About Me

My photo
I have 20+ years experience in Home Furnishings and Interior Design, specializing in Kitchen and Bath Design since '01. I work for Bilotta Kitchens in the A&D Building on East 58th Street in the Mid-town Manhattan. I have a passion for learning and love the opportunity to collaberate on projects of all sizes. My strengths in the field begin with my design background, use of color and texture to bring interest to a room, spatial relationships, organizational skills, innovation, decisiveness, and planning. I have had the thrilling experience of helping hundreds...?maybe thousands of people with their projects, and what I love is it never gets boring, and no two are ever the same. Thanks for reading.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Designing My Year--2011


Calcutta Gold Sofa courtesy of Stone Master Craftsman
Ilia De Ploti of New York Stone


 2011 was a great year in kitchens in many ways, I had the opportunity to design using some of the most fun creative materials from Brooks Verdicrete to Ceasarstone Concetto, from Stainless Steel Irpinia cabinets in an earthy brick Chelsea loft  to a serene sophisticated uptown penthouse Rutt Kitchen, with clients who really cared about the aesthetic result, and with a fellow staff that is fun to be with, professional, clean and responsive. My clients affirm this to me daily in emails, phone calls, and referrals.

When someone comes in to do their dream kitchen and they have the checkbook to back it up, you know  the raw potential to be great, after all in New York City we are fortunate to be dazzled by the newest, best, latest and the greatest, presented in such a way we want to have it all. For a good designer this has the potential to be a playground of epic proportions. This was my year for such fun and good hard work. I found myself bouncing between Park Avenue in the 80's, Manhattan's Gold Coast, and Brownstone renovations in Cobble Hill and the Promenade areas in Brooklyn, where my own parents started their life together 50 years ago this year.

With so much going on around us each day of the bustling year,  it feels good to look back at times and take notice of things and people that made us smile or jobs that gave us satisfaction or others who shared their beautiful work to inspire us. It may have been a needed laugh, a sunset captured,  a job well done, a hug, or simply thoughts of the kids at home growing smarter and more independant each day but still not too grown up to goof around, but all in all 2011 was a year of personal and professional growth and "taking New York".

The job I do wouldn't be possible without so many people who make my days bright and help me get my  designs off paper and into the home. Here is a glimpse of 2011 at MCK+B and at home.


Cheers to Meryl Dourmashkin, the finest, brightest most organized and thorough project manager
I have ever worked with, who can communicate volumes in a two
word email, she gets it done!





Eamon, Malachy, and Giovanny who run the cleanest
 jobsites I have ever seen for
MCK+B where we call this "under construction"

Kitchen Designed for West 20th Street, NYC project run by
Marthe Rowen AIA of Virginia. Celophane still
on the steel cabinets almost ready to unveil. Installation
By Manhattan Center for Kitchen + Bath.



Steve Naphtali of Kitchen Expressions and fellow MCK+B
designer Hany Gerges Steve talks me through it and Hany is
never to busy to answer a question or weigh in an opinion.





The girls in my life who constantly amaze me,
growing by leaps and bounds more beautiful every day.
Thanks for keeping me young at heart xoxo.
 



This stunning little bathroom will be the first page in my book
"101 Uses for Semi-Precious Stone"

2011 Saw the opening of the World Trade Center Memorial and the
Freedom Tower climbs to a height where it is dominating skyline of lower Manhattan.
Photo by Laura Candler

Kendall DeLisa and Clare Hernon taking in "Occupy Wall Street"
with Laura Candler on a warm November day.




With Sky Views of all of lower Manhattan and
Brooklyn from the 30th floor, this kitchen
and client will be a lasting  favorite.





Eric Williams, the man who photo-chronicles every family
outing I can't make it to, it's as close to being there
as a working mom could get. Thank you!
 

People watching in NYC, never dull, is it part panda,
 not really but it was almost 100 degrees with not a breath of air,
and they were big and wooley.


A quiet simple view of a kitchen that is a perfect fit in every way, can you find the laundry room?
You are looking right at it.

And the sun goes down on another year, I am looking forward to the fun and excitement of 2012.
 Photo by Eric Williams
Special thanks to Andie Day, Fran Asaro, Allan Linder, Sol Kassorla, Leah Primamore Pavlovich, Ahuva Ginden, Jamie Goldberg, Eric and our girls, Laura Fancy Pants Candler, Paul and Lena, Paula Cecere, General Electric, Monogram, NJ Transit, Trader Joe's, Blogger19 and my mom.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you Aston! Wishing you a happy & successful 2012!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's appropriate time to make some plans for the future and it is time to be happy. I've read this post and if I could I want to suggest you few interesting things or advice. Perhaps you can write next articles referring to this article. I want to read even more things about it!
    small kitchen designs

    ReplyDelete