THE FINE ART OF WOOD DECOR
From the moment you step into the lobby at Charlie West, the 123-condo project on 43rd Street in Hell’s Kitchen in New York, you’re struck by it: the wood on the ceiling.
The lobby, which doubles as a library/lounge and features a curated collection of books as well as a 24-hour doorman, was designed by Andres Escobar, the world-renowned Colombia-born designer who travels to New York weekly from Montreal, where he’s a partner and design principal at Lemay + Escobar.
Equal parts industrial, Scandinavian and Japanese, the lobby features a dramatic wood bespoke ceiling that was designed by Escobar to not only look grand, but also serve an important purpose: to prevent sound from bouncing back and forth between the walls and floor.
“Sometimes people think that the only reason you do something is for esthetics, but it isn’t,” Escobar explained.
“It’s a big space, there’s a concrete floor and we wanted to make sure the space would be conducive to having a conversation without an echo, so we created a kind of acoustic panel with the wood on the ceiling.”
While they can make a room feel grand and luxurious, soaring ceilings like the ones found at Charlie West can also make a space feel cold and empty, so Escobar’s decision to cover them in thin wood panels not only reduces noise transference, it also adds architectural interest and helps draw the eye upward.
“After flooring, people started using wood in all kinds of different applications and now they use it to hide all of the mechanical systems that are typically associated with developments,” he said.
“Everybody is in love with wood because it’s a material you can use in a diversity of forms — in ceilings, wall panels, doors, inlays and furniture.”
Wood is such a classic material that it might seem like there aren’t many modern, creative ways to use it as a design feature, but few materials are as adaptable as wood, and it’s more versatile than people realize.
With so many condos having polished concrete floors and/or ceilings as well as exposed ductwork, wood is actually the ideal material to use to make a statement while also accomplishing a secondary, more functional purpose.
Like wood ceilings, wood walls can add layers of richness and warmth as well as a cosy, cocoon-like atmosphere to any room.
Wood cladding can also be used to create separate zones in an open-concept house or condo, to add a focal point to a large room, or even to give a bathroom a natural, spa-like look.
“It’s very rare, when I decorate, that I don’t integrate wood, but I’ll never use it to design an entire space — I’ll pair with it other materials to create a balance,” said Annie Leclerc, an interior designer and the owner of Astuces Design.
“The country house in Shefford was very big, so I thought it was important to add wood in different areas to create a unity between the rooms and warm up the house. I also used the wood to create zones, in the bedroom for example.”
Leclerc used wood in a kitchen renovation she worked on in St-Lambert to create a separate space for the kids to do their homework on the island countertop.
“To start with, the kitchen was tiny and it was for a family with three kids, so they needed more space,” she said. “The family cooked a lot and the kids used the space to do their homework. I wanted to delineate a space for each use, so it wouldn’t feel like one was spilling over into another.”
While wood has been used to build furniture for ages, it’s increasingly being used to create one-of-a-kind custom furniture, said Luc Sergerie, ébéniste (woodworker) and the owner of l’ARBRE, in Mile End.
Sergerie used to work mainly with reclaimed wood but because most of the work he does now is custom-made and has to fit specific sizes, he can’t do that anymore.
“I started the workshop in 1997 and it’s an acronym for Atelier de Recuperation de Bois pour la Revente et l’Ébénisterie,” he said. “What I’ve noticed in my 20 years is that we’re now in an age where interiors are very different than they used to be. Everything is much more open-concept these days.”
Given how interiors have become more open but also smaller (especially where condos are concerned), wood is increasingly being used to build custom, made-to-measure furniture that doubles as storage, while also imbuing the space that it inhabits with a certain unique style.
So while wood is as traditional as it gets when it comes to building materials, it’s still full of surprises — especially in the hands of artists like Sergerie, Leclerc and Escobar.