Y Blog w/ the Renaissance Guy

Living in LA

2011-12-05T12:50:00.000-08:00

That's right. Just got a place in Old Town Pasadena 10 miles out of downtown LA and I'm starting to settle in. It's a great location only two blocks off of Colorado Blvd. (think Beach Boys hits) and only five min's to San Gabriel Mtn's!
I must admit that with moving in the day before Thanksgiving, (which happened to also be my birthday this year... yea!) I have had little time to get into design mode for the new digs. The current "move-in" furnishings are a vintage Ikea (seriously, this stuff is about 15yrs old) inflatable sofa and two chairs that I used in a Las Vegas showroom I designed for Blizzard Skis and a few very cool mid-century & 70's pieces that I thrift shopped around LA.
Soon, and very soon I will be sharing some videos of the apt. makeover or should I say "make" since it is cream walls w/ beige carpet. Yeah, its bad but just wait until I get to it! Should be a ton of fun.

Cheers, Tym

The Villa Gets a Makeover!

2011-07-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

It was time. After many years of enjoying our house with it's groundbreaking "Birch Plywood Flooring" and multi-color wall palette, it was time, (or should I say Tyme) to re-imagine the residence. Soooo what better way to start than with a fresh new palette of grays & whites.
Just what a neo post modern villa needs!
The plywood came out and in went this beautifully sustainable strand woven bamboo hardwood.
To compliment the wood, I used a dark gray Italian porcelain tile in the kitchen and wrapping the bar area as well.
So many times the most inspiring pieces of the design process are little ones. Things that come to mind right in the midst of execution. These are what makes creating & designing so exciting!
For me it was the thin strip of aluminum that I used to separate, (or might that be join) the living room's wood floor from the kitchen porcelain. It's just the thing to make the floors pop.
And yes that is an Eames Sofa Compact. I found the sofa sitting in a friends old sawmill in rural Pennsylvania and realized it was a very early Eames piece with only two braces instead of the current three. WooHoo!

The new surroundings are energizing and I am completely enjoying them.
Hope you do too!

The Lure of the UK

2010-03-12T08:21:00.000-08:00

So here it is waaaaaay beyond my last entry and I've decided to summarize my UK trip and move on to blogging only about design and the creative.

My time in the UK was so pleasant and inspiring! I was there to allow my mother to travel to places she had enjoyed while living there in the 70's and visit a few friends who she'd not seen in years. It was by all accounts a success.

Friends were older and places had changed but the allure of our 70's temporary home was still there. We spent a couple days in Edinburgh, Scotland and a few days around Nottingham (where we used to live). We eventually made our way to Cambridge which for me offered a truly magical evening. I went out for a walk after my mother had turned in for the night, making my way downtown toward the colleges. Most stores were closed and a light sprinkling rain had ended. The balmy damp air felt so right... so England. I sat in front of a long row of the colleges, sipping on a cappuccino at about 9pm. The sky was clear and soft with the now set sun back lighting the outline of the buildings architecture. The color of the sky was the deepest indigo blue I've ever seen with a glowing outline of orange at the buildings edges. Below the intricate horizon were randomly lit windows emanating a soft creamy yellow light. I could not escape the thoughts of all the students, some incredibly famous but most not who had spent some of their most exciting years in those halls. Not for decades as would be the case in America, but for centuries. Hundreds of years of history, people, stories and events. Thank you Mom and thank you England!

Me & me Mum (day 1)

2009-06-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

Arrived at London's Heathrow Airport and the critically acclaimed, "Terminal 5" so I was really not expecting to disembark the plane... straight onto the tarmack! Are you kidding?! C'mon queeny. At least finish the thing before you hype it all up and then stick us on a shuttle and let us wait for an hour to go through customs. What was done was really cool modern, techy design... I did like that.

Upon renting our Toyota Prius, (which by the by, allowed us to avoid the congestion charge in downtown London. Magic.) we planned to head through Stratford upon Avon and then on to Nottingham to our friends the Adcock's. Well, as it happened I noticed a sign for Warwick Castle and mentioned how cool it was, having been there with my family a couple years back. Me "Mum" said she'd like to see it and could we make the diversion so I literally hurled the car into the left lane and up the exit. Very last minute you see. That pic on the intro entry is of Warwick Castle soooo, check it out. Really beautiful place!

Next we cruised into Stratford and strolled around town and down by the river. It was an uncharacteristically sunny day and people were sunning themselves and just generally enjoying the day. I'm always taken by the thought of Shakespeare and the like strolling around on the same streets that me & mum are experiencing that very moment. Wow!

