The Boy's room set

Last week, Amelia Battaglio, one of the best production designers I know hired me to decorate a commercial for an air freshener . It was a quickie - She had scouted locations for 2-3 days and I was hired on friday to start decorating.

We were on a tight budget so she and I headed out to Ikea to purchase most of the furniture. It was a exhausting trip late in the afternoon that lasted almost 3 hours. We ploughed through, and with the help of Jose, my driver we filled his minivan with all of our purchases - bed, mattress, dressers, shelving, rugs - The works.

So I continued shopping on monday and tuesday - sporting goods, curtain fabrics, rugs etc. Everything was coming together.

At around 3pm, the director contacted Amelia and said that he thought the kid should have a collection of his converse sneakers..."like 30 pairs", he said on the phone. The idea was he had collected all the converse he had ever worn - "Hmmm, 30 pairs," we thought. Where to find 30 pairs of used converse in varying sizes... at 4pm in the afternoon. Amelia suggested a place on St. Mark's Place. A guy who sells used sneakers in an old shoe repair store.

I drove over there, and he had 8 pairs that would be appropriate. He charged me $70. Then I went down to a store on prince Street called Vintage. They had Vintage Converse - White, yellow, blue, even converse with an american flag pattern. Each pair priced at $80-90. So I bought two pairs and headed back to Brooklyn.

He also wanted gnarley looking stuffed animals so I stopped at the Atlantic Avenue Salvation Army

When I got back, Amelia said that the director called to tell her that the clients had nixed the sneaker idea.

All in a day's work. All in a day's work

In Treatment- Walter hospital set

Just watched the latest Walter episode which was decorated by  Elaine Odonnell. It's an impressive hospital room and hallway set. It's more than the average hospital room. It's one of those high end hospital rooms for the rich and  famous. There is a whole suite like that at Mt. Sinai. It was right down the hallway from where my dad stayed in the oncology unit of Mt. Sinai.

In this set, there's a beautiful deep purple wall. The room is quite serene whith an interesting  abstract painting - possibly a landscape above a dresser.  There's a view outside the window that reminds me of the view out my dad's window at Mt. Sinai. The hospital is supposed to be in NYC so it very well could be modeled after the IM Pei wing at Mt. Sinai.

There's an interesting wallpaper in the hallway - sort of a textured plaster look -

The bed has textured blankets - possibly brought from home.  There are your typical hospital style striped curtains on the window...

The show continues to be very, very engaging, interesting and arresting. And continues to move me.