Getting to Know the Top: Nathan Thomas Exclusive

Loft Life, the newcomer to the world of shelter magazines, published an interview with this season’s winner of Top Design, Nathan Thomas. Read on!

From the start of this season’s Top Design, one designer stuck out as the obvious front-runner to us. With stints at Alexandra Champalimaud & Associates and Nathan Egan Interiors, New York-based designer Nathan Thomas displayed an approach to design that would enhance any loft. Following a well-deserved win on the Bravo series, he has now launched his own eponymous design firm, Nathan Thomas Studios.

We had the opportunity to ask this season’s Top Design winner a few questions about his artistic sensibility.

LoftLife: First things first: Season One’s finale was a loft challenge and you were tasked with a nondescript townhouse. Which kind of space do you prefer to work with?

Nathan Thomas: In comparing both finale spaces, the loft of Season One and the townhouse of Season Two, I would have to say that the loft speaks to me more in a designer’s vocabulary versus a townhouse. I find the architecture of cast iron or old warehouse with soaring windows to be full of personality and possibility.

The bones of a real loft space are historical, and conjure up ideas of modernity and sophistication. I tend to view architecture of the late 19th century and its prospects of re-purpose as so relevant today. Although I was very happy with outcome of my town home in the finale, I feel I only achieved that by channeling an idea of a more architectural spirit. It was a builder’s home, void of character and personality. This is the true test of a designer/decorator, however. The ability to look beyond what may be a dull and vacant space and transform that into something special and unique.

LL: Your artwork tends to be such a striking focal point. What draws you to a piece? When do you work it into the design process, at the beginning or the end?

NT: When decorating interior spaces, whether they be commercial, residential, private, or public, artwork plays such a crucial role in the outcome and total package. I have always been deeply connected to art and have never felt like a room should be designed around art. Rather, the art is the piece de la resistance, the bonus, the firework!

Read the rest here.

• Posted by Jennifer at 9:30 am
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Dwell Interview with Patrizia Moroso

There’s a fun interview with Moroso owner, Patrizia Moroso over at Dwell’s Blog. Patrizia is the brains behind this cutting edge Italian furniture company. The world’s most talented designers line up to work for them. She has a good eye for new talent, too. At last year’s Salone, Moroso premiered work from Patricia Urquiola, Ron Arad, and newcomers Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien.

Here’s the start of the interview:

Creative director of the storied Italian furniture manufacturer Moroso, Patrizia Moroso was in San Francisco on Thursday morning at the Dzine showroom to chat with the press about the history of her company—founded by her parents outside Milan in the 1950s—and what we can expect in the future.

A disarming, unpretentious woman, Moroso chattering about this Parisian showroom or that trip to India or how this is her first ever visit to San Francisco. Dressed in a colorful top, loose pants and flat shoes, with short burgundy hair and chunky glasses, she looked like any Italian mother and seemed at greater ease than the bubble skirted, pastel tied and perilously high heeled in attendance. We spoke after things quieted down and I found her pleasant, personable, and happy to chat.

To read the rest of the interview, scoot over to the Dwell blog here.

• Posted by Jennifer at 2:08 pm
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• Tagged: Furniture, Designers, Interviews

Color Expert, Sonu Mathew, Talks About Aura

Here’s the final chapter of the interview with Senior Manager of Color & Design at Benjamin Moore, Sonu Mathew. Today’s subject? Benjamin Moore’s new product, Aura.

Design Hole: What makes Aura special and why should customers be excited about it?

Sonu Mathew: To begin with, resin is the “glue” that binds the liquid together.  Benjamin Moore is distinctive in that it makes its own resin.  The secret to Aura’s technological advance is the all-waterborne colorant system which Benjamin Moore created – Aura, the paint, only becomes whole once the colorant is added.

Aura is quite simply the finest paint we’ve ever made- and considering we’re celebrating our 125th anniversary, that’s saying a great deal in our perspective.  Aura relies on a proprietary technology that our technology group developed over the course of three years.  In a way it’s like deciding you’re going to make the best cake the world’s ever seen, but you decide not only to make it from scratch, but to create a new combination of amazing ingredients to do so.

Our goals in developing Aura were to create a highly durable paint that can meet or even exceed federal regulations for volatile organic compound (VOC) compliance while being offered in unlimited colors. This is key because across the industry traditionally, if paint became environmentally responsible it was with some sacrifice.  We’ve developed a product that has become stronger through our technology while achieving our goals.

Design Hole: What were your goals with regard to Aura?

Sonu Mathew: We had several, such as durability. Our patented Color Lock Technology essentially allows color pigments to be “locked in” to the resin.  With our water based paint and water based colorant, the two work well together and the pigment is protected and so we end up with very usable features such as minimal color rub off and burnishing.

