Luke Judge

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door Accessories Furniture kitchen furniture stores

Just off Interstate 494 in Plymouth sits Cowboy Jack’s Saloon, which was — by most accounts — the first in this new wave of country-themed bars. Its opening in early 2009 spawned Cowboy Slim’s in Uptown and Cowboy’s Saloon in Circle Pines. Jack’s sits across from a strip mall that houses Golf Galaxy, Party City and Leeann Chin. Not exactly the Wild West.

On a recent night, women in halter tops and bright summer dresses streamed into the bar. Inside, the dining room looked like the set of an old John Wayne movie, with worn wooden floorboards, whiskey barrels as tabletops and rifles in place of door handles.

“I like this place because it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing,” said Angela Renner, 32, of Maple Grove. She was wearing a brown dress, but jeans and boots are more her style, especially when she and her friends ride in on their motorcycles. “That’s our horse,” she joked.

Renner said her riding partners pay more attention to the music. One of them, a buff, soft-spoken man named Ryan Patterson, 38, has traveled to Nashville the past two years to attend the CMA Awards. Wearing a tight cream-colored V-neck, designer jeans and black dress shoes, Patterson didn’t fit any country stereotype.

While he appreciates Cowboy Jack’s Western decor, he had more to say about its down-to-earth vibe. It’s a feeling he doesn’t necessarily get when he goes downtown. Earlier this summer, his Yukon SUV was stolen from a Minneapolis parking lot while he partied at Sneaky Pete’s.

“I think [downtown] needs to be cleaned up,” he said.

A castle built for a cowboy

Cowboy Jack’s and its sister bars are owned by one of the nightlife scene’s major players, Chris Diebold, who has holdings in almost a dozen bars and restaurants.

In July, Diebold broke ground on his most ambitious project to date: the fourth and largest bar under his successful Cowboy banner. This one, also named Cowboy Jack’s, will be located in the old 14,000-square-foot Steak and Ale off I-494 in Bloomington.

On a recent Tuesday morning, Diebold walked through the cavernous, multi-room space as his crew sledgehammered walls and pried apart ceiling panels. “I believe there is a revival happening on the Bloomington strip,” he said. “Years ago, this was the place to go.”

door Accessories Furniture steak and ale, western decor

Dave Donaldson loves pointing out the flaws in his buildings. This seems odd. After all, he’s a property developer who’s here to sell. But as we wander through the Steel Works, an artfully restored brick, timber and steel beauty he owns in Auckland’s Mt Eden, he just can’t help himself.

“See the pock marks in the wall?” he says, gesturing towards the holes in the bricks where brass handles formerly gripped the wall. “They’re so cool.”

Where others might see imperfection or blemishes, Donaldson sees beauty and, more importantly, potential.

This building was once, in the early 1930s, a factory which hummed with industry as men manufactured steel-framed windows. Later it was the haunt for a coterie of renting artists who embraced its dilapidated chic. Now, as we exit Donaldson’s cavernous office through a swinging glass door that makes a mockery of its former life as a pixie entrance, our footfalls echo off the timber floors around silent, modern spaces which are home to a web design company, a talent agency, a graphic design firm.

As we walk on, he finds more flaws to love. Upstairs, where an ad agency is soon to reside, the walls might meet at an askew angle and the concrete struts have Pisa-style leans but Donaldson grabs the pillars like they’re dishevelled hobos he’s decided to keep around.

The Steel Works has been transformed from frail old lady to strong, sexy queen who, after having steel rod implants, can’t bring herself to get rid of her vintage accessories. This ramshackle former factory now has 18 live-work units with price tags running as high as $1.45 million.
It might have been different. The Steel Works could just as easily have been made dust like so many other old Auckland buildings. Indeed, before Donaldson and his business partner Mike Bakker came along, no one wanted to touch it. The ceiling was a safety hazard. The bricks would swing in the breeze. Sewage pipes drained into neighbouring properties. It was, he says, an engineering nightmare.

“I often ask myself why I do it,” says Donaldson. “It’s crazy because it is frustrating and difficult. But the end result looks fantastic. And I really appreciate creative types of people.”

Where most property developers would shun the huge cost and effort involved in preserving these old structures – he won’t say how much the Steel Works cost to restore – Donaldson is drawn to them, partly out of an obligation to preserve Auckland’s scant heritage, mostly for the challenge.

