Janet E. Kozlowski is passionate about painting, fabrics, gardening, quirky antiques, abandoned furniture and 1970s rock ‘n’ roll. Her Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., flat is proof.
“I’m also a frustrated fashion designer,” says Kozlowski, noting that years ago she was a seamstress, “but the fashion business is highly competitive, so I’m currently studying to become a master gardener.” But for now, Kozlowski is recognized as an accomplished faux painter – she studied at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in Florida – and is the subject of Homestyle’s occasional series on creative people at home.
If you attend Detroit-area show house events with any regularity, chances are excellent you’ve seen Kozlowski’s custom faux finishes. She has spent 12 hours a day rag-rolling walls and ceilings and applying other painterly techniques to rooms without pay for Detroit’s Junior League Show House. Her company is called One of a Kind, and she also hand-paints furniture, constructs headboards, stitches up bedding and decorates.
“I was Martha Stewart before there was a Martha Stewart,” quips Kozlowski, who admires the domestic diva who she says is all about making life more beautiful.
In 1991, Kozlowski’s husband, also a painter, died. She was forced to pull her life together and move on. Five years ago, she and friend, now partner, John Fonti, moved into a second-story flat in a red brick, 1920s-era duplex. Although the solid structure has not been modernized – there’s no granite or stainless steel in the kitchen – it possesses vintage charm, including a living room fireplace with a slanted plaster mantelpiece, leaded glass windows and hardwood floors.
Of course, Kozlowski has painted the rooms. The living room walls, for example, boast a shabby-chic shade of ivory accented by a powder-blue ceiling border. But it is the unique touches and restored furnishings that give this space real personality, perhaps starting with the upholstery.
“I’m a fabric-aholic,” admits Kozlowski, who grew up in Troy and spent a chunk of her life living in San Francisco. “I love going to Joann fabric stores.” Her finds at Joann’s range from a pure white, raw-silk wedding-gown fabric she used for living room curtains to a ruffled black fabric she used as a panel in a hallway window. “At first, John didn’t like the black fabric – he said it was too Jane Russell for him – but now he likes it,” she says.
“I like the way it filters the light – very dramatic.”
A turquoise window treatment in the dining room is complemented by a turquoise Asian fabric on the chairs. Those chairs surround a glass-block table designed by Kozlowski and assembled by Fonti.
“I have the vision and John pulls it together for me,” Kozlowski says. The pair often work together. They are currently stripping and refinishing all the wood in a Birmingham home near Quarton Lake.
There are people who prefer to buy everything new for their home, and then there are people like Kozlowski and Fonti who prefer to rescue and restore items left at the curb for trash pickup, flea and garage sale finds, gifts from friends and clients and drastically reduced sale items.
In the couple’s dining room, for instance, a mirrored side cabinet was bought on sale from the Bombay Co.; it was originally priced at $500, but purchased for $239. The wrought-iron chandelier (it may have come from Pottery Barn) was found in someone’s trash. All it needed was to have the rust removed and touch-up black paint applied. A carved rosewood side table is a family heirloom, dating to 1906 and signed by J.H. Gohlke.
The living room is a treasure trove of found and spruced-up furnishings, including a Stickley-like wood chair, a solid-walnut carved chair, an octagonal end table (it was covered in nail polish), an Oriental rug and a magnificent bird of paradise plant left at the curb by a green thumb gone astray. Kozlowski nursed the plant back to health.
“Every piece of furniture here has a story,” says Kozlowski, who has a sweet 1930s vanity with a round mirror in her bedroom.
“We’re partial, you could say fanatical, when it comes to little tables and chairs nobody else seems to want.” Accessories in the home range from bright art-glass vases (especially ruby ones) and Capodiamonte porcelain pieces, to Murano glass lamps and framed Marigolds (Victorian English portraits of women on a black background). Kozlowski finds some items on eBay, others in local antiques shops, such as Fonti’s cousin’s shop, Another Time Antiques, in Detroit.
But amid all the vintage items, there’s a surprising collection of 1970s-era rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia. Posters from rock concerts by the Doors, Madonna, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon and Yoko Ono let visitors know the homeowners’ musical roots.
“I often think I should have been born in another decade, maybe the 1920s,” Kozlowski says, “but I sure did enjoy all those rock ‘n’ roll concerts I went to in my day.”
Low-cost, high-impact decorating solutions
Live in tight quarters? Consider an inexpensive glass-top table with a glass-block base to make a room seem larger. Make it yourself with glass blocks purchased at a home center and silicone glue.
If you spot a fabric you love, buy it. You’ll find a way to use it as upholstery, a window treatment, bedding, pillows or tablecloth.
Start a collection to personalize your space. Pretty-hued glass vases, for instance, can be purchased for very little money and provide pools of color in a room.
Fresh flowers and plants enliven rooms. Kozlowski has an orange tree and fragrant gardenia plant growing in the dining room. If sunlight is a problem, buy a grow light. Use Miracle-Gro potting soil for best results.
Rescue and restore furniture to save money. Stripping, sanding and staining wood furniture is hard work, but the results are worth it.
Not happy with the color of your walls? Paint them. Better yet, give them a faux treatment. Take classes at a local home center, such as Home Depot. “Life is too short to live with drab interiors,” Kozlowski insists.
Low-cost, high-impact decorating solutions
Live in tight quarters? Consider an inexpensive glass-top table with a glass-block base to make a room seem larger. Make it yourself with glass blocks purchased at a home center and silicone glue.
If you spot a fabric you love, buy it. You’ll find a way to use it as upholstery, a window treatment, bedding, pillows or tablecloth.
Start a collection to personalize your space. Pretty-hued glass vases, for instance, can be purchased for very little money and provide pools of color in a room.
Fresh flowers and plants enliven rooms. Kozlowski has an orange tree and fragrant gardenia plant growing in the dining room. If sunlight is a problem, buy a grow light. Use Miracle-Gro potting soil for best results.
Rescue and restore furniture to save money. Stripping, sanding and staining wood furniture is hard work, but the results are worth it.
Not happy with the color of your walls? Paint them. Better yet, give them a faux treatment. Take classes at a local home center, such as Home Depot. “Life is too short to live with drab interiors,” Kozlowski insists.
