What Would You Do With This Room

I Love New York

Mark — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:42:32 +0000

Remember that ad campaign from the 80’s? Well, it’s still on with me…I was with my Mark on Call partner John Haigh in New York in May to give a keynote demo of the Mark on Call app at the D & D building in the Pierre Deux showroom.

It was a gorgeously rainy day and I became really homesick for the hustle and bustle that is decidedly New York….what an electrifying city.

It was kind of a whirlwind visit with meetings the entire time…but we had the chance to have a great dinner with an associate, stay in a really great hotel in Mid town..and stop into the Apple for some forgotten equipment and pretty much see the nickel tour of mid town!

The presentation had a great turnout with designers that were truly interested in using technology in their presentations and as a design tool….we also have an interview on Go Design Go….the blog for the Cohen Design centers nationwide….if you have a chance, please take a look at :

http://godesigngo.com/videos/theres-an-app-for-that-mark-on-call/

For now, summer is in full swing so enjoy it and use my new favorite color….Periwinkle…saw it everywhere in New York..it’s fresh, crisp and you can almost taste the Summer in it….especially if it’s used in light breezy cotton draperies and Summer bed quilts…very Summer, very picnic..very “House on the Lake”….and I’m leaving for Montana on Thursday….I’ll have a boat load of stuff to tell you when I get back.

Cheers,

Mark

Glorious

Mark — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:14:26 +0000

Glorious is the only word that came to mind as I stood on the dock that extended into Lake MacDonald at the Lake MacDonald Lodge. Glorious. In one instant, like a familiar smell that brings you back to a time long gone, I was transported back to a time that I cherish.

As a kid, when my parents took us on a tour of the national parks. The cowboy hats and bolo ties that my mom bought us in the general store. The smell of woods, a memory of what the old Fireball camping trailer felt like and the faint smell of a campfire in the distance. The most vivid memory of that time that I have, weirdly, are the postcards always showing, in glorious Technicolor retouching, a family in a station wagon, driving through the widest tree in the world or standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon.

A simple time.

I was in Montana recently on a working vacation. I wanted inspiration for the clients’ home that I am redoing and rather than hunt out one of the several interior design showrooms or high-end furniture stores that have sprung up in Whitefish and its surroundings, I looked to the treasure trove of inspiration just down the street: Glacier National Park.

No 2010 rendition of what we are told is “Lodge Style” for me…no; I looked to the textures, smells, and natural beauty that is Montana. I looked at the old Lodges in the park and most of all, since this project has to say, and more importantly, feel like “Home”, I decided to use my memory, sense of nostalgia and say that word over and over, Glorious. Let’s give this house a sense of wonder like we had as kids visiting these parks. Let’s give the home a serene beauty that doesn’t look like it was copied from a magazine. Let’s give it Patina….let’s incorporate our favorite things from childhood and make it home.

Cheers,

Mark

Smile

Mark — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:13:43 +0000

So it’s the day after Christmas and it looks like a badly lit Black and White photo outside…. nothing worse than LA in the gloom. It almost feels like the life got completely sucked out of it…it did since there is no sun.

Now is the time to look around, take stock and pare down…that is if the economy didn’t do it to you already.

Instead of feeling burdened with the economy, health care debates, explosives on airliners…. be happy with what you have and WHO you have.

This posting is actually a mash up of several feelings and observations that I’ve been having and feeling. You see, I just returned from a day in Santa Monica and I made the vast error in judgment in leaving my cool, cozy and wrapped up walk on the beach, to venture into the stores to see if I could find a sale…a big sale since anything under 60% off just isn’t a sale in my mind.

Rabid buying, rude people cutting in line and little kids screaming to get the latest cool shoes or t-shirt. Ouch…. we haven’t learned anything from the past year. We still haven’t reined it in or tried to instill actual values where they are seemingly void. Stuff doesn’t fill the hole; love, respect, family, health and that cool walk on the beach, does.

So with that, I made my list of new years resolutions…and I do stick to mine having quit smoking last year after 30 years. So here it goes…

1. Smile. When someone cuts in line or keeps pushing into you with their grocery cart….smile. When someone cuts you off in traffic or almost runs you over in a cross walk…smile. Smile because you know that you are better than that and that other person has their priorities screwed up.

