It was back in April, At the end of a day, Lost in some back streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the dark I was looking for an apartment to view. The Nest Magazine, a magazine for newly weds had sent me to meet the couple we were photographing and their apartment. Mariana Keyes and Glenn Tuma greeted me at the door. A bit frazzled from being misdirected on my IPhone, the place actually ended up being directly across the road from some friends! Isn't it always the way! One could say I was in need of a drink, and a drink I had!, Mariana and Glenn had prepared the sweetest cheese plate and a big glass of red wine and made me feel very at home.
Glenn who works for J Crew as a set designer and Mariana who works as an Art Director at Allure ended up knowing quite a few of the same people in the industry so it was nice to chat, they also knew being creative people what they liked and what they didn't, which does help! What I recognized first and foremost was that they liked red! They also did not like too many colors, The walls were gray. In essence their apartment was very sweet, but when it comes to photographing a place, sometimes you need to inject a boost of energy. Some of the space was on the darker side so I wanted to amp up some pattern and color without straying too much from their aesthetic. They had a wall in the living room that had one star burst mirror, for impact I added 2 more, bringing in a colored, patterned rug, I replaced their very nice gray one with more color (A gray room can photograph a bit drab even though quite lovely in real life) Color coding their books also helped and tidying up their media area with a vintage Paul McCobb cabinet that tied into some other Paul McCobb they owned. I also styled up their shelves with personal items so you could read a little more into the type of interests they have, For example Glenn has a great collection of vintage cameras that were on a shelf you could hardly see.
In the kitchen I installed window treatments in the way of bamboo blinds, We swapped out some of the chairs, rugs and artwork that belonged to Glenn and Mariana. I added pops of color with a red Kitchen Aid Mixer and Dansk vintage pots.
I won't lie it was a lot of work, My wonderful assistant Kaitlyn DuRoss and I packed and put back into place their apartment till 11.30pm, It was a long day but Glenn and Mariana were great sports and I think they were happy with the results as was I so it was all worth it! Thanks also to my other assistants Cory Brunwasser and Jeanne Lurvey for helping out!
The product boards you see here are examples of the products I suggested to them and the editors at the magazine to include, Many stockists helped us out like Design Within Reach, John Robshaw and Madeline Weinrib. The story was photographed by the very patient David A. Land, www.davidaland.com who did and amazing job.
