Reclamation decoration

To the less resourceful, it's junk. With a little creativity, however, part of an old farming machine becomes the base of a bar stool, an ox cart wheel and yoke become a chair or bench, another wheel becomes a matching table, and artwork becomes a vanity top.

As a design trend, using and reusing items and materials from unusual or exotic sources is a powerful way to make a home distinctive, according to Leslie Parraguirre, a locally based interior designer.

"`Reclaimed' is the key word," Parraguirre said. "Not all of it is an antique, and not all of it is recycled, but the emphasis is on finding new ways or new places to use these things."

Almost anything is fair game, such as pieces of furniture, parts from old boats, old doors, old gates. If it's made of wood, stone or metal, it's an excellent candidate.

The reclaimed use is equally flexible. One of Parraguirre's clients purchased the door of a residence in Bali and had it fashioned into the top of a coffee table. Another made a coffee table from antique cherry wood floor boards. Yet another imported the beams from the floor and walls of a barn.

"When they got here, they were mossy and manurey, but they cleaned them up," she said.

Parraguirre said the trend is large enough to be its own industry in some port cities, such as Los Angeles, where items from all over the globe can be found: African mahogany, Balinese teak, French tommettes tiles, Mexican pottery, and new items almost every day.

"Anything from Thailand and Indonesia is big right now," she said.

That goes especially for Bali, one of the smaller islands of Indonesia, where items with an antique or rustic look are sought.

Parraguirre said reclaimed wood and stone from overseas is popular nationwide. Castles and other old structures in Europe that are torn down for development are salvaged of all usable materials such as their clays and terra cottas. Tommettes clay tiles, a medieval roofing material, is prized as a flooring material.

Parraguirre said such items are appealing in Southern Nevada because the newness of the community leaves residents yearning for something historic.

"The Las Vegas Valley has so little that is old. We're all in love with that ... look. We want something that's old," Parraguirre said.

She points out, however, that reclaimed doesn't have to mean old. Often, it's simply an item that was used for one purpose and is now used for another.

Corten or stainless steel, and industrial tools and furnishings can be adapted to domestic tasks.

"What you would have used in a restaurant to hold pots and pans, people are bringing into their homes and garages to hold their possessions," she said.

Also fitting into the industrial look are concrete floors with painted patterns and industrial-style lighting fixtures hanging from high ceilings. It's a decidedly different tack from the historic and cultural look.

"It's great for any space where you want that `loft' look," Parraguirre said.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Irwin Molasky, one of Parraguirre's clients, prefers an historic and cultural style. Molasky enlisted Parraguirre's assistance in decorating his new penthouse at the Park Towers luxury high-rise to reflect his Old World tastes.

At Park Towers, all restrictions of cost and geography are seemingly nonexistent. While Molasky can't import the Notre Dame cathedral from Paris, he has amassed an impressive collection of trimmings for his penthouse and for the common areas of the towers, which are nearing the end of the decorating phase.

Designer Sue Firestone and an all-star team of artisans from as far away as France and Russia assisted Molasky in importing and re-creating the Old World touches that adorn the common areas.

Some items are re-creations of items Molasky has seen while globe-trotting. The entry doors to the lobby were designed by French artisans in the style of Paris' Plaza Athenee hotel.

Other accents are the real deal, the product of several treasure-hunting trips. The stone pavers leading up to the door, for instance, are reclaimed imports. The 300-year-old pieces form the curved drive that leads under the porte-cochere.

Past the entry, the common areas are lined with a small museum of French curios of all sizes, ages and utilities: a fountain from an old abbey shaped as the visage of Greek god Pan; a pair of garden statues, one a 300-year-old image of a Satyr and the other a rendering of Josephine, Napoleon's empress; and a 300-year-old padlock showing signs of age, but very much intact as it hangs from a wine cellar gate.

Other styles used in Park Towers complement these imports and re-creations. The Sistine-esque ceiling of the lobby was painted by an artisan trained in Moscow.

"(Park Towers) was an opportunity and a challenge to bring Old World elegance to Las Vegas," Molasky said. "There's people in this city who want that, not a lot of them, but I'm one of them."

Molasky's own home, which is still being outfitted, continues this theme. In one entertainment area, Parraguirre uses colors, wall hangings and a few props to create the appearance of a French opera theater. Near front the entry, centuries-old columns adorn the walls. Gold-leaf gates separating areas within the home came from an old Paris mansion.

Perhaps representing the extreme, Parraguirre believes Molasky's project is nonetheless similar to those who bring antique items and reclaimed materials into their home.

"It's a whole story to tell their friends: `This came from there, that came from there. It gives a place a story it wouldn't have otherwise," she said.

A similar market exists for homeowners with more limited budgets, according to Annie Gevorkian, an interior designer whose most recent work is found at the Street of Dreams show that opened yesterday in the MacDonald Highlands community in Henderson. Gevorkian said a broader perspective on tastes has found its way to the public and has breathed new life into the recovery of old things.

"In the last five to 10 years, people have really taken an interest in finding these kinds of things," she said. "There's more of an awareness there."

Gevorkian said part of her job is to find new ways of incorporating old things.

In the home she designed at Street of Dreams, for instance, she used copper artwork as a vanity top in one powder room and another artistic piece topped with a ceramic bowl as the pedestal sink in another powder room.

Like many designers, Gevorkian has a taste for imported antiques. While treasure-hunting in Italy, she found wall sconces and a mantel from an old Italian casino that was slated for demolition. Although showing signs of wear and tear, the items had a distinctiveness that a designer could not pass up. She incorporated the rescued wall sconces into a home she and her husband, Greg, designed at Canyon Gate Country Club in the southwestern valley.

"To see something that they are going to demolish and to take something from it, you're preserving history," she said.

When the home was sold, the wall sconces were sold with it, however, Annie was so emphatic about the buyer appreciating the weathered items, she asked her to sign a form stating she understood their historical value.

Gevorkian believes often the best reclaimed items are not war booty from faraway places, but items literally found in the home's back yard. Such was the case with a home Gevorkian decorated in California. When the previous home on the lot was demolished, volcanic rocks were found underneath the foundation. Gevorkian said the unusual qualities of the rocks made them an interesting piece of décor, not to mention a keepsake that was specific to that house.

"You've got to be in the right place at the right time to find these pieces," Annie Gevorkian said. "You've also got to be prepared to find it. Some people don't know what they are demolishing. ...

"Those rocks were truly part of that home."

Parraguirre believes local heritage is starting to gain some respect, which can bring treasure-hunting back home. She knows of a few instances where residents have claimed a piece of Las Vegas history, although she admits it's sometimes hard to find.

Some sources are obvious: One man claimed a crystal from the chandelier of a Caesars Palace showroom that was torn down for the hotel's expansion. With each demolished hotel, a whole new collection of local artifacts hits the market, most recently when the aging Mapes Hotels in Reno was demolished.

Parraguirre's own home uses something more rustic and closer to home. She reclaimed the wood from an old Southern Nevada barn not too far from where she grew up and used it in her home.

Parraguirre said she prefers to balance old and new, and to combine and balance styles so as not to have a home look too much like one thing. She decorated her own west Las Vegas home in a style she calls "cowboy French," merging reclaimed touches with her appreciation of Old World elegance.

"It's more interesting to stay mixed. It's eclecticism, it's balancing things so you're not overcommitted to any one thing."

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