Posted on 08/10/2002 4:28:21 AM PDT by 2Trievers
Former Tyco chief Dennis Kozlowski’s $6,000 gold-and-burgundy floral shower curtain may sound over the top for many of us, but New Hampshire interior designers say spending on furnishings is relative. If you are Dennis Kozlowski buying an $18 million duplex in New York City, or pop singer Justin Timberlake of ‘N’ Sync buying an $8 million home in the Los Angeles area, a Manchester interior designer said it’s reasonable to expect to spend a bundle to decorate. According to a Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, Kozlowski spent more than $11 million on antiques, art and other fancy furnishings (including the shower curtain) to decorate his $18 million Fifth Avenue duplex in Manhattan. Cindy McLaughlin, owner of Upstairs Downstairs, said when people spend half a million to a million and a half dollars for a house in this area, they are going to then spend anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of the purchase price to decorate the home. “The more value the home or building has, the percent goes up,” she said. The Los Angeles Times didn’t have any information on how much the 21-year-old Timberlake may be planning to spend on his new digs, but Kozlowski reportedly spent more than $11 million on decorating the duplex, including art, antiques and the infamous $6,000 shower curtain. McLaughlin said she hasn’t had a client ask for a $6,000 shower curtain, but, depending on the fabric and trimming, a shower curtain could easily reach $1,000. Fringe alone can cost anywhere from $50 to $500 a yard, she said. The cost isn’t just the fabric, or the silk bullion fringe, it’s also the design work and the construction of the curtain or other item. It’s the handmade, one-of-a-kind aspect that often carries a price tag that is breathtaking for many of us. You can buy a “throwaway” couch or sofa for under $1,000 in a furniture store and have what everybody else has, she said. Depending on use, it may last as little as five years. Or, you can buy a sofa with a hardwood frame, dovetailed joints, handtied springs, and down filled pillows that cost $200 a piece. Add 22 to 24 yards of fabric, at $100 to $200 a yard, or more, and you soon have a piece of furniture approaching the price of a subcompact car. It may also be the last sofa you’ll need to buy, although, of course, you’ll want to have it re-covered when you move or have the house re-decorated. Rye designer Lee Perrault said: “I could see somebody spending $1,500 on a shower curtain.” Anything that’s handmade is going to cost more, much more. Perrault said a handmade couch and chair could easily cost $15,000. That’s for newly made items. Antiques can be even most costly. Perrault’s firm, Via Design, specializes in commissioned artwork or a solution of art that may involve fiber or metal. “That can run into the thousands of dollars,” she said. Despite the downturn in the market, and downsizing of many companies, she said people are still snapping up pricey properties in the Seacoast. “People are justifying investing in property,” she said. And they are still wanting to decorate those properties in style. Perrault said her personal goal is environmental awareness and balance and she tries to bring beauty to her clients while creating a balance and people who have significant amounts of money are ready to spend it to have her achieve those goals. Many of us never see the truly expensive items that are in showrooms only open to designers and decorators. Martin’s House of Cloth in Manchester and the Exeter Handkerchief Company carry a broad price range of drapery and upholstery and slipcover materials and trimmings, but they said you’ll have to work through a decorator to get that $500-a-yard fringe. “A designer or a decorator knows where the material is,” said McLaughlin. “It has a lot to do with access.” That $6,000 shower curtain may have been a small part of the cost of that Kozlowski bathroom, or another designer bathroom, she said. “You can easily buy a faucet that could run a thousand, or two thousand dollars,” she said. And those faucets could come straight out of the wall. “That’s pretty hot right now,” she said. Instead of wallpaper or fabric on the walls, a faux finish could be applied, painstakingly, by hand. There could be an oriental rug instead of a bathroom rug. The basins could be blown glass, or hand decorated china. There would likely be a tub with whirlpool jets and the separate shower would have multiple shower heads and steam capability. Floors and counters would be natural materials— woods, marble, coral, soapstone— and instead of cabinets, there would be furniture pieces for storage. Naturally, the lighting wouldn’t be standard bathroom lighting. It could be a fixture equally at home in a dining room. And everything would coordinate and match, from the flush handle on the toilet to the furniture knobs to the door hinges. And the final price? “The sky’s the limit,” she said. “Remember, it’s a room everybody sees.”
Oh, I get it now ... it's a bay for a car wash!
Although it is common to put a tireless pickup on blocks in your yard, one should use nice looking concrete blocks, not broken, messy ones. In fact, ones painted pale pink are best and do match the plastic flamingos quiet well.
And, if you are going to sit on the front porch and toss empty beer cans at the aforementioned pickup and/or the SEE ROCK CITY birdhouse pole, you should wear at least an undershirt. Sitting there topless, unless you are a female under 250 pounds, is just not couth.
And why does anyone need to hear what an interior decorator has to say about a $6,000 shower curtain? We all know the value of a buck well enough to understand the completely frivolous nature of such an expenditure.
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