From there it was on to a friend whom I had not seen since she'd moved back to the Stratford area a couple years back. She had no idea I was in the country but with the help of her employer and a co-worker they got in touch with. When her boss, John handed me the phone she had no idea who it was. What a great surprise! Me mum and I stopped by for a visit with Sharon and her parents in their back garden and it was lovely. Really good to see her and meet her folks and get a sense of her world far away from Starbucks (Village at Coventry). Great to see you Sharon!

Finally, we got ourselves to Nottingham and to John & June Adcocks house. It had been a few years since they'd last seen each other and we all sat up late talking about everything from family to Obama to national health care. Great fun.

As I walked outside to take a short walk, I was stricken by just how different the UK is from America. So very different. Different words, different architecture, different lifestyle... different everything. Good different but different. I was really looking forward to my time in Nottingham. Back where I played as a boy. Fairham Comprehensive School for Boys on Clifton Estate and Saturdays in downtown Nottingham, running wild and shopping for a new table tennis bat. Playing in the woods at Wollaton Hall on the zip line and going through the Hall specifically to gawk at the stuffed gorilla and it's fully exposed private parts. That was one big gorilla... musta' been Italian.

Hope you're enjoying it... I sure did.

"Me and me Mum"

2009-05-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

This is gonna be a short one but the first in a series of "The Travels of Tym". I recently had the privilege of accompanying my mother, Norma (Michener) De Santo, (cousin of author "James Michener") to the UK for 10 days to visit friends and places from her/our time we lived there. What a lovely country and a page right outta history, er, is that "Bedrock"...well I guess it is history since the pages came from it and not the other way around... 'ish?

Seriously, it was a very refreshing and reflective tyme for me with visits to a number of favorite haunts. From my 2nd form year, (8th grade) at Fairham Comprehensive School for Boys in Nottingham, England and Saturdays riding the bus into downtown Nottingham for the day with my friends, at 12 years old. Whoa, Mom & Dad, (posthumously & lovingly on the Dad side) what were you thinking! I would barely let my kids, (@ 12) ride their bikes to a friends house, ("oh, and be sure to call us when you arrive") much less let them go hang out with 3/4 of a million people I DON'T KNOW in a strange country... c'mon. Hey, I mean strange to us, not strange-wierd. Yeah, back to the point.

Well, this is the introduction for my 10 part travel blog to the UK. Be sure to check back often as the images will be brilliant!!! I was able to spend some time with my long-time friend and amazing internationally acclaimed photographer, Greg Allen. Greg was kind enough to come into London our last two days and shoot a few fantastic photos of "Me & me Mum".

Hope you like it! Cheers.

2009-04-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

Another sunny day in California! Just back from a week in Santa Monica with my family where we had the privilege of working on a few families homes with Habitat for Humanity. Plenty to do and plenty of fun. Billy and Bethy were the consummate site supervisors always keeping things moving and we met some great people who had given their day to help out. I was pleased and impressed with two architects, Eric and Patrick who are pursuing new employment opportunities who decided to jump in and build with Habitat in the meantime... Go Guys! In fact everyone there deserves a big thanks for getting involved!

My son Rio and I spent most of our time laying sub-floor in the bathroom and my wife Dawn and Rio's friend Cole nearly caulked a whole house... sore joints and white latex fingers to prove it. A big thanks to Alison with Hollywood for Habitat who does such a great job working with the entertainment industries involvement with Habitat for Humanity!

From 70 and sunny in L.A. to 35 and light snow in Chicago we headed home to enjoy a bit of spring weather. Oh, it's coming... just takes a little while to get going.

I'll be speaking tomorrow about getting inspired and inspiring others to get involved in a great opportunity in Ft. Wayne, IN. With millions of dollars available in grant money to rehab foreclosed homes and breath new life into a number of Ft. Wayne neighborhoods, I am looking forward to an exciting time!

Through adversity come some of our greatest opportunities and for Ft. Wayne, it's one of those moments. To find out more about the NSP (Neighborhood Stabilization Program) go to: http://nspfortwayne.com.

Inspiring people in their everyday journey... that's what it's all about.

2009-03-02T08:36:00.000-08:00

Just back from LA and reflecting on my visit to the Eames House in Santa Monica... what a serene tyme! Caught me a little off guard imagining Charles and Ray living in such a responsibly designed and built structure in the midst of LA excess. They moved into the house in 1949 and lived there until their deaths in '78 & '88 respectively. The main house at 1500 sq ft and the studio at 1000 sq ft are all they required to live, love and inspire a generation of Americans!

I was re-inspired, (if not a bit teary-eyed) as I realized their contribution to my, (and my design co-hort Dougal's) sense of the creative. Thank you Charles and Ray Eames!

Please check out the link for a bit of perspective and when in LA, make an appointment and visit the house. The best $5- you'll ever spend!

2009-02-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

Ah California. It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful it is in CA. If you've never been there... go there. If you've been there before... go back for another visit.