2. Find entertainment that doesn’t include shopping. Personal spending will not get us out of this economic nightmare…it will only make you beholden to the banks. What will get us out of this nightmare is for us all collectively, to realize that things don’t make you cool….you make you cool. Things don’t make you happy, people make you happy. Things do not elevate you in class or social position; they just show others how insecure you are because you cannot change your class or social position with things…people with real class and social position have always known this.

…..Try an experiment…buy what you need and not what you want; buy less than you can afford; buy a car that is utilitarian; buy a home that is at the low end of the mortgage that you qualified for….and why not try visiting a friend just to sit and talk rather than going shopping.

3. Re-do your entire place….but don’t spend a penny. Rearrange, throw out, scavenge hunt for that perfect mirror, trade furniture items with a friend…try it!

Make the dining room into a den and a bedroom into an office or yoga room.

4. Be happy….happy is as happy does. Treat others the way that you want to be treated…cherish friendships and don’t take them for granted. Respect your friend enough to tell them the truth when they need it and to shut up and listen…when they need it.

5. Oh yeah…smile

Cheers,

Mark

Roots

Mark — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:37:04 +0000

I just returned from visiting my sister and attending a family wedding on the East Coast.

My sister lives in Warrenton, Virginia, outside of Washington DC and the Wedding was in Annapolis, Maryland….what a beautiful part of the country…but I’m biased…these are my roots.

My mothers family is from the Mid Atlantic region and are still in abundance there.

Even though I grew up in Massachusetts, many years and good times were spent here and the family that I love so dearly is still here….these are my roots.

It’s all come full circle as far as my design theory…Traditional-Contemporary-Hollywood Regency-Traditional…every time I return home to the East Coast, the traditionalist within emerges. I walk down the brick streets of Annapolis and smell the crisp scent of leaves mixed with chimney smoke and have a burning desire to use Queen Anne Chairs and Chippendale Highboys in my designs-these are my roots.

…but then I return to Los Angeles and the reasons that I moved here flood back…the casual elegance of classic California design inspired by the ocean, sun and spectacular views…natural colors and textures mixed with Hollywood glamour.

Design is such a fluid thing as we can collect memories, experiences and what we love together and make environments that are both personal and comfortable.

Just like my Commandments of great Interior Design state, design for how you live.

Use memories, mental souvenirs and mix it up! Roots are always there but as the roots of a tree can grow, change direction and multiply, so can your own personal roots.

These are my roots.

Best,

Mark

Home Design iPhone App Mark On Call(TM) Adds New Rooms Gallery Feature, More

John — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:05:48 +0000

Mark On Call(TM) 2.0 for the iPhone and iPod Touch, a major update to the incredibly popular interior design app, makes sharing even easier! Now room designs can be published and stored on the Web where owners of the application can peruse the new “Rooms Gallery”, an aggregated area of all users’ published rooms. From directly inside the app, users can download, customize and apply the room designs of others to their own personal space. The gallery lets users backup rooms, move rooms to another floor plan, create room templates, and collaborate with other designers, clients, friends, family, or Mark On Call users.

Additionally, users of the application may discover fabrics or finishes on someone else’s furnishings in a published room, import that room, and automatically collect and apply these newfound custom color presets. A custom color preset is created when a user takes a picture of an actual finish, fabric, rug, paint color, wallpaper pattern, or flooring material and “skins” the image onto an item or surface in their room using the iPhone’s camera or an image from their photo library.

The “Rooms Gallery” features a Cover Flow interface and can filter results by “Just My Rooms” or by room type. Published rooms can be deleted only by the original creator. The Rooms Gallery will soon be publicly viewable from the Mark On Call website.

The new Room Editor, where rooms can be accurately drawn and measured to scale, offers nine room shape templates, customizable with a “touch and drag” system. Not only can walls be moved, but now corners can be added (or deleted) and repositioned to create precise angles. To assist with architectural accuracy, walls turn green at 0, 30, 45, 60 and 90 degrees and display the degree number next to the wall measurement.

A customizable background option that can be used to represent wall paint or a wallpaper pattern has also been added to version 2.0, and functions the same as rendering a room item or floor surface. Users may coordinate rugs, flooring and other room items to their walls in this virtual space before actualizing their design plans.

