Here’s how to escape via a labor of love. Picture a Tudor row house in Brooklyn filled with a “laboratory” of painted floors, custom floral upholstered sofas and lots of whimsical wallcoverings often used in multiple patterns in one room.
That’s the setting for designers Jason Oliver Nixon and John Loecke’s (pronounced Lucky) design firm, John Loecke, Inc. The wallcoverings get changed every six months or so. (Casart Coverings, with its repositional, removable and reusable wallcovering features would make that task a snap) Jason explains, “For us, boring is death; we want the eye to be constantly engaged. It’s Brooklyn. Clients don’t usually come to the office.” However, they entertain frequently and the wallcoverings are a real conversation piece. The interiors were featured in New York Home Design in May.
To describe the living room, Nixon quotes Diana Vreeland: “Pink is the navy blue of India.”
I’m not sure if those are gondola silhouettes but I think I also see red paper lanterns so perhaps the theme is Asian/Venetian?
About the guest bedroom above- “People say they never want to leave,” says Jason Oliver Nixon. “The paper makes the walls disappear,” adds John Loecke.
The Hotel Gritti Palace in Venice was the inspiration for the dining room. Two different patterns are used on the ceiling. “Most folks would never think of wallpapering a ceiling,” says Nixon. “I love it.”
Nixon and his family vacationed at the Greenbrier when he was 12 and that began his interest in wallcoverings. (Can’t you just see those Dorothy Draper interiors! If you can’t, see Revisiting Some of the Great Lady Decorators, Part 2. How could he not help but be impressed!) “They had this palm wallpaper, like the kind you see at the Beverly Hills Hotel,” says Nixon. “It whisked me away to some magical realm.” “Wallpaper is a simple tool for taking you to another place,” says Loecke. “The goal is to give you a sort of escape.”
We say, “Yes, yes it is — wallpaper is an escape via labor of love to pull it off as well as they did.”
– Lorre Lei
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