i'm not sure that if this has been posted.. sorry if it already..
By LARRY GETLEN
NO 'ORDINARY' DIGS: Vanessa Carlton, who writes music at home, says it was crucial for her pad to have a creative aura.
NO 'ORDINARY' DIGS: Vanessa Carlton, who writes music at home, says it was crucial for her pad to have a creative aura.
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October 11, 2007 -- THERE'S a very particular vibe to Vanessa Carlton's brick-walled, 2,600-square-foot Nolita loft, and Carlton has a distinct term for the warm, rustic space she's created.
"I call it 'Lord of the Rings' meets Victoriana," says the 26-year-old singer/songwriter - who is known for the 2002 smash "A Thousand Miles," and whose new album, "Heroes & Thieves," was released on Tuesday.
"All of these wooden pines, that's all out of a cabin," she says, referring to several wooden tables. "I love the woods, hence all this stuff out of the Shire. I like the whimsy. But then I also like Art Nouveau and curves, so you see a lot of curves here along with bursts of color."
The massive living room in the two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment Carlton purchased in 2004 has been left purposefully airy. Her massive Andrianna Shamaris couch, several chairs she bought at Housing Works, the cowhide rugs and the touring Yamaha piano crafted just for her seem small compared to the uncluttered space around them.
Considering that most of "Heroes & Thieves" (the first single off the album is "Nolita Fairytale") was written in her home, having a creative aura in the loft was essential.
"I was very inspired by the vibe here - especially looking out the window," Carlton says of her ceiling-height front-wall view. "A lot of my ideas for this record came on my long walks [around the neighborhood], and then I would come back here and write what I'd been thinking about. There really is a very deep, underlying connection between this space and my record."
She found the loft after a yearlong search that taught her that "there's really no way to get a true loft space and the amenities of a building, like a doorman," in Manhattan. But that search also helped her understand what she truly wanted in a home.
"I realized I liked something that's really old, preferably built in the late 1800s or early 1900s," says Carlton, who was almost turned off by the "slick" design sensibility of the loft's previous owner, but was won over by the brick walls and burgeoning Nolita 'hood.
She initially enlisted a designer, but quickly found that the only way to get it exactly to her liking was to do it herself.
"For me to design this the way I wanted to, there was no shortcut," she says, adding, "It's gonna take me years because I like to collect and go slow."
With Carlton's decorating choices, the loft exudes a profound sense of times past. The walls are adorned with paintings and photographs from the early 20th century, including a life-sized picture of dancer Isadora Duncan. Her Storyville bordello-like bathroom is done up in deep red, with red paisley wallpaper, dim lighting and framed pictures of nude women from 100 years ago.
The foyer-length wooden table - she calls it her "Lord of the Rings" table - is one of Carlton's favorite items.
"I like anything that looks like little hobbits might have been dancing on it. It has to be really old," she says. "I actually wish I lived in the late 19th century."
Carlton finds the loft space supremely relaxing; she likes hanging out with her long-haired dachshund, Victor, and sipping her favorite drink, Grey Goose vodka with crushed raspberries. But for a creative spirit like Carlton, working is never far from her mind.
"I know I just finished a record, but I'm starting to write again," she says. "So I'm playing a lot. I'm always designing merchandise and thinking about my tour, so I'm doodling. And unless I'm sitting at the computer or the piano, I'm always walking around my house doing something.
"This house, to me, is very meditative, and I really look at it as a sanctuary," she adds. "I get a lot of work done here, and I'm lucky enough that for me, work is play. I'm so lucky that this is my life - here in Nolita."
Vanessa Carlton's favorite things
- A portrait of three ladies, hanging in her living room, that was painted by her grandfather
- A 1940s chess set and a chessboard from Cairo
- A vintage copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses"
- Her "Lord of the Rings" table
- The bordello-themed bathroom
- An antique Persian rug
- Original Norman Cherner chairs
- Her Yamaha piano
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10112007/realestate/once_upon_a_time.htm?page=0
