Above: The entertainment wall, which Weinstein designed and John Morgan at Perspectives in Royal Oak built, is crafted of
faux-wood laminate. "My philosophy is when you have a big house and are doing a lot of built-ins, you can get away with
mixing real wood and laminates to help bring costs down," says Weinstein. "This has a lot of texture to it, so it really fools
people." The chair, covered in a woven-linen fabric from Donghia, has an ethnic 1950s look that mixes nicely with Milton's
primitive pieces. A sisal-like nylon rug was crafted from cut-down yard goods and bound along the edge with leather.
B 2 2 • M AY 2 0 0 8 •
ENT platinum
When Dr. Milton Mutchnick was in
the fifth grade, he asked a librarian at
the Detroit Public Library for a good
book to read. She offered him the latest
volume penned by Winston Churchill,
which Milton took home and devoured,
beginning him on a path of collect
ing Churchill memorabilia that is still
going strong. Add to those prized pos-
sessions a passion for Navajo art and
objects that developed during a period
following medical school when Milton
lived in New Mexico. Combined, he
had amassed a fascinating — and large
— collection of distinctly unique objects.
So when Milton married Janet, a fan
of the clean lines of the mid-century
modern aesthetic, and they built a 3,500-
square-foot detached condo in West
Bloomfield four years ago for themselves
and Milton's 17-year-old daughter, the
new couple with definite ideas about
design faced a challenge: How do they
reconcile their very different and very
personal collections in an environment
that they both can call home?
The answer: Call Janet's sister. Amy
Weinstein, senior designer at Jeffrey
King Interiors in Birmingham, has a
special sensitivity toward and under-
standing of color. As former business
partners, owning a small tabletop busi-
ness called the Talented Table, along
with their mother, Dorie Miller, the sis-
ters are highly tuned to each other's tal-
ents, and don't dare cross those boundar-
ies. "She's very creative, and she has great
resources," says Janet Mutchnick. But
most of all, she adds, "she really knows
her color and lighting. I could never do
that. And I don't second-guess her."
So Weinstein set about uniting this
blended family amidst the backdrop of
an earthy reddish palette, reminiscent of
Sedona, Ariz., while helping the couple
edit their collections down to a sparing
display. "Luckily, we ended up getting a
home in Arizona," laughs Janet, "so a lot
of the stuff is there!"