Essentially, you can brush up against it without worrying about color coming off the wall or leaving your mark on the wall. Durability also allows the surface to be washable and scrubbable. Also, since the color is locked in, you can touch up seamlessly after you’ve painted. The color will match perfectly.

Improved coverage was another. You’ll never use more than two coats, regardless of the color - even reds. And, if you need a second coat, the first will be dry in about an hour, so you can complete your project faster.

Design Hole: Low VOCs was another goal wasn’t it?

Sonu Mathew: Yes. Aura has low VOCs. We looked to the West Coast, as they adhere to the most stringent regulations on VOCs and we made sure that Aura met those regulations first. VOCs are naturally occurring in our environment at all times. They’re the “off gassing” from new furniture, a new car smell, carpets, etc. Basically, our effort to reduce VOCs is similar to the reason you wouldn’t want your children around when you are using a kitchen cleaner. Clean, fresh air is what we want to linger in our environment.

Design Hole: Typically, low VOC paints are limited less saturated colors. How is Aura different?

Sonu Mathew: Where other environmentally focused paints are limited in their color choice, Aura can be made in any of our 3500 colors. A little known fact is that VOCs are measured for a can of paint before it’s tinted or colored to the color of your choice.  Essentially, when you add colorant to it, traditionally, that colorant has it’s own VOCs that are now being added to and therefore increasing the total VOC content in that can.

In other words, you may have started out being green-focused, but end up with a can of paint that has more VOCs than you anticipated. With Aura, our colorants are entirely water based and have zero VOCs, which is why we’re able to say it’s available in any color without increasing the overall VOC content of the can.

Design Hole: Oil based products have such a beautiful, brushless look to them. But, due to their high VOCs, they’ll soon be a thing of the past. How does Aura compare to oil?

Sonu Mathew: No product can be an exact replica, but contractors who used Aura say it’s one of the closest alternatives on the market today.  Our various finishes from matte to semi gloss offer you the choice of luster and sheen.

Design Hole: What’s the best way to create a sense of depth to a painted surface? Can this be achieved without a special technique? In other words, does Aura have more depth than traditional latex?

Sonu Mathew: As you referenced, one way to create depth to any painted surface is to use special techniques (an entirely separate interview, indeed!).  With Aura, we created a new set of colorants all together- they are sophisticated and complex with a natural depth to them.  We also introduced a color collection called Affinity to really play up these properties in the technology.

Affinity is an amazing collection of 144 colors that are quite beautiful.  They’re what I like to call chameleon colors, because you can essentially pick any 3 of the 144 and they will (about 9 times out of 10) work together and the color formula is such that the colors shift and adapt slightly according to the colors you combine it with.  Is Wenge a plum or a chocolate?  Well, it depends on the context, so you always have a look that’s your own.

Aura has a quality about it that I’m not sure can be described in technical terms - it simply looks like it’s integrated into the wall itself and so offers a depth unlike anything I’ve seen in paint.

Design Hole: Does Aura require any special or extra prep work?

Sonu Mathew: Actually, Aura is a self-priming product.  For a minimal number of colors, we would recommend a partner primer product called Color Foundations.  However, by and large, Aura eliminates the need for priming.

Design Hole: Does Aura look different on the wall? For example, would an eggshell Aura finish reflect light differently than eggshell latex?

Sonu Mathew: Generally, paint will always appear differently on the wall than on a chip and depending on the sheen, you again have variations.  A couple of rules of thumb:
- A higher sheen will reflect more light off the surface and so will appear lighter than it’s lower sheen counterpart.

- When selecting a color for the interior, the color you choose will be influenced by your lighting situation and will appear slightly darker on the wall than your chip.  It helps to select an interior color against a white background.

- Alternatively, when selecting a color for the exterior, the color you choose will be influenced by natural daylight and will appear slightly lighter on the building/home than your chip.  It helps to select exterior colors against a black background.

- A trick to working well with Aura - don’t overwork or roll back into the coat that’s already drying.  Simply roll or brush once and let the paint do the rest.

Thanks Sonu for taking the time to answer all our questions over the last three days. Aura sounds amazing and I can’t wait to give it a try on my upcoming hallway project. You can read the first two posts to find out Sonu’s color forecast for 2009 and to learn about color palettes.

I’m wondering if anyone has tried Aura yet. If so, what was your experience? Send pictures!

• Posted by Jennifer at 12:48 pm
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• Tagged: Windows & Walls, Color, Interviews, Paint

Discussing Color Palettes With Sonu Mathew From Benjamin Moore

Last Friday, I ran the first in a three-part interview with the Senior Manager of Color & Design at Benjamin Moore, Sonu Mathew. We discussed the fine art of color forecasting, and the bold color palette they’re promoting for 2009.

