“I wanted to get something fairly new,” Clark says. “I’m not Mr. Fixer-Upper. And I wanted a good place for people to congregate before we went out.”
Actually, Clark is reverting back to his bachelor ways. Recently divorced, he wanted casual but sophisticated surroundings to begin his new life. He prefers to live downtown, he says, because “being single again, I didn’t want to live in the West End with all the families.”
To spruce up his digs, he consulted with interior designer Kirsten Small, who works at Domicile. Small set him up with contemporary “man furniture,” functional pieces with clean lines that are very masculine without the hunter green, animal print, gun rack machismo.
“Troy has good taste and he was willing to do color, so it was fairly easy,” Small says. The two decided on earth tones for the walls: caramels, brick reds and sage greens. Clark’s wish list for furniture included a cool retro bar from La Difference (it looks like a cross between art deco and “The Jetsons,” accented with stools upholstered with yellow suedelike seats). No bachelor pad should be without one — it’s perfect for entertaining and always stocked to the hilt. Most of the other furnishings also came from La Difference, from coffee tables to bedroom furnishings. The total price tag for all this luxury runs around $15,000, Small says.
So is this bachelor’s pad ready for the rough and ready single’s life? Not exactly. Clark has a girlfriend and remains very close to his stepdaughter, Jade, who visits often. “She considers me dad,” he says proudly. As for his innate sense of style, Clark attributes it to just getting a bit older, but Small sees him as part of a growing trend.
“There are more single guys who want their place to be something special,” she says. Could this mean the end of beer can arts-and-crafts, pizza-stained rugs and the ever-popular Playmate of the Year posters? HS