Next on "Cribs," Lou Reed

There is an article at newyorkmetro.com about Lou Reed's relationship with a furniture designer. Here are some bits:

Lou Reed first met the furniture designer Jim Zivic nine years ago, when he noticed one of Zivic’s tables advertised in the paper. It was made of wood and steel, and shaped like a piano on top. Reed loved the table, but he wanted a few things changed. “I went to his place and said, ‘Why don’t you put a bottom on that?’ ” says Reed....

For the most part, Reed and Zivic are aesthetically simpatico. “I like leather and steel,” says Reed, holding up a German microphone stand and admiring its many notches and subtle shine. Has he ever shown it to Zivic? “I don’t have to,” he says. “He knows.”

“My aesthetic is pretty masculine,” agrees Zivic. “Lou likes electricity, welding. That’s where he and I meet. It’s this mechanical, electrical, metals stuff that’s so very much a guy thing, with a soft edge here and there.”

The heated granite floor in the living room is covered in large patches of hand-stitched suede. It was originally done in leather, but Reed asked Zivic for something that would feel softer on bare feet. “It’s actually the third attempt,” Zivic says of the rug. “First, we had leather, but it was too slippery and it didn’t let the heat through. Then we were crawling around on the floor for a day and a half trying to design something suede. We were both cutting up swatches for some sort of colorful suede patchwork thing. We were arguing the whole time. I was like, ‘No, that looks like a river,’ and he was like, ‘You don’t know anything, that’s great,’ and I was like, ‘That’s putrid, I won’t do it.’ ” The resolution was solid orange suede that, at $6,000, was far cheaper than something more intricate.

I'd like to point out that Lou Reed is a notoriously tough interview when the subject is music. So if you ever interview him, ask him about his heated granite floor.