"YOUR HOME / Design Futures, Part II" The warm yellow
and tangerine interior of Koo de Kir, a home furnishings and accessories
shop and interior design business on Beacon Hill's Charles Street, showcases
an array of decorative objects chosen for both their functionality and
original design.
Whimsical chairs shaped like high-heeled shoes
and covered in leopard print pose beside a lamp with a seaweed shade
and coconut wood base that could function solely as modernist sculpture.
Recycled aluminum items that look like squirrels on the run, but are
actually bottle openers, share a table top with hammered metal swirls
that are actually paper clips. "My store is about a love for design
and my passion for sharing ideas," says owner and creative director
Kristine Irving.
Its name, Koo de Kir, embodies her strategy: it is
a phonetic rendering of the French phrase coup du coeur, meaning "a
blow to the heart" or something that "takes one's breath away."
Irving says she views her shop - where tabletop items can cost less
than $10 and rugs more than $5,000 - as her classroom. "I am on a quiet
mission," she says. "[I believe] your home is an expression of who you
are, and I want to make you aware of the things that surround you."
Yet, Irving wants to make one thing clear. "I don't
believe in over-emphasizing the importance of material things," she
says. Surprising words given that her store is chock-full of them. "Your
life is not going to be any better if you buy my sofa."
Maybe not. But since Irving has begun providing interior design consulting
to residential and commercial clients, at least one satisfied customer
may beg to differ. She has shopped at Koo de Kir since opening day and
says she had always visualized hiring Irving to design and help her
furnish her first condo. So, when she eventually considered whether
to buy a 457-square-foot condominium just one block from Koo de Kir,
she had Irving approve it first. The designer began work the day the
purchase and sales agreement was signed.
"It is my very first place, and I wanted it to be
a jewel box, filled with textures, color, and shapes," the client says.
To start fresh, she sold all of her furniture, except for two antique
pieces, and bought everything else she needed from Koo de Kir.
Today, the studio's living area has a warm, dreamy coziness offset by
a cool urban leitmotif. Its walls are painted a blue that matches the
sky and gently tricks the eye into an illusion of infinite space.
Yet, the room is divided into living and sleeping
areas by a high-tech white plastic screen. Crisp black picture frames
contrast with the warm gray, sage green, and lavender shades of the
sofa, chairs, and area rug. Glinting, silver-toned accessories counterbalance
the plush cotton velvet and Ultrasuede slipcovers. Tall, angular black
floor lamps topped by creamy shades of translucent microfiber bathe
the room in a warm glow.
"Although I chose a primarily blue palette, Kristine taught me about
colors," the client says. "I learned that just because I had a sage
green sofa, I didn't have to match it with other greens."
While the client and the designer worked together
to create an original design, sometimes the client led the designer.
The "X" figures incorporated into the sofa's slipcover design, for example,
inspired the client to duplicate this element elsewhere in the room.
So a broad metal X spans the white plastic screen separating the living
and bedroom areas, and smaller X's appear on the doors of the custom-made
armoire that hides a computer and fax machine. But, as Irving notes,
"it's easy to overdo themes in a small space." So to counteract this
linear geometry, she suggested a console and side table with playfully
spiraling legs.
In the end, the spirit of the space reflects that of its resident. This
success affirms the Koo de Kir philosophy that learning about good design
leads inevitably to creating a living environment that is comfortable
and self-expressive.
That is the atmosphere Irving has created at Koo de Kir as well. Her
philosophy reflects that of a seasoned retailing veteran who has always
aspired to straddle the worlds of design, art, drama, and commerce.
Ten years ago, while a 19-year-old student at MassArt,
she opened a South End gallery with a friend. The gallery evolved into
ArtSmart, a fine-arts gift store with three locations that featured
the work of local artists. When the partnership dissolved at the end
of 1996, Irving opened Koo de Kir.
Irving says her shop is part theater, and everyone has a role to play.
"I tell everyone who works here: Act as if you're hosting a dinner party.
Welcome people like you are welcoming them to your home."
She is happy when visitors get comfortable, sink into
the generously-sized sofas, and listen to music. For it is at this point,
surrounded by Koo de Kir's elegant but functional objects, that they
may begin to imagine living with beautiful things in their own homes.
Or, as Irving observes, to embody the concept of the French philosopher/writer
Noel Arnaud: "I am the space where I am."
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