Many designers crawl out on the cutting edge of eclecticism and dangle there precariously. Mel Crum, Marshall Field’s senior store designer, is comfortable out there; in fact, he has made it home, quite literally, in Marshall Field’s Trend House 1995, which opened Friday on the 8th floor of the State Street store.
With a theme of “The Art of Living, International Style,” Crum has designed a Trend House that shakes up the senses and pleases the eye with constant, fresh surprises.
With a devotion to detail and successful risk-taking with color, he has created a “pretend” living space that vibrates with a centuries-wide range of eclectic styles, ideas and artwork which he has dovetailed masterfully.
In creating the interior of a simulated Lincoln Park townhouse, Crum begins with a floor plan based on the cross-“originally the idea of Palladio,” he says, referring to the 16th Century classical Italian architect.
The foyer in the center of this designer showcase forms the short arm of the cross. Standing at either end of the long, vertical part of the cross, the visitor can look through doorways in either direction at a kind of frozen kaleidoscope of overlapping colors from one end of the house to the other. It gives a lovely effect of a frame-within-a-frame-within-a-frame.
The townhouse belongs to a fictional young Chicago couple in their 30s, both successful professionals whose top priority is a newborn daughter. They entertain a lot and want a showcase for their international collection of modern and vintage furnishings and art. They’ve traveled, their taste is sophisticated and “they are hip enough to have `hired’ me,” Crum jokes.
“They have a very young approach to furniture,” he adds. “There will be some very retro effects in here.”
So many details, so little time
The first Trend House opened in 1936. Field’s Trend Houses of late have been showcases for designers to transform space in the State Street store into the artfully designed homes of fictional Chicagoans.
It may take more than one trip to this year’s Trend House to appreciate all the detail, but here are a few highlights:
The family meeting room, in deep charcoal grays and blacks, has an area for computer programming along with two huge, acid-washed, stainless steel and mahogany wood-trimmed Brueton cabinets. One will house four television screens and the other will house stereo equipment, Crum says.
A concrete fireplace crackles below a shelf on one wall, which will display ethnic photos and Frank Lloyd Wright house models made of wood block.
Be sure to notice the holders for curtains in this room. They are made in California of wrought iron and hold fabric that is casually but dramatically thrown over them. It is the same fabric as on the light gray sectional sofa but stitched in a diamond pattern to match the pattern on the walls.
Crum points out that a unifying theme in this eclectic house is a repetition of squares-in the windows, on the floors and in the family meeting room wallpaper, drapery and sofa fabrics.
An artful welcome
The foyer is a deep charcoal-green color that has been lacquered over with black and then combed both ways. “It is almost as if someone wove it. It has the feeling of basket weaving or snakeskin,” Crum says.
Two Baker Russian Collection commodes with a Biedermeier look in a special bleached finish stand in tandem some 6 feet apart on the marble floor. Atop them are large amber glass urns filled with paperwhites.
Sitting next to them will be tiny shield-back chairs with horsehide miniskirts revealing the legs. Three large Picasso-like drawings in brilliant pastels by Illinois artist George Colin enhance the walls and announce to visitors that the residents have definite taste in art.
At the other end of the short arm of the cross, beyond the foyer, is the dining room. Dramatically underfoot is a Lamontage rug of felt mosaic in what looks like an updated classic Roman design. Over it sits a 66-inch, glass-top table on a Brueton acid-washed, stainless steel base with six 6-inch disks frosted into the top. Upon them stands trailing yellow orchids in 18-inch-tall bubble vases that resemble test-tubes. At either end of this small room stand two chests by Parrish Hadley for Baker Furniture with faux terrazzo tops.
Providing a conversation piece for dinner is the Indian Picchwa painting on cloth, an offering to the deities hanging on the back wall and puddling to the floor.
Around the table are six chairs, three French Provincial Interior Crafts white leather chairs and three Brueton “Brno” chairs in chartreuse leather.
“I wanted to create a little attention,” says Crum about the next room, the most sophisticated in the house, in which he takes the most risks-and pulls them off. The walls are painted lipstick red with turquoise-painted beams in the ceiling. The massive square fireplace is covered in tiny red glass tiles from California, with a turquoise line of trim running through it, like an arrow aimed through a valentine heart.
“The whole concept in this room is a 17th Century French sitting room brought into the present,” Crum says. The accents here will be black and white cheetah horsehide pillows and Donghia chairs with checked-design wooden backs and harlequin seats of red and turquoise leather.
Other pieces of furniture are a series of Brueton red-lacquered cylinders, “like cigarette tables;” a Larry Lazlo ottoman in the shape of a harlequin hat in red leather; three Deco lounge chairs from Cerna, inspired by the Paris of the ’30s; and red sofas by Parrish Hadley for Baker Furniture.
Hovering over all is a stunning global light fixture by Diva of California.
The room’s diverse artwork includes a watercolor of harlequin men on horseback, a watercolor by Lisa Englander and a series of ceramic teapots by Eric Jensen displayed on a series of red quarter spheres jutting from the walls.
Unlined red chintz drapes are tied onto wrought-iron poles over two windows and three portieres.
All is underscored by a floor of 12-inch black and white squares with yellow faux marble insets.
Toned down a bit
In contrast to the excitement of the living room, the master bedroom is done in a soothing all-white decor including white lacquered grass-cloth walls. The queen-size bed is dressed in white linen and embellished with pillows. The lady of the house, who is probably a book editor and reads a lot, has a sophisticated white wooden dressing table with silver leaf accents.
An 84-by-96-inch, arrow-motif rug in shades of pale celadon, gold and orange, was designed by Crum for the bedroom.
Two frosted glass panels lead the way from the bedroom to the master bathroom, which features a black Kohler birthday tub on chrome legs surrounded by white terry drapery and a stainless steel conical sink. Great white diamonds of faux marble with black trim on the floor again resonate on the square theme.
Beyond the bath, the nursery walls are lined with a series of cotton panels in preprinted fabric by Osborne & Little of London, bound with 3-inch bias border out of the same fabric in colors of green, pink, yellow and blue. Based on circus flags, the panels are put on the wall with grommets.
Along with an I.D. Kids series of modular furniture and changing table, the focal piece of furniture in this room is a crib in rolled steel by Kliener in the manner of Bentwood, Crum says.
———-
The Trend House is open to the public through January during store hours: 9:45 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9:45 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday). All merchandise in it is available through Marshall Field’s.
