WITH A DESIGNER'S VISION AND AN ARTISAN'S SKILL, DISPARATE PIECES BECOME ONE DREAMY BEDROOM.

Author(s): Estelle Bond Guralnick
Date: February 24, 2002
Page: 30
Section: Magazine

IS THERE A PIANO IN the bedroom? Not really, just a piece of an old Victorian upright that's so ingeniously incorporated into the custom headboard of the queen-size bed that no one would guess its musical origins. It all started when interior designer Suzi Briggs was allotted the master bedroom at the Junior League of Boston's 2001 Decorator's Show House. London-born Briggs, whose firm, Bloomsbury Designs, is on Beacon Hill, reacted to the assignment as pure challenge. "We've all seen dozens of beautiful master beds - the four-poster, the romantic canopy, the upholstered headboard," she says. "I was determined to find something different." She "combed the region" for a beautiful old bed, came up dry until the day she saw a pair of beat-up but wonderful old pillars at the Wells, Maine, shop of Richard Sherwood. ``He's inventive, creative, a lovely guy,'' she says. ``So when I looked at the pillars and said, `We could make a bed with these, if only we could find the right center panel,' he tapped his sources and came up with the solution.''

Sherwood's find was a handsomely carved front panel from an upright piano. Never mind that it was dark mahogany and too small to boot. "We knew it could be framed out to a queen size," says Briggs, who also knew that the right paint would help turn the beast into a beauty.

Sherwood's shop also yielded nightstands, a console table and mirror, a settee with caned tea table, and a pair of armchairs. Other furnishings for the room - disparate 19th- and 20th-century French mahogany pieces, all destined for transformation - came from dealers in Maine and Boston.

Having the vision to cobble together odd parts is one thing, but Briggs also knew the execution would require exceptional artisanry. First, she turned to Tom Guevin, a Boston cabinetmaker whose refreshing reaction was "No big deal. I can do this." Following her specifications, he assembled the pillars and extended the piano piece to create a queen-size headboard, then replicated the old columns on a smaller scale for the footboard. "Magically, we had all the trappings of a classical bed," says Briggs.

Next, she asked Brian Cahoon, a Boston furniture restorer and decorative painter, to marry the components with paint. "What amazes me," Briggs says, "is the way that the heavy old chunk of mahogany, those splintered, peeling, crackle-painted pillars, and the new poplar framing all became one, thanks to Brian's brush."

Cahoon's technique resulted in a seemingly aged ivory and gilt crackled finish with tones of gray that appear to bleed through. He then transformed the rest of Briggs's assorted furniture into an ensemble united by variations of his subtle ivory, gilt, and gray theme. "The result had a similar feel to the neoclassical motif I'd chosen for the walls - just a happy coincidence," says Briggs.

Her serene palette played out in textured fabric. For the windows and bed skirt, creamy silk was outlined by a striking 2-inch-wide grosgrain ribbon striped in ivory and black. To add softness and warmth, Briggs upholstered the walls in oatmeal-toned linen that she had stenciled by Boston artist Galen Mott so that the pattern seemed faded and worn.

"The 14-by-14-foot space itself was glorious with abundant light flooding from all the windows," says the designer. "I like to think it inspired me to combine a European sense of reserve and elegance with an American-inspired willingness to bend the rules." She adds, "I could easily have made a beautiful bedroom with fewer custom details, but for me, there's real satisfaction in the creative leap."