The annals of home design brim with descriptions of finding the consummate object to start or complete a room: the Empire console or Amish chair, the crystal chandelier or Noguchi table, discovered in some cosmic fluke of fate but pivotal to a particular design scheme.
So imagine actor-cum-designer Phil Johnson barreling down Lincoln Avenue in his car, screeching to a whiplash-inducing halt before an antiques store. He has spied a pair of objects he’s coveted for years. He had given up hope of ever finding them for sale. He buys them, and they inspire a whole, huge, complicated interior design project.
They are enormous plaster curlicue ex-Christmas display decorations from a major Chicago department store.
“Yes, that was a real red-letter day for us,” says Seth Krosner, a trauma surgeon and Johnson’s housemate, who also had admired the baroque props over the course of several holiday seasons, and even inquired about their purchase, to the apparent incredulity of the store’s retail staff.
But it just goes to show that good things come to those who wait. Now the ornaments flank a fireplace in Johnson and Krosner’s Wicker Park home, setting the tone for a visual experience as unique as it is theatrical and witty. Two years of Johnson’s hand-painting every wall, ferreting through junk stores and flea markets, draping fabric and juxtaposing wacky geegaws have resulted in an interior whose style leans more to eccentric fantasy than to traditional. One thing it’s not is subtle.
“When I first saw the house, I thought it was the most boring interior in the universe, with lots of space, lots of rooms, but no architectural details and really low, dorky ceilings,” says Johnson, whose stints on Broadway and touring with shows like “Les Miserables,” “Miss Saigon” and “Sunset Boulevard” kept him from decorating for months at a time. “It was like a 1950s tract house, with no clues about how or where to begin decorating. So I started with the main room and decided to play up the plastic-covered furniture feeling of ‘Grandma’s living room,’ where all the fancy objects were traditionally displayed.”
If the chartreuse and purple color scheme, tufted curvilinear furnishings and swagged metal accessories seem more reminiscent of “I Dream of Jeannie” than of Grandma’s house, it could have to do with the rich stew of pop-cultural images, materials and techniques appropriated by baby-boomer Johnson to create his unconventional style, which Krosner describes as “a parody of luxury.” Poring through shelter magazines and “how-to” books, wandering around at dawn with paint chips and fabric samples, scrutinizing each room to formulate its individual personality, the self-trained decorator emmersed himself in such creative puzzles as how to paint the walls to appear light but with depth (“water down the paint so it’s less dense”), and tricks for making the ceilings seem higher (“keep all the furniture low to the ground”).
“Color is really what the house is about,” says Johnson, although most visitors probably figure that out from the curb, thanks to the raging canary yellow exterior. Past the startling contrasts of the living room there’s the saturated blue and metallic gold of the dining room, which Johnson painted in brushy, expressionistic strokes.
Lilac, black and white with gilded accents mix it up in the powder room, and a scarlet kitchen, recalling Deco diners, anchors the far end of the house. (“That’s the only room where I was allowed any input since it’s essentially my turf,” says the kosher-keeping Krosner, an amateur chef whose collection of old-time pitchers, appliances and shakers line the kitchen walls.)
While every room is unquestionably bold and theatrical, each has an ambience different from the others. In the bedroom, with its ethereal blue walls and dark wood furniture, relaxation and contemplation take precedence over sizzling color contrasts, and framed prints of 20th Century masterpieces lend the room a certain solemnity. A number of thrift-store lamps-one of Johnson’s deep passions-add extra personality.
“I have never bought a new lamp in my life-you can find fantastic ones for 20 bucks all over town and just add funky new shades,” says Johnson.
Like a vaudeville show that keeps trotting out new acts, this is one home that offers entertainment in every view.
“The exuberance and color here make me smile the moment I get home,” says the globe-trotting actor, who plans eventually to make a career switch from theater to design. “It’s a repository for objects I love from junk stores across the planet, all smashed together by twisted concepts.”
Move over, Elsie de Wolfe!
———-
Resources: The Elements of Style. GOING FOR BAROQUE.
Pp. 40-43: Interior design and all paint treatments-Phil Johnson; flower arrangements-Mary Ann Johnson.
Pg. 40: Living room vignette: Curlicues and gold-tufted chairs from Gallery Bernard; lamp bases from Salvation Army with custom-designed shades from Benko Lamps; white “rug” of fake fur-Minnesota Fabrics.
Staircase vignette: Masks from Mexico, all furniture and accessories-personal collection.
Pp. 40-41: Dining room: Table-personal collection, reconstituted and stained by Phil Johnson; chairs-personal collection; wall sconce-Salvage One, refinished by Seth Krosner and rewired by A Lamp and Fixture; lithograph-personal collection.
Pg. 42: Living room vignette: White ottoman, couch and chandelier-personal collection; curved metal draped accents-Phil Johnson; sheer drapes-Phil Johnson with fabric from Vogue Fabrics; purple fabric on wall-Fishman’s Fabrics; coffee table top-The Ark Thrift Shop with legs bought from Handy Andy; miscellaneous objects-personal collection; white amoeba frame on wall-The Ark Thrift Shop.
Kitchen: Mural-Phil Johnson; white sofa-personal collection; typewriter table-Salvation Army; white lamp-Gary Marks Gallery with shade from Benko Lamps; accessories-personal collection
Pg.43: Bedroom: Lamp by bed-Modern Times; end table-Salvation Army.
HOW TO GET THE LOOK
– Get playful with color. Try out the oddest contrasts and most saturated hues you can imagine. Paint a sample wall-you can always paint over it.
– Shop at thrift stores, flea markets, house sales-anywhere that the unusual and nonretail turns up, and look for uncommon silhouettes, odd proportions, wacky colors.
– Collect quirky groups of accent objects such as different kinds of pillows, 1950s ceramics or glass, small gold mirrors or frames.
– Juxtapose scale in unusual ways, like a small stool next t- an oversize sofa or a huge picture with a tiny one. Create unexpected visual moments.
– Remake furniture and accessories at will. Mix and match a contemporary table top with vintage legs or put a fringed shade on a sleek new lamp.
