by Furnishly | Jul 5, 2021 | Design Inspiration, Style
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Ashley Tisdale doesn’t keep her love for interior design a secret. Far from it, in fact, as she frequently shares photos of her own Hollywood Hills home with her 13.7 million Instagram followers.
“I love this chair,” she wrote alongside the photo, “but are you supposed to sit in it or just stare at it”.
The chair in question is the Hammock Chaise Lounge, which was originally designed by renowned Danish designer, Hans Wegner, in 1967. Featuring a painted oak frame, a woven halyard surface, copper joints, and a fringed linen cushion, the one-of-a-kind chair is certainly a statement piece.
Wegner’s design approach was said to be “stripping the old chairs of their outer style and letting them appear in their pure construction”, putting an emphasis on comfort and simplicity and fitting in very well in modern minimalist spaces.
To answer Tisdale’s question, her Instagram followers took to the comments to share their opinions on the impressive piece.
“You’re supposed to lay in it and then never get up… ever again.” Singer-songwriter, Matthew Coelho, wrote, while actress, Elizabeth Ho, said: “I regret not sitting in it”.
While the chaise chair isn’t widely available—you can find them on marketplaces, but for a price (think $20,000+)—there are plenty of ways you can incorporate the style into your space. Namely, with a stylish hammock, which is the perfect summer-ready piece.
In addition to her Instagram-ready home pictures, Tisdale has broadened her love for interior design even further, with design company, Frenshe Interiors, which launched earlier this year.
“Introducing my new passion project,” she wrote on her lifestyle blog, Frenshe, which inspired the interior brand.
After renovating a house that was thought to be the “dream home” for herself and her husband, Michael French, Tisdale decided to sell the house, letting someone else enjoy the newly renovated home.
“Quarantine taught me there is no such thing as a “dream area” to live and our priorities shifted when I got pregnant,” Tisdale wrote. Having managed this renovation on top of two tv series and a pandemic it is time to let it go and have a new buyer enjoy what we did.”
She continued: This place will always hold a special place in my heart during such a crazy time! I’ve recently started an Instagram where I’ll share all my interior design jobs and knowledge I’ve accumulated over the years so give it a follow!”
by Furnishly | Jul 3, 2021 | Design Inspiration, Style
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Name: Diogo DeLima, Michael Hahn, and their dog Trigger
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Size: 2400 sf
Years lived in: 7 years; rented
Mellow Brazilian music is playing throughout Diogo and Michael’s New Orleans home on a sunny summer day. Open windows offer a view of live oaks, banana trees, and palms everywhere you turn. The verdant surroundings, along with house plants in every room, blur the lines between inside and out.
In a city where most people seek refuge from the heat inside of sealed, air-conditioned spaces, feeling a breeze inside a home—however slight—is a welcome change. Diogo, who was born in Brazil, explains that the windows were painted shut when he moved in seven years ago. Along with stripping the paint from the wood walls with a scraper and heat gun, he made all of the windows operable. “It would be a tragedy to have these beautiful windows without function,” he says. “To feel the heat brings you closer to nature; you’re accepting it.”
Before Diogo moved in, the 100-year-old Spanish Revival home looked like a frat house. There were couches everywhere, different colors on the walls in every room, and the yard was a wreck. “The owner didn’t love the house,” he says. “Nothing was taken care of. I saw potential, but the vibe just wasn’t right. There was contradictory energy between the things in the house and architecture.”
Diogo set out to give the neglected home the love and attention it deserves and seven years later, there’s an enchanting quality to the place. Friends come and go freely and have nicknamed the house “tropical seclusion”. “People here feel very at home and free,” Diogo says, “it reminds them of vacation places.” The lush, beautifully landscaped backyard is the perfect setting for parties. In fact, it was were Diogo and Michael first met in 2017. Michael attended a party with a mutual friend, then romance eventually led to marriage. “At least three other couples we are friends with have met right here in this yard,” Michael says with a smile. “The walls come down and people lose track of time when they are here,” he adds.
Michael, an engineer, is the perfect creative collaborator for Diogo, a choreographer and contemporary dancer. When they started living together, they decided that instead of buying furniture, they would invest in tools and build the things they needed. Together they have designed and built a platform bed, the frame for their sofa, and all of their outdoor furniture. They describe their method as focused, efficient, and fast. “Constantly working on a project is part of making a home. Once you’ve put a lot of hours into it,” Michael says, “it makes it feel like home. We’ve really enjoyed the process.”