I'm out in LA for some great meetings and on my down-time I try to do some fun and some educational things while keeping up with the workout schedule. If I can combine them all the better. Yesterday was a shining example of just that.

Awake @ 3:45am in Indianapolis

Fly out of Indy @ 6am

Arrive in LA @ (you gotta love the @ symbol... it's so hip) 10:50am with a full day ahead of me to relax and enjoy. I was amused at (the grammatical "at" that is) the perspective of the woman sitting beside me on the plane who remarked upon hearing that the outside temp was 50 degrees, "oh my, it's freezing outside" to which I felt compelled to respond, "hey, to a Hoosier who spent his anniversary in Chicago, walking 4 blocks to the restaurant for dinner in -18 below weather... this is not freezing baby". Of course I didn't use the "baby" with this kindly old woman but you get the point.

So I disembark (that doesn't even look like a word) rent my Toyota Prius hybrid, (what a great car) and head for the Topanga State Park where I rent a mtn bike for a two hour ride into the Santa Monica mtn's. Wow! What a fantastic ride! I rode up and up and up until I found myself at a dead-end overlook where you gaze out over the Pacific Ocean. To the north were the mountains above Malibu that looked like velvet brains pouring into the ocean. To the west was, duh the Pacific Ocean, (really gorgeous) and the coast line with all the beach cities stretching as far as you could see. Finally, there was LA's downtown popping right up out of the valley as if someone had sprinkled some seeds of architecture and it just grew on it's own.

Once I returned the parking lot I decided to venture into the neighborhood and check out the local flavor of residential homes. My cruise through the Topanga Canyon streets offered a fascinating display of all things California with everything from 70's hippie hold-ups to amazing terraced landscaping hosting some fully modern homes. Really great, inspiring houses!

Thanks Topanga Canyon!

Later this week I'm heading to the Eames Museum for a bit of mid-century design inspiration, (and worship)! Can't wait. If you're not familiar with Charles & Ray Eames, they were arguably the most celebrated [furniture] designers of the 20th century and man were they talented! Google them and check them out... you'll love their incredible and truly classic designs.

That's it for now... more to come. Type ya soon!

Change is good... pass it on.

2009-01-04T20:06:00.000-08:00

HAPPY 2009!!!

Hope it was a great holiday season for everyone! I WILL be blogging regularly this year so I hope you'll check back often and enjoy.

If you haven't checked out my recent feature in Las Vegas Home & Design mag yet please do so. I was so honored to be included in the fall '08 issue and Wow did they do a great job! It's the link on the top right of my homepage if you missed it.

Take note of the three design pics that are in that mag. The Shanklin Residence will be featured in an upcoming "Trad-Mod Makeover" video I will be offering soon. I know many of you have older, traditional home's that you'd like to update in a fresh and modern way without losing the character and integrity of the original homes design... well this video's for you!

I'll also be making some major changes in my own home with video tips from that one too. Full-on creative mayhem that will show how my crazy creative head works in the whole process.

Oh, and yes I'm way behind on the furniture but... the Frank Suspended Lounge Chair & Ottoman is nearly done and will soon be on the site. It will be worth the wait!

So much more coming this year. Heading to L.A. soon for some meetings... sssshhhhh (!)

And what do I do for inspiration in Indiana in the winter. Check out these pics of Villa Dakota (my abode) covered in ICE and mountain biking in freezing temps on a frozen lake bed with friends Adan and Peter. Hard to not be inspired when you look at those barren trees rising out of the lake, eh?

Change is good. Pass it on!

Cheers, Tym

The "Lost Keys" Incident

2008-10-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

I nearly forgot to mention a crazy incident I had at this years Summer Las Vegas Market.

With temperatures in the 100 to 110 range, my body's cooling system is not so kind to my clothing... translation; I tend to look like I just came out of a dunk tank. Not so good for on-camera work. So I valet park my Camry Hybrid (note; the word Hybrid) in order to avoid walking a mile in the heat and I head off to shoot all day for the "Style File" video.

Upon finishing the shoot I am soooo ready to get back to the Hotel, maybe lounge in the lovely salt water pool and then out for a meal at one of my favorite dinner spot's like Spago at Caesar's or Mon Ami Gabi at Paris. Sounds grand, huh! Well, the problem arose when the parking attendant at Las Vegas Parking informed me that I must have kept the car key.

Now understand that with a hybrid car the key is necessary to start the car, it is not needed to turn it off so... yeah, you get the idea. Well, I was SURE that I had given them the key so round and round we went about where the key could be. They called anyone and everyone who could have parked my car that AM and no-one seemed to recall getting a key, but I was SURE I had left it. The owners son finally drove me to my hotel while they searched for it and looked into getting the car towed to the dealer and re-set the code for a new key... aaaaarrgh!

