EnvyMan: Bahdeebahdu, September 2006
Download Article (.pdf)Next time you’re in Philadelphia, take a walk into Philly’s old city. While there, enjoy a leisurely stroll down Cherry Street, and as you come up to #309, notice the large expansive windows divided into nice little rectangles. Look inside and you’ll notice an eye-catching, aesthetically pleasing display which at first glance appears to be a beautiful diamond-shaped, red glowing ornament magically suspended from the high ceilings in this shop.
Its look invited me in and to admire the true form of what I was looking at. I knew I was in for a wonderful surprise as I approached the studio and a red, faded concrete deer with a glass ear and a lantern around its neck stood in front of the studio welcoming me in as if it were a doorman. Overhead I couldn’t help but notice a child’s rocking horse with a science stool suspended upside down over its head. The collage was hanging peacefully over the entrance with six more amber lights entangled and strategically placed amidst fishing net with a baseball caught in it, a metal collapsible nautical basket and a fan blade facing out toward Cherry Street. The door simply read Bahdeebahdu.
As you enter the long and high-ceilinged space and take a look around, you feel as if you are entering a whimsical, magical, free-spirited studio that is continually changing. The red, glowing ornament that encouraged me to walk in, at closer inspection, was actually the inside of a metal-spring mattress, gingerly twisted creating a diamond shape and adorned with small ceramic and plastic animals including ponies, chicks, dogs, a panther and even a fish. The red glow of lights off the ceramic animals came from carefully placed lights entwined in the metal springs that brought the mattress to life.
The owners of Bahdeebahdu, Warren Muller, luminary sculpturist, and RJ Thornburg, interior designer, have a common theme on how they run their business. “Having every day be a pleasure and being able to share that pleasure with other people” is their motto. They went on to add that “people get it when they walk in here.” RJ added, “It is not solely about the sculptural lighting or the interior design
element that we have combined in this wonderful studio but it is about the process and how we get to the final result. Our business is about feeling; it is about emotion. When you enter this studio we want our clients to experience the emotion and feeling that fills this space, whether it’s the music, the color or even the lighting, we want them to feel comfortable and at home here.” After a brief moment at Bahdeebahdu, you’ll know that these creative artists truly achieved their objectives.
I felt welcomed and at home the moment I stepped into this unique studio. As I walked the long depth of the studio, emotion poured out in the air. Was it from my admiration of the beautifully designed interior? The unique furnishings and beautiful through-line of art as it corresponded with carefully placed furnishings, or could it be the imaginative, effervescent light sculptures that are seemingly suspended in mid-air throughout the large spacious room?
What does Bahdeebahdu mean? “It actually came to me in the middle of the night. We wanted a name that felt comfortable and fun, and when I moved to Philadelphia, my neighbor had a dog named Bahdeebahdu and it just stuck in my head after all these years,” says Warren. He adds that “At a wedding reception [they] held [there], one of the guests explained that his grandmother used that word and he told us what she said meant: ‘I give you, you give me.’” How perfect does that meaning describe these two gentlemen and this environment?
With every step toward the back of the studio, I passed combinations of architectural and interior designing delight, some sedate and others more provocative. The unique chair that was created with close to a hundred baby food jars was one of my personal favorites. Warren invited me to try it. I was hesitant, at first thinking, “I don’t want to break it.” He insisted and I must admit that I found that it was very sturdy and extremely comfortable as well.
The clean and spacious line of the room was all encompassing, carefully placed sofas and chairs of different styles and unique designs were throughout. Finely crafted tables, beautiful baskets that burst with light coming from them, and red and white orbs with bulbs jutting out from every direction filled the air.
Warren, a native New Yorker with a background in theatre, dance and a degree in film-making from the Philadelphia College of Art, tells me that the couple’s life is “somewhat a dream with [their] eyes open.” He added that they “used to each have separate stores right across from each other right around the corner from here.” After meeting each other and becoming f