flower district loft
It was fun to be back in my old digs to help a couple get their floorthrough loft ready for sale. We finished just before Covid hit.
Same story, exquisite stuff. This loft was brimming with beautiful furniture, art, decorative objects, clothing, tea caddies and a Labradoodle. Not a single individual object was ugly, not even the dog toys, but the lot was disorganized, cluttered and out of balance. Beauty was mixed and masked and hidden with clutter, papers, plastic packaging and disorganization. Ms. Client owned the Poltrona Frau chaise I’d rented years ago for a big Renaissance Hotels campaign — but you couldn’t see it behind the tall dead plant standing helplessly in the middle of the coffee table.
These folks, their gorgeous loft and beautiful things needed me to whip it together like so:
Pictured is a luxury litterbox with all of the design components of a luxury condo.
I wondered why the obvious solution hadn’t occurred to Ms. Client the MBA. But then one day, she explained to me that some investors set up companies where they just invest their own money and no one else’s. I said: “Really?! No clients?!” Humbled, I remembered that what is a cognitive cakewalk to me is out of reach to others.
So I made the litterbox into a side table. As long as she keeps it fresh, no one will ever know.
Clutterers all collect the same objects in the same way that they all shop on the sly at Marshall’s. (If Marshall’s wanted to get into the We Care corporate hash-sling of social responsibility they’d set up onsite anonymous counseling centers for people on the hoarding spectrum. But then…they’d go out of business. ( I have a BFA so I have GREAT business ideas.)
Anyway, they like to hang clothing on drying racks and leave them out year round - the accordion variety or the O-ring, either will do. I didn’t understand this until I had a client with a serious phobia surrounding her clothes dryer.
I collapse the racks and point out that air is happy to circulate around wet handwash whether hung discreetly on a shower bar, in a closet with a little breathing space or anywhere at all.
Litterbox
After
“Rachel, some of those are takeout chopsticks!” (I knew that, I’d ripped them all out of the paper packages and mixed them with the beauties in her collection.). “It’s just for color and bulk.” I reassured her.
She remained skeptical, but left them. She was decisive and quick with my help. I forgot to move that paper towel holder for the after picture so just edit that out in your mind. I hate seeing paper towels on a counter.
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When done, Ms. Client jetted off to one of her vacation homes and left her loft with a very happy realtor. We put the last shoe in place and then the world shut down.
The loft sold. Styling works. It was all me, surely.
