Table of contents for July/August 2021 in DesignSTL

IF YOU, LIKE ME, spent your fair share of waking hours last year in the kitchen-preparing meals, sanitizing counters, unloading the dishwasher only to fill it back up again a few hours later-you’ve undoubtedly grown to appreciate the essential role of a well-designed kitchen in your life. Maybe you’ve taken stock of what really works for you. A large single-bowl basin? That last-minute beverage fridge splurge, transformed into a catch-all for grocery shopping overflow? On the other hand, maybe all that time in the kitchen-shuttling from refrigerator to stove to sink-made you question the wisdom of past design choices, prompting you to update your space or embark on a whole kitchen renovation. Whatever your kitchen story may be, inspiration is here. In this issue, we take you behind the scenes…

MULTI-USE AREA The Project: A client wished to transform a closet measuring about 160 square feet into a space that could pull triple duty as a laundry room, mudroom, and drop zone. The Solution: To deliver results on multiple fronts, Candice Kentch, a designer with the Closet Factory, added a farmhouse sink, rolling sorting bins for laundry, and ample countertop space for folding clothes and sorting mail. A rolling library ladder provides access to the top cabinets. Kentch had the soffit removed and replaced with cabinets. The washer and dryer, plus a clothesline, were placed on the opposite wall. STEAMER & IRON STORAGE The Project: Kentch begins each project in the same way: by asking clients to think about their daily habits and what might make their routine easier. A…

Last summer, Abbey Eilermann added a composite deck and a stone paver patio to the backyard of her dream home on The Hill. This summer, she was looking for a step up from the kiddie pool she’d been using when a resurgence in popularity of stock tank swimming pools caught her attention. As she so often does, Eilermann dug deep, gained inspiration from bloggers and tapped into the vibe of her own pink-and-white-striped patio umbrella. When a friend mentioned that a nearby town’s Tractor Supply store carried the tanks, Eilermann thought about it for a day before taking the plunge. Once she got the tank home, she brushed four coats of primer onto the galvanized steel, taped off 10-inch-wide sections, and painted the stripes pink. She ordered a pool filter…

Adorned with lush greenery, wooden furniture, and lots of pastels, The Social Goods Marketplace is a welcome addition to the Shaw Neighborhood Historic District. Four months after owner Morgan Noll launched the shop’s online platform, in December 2020, The Social Goods Marketplace opened the doors of its brick-and-mortar in April. The store, billed as a “consciously curated home, body, and lifestyle shop,” offers ethically sourced and sustainable products. Many of its offerings, including the popular Butter Love body butter and Forai jewelry, are made in St. Louis. From bath and skincare products to coffee, chocolates, and home décor, the stock invites shoppers to care for themselves and the environment. “What ties everything together is intentionality and awareness,” says Noll. “It all starts with building a healthy relationship with yourself and…

WHEN STEVE DREYER used to exercise at a local fitness facility, he didn’t always have the time to spend 30 minutes away from work and home to sit in the sauna, even though he’d always enjoyed it. But when the pandemic hit and gyms closed their doors, he considered the benefits of having a sauna at home. During last year’s stay-at-home orders, Dreyer moved his workouts to the basement of his Kirkwood residence, and in November he upgraded his home gym with a sauna. “If I get up a little bit earlier, it’s really not going to cut into anybody’s schedule,” says Dreyer, reporting that he’s in the sauna by 5 a.m. on most workdays. “If I don’t use it for a day, I feel like I’ve missed out on…

