"The Bridge Tournament Room . . . "

Greetings,

Have a seat . . . I'll deal you into the next hand!  Welcome to our little "Bridge Tournament Room" at the Peninsula Volunteers Inc. Decorator Show House . . . just a simple room - only 16 feet square - all dressed for an afternoon of gambling and gossiping!

One of the best aspects of working on a showcase house is the opportunity to stretch one's creative impulses in ways that might not be present in your day to day client work.  I guess I'm still waiting for that one brave client who will let me wrap their room in chinoiserie printed linen - lol.   In many ways - this space is much closer to the work I did for Ralph Lauren all those many years designing and installing the showrooms in his Northern California stores!  

Though the space is actually at the end of the basement level of the house . . . I really consider it "just off the pool" - which one sees from the french doors at the end of the room.  So we went bright and cheery for the colours . . . 

We used Lilly Pulitzer's "Happy Plaid" (from Lee Jofa) for the table covers - and her iconic "Heritage Floral" for the seat covers on the 16 antique chairs surrounding the card tables.  And how cute are these little table accent lamps from Circa Lighting?!??!  The space needed a little 'ping' of polished chrome - and the shape so reminds me of those classic 'bell-hop bells!'

The room also features over 100 yards of Lilly Pulitzer's "Tail Lights" fabric (from Lee Jofa) - tenting almost the entire space.  We box-pleated the textile at the ceiling line - trimming with black grosgrain ribbon and chrome nailheads - and allowed it to drape naturally at the floor - giving a slightly 'smallish' room an enormous amount of drama and presence.  The mirrored wall existed from the room's original use as a work-out room - but, we added the lattice work to reinforce the 'garden room' mood of the space.

The other challenge of the room was height.  We had a ceiling height of less than 8 feet . . . so I kept everything on the low-ish side - but allowed that beautiful chinoiserie secretary from Baker Furniture to have a commanding view over the room.

How fabulous is this custom drinks cart from The Gilded Stag ?!?!??!  I worked with Landon, the owner, to adapt one of their classic pieces.  Firstly, we decided to beef up the proportions of the bar - taller, deeper, wider - and then to give it its the custom yellow lacquer finish - and create something totally unique for the room.  The cart is layered with custom dinner service from La Plates in the same white/black/kelley green colour story.

A few of the details from our bar set-up.  Dozens of cans of bracing lemon soda.  Fresh citrus - mirroring the citrus trees planted just outside the room.  And little nibbles for the ladies enjoying during their afternoon of cards.

These were fun as well.  I wanted to find a clever way of branding the space for guests who were touring through the house.  So I decided to make several dozen packs of playing cards (also from La Plates) - and use my logo and website as the design on the back of the card.  The only drawback has been people all wanting to get the 'joker' from each of the decks . . . lol.

If you're in the Bay Area - please come by the house and say 'hi' - we're open until May 24th.  Click HERE for more information.

Cheers,
Scot