Ideas for interior design & decorating

THE RECORD • MAY 2007 • HERALD NEWS

CURVES AHEADInterior designer uses very few straight lines

to express homeowners’ diverse tastes BY EILEEN WATKINS

Designer Pia Cyrulnik does notbelieve in playing it safe. Not forher, the traditional beige damask

loveseats lined up to face each other with arectangular cocktail table in between, allarranged neatly on a square, floral rug. Infact, you’ll find few flowers — and evenfewer straight lines — in any of her designs.

Her hallmarks are curving andmeandering sectionals, strong colors,upholstered pieces that combine multiplefabrics, and asymmetrical contours for rugs,tables and even shelving units. Althougheach room she designs bears her personalstamp, it also expresses the personality ofthe homeowner.

“Clients will come into my showroom andsee something they like,” said Cyrulnik, whooperates the 6,000-square-foot furniturestore The Contemporary Couch in Carl-stadt. “They can see actual pieces by themanufacturers who execute my designs.Then I will go their home and adapt thepiece to suit the client’s tastes and lifestyle.”

She has noticed that her repeat customerstend to be otherwise “traditional” house-holds that happen to prefer contemporaryfurniture. Her long, free-form sectionalshold a special appeal for families that enter-tain a lot. And while Cyrulnik can workwith a neutral palette, she feels most sim-patico with clients who love color as muchas she does.

In one Lyndhurst home, for example,she used a palette of cream, beige, gold, rustand burgundy — the shades you might findin a bunch of autumn mums. After she hadpicked out paint chips for the two main wallcolors, she discovered the homeowneralready had chosen the exact same shades.“That’s how we knew we were meant to

work together!” Cyrulnik said with a laugh.“I wanted something modern and elegant,”

said the homeowner. “When I met Pia, I feltshe was the right person to design it. Weclicked well.”

For the two-story, vaulted living room,Cyrulnik designed a 27-foot-long sectionalwith numerous curves that undulate in andout of one corner. She covered the seats in asolid tan fabric with a glint of metallic thread,and the backs in a complementary print offree-form dots. If you count the throw pil-lows, in textures from silky to nubby, you’llfind six different fabrics in the sectional.

Such a piece obviously needs a coordinat-ing rug, and Cyrulnik created one that followsits contours, blends all the colors of the roomwith some metallic gold touches, and flowsoutward like a flame. “The rugs are my fa-vorite part, because they’re like painting,” saidthe designer, who holds an MA in fine art andexhibited her murals in galleries around theU.S. during the 1990s.

A coffee table with a “biomorphic” glasstop, reminiscent of mid-century design, makesa subtle statement without detracting fromthe rug’s dynamic lines. A sculptural glassbowl, also from The Contemporary Couch,perfectly complements the color scheme,which Cyrulnik describes as “earth tones witha kick.”

A burgundy wall behind the couch displaysa nine-by-ten-foot wooden sculpture ofdynamic, overlapping spirals and S-curves.The sections are airbrushed to emphasizetheir three-dimensional look andpolyurethaned to a high gloss, picking upall the shades in the room’s palette andadding some metallic finishes.

“That wall had dramatic potential,”

As Published in The Record and Herald News on May 6, 2007

In a Lyndhurst living room, top, Pia Cyrulnik designed a 27-foot-longsectional sofa that features undulating curves and multiple fabrics, alongwith a complementary rug. The table and glass bowl also come from herCarlstadt showroom. Above, she used the family’s bronze statue of theIndian god Ganesh as the centerpiece for this contemporary fountainand artwork, designed by Cyrulnik and executed in wood by sculptorDean Johnson.

HOMESCAPE

TOUR

GOURMETTASTES12 kitchens ondisplay in northernNew Jersey.

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PRODUCTS

BATHING BIRDIESSculptural pieces of artfor the birds — andyour yard.

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HI-TECH

CLEANSWEEPNew vacuumsmake quick workof dirty floors.

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See CURVES AHEAD Page H-10

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