A little lesson in modern entry systems on automobiles is as follows; the vehicle has a push button starter but the key fob must be in close proximity to the car to start it up. In the event that I just might be wrong about my recollection I had walked to the car with my rolling bag and computer bag, getting right up against the car. That way I could be sure the key was not somewhere in there. Alas, the system had vindicated me by NOT registering the keys presence.

Skip to the hotel and I'm finally in my room waiting for the valet to call and unpacking my clothes and show swag when what should I find but... the KEY! No way!

While it was a really frustrating situation I just have to say that all the guys (and one girl) at Las Vegas Parking were AMAZING!!!!! They were so kind to me and never made me feel like the idiot that I was. What a great group of people! Shout out to everyone at Las Vegas Parking... You Are THE BEST!

Summer Market in Las Vegas...

2008-10-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

What a blast! This one was unusually fun with a trip to L.A. before heading to LV and by the way my Toyota Camry Hybrid got 34+ mpg on my combined driving in L.A., Vegas and in between, wow. What's not to like about that. If you haven't tried a hybrid car do yourself a favor and check one out. Oh, and as for the urban folklore regarding all the battery service problems... ask someone to name an actual person who experienced it. That's why it's called urban folklore no doubt purveyed by all naturally aspirated vehicle producers, (nice try).

Ok, back to Vegas. The market kicked off, and I mean KICKED OFF with a concert by legend Rod Stewart. It was crazy good with giant screens down the entire length of the building and pumping sound!

Backtrack... during the day on Monday I had the privilege of doing a photo shoot for a Las Vegas Home & Design magazine feature. The photographer was Tomas Muscionico who did a fantastic job making me look better than I do. Hey, that's talent baby! Check him out at

http://www.tomasmuscionico.com

Next for me was the "Style File" video shoot on Tuesday and market was jumping. I always love to see what's hot, what's new. The Living green pavilion featuring all kinds of home furnishings produced using recycled, sustainable and renewable materials... great stuff!

Check out "Style File" on my website by clicking the button of the same name. You can see a few of the great products that were showcased at World Market Center this summer. Very cool products! Check back soon.

Super Green!

2008-05-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

I love the springtime colors, so super green and rich. It's such an inspiring time of year so don't let it pass you by without rolling up your sleeves.

The new furniture pieces are so cool but what a chore to constantly refine the design, materials and means of production. I can't wait to be up and running with full production models available this summer.

I've also moved agency's so I hope to be back on the air in the near future with some design related show.

With design in mind, think about bringing the outdoors inside right now with some spring greens and sky blues. Those colors are a can't miss! Another good hit is to replace some dated light fixtures. Maybe start with your foyer and do one each month. Pretty easy, (don't forget to turn off the power at the breaker) and very rewarding in bringing new life into your home.

Now go do it! Cheers.

Never enough tyme

2008-04-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

I hear people constantly talking about needing more time in their day. Hey, who knows what I'd do
if I needed more than my required 6 hours because it's been really hectic getting my new site together but I finally have it up and mostly running!
I hope everyone enjoys all the pics and my new Style File video from World Market
Center in Las Vegas. It's a great way to keep up with what's happening in design
trends... colors, fabrics, styles, tons of cool stuff! Please be patient with me as I
add more cool stuff all the time. I'll soon be offering design tips, makeover videos
and other how-to's that can really help out when you're looking to re-create a
space of your own.
Oh, and the new Y MODERN furniture is coming along... it's going to be way cool!
Until next time, (or should I say next tyme) enjoy this lovely spring weather. Cheers.

What Tyme Is It...

2008-03-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

Just finished a new Style File Show for World Market Center in Las Vegas the end of January. It was a good time as I was able to take my wife Dawn along, (she had never been out for the WMC shows I'd done before) so when not shooting the show we could enjoy the city a bit. Had some great meals, (too many great meals) and saw Phantom of the Opera. Phantom was really amazing! A truly "Vegas" experience with superb talent and the obligatory incredible set.
Lots of good restaurants in Vegas but a favorite of mine is "Spago" in the Forum Shoppes at Caesars Palace. They serve a skillet cooked shrimp with green beans on a bread base and all of it is saturated with a lemon butter scampi kinda suace... wow! It's fantastic!
The Winter 2008 Market was great as always. Some standouts for me were Environment Furniture and Kreiss Furniture. Cool stuff.
You can check out my latest "Style File" show from my website, (click on the WMC text and it takes you to their site). Can't miss me. I'm grinnin' at you right from the home page.
Busy right now with my new furniture line "Y MODERN" and my book. Yeah, that's right I'm working on a book so check out my site, (http://www.tymdesanto.com) for more info on all of it. We're soon to launch a new website with Design Tips, Makeover Videos, the "Y Store" with cool stuff like Y MODERN furniture and more! Cheers.