An interior designer with a global outlook gets personal in his new Portland space.
Designer and architect Peter Tow and his partner Robin recently purchased a townhouse in a riverfront neighborhood within walking distance of the Pearl. They were attracted to the water and the industrial feel that reminded them of their DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) neighborhood in New York City. They also needed the right canvas for Tow’s distinctive approach to interior spaces.
“We have a lot of objects from all over the world,” Tow said. “We needed plenty of display areas for our artwork and travel artifacts and I tried to tastefully evoke some of the memories of our childhoods when designing our new home.”
The home gives a glimpse of what the award-winning designer behind Tow Studios Interior Design LLC does best: create dramatic transformations for his customers.
A flair for global design influences is in the couple’s bones. They’ve lived in Singapore, where Tow grew up, and in Bali, and Robin spent time in India and Japan. Both grew up in midcentury-modern home interiors, with Tow’s home incorporating Asian elements, including artwork painted by his father.
The interior design of their fine-boned but bland townhouse needed to be comfortable. They wanted a pet-friendly space for their Shiba Inu, Mochi, and a refreshed kitchen, since they cook and entertain frequently. Small details like a cutout in the office desk allow Mochi to look out the window. New cabinet handles, lamps and faucet efficiently upgraded the kitchen, but the visual stunner is a Japanese-inspired mural painted by Tow in the manner of the Hiroshige prints of his childhood.
“I wanted to visually tie in all the elements of our past, present and future,” Tow said.
To display their collectibles, Tow worked with Greg Simons of Studio G Creations, a Portland studio, on metalwork shelving.
“The same metalwork helped us create a room that functions as my office and studio, but it can easily transform into another bedroom,” Tow said. “It added to the loft aesthetic I developed in New York for clients such as the artist Brice Marden. It tranformed the spec-development look of the townhouse to a more urban type of space.”
Tow is trained as an architect and artist. He has designed many urban and country homes in the US and throughout Asia.
“Whenever a problem arises, I manage to think of creative solutions,” Tow said. “My talent is in creating an aesthetic that ties everything together, so you have a unified look and feel throughout the home that is unique to the owner’s personality.”
For more info, visit TowStudios.com
IG: @towstudios | @towpeter
