What's On My Nightstand: Event planner David Stark puts a bird on it

By Neesha Arter | April 29, 2014 - 4:30PM

David Stark is a New York-based event producer, designer and author, as well as president and creative director of David Stark Design and Production. His firm creates events for celebrity clients, major corporations, and non-profits, including Target, God’s Love We Deliver and Tiffany & Co. Stark and his team have also put together limited edition collections of exclusive merchandise for Bergdorf Goodman, West Elm, and New York City’s Haus Interiors.

Stark, who lives where Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn meet, in a pre-war, pyramid-topped building, let us in on what occupies his bedside table:

This François-Xavier Lalanne candlestick bird lives on my nightstand, and I’ve had it for two years. It was a gift from a very special friend whose daughter’s wedding we had planned and designed, and this bird became an inspiration for the wedding décor. As mutual lovers of the sculptures of the Lalannes, the bird represented the joy, fairytale charm, and sophistication that we sought to capture within the wedding décor.

Stark's candlestick bird, sans candle, with a seed in its mouth

We both share a great love for the artist and his wife, Claude’s, work, created under the name Les Lalanne, and the home in which the wedding took place had several of their sculptures on the property. Not only do I adore the piece, but also it is a most meaningful reminder of that moving occasion. I guess I’m pretty sentimental.

David Stark

I like to go to sleep and wake up, greeted by him, staring at the perfect “seed” he holds in his beak. I don’t have other birds, per se, in my home, but I do have lots of elements that are both refined and quirky all at the same time. I don’t keep a candle in it, as I loathe to have wax drip all over him!

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