Bridget A Otto: Function Sans Formality

Bridget A Otto writes that the Teri Barichello, owner of a Lair Hill Condo, hires Amanda Klash, owner and principal designer of Montgomery Klash Interior Design and Emma McMacken a designer at the firm to help with the functions of a dual living and dining room

while also making the room comfortable for both entertaining and solitary relaxation. It's also likely that Barichello won't stay in the condo and that furnishings will have a future life in a larger space.

Klash and McMacken worked with shape and texture:

Differing heights and textures keep the room interesting and the eye moving from one thing to another.

The squarish furnishings are offset by round tables and round lampshades. In the square dining area, for example, Klash placed a round dining table on a square rug. Small round occasional tables are tucked among the larger seating pieces.

"The eye has to find things," McMacken says, and this can be a challenge in a small space.

What I picked up from the article was the idea that we get used to seeing a space a certain way and get closed off to alternative ways. A designer can help see things in a new way. Teri Barichello said,

"I have lived for YEARS with nearly no furniture. I was so accustomed to an empty space that the night I got home after the furniture came, I almost had a breakdown. It was overwhelming. The pieces I had been most excited about were the pieces that, once delivered, I had the most doubt about."

Klash was leaving on vacation the next day and asked Barichello to please live with the change for more than one night. When she returned, Klash promised, she'd fix anything Barichello still didn't like.

"She was absolutely right," Barichello says now. "I just needed to get used to seeing 'things' in what used to be one very empty space.

The design firm is located in its retail shop, MKID, at 1111 S.W. Alder St.; 503-224-7797 www.montgomeryklash.com.