing for this financial offering and help bring S. Lee Wright Ltd to the next level of success!

Highlights from Design Week (Kitchen and Bath) – Bulthaup and Axor

KITCHEN
New York City fills with designers from all over the country for this week long event which anchors around the International Contemporary Furniture Fair hosted by the Javits Center in Manhattan. We at S. Lee Wright Ltd. saw a ton of cool, innovative, and beautiful things. The next few posts we’re going to share with you what really tooted our green boat!

We visited Bulthaup, a German company that has created a stunning modular kitchen pantry (shown below in their gorgeous walnut) in one of their lines with a free floating sink/counter area. Great for a summer home, a rental property or if you’re planning on not staying in one place for too long. You can even buy everything for your pantry! They also have redesigned the flatware drawer into zig-zag sections, which can be separated with innovative pieces of movable metal.

BATH
Next we made a trip to the new Axor showroom in the Meatpacking District. They were having a fantastic industry party that night showing their new lines of faucets, showerheads, bathtubs and sinks. One of our favorite from that night was a line of branch hooks and towel racks by Jean-Marie Massaud. Very organic!

Highlights from Design Week (Wall Coverings and Tiles) — Barkskin and Motawi

WALL COVERINGS
Another one of S. Lee Wright’s favorite finds from the ICFF this year was a wall coverings company called Barkskin. It is a natural, hand-made wood material. The process of making the paper is from pre-Columbian times, whereby the bark is processed with “cold and then boiling water, hand pounded and sun dried,” as is stated in their promotional material. It can be used commercially as well as in residential applications as a wall covering, ceiling covering, furniture surface and lampshades, to name a few!

 

TILES
We saw so many beautiful tiles at ICFF: some were handmade, some were lasercut, and some even had lights embedded within them! We’ve decided to share a company called Motawi Tileworks with you. Their handmade tiles show a spectrum of American Art, and if you’re ever in the Ann Arbor area you can even schedule a studio tour! Here are a few images we thought were yummy.

Highlights from Design Week (Lighting and Furniture) — Greypants and Playable Studio

LIGHTING
Our Complete and utter favorite from ICFF this year was a company called Greypants. Their greenness outdid pretty much everyone at the trade show and we noticed! They definitely get the S. Lee Wright Ltd. Green Seal of Approval. A conceptual design studio founded in 2008 by two college roommates who were studying architecture. Aren’t you glad they branched out to product design? We sure are! They have a gorgeous line of ceiling fixtures called Scraplight made completely from recycled cardboard boxes. They come in multiple styles and shapes and give a glow to any room that is to die for. Check out their cool video showing the process. And if you love them as much as we did, make sure you take a look at some of their furniture as well.

 

FURNITURE
Not a traditional choice, since this company currently has only two products, but we loved their work so much we had to share! The American company Playable Studio makes furniture that is multi functional; from kids to adults everyone will want to use it. We connected with the organic shapes and the pieces’ versatility. Perfect for a small New York apartment! We love seeing the Vio used as a coffee table or as a bench for shoes in an entryway. And the Oni is perfect as an end table or a stool. And if the adults in the house run out of uses for these two pieces, the kids in the house never will. Seriously, they never will. And on the green front, they use 100% Formaldehyde free plywood and non-toxic food grade finishes.

Highlights from Design Week (Green Walls/Living Walls) — Urbio

GREEN WALLS/LIVING WALLS

We love Urbio. They make such a cool product and we had such a good time chatting with them at this year’s ICFF. Of course with S. Lee Wright Ltd. being a sustainable and eco-conscious interior architecture firm we especially appreciated that their product can be used for plants or for ANYTHING, just about. And the coolest part? It’s magnetized. That’s right, you can move each piece around til you are completely happy with the design. The founder and COO Jared Aller assured us it can be used indoors or outdoors. How neat to have it on your deck or balcony?

Highlights from Design Week (Accessories and Lighting) Upwell and Marc Trotereau

LIGHTING

Although Marc Trotereau lives and works in London, which as a NY based design firm is not ideal when it comes to promoting local businesses, and using less of a carbon footprint, we at S. Lee Wright Ltd, really dug his innovative lighting at ICFF this year, and just had to give him a shout out. He gives a neat twist on the traditional lampshade with Wireshade: getting the lamp off the floor or table top and attaching it on the wall. He even makes it accessible for use in a corner! When you live in a small New York apartment floor space is tight so being able to get your lighting off of surfaces and the floor and onto the walls is a fantastic use of space!

Highlights from Design Week (Woodworkers) Sand Back and John Ford

Who knew that nail heads could be used in such a decorative and detailed way? Well, at Sandback, who we came across at ICFF, they make tables using ornate inlays of nails! We, at S. Lee Wright thought this was a great way to use materials that already exist instead of fabricating new ones. Great way to conserve! The versatility of the nails enables Peter to fly free, not restricting his designs to tables. We especially loved the design on cabinet faces that we’ve shown below. Sandback also makes some beautiful endgrain tables that are worth taking a look at. All the work is individually made by hand out of their family owned shop in New Hampshire. We hope you like them as much as we did!

Our final post on ICFF goes to John Ford and his elegant, yet simple chairs. The beauty of the paired down design pretty much speaks for itself. Wouldn’t they be lovely at a dining table for eight with two of each type of wood?