LET THE FUN BEGIN

It was very important to us that when you walked into what would soon be the showroom, you would feel like you had entered a nirvana, an unexpected surprise. I wanted an extreme juxtaposition from the exterior to inside.

Built in several stages from the early 1900s into the 1920s the outside of this building once was adorned with elaborate art deco features including huge arches and decorative spires that are sadly long gone. While the urban appeal of a century old building that has seen it's prime is expected in most warehouse districts, it isn't always the most welcoming place to gather and shop. As mere tenants, most of what a visionary like myself can see for the revitalization of the massive exterior of the building is out of our control. However, the humble 4 walls that we do pay the rent on, are destined to fall victim to the imagination of crazy bald guy.

Answering to the calling in my mind that since we were diving head first into building industrial style black iron pipe and wood lamps, we started to envision a space filled with galvanized metal, old wood, and due to the fact that the interior walls were drywall over cement blocks, I would be forced to shop some faux brick alternatives. All of this to resurrect or in fact create a warehouse feel inside, well a warehouse that lacked all movie set appeal.

Then a light bulb went off (pun intended). What was I thinking, I didn't want our lamps to blend into the walls, I want them to pop and stand out against their background.

This is where I am going to provide a little more background as to who I am and why in Heavens name, I thought I could be a lamp designer. For the majority of my adult life I was involved in many aspects of the crazy world of community theatre life. As with many people who are bitten by that bug, I acted in, directed plays and musicals and served on many committees and held various offices on several Boards of Directors. My real passion while spending these decades in the theatre was scenic design, set dressing and prop building. I have always been an extremely visual person all my life which I assume was instilled in me by my grandfathers artistic talents and his love of art. I was also, I've been told, inclined to have a talent when it came to various mediums, a master of none though by any means.

So I do a complete 180. I return in my mind to a play I had designed the set for a few years ago. The story was about a young woman who was an artist and a dreamer. Her fantasies often took her to places that could never be imagined. She filled her small apartment with splashes of color anywhere and everywhere. She created energy and a vibrantcy with angles, textures and light. She mixed her everyday mundane life with a combination of surrealism and an abstract adventure that had no limits. There it is, that's the plan. The TLC showroom will be more than a backdrop for lamps. It will be a work of art in itself, filled with fun and quirky elements that will be both functional and simultaneously have guests transported to a pyschodelic dolls house. A perfect setting for those that aren't afraid to dream big.