Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/946716
70 text. "It's meant to be fun. It's my alter ego." Stori Modern furniture designers Site Li and Mark A. Pickett push the boundaries of outdoor-furniture design: Dark-wicker slats woven into a tubular aluminum frame reference window blinds; a modern take on classic Chippendale furniture is made for outdoors and rendered in bright colors. N othing about the soft-spoken Liu is conventional. After earning a degree in foreign service and a master's in theology, she returned to Dallas to help run the family business, a private-label lighting manufacturing company that sells to big-box retailers. There, she spent two years learning the business and meeting designers along the way — a precursor to launching her own design business. In 2007, she and her husband moved into a new house, and she began buying antiques. Despite her preference for clean spaces, Liu is not a modernist living in a minimal white box. Her home is a gracious 1929 Italianate in Highland Park filled with the antiques she loves, including Gustavian chairs and a Biedermeier chest. Large-scale contemporary works by Thomas Struth, Jeff Zilm, and Florian Maier-Aichen provide contrast, and it's all given proper breathing room so that each piece sings. Meanwhile, Liu's design studio — with its polished-concrete floors and utilitarian furnishings — is designed to "look like we are people who mean business." Five massive black lighting pendants from Caravaggio play with scale over the communal work area. Each project has its own rolling cork wall for pinning fabric samples and inspiration photos. The conference room's sliding glass doors are industrial windows salvaged from a Deep Ellum factory. When the large magnetic dry-erase board she wanted never arrived, Liu used the door's glass panes to jot out to-do lists and schedules. "Every Monday morning, we congregate there," she says of the windows-turned-whiteboard. "Then we erase everything and fill in what needs to be done that week. It's quite therapeutic." The vibe is serene and conducive to concentration, and the artwork is intentionally placed not only to be beautiful, but to make Liu think. A framed scarf by superstar L.A. artist Jonas Wood, the most recent honoree at the TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art gala, reminds her to stay creative in problem solving. "The framed scarf is an example of finding a way to make art approachable," she says. A felt kimono by Sebastian Black and India Donaldson is on another wall. "The kimono was meant to be worn, but they've turned it into an art installation," she says "It reminds me not to judge a book by its cover." Custom corkboard with a client's inspiration selections. Above: In the conference room, a vintage rosewood Knoll table surrounded by Klismos chairs by Donghia. Linnea Glatt's Bow Tied. Rug from West Elm. Left: The main office area includes a Blu Dot table, Caravaggio lighting, and chairs from Wayfair. Vintage Knoll console. Kelly Wearstler lamp for Visual Comfort. Sebastian Black and India Donaldson's Kimono, 2015. Stori Modern Memoir dining chair in red weave with Sunbrella fabric (continued from page 68)