peterandlisa's Profile

I have to say that the DWR stores I've seen and previously patronized, and particularly the one located on Columbus at 77th Street in Manhattan, waste electricity so offensively that I've been "turned off" by them for over a year. My wife and I drove by the store on Columbus after midnight one evening and found every light in the house on, and the store window in full display. Maybe a little energy conservation would go toward reducing their overhead expenses, and make their customers feel a little differently about their brand positioning among other furniture retailers. I used to like DWR, but then they lost their luster for me, and the light thing really pissed me off.

The cool art deco photo you've posted advertising the Hedrich Blessing show is from 1930 and is a photo of one of the original offices within the Palmolive BUilding on North Michigan Avenue www.palmolivebuilding.com

eeek and Daily Nuance have made some really excellent comments - thanks. We were thinking of replacing the dining room table with a saarinen oval table. That might look a little less boxy. I'm not sure it works to put the dining room table on the opposite wall from where it currently sits - would visually block the step down into the room, no? Centerint the table lengthwise on that column may work. We may need a new table. But we love those chairs - from Dune in green ultrasuede - not sure if they'd look ok with saarinen. How deep do you think we would need to go on the built-ins along the gallery wall? Could the depth vary? What about an extension of the kitchen with a dry-bar and wine cooler? worry about losing that throughness from the entry all the way to the kitchen window.

Thanks for the comments so far! I really like the idea of moving the dining room table (George Nelson Gate-Leg) perpendicular to the wall. The park cannot be seen from the middle of the room, and so we have thought about buying the Wells 101" sofa from R&B (http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/collection.do?method=get&id=4197478&cat=91552821) and placing it perpendicular to the window against the same wall as the table. Then, from the couch, we could see the park, and the TV would be mounted on the wall directly accross from teh sofa. We could then place a couple of chairs facing the window and a coffee table. Also maybe a stool or two?

Perhaps one of our problems is that low, black chinese chest under where the TV would be mounted. It's 18" deep, and perhaps we could use that space for chairs under the TV.

We were also thinking about a small arm chair and ottomon in the gallery under the mirror. This is where we currently place hte Eames Management Chair when not in use at the desk. But I'd like this nook to be more useable instead of just a space to walk through.

Any lighting thoughts? We have such high ceilings that we're having trouble getting our arms around this. All recessed or some sort of dropped fixture in the LR? Rules of thumb for small recessed low-voltage fixtures? Spacing, etc.?

Thanks, Everyone - this is our first post here, and we really appreciate the feedback.