Based on Mark Lewison’s home decorating book, “What Would You Do With This Room? My 10 Foolproof Commandments to Great Interior Design”, Mark On Call is truly home design in the “palm of your hand”. Users can access and customize 156 furniture and architectural elements, choose from a palette of preset color, fabric and finish options, take advantage of the easy-to-use color wheel, add snapshots of floor models corresponding to items in their room designs, create and share detailed shopping lists, and send images of their room creations via in app email. It’s an excellent tool for interior designers to help them conceptualize, design, store and shop for clients, or anyone planning their fantasy or actual living space.

The application works in both the Metric and Imperial measurement systems.

Summary of New Features in Mark On Call(TM) 2.0:

- First-use (one-time-only) pop-up help screens to navigate through new and core features

- New Rooms Gallery to backup and publish room designs, move rooms to another floor plan, create room templates, and collaborate with other designers, clients, friends, family, or Mark On Call™ users

- In app “import” feature lets users download published room designs and custom color presets created by other Mark On Call™ users

- New angled and multi-dimensional wall design feature to create infinite angles, recesses, and irregular floorplan features

- Room background color option to represent wall paint or wallpaper

Pricing and Availability

Mark On Call(TM) 2.0 is priced at $4.99 (USD) and is available exclusively from Apple’s App Store

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mark-on-call/id299360512?mt=8

Mark On Call(TM) 2.0 works on the iPhone and iPod Touch

Minimum system requirement: iPhone OS 3.0

Mark On Call(TM) 2.0 Rooms Gallery feature requires a network connection

Media Contact:

John R. Haigh

310-384-5950 (US)

john.r.haigh@gmail.com

Another Summer Sadly Takes A Bow

admin — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:17:42 +0000

I love labor Day at the beach..always have, always will no matter what. It doesn’t matter which coast, as each has its strengths, beauty and bittersweet, slightly sad, end of summer blahs.

It was a gorgeous day today in Santa Monica as I lay on the beach with my friend John. After a swim, some sun, and generally taking in the beauty that is the Santa Monica coastline…I realized that I was sort of daydreaming and without any thought in my head, was taking the perfect shaped shells and making fingernails out of them….woooooahh…that takes me back.

I remember seemingly endless days at the beach growing up…with my brothers and sisters..all of us would have clamshell earrings on, seaweed necklaces and the occasional hat made of that stuff that looks like black teardrops of I don’t know what mixed with burnt angel hair pasta…random sea flotsam I think. There are days that I’m stuck in traffic or someone has decided to turn left and not use his or her turn signal (The rudest, most entitled, ”I don’t care about anyone behind me” attitude in the world) …and I start to drift off…I remember…my grandparents were here, there were no alarm clocks, people smiled and they said thank you to store clerks (rather than talk on their cellphones) treating the person behind the counter like a cardboard cutout, people waited in line patiently at the ice cream counter because they were polite….and most of all…Summers.

It’s funny….the other day, someone said that I had a child’s eye view of Summer after I said how depressed I had been due to the impending end to the season.

I took this as one of the greatest compliments that anyone had ever given me.

They said that it seemed that I wanted Summer to last forever and have none of the responsibilities that Fall seemed to bring…uhhhhh, yes please!

The lesson here….always be true to yourself and don’t lose the child within; never forget the promises that you made to yourself and what you swore you would do with your life. And if you grow man boobs and get “Dress Shoe” feet from sitting in a cubicle….not to worry, you can still design your home for how you live and not how television or the vast lifestyle media have told you how to live…live like a kid….and….always remember Summer.

Cheers,

Mark

See Liza Minnelli sing Cabaret…check it off

Mark — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:23:40 +0000

Everyone has that list in their head…the list that they must accomplish either before they are too old to enjoy it, move from a certain geographical location or god forbid…die.

My list is endless, as I believe that there are so many wondrous destinations in the world, entertainers or career choices…it’s all good…right?

Not to bore you with my own personal list that could fill a book and that I am sticking to or making my way through. Among the “Dance a waltz in Vienna at Christmas”, “Speed along the winding roads of Monte Carlo on my way to a late Casino outing” or the simple “Eat cucumber salad every Summer in New England with my Dad”…is to see Liza Minnelli sing Cabaret…iconic.

