Happy Chic

Madison Park can help your home lighten up.

By Carol Tisch

Seriously fun: Lance Licciardi and Tim Thomas in their Madison Park.

Why are these guys smiling? We think it’s because they’ve cornered the market on happy homes in Sarasota. Lance Licciardi (ASID) and Tim Thomas, co-owners of Madison Park, have just dedicated a major portion of their Palm Avenue shop to Jonathan Adler Happy Home products—a tongue-in-chic line that’s seriously helping America lighten up.

Decorating guru Adler is lead judge on Bravo’s Top Design, and author of the new book My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living. He’s the interior designer who spearheaded the redesign of the historic Parker Palm Springs Hotel, does homes all over the country, and has just extended his licensed products to tabletop, decorative objects, lighting, furniture and more.

Tongue in chic: Adler Vision remote control stoneware box and the designer's new decorating book.

If you attended this year’s Symphony Designer Showhouse, you might have done a double take at the funky take-off of medusa heads gracing the deck off Licciardi’s Mondrian-inspired room. The stoneware is part of Adler’s new collection of vessels named for Picasso’s beautiful “other” mistress, surrealist painter and photographer Dora Maar. The bowl is $295 and the giant vase $550.

While the Muse collection is embellished with lips, body parts, and faces to create his own surreal style, Adler’s signature animal sculptures—his own comic interpretations—are guaranteed to make you smile. Think animal accessories and end tables with hooves or paws in high-fired stoneware finished with a matte white glaze.

“The shapes are crazy,” says Thomas, who can’t keep up with demand for Adler’s menagerie: a snail box, bull with ring, giraffes, and even a happy lion. But happy homes also need scented candles, picture frames, and dinnerware, so there’s plenty of that too.

Just in case you need cheering up after Madison Park is closed for the night, check out www.jonathanadler.com for Adler’s design manifesto, which includes fun stuff like:

-We believe that your home should make you happy.

-We believe that when it comes to decorating, the wife is always right. Unless the husband is gay.

-We believe in carbohydrates and to hell with the puffy consequences.

-We believe minimalism is a bummer.

-We believe handcrafted tchotchkes are life-enhancing.

There’s also a new 10 Commandments of Happy Chic with items like, thou shall not deny thyself “hotelish” comforts, and thou shall embrace “maximalism.” Born in 1966, Adler took up pottery in summer camp in 1978, and convinced his parents to buy him a kiln in 1979. By 1994, his pots were on the shelves of oh-so-chic Barney’s New York.

If you take decorating too seriously and worry too much about your friends’ approval, remember the manifesto, relax and have fun. Pick up a cute little tchotchke like the Adler Vision remote control box ($149) or plop some long stemmed roses in a vase adorned with rows of perfectly placed women’s breasts ($440).

Madison Park, 80 S. Palm Ave., Sarasota, (941) 953-9176.

Posted: 3/30/2007 9:54:28 AM | 0 comments

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