Today, we’re talking about color palettes and the most popular color choices at Benjamin Moore. Here’s what Sonu had to say.

Color Palettes & Favorite Colors

Design Hole: Color palettes are a hot ticket these days. Creating them is the number one request I’m asked for in my Design Dilemmas, a regular feature on my blog. Do you have any thoughts on how this trend emerged?

Sonu Mathew: I can imagine how many people find your advice invaluable!  We’re all looking to make color our own and personalize it.  Anyone can have a red dining room, but when you pair it with an orange ceiling and copper accents, you’ve made it your own analogous scheme that will surprise your guests.  I think it has a lot to do with both self-expression and the fact that people see in fashion and auto design the power of color in context.  That same red dining room would feel entirely different if paired with pale blue table setting and camel colored upholstered chairs.  Our clients are having fun and looking to experiment to create the right “Mood” for their space.

Design Hole: What advice would you give a homeowner who wants to ensure their room colors work together? Is there a something you suggest they start with?

Sonu Mathew: Really, I always say, “Start with what you love.”  If there’s a painting, a vase, a quilt, a heritage piece such as a chest, look at the colors, textures, patterns, and finishes in that item for inspiration.  Draw from that as a starting point because at the end of the project, you have simply amplified something that you were passionate about to begin with!

Design Hole: My number one rule in decorating is to choose the paint last. If you had to create a rule, when it comes to choosing color, what would it be?

Sonu Mathew: When you select color, look at it against a primed surface (NOT against the existing color in the room) and in context with the other things that will go into that room & you’ll find the right color for you.

Design Hole: What are the best selling colors at Benjamin Moore?

Sonu Mathew: Actually our best sellers are many whites - we have 180 toned, tinted and off-whites - since so much white is used when you account for ceilings, trim and other architectural features:

The top five whites are:

Our perennial favorite collection is our 174 Historical Color Collection, which debuted in 1976 for the country’s bi-centennial and are an interpretation of the historic palettes found in historic houses under the auspices of the National Parks Service.

Our top colors start with:

A Final Question on Color Forecasting

Design Hole: Before we end today, I have a question about Color Pulse, your forecast directed to the trade. Specifically, it predicts colors 2 years into the future. What factors do you look at to create a long-term prediction?

Sonu Mathew: Color Pulse is a very special forecast that is directed exclusively to the industry because many professional projects and industry introductions require time to bring to market.  Our color and design selections in the publication revolve around year round research conducted by our North American Creative Design Team of Color & Design Professionals at Benjamin Moore.  We look at many of the factors I mentioned before in the US and abroad.

We literally attend fashion shows in France, design shows in Germany/England, or furniture shows in Italy, as well as paying attention to our own backyard and reading up on issues of the time. The influences are global and the result is local.  Our goal is to evaluate color and design introductions in global markets and anticipate what evolutions will come in the next two years.  We’ve enjoyed great success through Color Pulse over the last several years with designers coming back to purchase the upcoming forecasts.  Also, industry professionals- designers of interior design related products such as tile, carpet, laminates, etc. reference our forecast for their work.

Tomorrow Sonu and I discuss Aura - Benjamin Moore’s innovative new paint. Stay tuned!

• Posted by Jennifer at 2:59 pm
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• Tagged: Windows & Walls, Color, Interviews, Paint

Color Forecasting with Benjamin Moore

Sonu Mathew has a name that fits in perfectly with her position as Senior Manager of Color & Design at Benjamin Moore. Sonu is a Hindu word meaning Gold. What could be more perfect? Sonu was gracious enough to take time from her busy day to discuss a number of color-related design subjects with me.

We talked about color forecasting, an industry unto itself, and one that I find fascinating. We touched on creating color palettes and Benjamin Moore’s revolutionary new paint, Aura. I’ve divided our interview into three parts. The first topic is color forecasting, which poses the question: how do you know what colors will be hot two years down the road without using a Ouija board?

Benjamin Moore’s Sonu Mathew

Design Hole: You’re promoting really bright colors, like yellow and fuchsia. Why brights?

Sonu Mathew: We’re really promoting the idea of optimism in 2009 - It’s a year of transition in the economy and politics which will have an effect on design.  The expression of colors that embrace this transition in a positive way is what we’re excited about.

Design Hole: What areas of influence do you look at when forecasting. Does the economy play a large role? Fashion?

Sonu Mathew: When we look at trends, we look at socio-economic movements, fashion, technology, and political climates and how they all come together to create culture in society.  For example, the current down economy may influence the number of new colors a car manufacturer may be financially able to introduce in a given year.  This will likely mean fewer experimental colors and more basic neutrals.  If that’s the case, we can argue that self expression should not be lost, but reinvented in the home with a greater degree of vigor, personalization and customization.