Did it! Hollywood Bowl, last Friday night. It was a warm night…very warm. The place was packed…she sounded great…man, what a show. Is she as young as she used to be? No…then neither am I. Is she still hopping and jumping around the stage like a teenager…no…then neither could I. Was it like watching an icon in your own living room that could actually see me and was singing just for me? Yep. She has that effect.

Well here’s my point. In the first act, she wore a white sequin pantsuit. It dawned on me that she was wearing, what I consider, the utmost in good taste evening wear. Chic, refined, tailored and simple but obviously costing a small fortune…no jewelry…just the outfit. In the second act, it was black. Here’s a lesson for Interior Design…. here it comes…keep it simple!!

Truth be told, I had no way of knowing if that outfit cost a fortune, was new or old, or if it was a hand me down from her mother…it was simple, refined, elegant…timeless.

The second part of the “Keep it Simple” lesson is that if you keep it simple, it can last for years but look as fresh as yesterday…and in this economy, isn’t that what we need?

Cheers,

Mark

Downsize In Design

Sherri — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:42:22 +0000

Chairs have so many forms, from decorative to pragmatic. The best chairs have a little bit of both; form meets function.

But what do you get when a bunch of serious designers are given the challenge of turning a champagne cork into a classic or contemporary MINI chair? That’s right: the people who design the real stuff got busy making some crazy, dollhouse-sized pieces, coming up with some pretty amazing stuff in the process. Think of it as Project Runway meets Design Star—for the mini-action figure set.

The event was sponsored by Living Edge, an Australia-based furniture design studio as part of a trade event, Saturday In Design that takes place on alternative years in Sydney and Melbourne.

Judges were looking for wit, originality and craftsmanship, with the prize being an Eames Lounge and Ottoman. The lucky winner was Jon Voss.

What Would You Do With This Old Dining Room?

Mark — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:57:16 +0000

This is an email question and answer exchange from a design query sent to Mark. Please feel free to send in your own interior design questions (with images) to Mark Lewison.

Dear Mark,

My parents own a house built in the 1920s which they remodeled/added onto in the early 90s. The old kitchen became a family room and a whole dining room and new kitchen are at the back of the house. Most rooms grew into their new personas, with the exception of one.

The old dining room (which it can hardly be called anyway) is now a large space looking for a purpose. The front door opens into our front living room (couch, chair, bookshelf, TV) then through 2 columns and a wide entry way is the problem room. On the right it has 5 doors on 3 of the walls and on the left is a large wall of windows. The room currently houses the computer desk, an old rocking chair, and an antique sewing machine. It acts more as a hallway than a room.

I guess our major problem has been deciding a purpose for the room (that’s not a sitting/living room since we have two flanking it) and how to compete with all the doors covering the walls and foot traffic.

Thanks!

Megan

–

Hi Megan,

You might be very surprised to find out how common this problem really is! I personally have worked on 4 homes that are of the 1920’s Bungalow style (very common here in Los Angeles) that have been added on to over the years, making the dining room nothing better than a giant hallway. So, I say…make it a Giant hallway…albeit a fabulous one! By this, I mean that I’ve used entrance foyers and hallways as galleries, piano areas or to create an interior atrium of sorts (with the correct lighting…you can achieve an outdoor look…almost like a courtyard). This is all fine and dandy as long as you don’t need the room for a television area or family/living room. Circulation areas in homes have been forgotten and designed out over the years. By this, I mean, only in recent years (Post 1940) have homes not had transition areas from one room to the next, as in a vestibule, hallway, nook.

To create a “Bonus” area that acts as nothing more than a beautiful gallery for photos while creting a transition from one area to another, adds to the genteel quality of a home from the 1920’s. What I always say too, this is one area that can be your “Folly”…paint it very differently than your other rooms.

Hope that this helps.

Mark

Home Interior Designer iPhone App – Mark On Call – “John Makes A Room” Video

John — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:44:26 +0000

In this detailed video tutorial, I create a room using the interior designer/space planner Mark On Call™ iPhone and iPod Touch app.

I go over the main menu and provide a general overview of the application as I informally “make a room”.

I also discuss and show you HOW TO:

● Change your preferred measurement system.

● Change your local currency if needed.

● Change your flooring.

● Resize and reshape your rooms.

● Create shopping lists.

● Resize your room items.

● Saving customized items to “My Items” for use in all your floor plans.

● Share your rooms and shopping lists.

● Operate any screen inside the app.