He is responsible for some of the most ambitious conversions in the city. He transformed a cruddy old post office into Takapuna’s upmarket Department Store, a development praised by British style magazine Monacle. He replaced an old dairy with hugely popular eatery, the Takapuna Beach Cafe. He developed the old Kiwi Bacon factory in Kingsland into quirky office spaces. And he revitalised Auckland’s oldest pub, the Drake Street Tavern, Freemans Bay.

door Accessories Furniture ad agency, hobos, property developer

In early centuries, furniture was so expensive only the rich could afford it. Pieces were made of exquisite-looking yet bulky wood and the materials used for upholstery were delicate and precious. This was responsible for their exorbitant prices which the poor nor average income families naturally could not spare money to buy. At that time, furniture was simply a status symbol that could only be afforded by those who, indeed, enjoyed the highest status in society. This went on for hundreds and hundreds of years, although it was clear that not only the rich needed furniture. Anybody from all social classes needed something for their home and soon enough, when technology and industrial advancement caught up, things began to change. Finally, in the 19th century, a cabinet maker from Germany experimented with creating poor man’s furniture which was made of bent wood and had glue for sticking the parts. And then one type of cheaper yet highly functional furniture was created after another until a whole new class was born. Now, furniture was not a status symbol but a commodity that everyone could afford. Modern furniture has since been associated with practicality, functionality and affordability. A basic characteristic of these pieces is their sleekness and simplicity of design. It is an appreciated combination as furniture will have no need for heavy and expensive materials and designs such as wood bedroom furniture which tends to make a room look cramped. The way this type of furniture itself allows for a certain sense of style that makes a room look clean and spotlessly elegant. What makes modern furniture stand out is the great room it leaves for creativity. Geometric patterns and novel ideas could very well be assimilated in a modern design and there is great freedom as well with the choice of materials to use. This type of furniture is not confined to the traditional concept of furniture such as solid wood and floral or tone-on-tone fabrics, muted plaids and brocades for upholstery. Now, there is a variety of materials that may be used from metals to plastics and plain-looking fabrics , with bold colors and prints are common as accents. Aside from that, this new class of furniture is made to be lightweight and easily put together or dismantled. Because of their simplistic nature from color to structure, they are flexible enough to suit the exact type of decor that people already have in the home. Today, furniture manufacturers create a variety of pieces across the furniture eras and choices can be so varied, from sofas to dining tables to bedroom furniture

door Accessories Furniture cabinet maker, plaids, status symbol

It has never been more important for your health to ensure good personal hygiene and to have a sanitary environment. Germs are very easy to spread from one person to the next just by simply touching things like door handles or even regular everyday objects. These bacteria can then cause an illness just by simply touching your face with your hands.

One of the best solutions is to always ensure that your hands are washed on a regular basis in order to get rid of any germs or bacteria. Another popular alternative is to make use of touch free technology which uses motion sensors that automate a task. One of these is the automatic paper towel dispenser which is starting to become especially popular in restaurants and even businesses.

The biggest problem with older towel dispensers is that they require you to pull down a lever in order to get a paper towel out of the device. You simply would not know how many other individuals have touched this same lever so you have no idea how many germs can be on it. The biggest benefit with an automatic towel dispenser is that it will dispense towels whenever motion is detected.

These are actually much more readily available than you might think as you can easily be able to purchase them at most online retail stores and even auction sites. These cost well under $100 but you can easily find better deals by shopping around. The good thing about these is that they are built to last for many years and have many useful applications which can be installed in your kitchen or bathroom.

When purchasing one for your home, just be sure to keep in mind where you plan on placing it and to ensure that there is adequate space for one. Most of these get mounted on the wall which may require you to drill holes so that it can remain in place. If this is the case, then you should probably have basic hand tools in place or have someone else install them for you.

When it comes to the automatic paper towel dispenser, one of the trusted brands is enMotion as they have been developing these devices for years. If you are concerned about personal hygiene and would like to encourage a germ free environment, then making use of touchless technology is a great way to do so. There are even soap dispensers, hand dryers and even faucets available which can automate these tasks just by simply waving your hand in front of the motion sensor.

door Accessories Furniture automatic paper towel dispenser, germs