what % of US adults say they read magazines in the last 6 months? 91% This includes 95% of those under 35 and 95% of those under 25. (MRI-Simmons, Fall 2019) when advertisers were asked which medium offers the highest ROAS, which was the highest overall? MAGAZINES. THE MAGAZINE ROAS OF $6.51 WAS DOUBLE THAT OF THE TV ROAS OF $3.23, AND MORE THAN DOUBLE OF THE DIGITAL ROAS OF $2.43. (NCSolutions 2005-Q12019) HOW MANY ADULTS AGES 18+ READ MAGAZINES? 228.7 MILLION THAT’S AN INCREASE OF 18 MILLION SINCE 2012. (MRI-Simmons, Fall 2012–2019) THE PRINT MAGAZINE INDUSTRY IS GROWING 139 new print magazine brands with a frequency of quarterly or greater were introduced in 2019 (Samir “Mr. Magazine” ™ Husani Monitor 2020) MAGAZINES REACH PREMIUM AUDIENCES IN HIGH-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS* At…

Artist Quinn Antonio Briceno’s most recent painting, La Cortadora de Cafe, depicts a scene from ordinary life in the mountains of Nicaragua. The artist captures a young woman, basket in hand, harvesting coffee beans for sale. In his work, Briceno employs a mix of materials, such as “Made in the USA” stickers that form the underlayer of the subject’s pale-blue jacket and the expired Missouri Lottery tickets that are shaped into a pink bandana covering her dark hair. Like much of the 28-year-old’s artwork, the painting is steeped in personal experience. It underscores the dichotomy of growing up between two cultures, which Briceno did as the American-born son of a Nicaraguan father and Irish-American mother. “La Cortadora de Cafe reflects the duality of my heritage both through imagery and materials,”…

MOLLY AND CHRIS AYALA did not clinch the contract on their ranch house in Ballwin last January by making the highest bid. One offer exceeded theirs. Rather, they closed the deal by writing a letter. In that letter they described to the sellers their difficult living arrangement: a third-floor walk-up apartment. The problem was that Molly had recently been given the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. Chris could carry her piggyback up and down the stairs for the time being, but that wasn’t sustainable. The Ballwin ranch made more sense. When they toured it, Molly found it easy to navigate in her wheelchair. They noticed that the sellers had artwork of an elephant and a giraffe—the Ayalas’ favorite animals. The couple also owned a dog, and the Ayalas planned to get…

Flesh Bathroom With Yellow Light painting on canvas with mixed-media materials ARTIST: Jim Dine / CURATOR: Hannah Klemm, associate curator of modern and contemporary art “Jim Dine was associated with the Pop Art movement in the 1960s and is known for merging painting and sculpture to mimic scenes of everyday life,” says Klemm. “Here, he is referencing a banal everyday bathroom, possibly his own suburban Cincinnati home, by adding real objects to the surface of this canvas. Dine often used the bathroom as a subject for his works, bringing both an ordinary and private space into high art. The fixtures in the work were specific to Dine’s time and reference ordinary America of the ’50s and early ’60s. In particular, the yellow toilet paper would have been a very recognizable…

Breakfast rooms, those cozy casual dining spaces within or adjacent to the kitchen, are not only functional but also allow for some design daring that isn’t as easy to pull off in larger, more formal areas of the home. Typically reserved for the family, the breakfast room is a great place to inject fun and personality. But, because it’s an extension of the kitchen, an aesthetic link should exist between the two spaces even as the breakfast room is allowed to show off its own identity. “I like to be creative in the connection I make between both spaces, which can mean selecting furniture and materials that are complementary but not having to match the kitchen,” says interior designer Brett Clark of Savvy Design Group. “It’s not your formal dining…

We could write a whole piece just about Bo Brown’s music career: How, as a young man, Brown strummed guitar in a band at Silver Dollar City, and then played for several years with the Undergrass Boys, a progressive bluegrass band that opened for the likes of Emmylou Harris. Or how, more recently, he performed on the soundtrack to the Oscar-winning film Winter’s Bone. But these days, Brown is focused more on sharing a lifetime of wisdom gleaned from the Ozark woods. A lifelong hiker, Brown moved into a log cabin on 15 forested acres in the mid-’80s. He got a gig doing field observations for biologists at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (he observed the effect of cicada emergence on birds). He still does such contract work, but…