Red is a traditional color for weddings in China. White rules the day in the West.

Each society has associations to color (i.e. red for weddings in China, white here) that you can use to stimulate a connection through color to represent what’s to come in that culture.

A more global color trend example is an entire color family like Green.  It is an easy color for the human eye to adapt to and it’s also a color that has become the representative for the ecological movement globally.  Going Green has become both figurative and literal.  Therefore, the Green Family has come to the forefront of design and has essentially become a neutral (you’ll find Wales Green in our 2009 collection to represent this).

Green works well as a neutral.

Also, we tend to see a rejuvenation of color in a cycle too.  What changes is the tone, value and intensity of a particular hue each time the color comes back. Lastly, sometimes technological advancements (like making synthetic processes) allow for us to discover a new color- think of mauve- and the newness of that color catches on in our culture.

Insights to the colors we’re looking at for 2009:

We find a new optimism in 2009- we are on the verge of new beginnings politically, socially and culturally speaking.  As we’re faced with changing times, we chose to embrace and experience it fully.  We express that through our color choices for 2009- they are a combination of bright colors like St. Elmo’s Fire, Peony, and Wales Green balanced by grounding colors like Ebony King, Dior Gray and Stone Brown.

Benjamin Moore’s forecast is drawn from paints in their existing wheel.This palette is designed to work together.

Yellow attracts many of us- it radiates warmth and energy.  Deciding on the right yellow can be challenging.  St. Elmo’s fire is both a great transitional color and its namesake is a weather phenomenon that’s representative of a light that leads the way in times of uncertainty.  It pairs beautifully with Dior Gray for a sophisticated effect.  We’ve been seeing fashion designers play with it on runways in unique combinations like gold, silver, pink, etc.  It’s the very subtle hint of green that is the key to St. Elmo’s compatibility with these colors.

Green is easy for they eye to process and so is deemed a calming color.  Because of environmental focus, it’s also representative of nature.  Green has been gaining speed over the last 5 years and is now basically a neutral.  It goes with any color.  Wales Green is a nice variation on the acidic greens we’ve seen in the past.  It’s relaxing and fun!

Peony is that representation of Fuchsia- punchy, exciting and can be treated as a color for an accent wall or an entire room filled with dramatic influence.  It’s a blue based red and colors in this family have been associated to luxury in the past.

Design Hole: What is the goal of promoting seasonally trendy colors while still keeping in mind that homeowners will only repaint once every 5-10 years?

Sonu Mathew: We all look for transition and refreshing ideas at different times or seasons in our own lives.  By offering edited selections of color, we keep our clients up to date on what’s happening in the exciting world of color & design (tying into home fashion and accessory collections that are introduced throughout the year) while finding new and fun ways to highlight just a few of our over 3500 colors.  Inspiration can strike us at anytime and we hope to help each individual find it through our work.

It’s also important to recognize the difference between a trend and a fad. Fads are a “flash in the pan”, an idea that’s over before it begins and that leaves someone with regret.  Trends and their purpose are to be evolutionary.  You’ll see a family of color that you can certainly live with for years.  As I mentioned earlier, tone, value, intensity may shift, but the colors we select are meant to be livable.

Lastly, we find where homeowners used to be on a longer cycle, about 4-6 years between repainting, they’re now repainting every 3-5 years on average and not necessarily repainting the entire home at one time.  Rather, we work on smaller projects more regularly now.

Design Hole: How much does Benjamin Moore take climate into account when predicting popular colors? For example, bright yellow is a bold choice. Will it play well in the frozen north as well as the sunny south?

Sonu Mathew: We consider lighting in environments when suggesting colors and recognize that every situation is different.  The context of color actually plays a large part in how any given color will live in any location.  For example, when looking at our yellow, St. Elmo’s Fire, we also offer accompanying colors.  There are the brights such as Peony and Wales Green for the environment that craves a bold combination of color and there are what I call grounding colors in the selection such as Ebony King, Dior Gray, and Stone Brown that can offer a very comforting and rooted influence in combination with that same yellow.  Also, as you reference, light, even artificial, is of extreme importance.  A poorly lit interior environment is often the culprit of dissatisfaction when it comes to our spaces.

Also, we are advocating our optimistic yellow as an accent color – if you are going to paint one wall next year, consider St. Elmo’s Fire.

Stay tuned for part two of our interview on Monday! In the meantime, what top three colors would be in your color forecast? Have you seen enough newscasters wearing purple ties? Is that a trend or a fad?

• Posted by Jennifer at 11:30 am
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• Tagged: Windows & Walls, Color, Interviews, Paint, trends