The men describe their style as organic, eclectic, and masculine. The decor, they say, is a cohesive mix of their values. “To us, home is a sacred place. We pour good energy into it, design spaces intentionally, maintain it constantly, and fill it with friends, family and love—and, it works! The result is a space that gives back! It has a warm feeling that at once inspires and makes you feel welcome.”
Apartment Therapy Survey:
Inspiration: Places around the world that we have visited that have a feeling of home
Favorite Element: Natural light and plants. The Spanish Revival architecture features open spaces with lots of light. When plants are added, it creates a feeling of relaxation and of being outside while indoors.
Biggest Challenge: The biggest challenge for us was to honor the architecture of the home while making it unique and ours—we wanted our style to be elegant, yet relaxed—to create a place which is beautiful, but still feels like home and which feels immediately welcoming to everyone.
Proudest DIY: Hand-crafted furniture in our house: the platform couch, bed frame in master suite, and outdoor furniture.
Biggest Indulgence: PLANTS
Best Advice: Make your home your own—truly find the things that reflect who you are and which make you feel good—try new things and see how they fit! Let your home grow and change as you do.
What’s your best home secret? Brazilian hospitality goes a long way. Simple gestures like making coffee or offering fresh fruit help people feel welcome and at home.
Jacqueline Marque
Contributor
Jacqueline is a commercial and editorial photographer based in her beloved hometown of New Orleans. She spent 16 years working as a newspaper photojournalist in Newport, RI, before returning home. When she isn’t taking photos of her spirited 9-year-old, she’s busy beading her costume for next Mardi Gras.
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by Furnishly | Jun 24, 2021 | Design Inspiration, Style
A little over 8 years ago, before my daughter, Ihlen, was born, I had my first official design job as an interior design assistant for a New York City-based architect/interior designer. Like many other soon to be parents, I was trying to wrap my head around decorating a nursery and how my wife and I would adapt our own apartment to welcome our child. I know this can be overwhelming, but honestly, I found the challenge very exciting.
Children bring a lot of creative freedom to the table, and I was inspired to think out of the box and try something different rather than feel limited. For our tiny East Village apartment, I created a nursery nook with a hanging bassinet that grabbed the attention of Refinery 29 (which is similar to what I designed again for our son, Royal, in our most recent Brooklyn apartment below).
This clever spatial design received positive feedback from readers online, which turned into a steady stream of side work helping friends and even total strangers with their projects. While working full-time and taking on these jobs, my own interior voice began to blossom. When our daughter turned one, my wife Sara (who works in public relations and communications and now has her own firm, The Larson Project) and I decided together that it was time for me to step back from work and focus on being a stay-at-home dad. This was such a special time in my life and one I look back on so fondly.
As months passed, and Ihlen was getting bigger and ready for daycare, I began to look for full-time design work again. Balancing the cost of daycare and finding a job full-time was difficult; things were not lining up for me. Since I was essentially parenting from home, I took on more design work, fitting things in after hours and when I could. Nurseries became my first specialty, as I was the designer that knew first hand what it was like to live and be with kids. As we slowly increased Ihlen’s daycare days and hours, I began additional jobs with new clients.
At the time, I wasn’t thinking of starting my own design business but after an interview for a position with Thom Filica, he said something so simple but impactful to me. He told me I was already doing it: running my own design firm. This revelation took me by surprise; I went in hoping for a job as an assistant but left with a sense of pride, accomplishment, and validation. I am doing it, I thought to myself. I am doing my own design work.
I began to focus less on getting a job and more on creating a vision for what my design business could be. In many ways, I owe — and am thankful to — my daughter for helping to ignite the passion I had for design and giving me the opportunity to make this a career.
Fast forward to 2021, and my career is still intertwined with fatherhood, as I recently completed the design of my late father’s dream house in Minnesota, which we’ve dubbed the Larson Family lodge. We would dream and scheme about this place together, and after his passing, it became a legacy project I wanted to leave behind for my children while honoring my father.
In short, I never would have thought fatherhood would be so central to my path as a designer. Many — including other designers — see the two separate, but for me, fatherhood really gave me the inspiration, breath, and confidence to forge this creative career in interior design.
Gunnar Larson
Contributor
Gunnar Larson is a interior designer based in Brooklyn where he enjoys fathering his two children, Ihlen (8) and Royal (2) with his wife, Sara.
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