Forged History Working in traditional hand-forging and sand-casting processes, Hardware Renaissance creates door hardware in designs based on historic European, Spanish Colonial, and American styles. With collections ranging from Art Deco and Art Nouveau to SoHo and Arrowhead, the hardware collections are a match for rustic architecture, but also complement more modern and sophisticated architectural styles.
While the company offers two lines of standard hardware designs in solid hand-forged iron and cast bronze for
Courtesy Hardware Renaissance entry doors, bathroom and kitchen accessories, interior passage hardware, and more, custom work can also be commissioned. In partnership with local Santa Fe, N.M., sculptors and blacksmiths who submit designs to the firm, Hardware Renaissance adopts those designs it deems impressive enough and pays royalties to the artists when their designs are manufactured for a client. Fourteen custom patinas are available, including faux rust and finishes that add highlights of bronze, rose, brown, and other tones. “We have a few pedestrian types for the less-adventurous customer,” says design manager David Coe, “but we have some very unique patinas” created by Santa Fe artisans and adopted by the firm. 505.983.2644. www.hardwarerenaissance.com.
Wine Connoisseur Whether your clients have a collection of 50 or 300 bottles of wine or more, Vigilant Custom Wine Cellars can design and craft a wine cellar to accommodate and display their collection. All racks and bins are constructed of mahogany and are either left unfinished or given a furniture-grade finish. The complete wine cellar can include not only racking components, but also cooling systems, moldings and trims, cellar doors, and tabletops.
Courtesy Vigilant Custom Wine Cellars Vigilant’s design team and the client discuss the number of bottles the cellar will hold, the size of the space available, desired configurations, and budget and then work begins on the design. Using CAD software, the team creates a design that includes wall elevations, a labeled floor plan, and an itemized component list and price proposal. Each custom wine cellar starts from scratch; wood components are not cut until the design is finalized and approved.
Vigilant’s wine cellars can include spaces for entertaining and tastings. 877.766.6808. www.vigilantinc.com.
Courtesy DSI Architectural Products Stairway to Heaven Utilizing 20 years of experience in engineering and designing with metal, DSI Architectural Products builds custom stainless steel and copper stairway systems that reflect the clients’ sense of style while maximizing efficient use of the home’s space, whether contemporary and urban or classic and traditional.
Starting from client specifications, DSI reviews plans to ensure that no engineering problems exist that would impede fabrication or make the installation unsafe. Because no sealers are used, copper stairs will age naturally. All copper and stainless steel stairs feature a circular hand-brushed finish, unless a pre-patina on copper is desired. 800.951.7727. www.dsiarchitecturalproducts.com.
Color Spectrum
Courtesy Art Glass Environments In styles from contemporary to traditional, abstract to naturalistic, the studio at Art Glass Environments produces hand-crafted architectural and decorative glass work. Working with colored, clear, beveled, etched, leaded, and carved kiln-fired glass, the studio creates dramatic entrances, privacy windows, ceiling domes, partitions, glass sculptures, and decorative panels. Clients are encouraged to visit the studio’s showroom to peruse portfolios containing thousands of drawings and photos of finished projects, as well as the glass options. Designs run from simple to elaborate, president Bill Klug says. For many clients’ homes, Art Glass Environments has completed several different glass features to accentuate the home’s architecture or exterior views. Art glass features end up “anywhere there’s an opening without a particularly good view, or where the homeowner wants to create decoration or privacy,” Klug says. All installation is completed by the studio’s staff. 561.278.8388. www.artglassage.com.
Courtesy Gooseneck Designs Stand-Out Ceramics Creating personalized sculpted ceramic murals at Gooseneck Designs starts with a list of objects or places the client would like to see.
“We talk about the things that matter to the client, and they get exponentially more excited about the project because it begins to mean something to them,” says owner Jackie Smith. Once the list is complete, Smith puts the elements together into a design that fits the project space and in a way that makes sense. The sculptural murals range from low to high bas-relief and can measure up to 2 feet thick. Because of this they are carved from an open-body clay specifically mixed for Gooseneck’s studio that allows air to escape quickly. Before drying and firing, the murals are cut into sections for easier handling and to hide as many of the seams as possible. Once glazed and fired, the resulting numbered puzzle pieces are easy to put together, Smith says. 410.848.5663. www.gooseneckdesigns.com.
Courtesy Princely Pieces Fit for Royalty The proprietors of Princely Pieces travel throughout the region formerly claimed by the Mughal empire, which once encompassed Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and parts of the Central Asian states. They rescue from demolition architectural pieces originally created for the homes of the region’s aristocracy. Carved from a variety of native materials—including red and yellow sandstone, teak, and rosewood—many different architectural items and objects d’art are reclaimed and restored where necessary in India. “Many of the pieces we reclaim come from buildings that are being torn down or have fallen into disrepair,” says Susan Ruedisili, Princely Pieces’ president. Balconies, filigree and carved relief panels, windows, doors, ceiling decorations, arches, decorative millwork, pagodas, and columns are among the artistic items saved. A certificate of authenticity stating the provenance of each piece is provided along with care instructions. Princely Pieces can conduct searches for specific types of architectural work. 877.689.3130. www.princelypieces.com.
Courtesy BluWorld Water Therapy Water is the hardest element to control, but the engineers and designers at water-design firm BluWorld have mastered the art of harnessing it and directing the rhythm and cadence of its flow. Turning water into works of art, the company offers custom designed waterfalls and water windows for interior or exterior applications.
BluWorld’s staff create waterfalls and water windows that become a living part of the home space. “We sculpt the visual effect of how the water falls; we sculpt the sound, the material the water falls over, how translucent the feature will be,” says CEO Mark Hayes. Most waterfalls and water windows are built around clear or mirrored glass or metals. Each piece is engineered to last up to 15 years with proper maintenance, and is intended to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week as an integral part of the home. 407.426.7674. www.bluworldusa.com.
Design with Texture
Courtesy Meltdown Glass Art & Design In the studio of Meltdown Glass Art & Design, artistic director and owner BJ Katz sculpts molds and casts kiln-fired glass into architectural works of art for a variety of applications. Each piece features hand-made custom textures, either reproducing the look and feel of other materials like stone or fabric or creating graphic shapes that evoke a particular motif or theme. Textures can also be blended together or depths varied. “There’s an enormous number of applications that you would never even think that cast glass would be the solution for,” Katz says. Each textural cast-glass project—whether it’s a shower enclosure, privacy window, bath sink, kitchen countertop, room divider, range hood, water feature, or door glass insert—is designed to coordinate and integrate with the rest of the client’s home.
A wide range of specialty treatment and color options are available, including tints, hand-applied fused color, cold-applied color, metallic lusters, fused metals, mirroring, and sandblasting. Glass panels can be tempered or laminated for safety. Custom textures can be created in repeating patterns, full-scale compositional designs, or patterns that span several panes of glass. 800.845.6221. www.meltdownglass.com.
