For our room at Metropolitan Home’s Showtime House, we were given the challenge of designing a space based on the hit television series Weeds. From the show’s latest season, we were inspired by the newfound confidence, edginess and heightened sex appeal of the lead character, Nancy Botwin (played by Mary Louise Parker). Although the show tracks her crazy antics as a marijuana-dealing, widowed mom in suburbia, we decided to take the “high” road and focus on organic design as the concept for our room. Grasscloth-covered walls, hemp sisal and solid woods ground the room while natural textures in earthy browns, verdant greens and lustrous golds bring it to life. Given Nancy’s renowned green thumb, we anchored her space with a towering specimen tree and a variety of other “flora”. For added sizzle, we selected furniture and sculpture in biomorphic shapes, evoking the sinuous lines of the animal kingdom and all of its wild (and dangerous) allure.
As Nancy’s experience demonstrates, the path to riches can present a few ugly twists and turns. To survive, it’s necessary to accentuate the positive…and bury the negative with as few witnesses as possible! Like Nancy, our room had its own dirty little secret – an unsightly, crumbling wreck of a fireplace – which we chose to mask with an expansive, geometric screen of our own design. Within the screen hang little lantern-like sculptures made from twigs and hemp rolling papers. By creating a visual distraction from a darker reality, we employed one of Nancy’s signature moves. The room is a soothing place for relaxation created from stylish “green” materials. It’s a lounge in which to hang, while contemplating one’s deepest thoughts, or perhaps watch a show called Weeds.
Metropolitan Home’s Showtime House is currently open to the public on weekends until October 31st. For a peek at our sources,click here. To meet all the designers and see a short video on the making of the show house, click here.
