At long last, we are pleased to announce the next project in the Art of Living series by Barb Skivington and Melanie Royals: The Art of Living Uptown-Carving a luxury penthouse condominium from an historic high rise in downtown Greensboro, NC

During this project, 20 artist/apprentices will have the opportunity to explore and execute high-end contemporary surface finishes in an exquisitely appointed setting: A new high rise luxury condominium home with a Hollywood Regency design theme.

This project brings together the artistic and teaching talents of Barb Skivington/Faux Works and Melanie Royals/Royal Design Studio and Modello Designs, fine custom home builder, Wolfe Homes, the decorative finishing line of products from Faux Effects International, interior design by Mark Darnell and selected furnishings from famed furniture house, Henredon.

The result of this combination of art, design and architecture will be open for a month of touring in October, 2008. Festivities will include a hosted Grand Gala party and other special events. Each week the tour proceeds will benefit a different local charity.

Our project space will also be the location of special design seminars hosted by Henredon during High Point’s International Furniture Market, October 20-26.

More details on events and tour dates will be announced closer to the opening.

BUT FIRST, we must create!

The finishes we have planned for the penthouse have been designed to showcase the versatility of combining decorative finishes and patterns over a wide variety of surfaces including walls, ceilings, glass, wood, mirror and contemporary art panels. Leaving the “Old World” look in the past, for now, we want to explore how tactile decorative finishes can add to the overall sensory experience and elegance of today’s contemporary interiors.

This will be accomplished over two training and applications sessions to which we have invited a range of working decorative artist to participate with us.

Session 1:  July 29-August 2, 2008

Media Room Marquetry Ceiling
A traditional technique reinterpreted in a contemporary pattern and chic color palette for a custom coffered ceiling.

Gilded and Incised Grand Entry Dome
Classically applied gold leaf with a delicately incised Oriental trellis border.

Architectural Feature Wall with Trellising
Master Bedroom feature wall with inset architectural panels showing off a two-tone trellis treatment.
 
Neutral Ground Plaster
Simple, elegant and essential says it all.

Embedded “Chopstix” Wall Treatment
Hollywood Regency meets Zen in a soothing but seductive rich wall treatment.

Contemporary Art Panel Series
We’ll be pulling out all the stops and exploring new artistic territories for a tri-panel series for our hallway and another large panel to complete a powder bath.

Session 2:  August 12-16, 2008

Gilded Gingko Leaves
A custom ceiling light fixture will shine with layers of delicate Gingko leaves formed from hand-tinted Japanese gold leaf. Expensive, but worth it!

Media Room Feature Wall
Custom carpentry will frame out a tactile wall treatment with a contemporary edge.

Barbara Barry Bedroom
A beaded wall treatment in a contemporary, interlocking oval pattern will provide the perfect backdrop for Barbara Barry furnishings designed for Henredon.

Soft-Touch Textured Ceiling Treatment
Recessed ceiling panels in the master bedroom will get a soft-touch layered plaster finish to add visual interest, color compliments and good acoustical qualities at the same time.

Polished Plaster Grand Entry
High shine sets the mood for our most glamorous space.

Mirror, Mirror
Facing architectural, 8’ niches in the large living/dining space will receive complimentary patterned and patinated mirrored panels. Light reflecting but heavy on the drama!

We will be documenting the design and application process, as well as the amazing final results in a new book, The Art of Living-Uptown!, available at the end of 2008. We hope you’ll come back to follow our progress and process! Barb is promising me that she will overcome her blog writer’s anxiety and post occasionally. Let’s hold her to it!
 

Holly at decor8 (IMO the consistently best design blog going on) is having an Mood Board contest that is being sponsored by super savvy sewing sensation Amy Butler. 4 winners will receive 5 new Amy Butler sewing patterns. The last thing I have time to do these days is sew, but I have so many room projects in the planning stages, this is the perfect opportunity to get some FOCUS and have some fun. Besides, Amy Butler is my current favorite role model (see a recent post) as she has made sewing “sexy” (as in marketing term, sexy) in the way I am approaching refocusing and relaunching my Royal Design Studio stencil line (It’s coming soon!). It’s funny how everything gets connected in life. 

Above is an example of a mood board by sfgirlbybay. If your “in” you do need to get busy as the contest entries must be in by midnight June 4. It should be really fun to see what people come up with and how many entries Holly gets. I’m guessing lots! Photos lifted right from decor8.

Well, I have my half-empty suitcase almost ready to go to Italy to get filled to overload, so I guess you could say I AM in a shopping mood. The only thing I am a little bummed about my trip is that I will miss the Spring Thread Show here in San Diego. This is such I cool little clothing and accessories show it’s quite surprising that it is actually here in conservative San Diego. Other locations are Seattle and the UK so if you are in that neighborhood you want to be on the lookout for times and locations. It is a show for small, independant designers to show their lines and (THE BEST PART) sell off their samples to you or me at wholesale prices. Some of my favorites who got my money last time were-

Beaded pins from Lisa Toland

Clothing from Random Nicole

Jewelry from Lily Pearl

And my absolute favorite, silk wraps and aprons from Jodi B Wise. Thank goodness it comes round here twice a year!!

Here are more photos of the final rooms and surface finishes. Thank you so much to everyone who worked so hard on this project. We are working on “what’s next?” now!

Here are some photos of some of the finished rooms and artistic surfaces!

Well, it’s become painfully obvious that making a commitment to blog posting is very similar for me to making a commitment to regular exercise. It’s hard! After having failed lately on both front fronts following an extended road trip and ”catchup” time, I am back with a renewed sense of dedication-and photos.

The house was in a state of “getting there” right up until we opened the doors for the tour. The day before we had a photographer in for “beauty shots” of the fluffed-up rooms. Having been through this a few times before I can tell you that I never look through a magazine without wondering what they just stuffed in a drawer or what “real world” photo is just out of sight of the camera, but it is lots of fun to capture the moment of perfection at the end of a design project. Tons of mums are definitely a good thing!

I am guessing that Suzanne, Barb and I all ended up dressed in black because it’s “easy”?? The tour coincided with the local Dilworthtown Inn’s annual wine festival and they were nice enough to shuttle people the short distance to the house, wine glasses in hand. It was a beautiful, sunny day, the house looked gorgeous, and the guests were delightfully impressed. More house photos tomorrow….