Kiener Plaza, St. Louis, MO

The HoneyHam is almost gone and the sweet potatoes disappeared yesterday. Mmmmmm…..the pumpkin pie was so good (and gone), I made a second one, to, you know, carry me over into this week (and to help get rid of the leftover whipping cream).

Things are looking up.

I’ll bet I don’t have to explain to anyone what it’s like out there…..tenuous at best? I’ve had the unusual experience of hearing stories from all walks of life that are enough to curl your hair and make it come undone at the same time….enough to know that whatever I might be going through, personally or professionally, I am not alone. The times we are in seem to be uniquely universal.

That said, it is the holidays and everything is relative, so after what seems like a long absence, for me anyway, from Trendbites, I wanted to begin at the end by wishing you all a great holiday before it gets away from me.

So, turns out St. Louis has a town square. Who knew? It almost felt like Stars Hollow from the Gilmore Girls (assuming you used to watch the show) when the lights went up. And that’s what I have to be grateful for, that’s my blessing….that if times weren’t the way they were, I might never have discovered what was in my own backyard.

This was my calling card in 2003. I worked on the project with Teresa Lehane of Lehane Design who took my rough sketches and turned them into this. Also, I purchased the license to the textile designs in these colorways from Paul Vogel Designs (Paul’s website is down for maintenance, but his contact info is there). Actually the stripes and plaids still work, but I’m due for some color changes.

And if you haven’t visited my trend newsletter site yet, Trendcites, this fashion panel was done in 2006 also with Teresa Lehane.
She’s terrific isn’t she? I worked with Teresa on a packaging project for some scrapbooking and beading bags too, and I’d recommend her anyday. Our results speak for themselves, don’t you think?

It’s time to update my Trendcites website with another illustration….one that will again stay timely for the next 3-4 years. I’ve got some ideas but care to recommend anything?

This has been the year of the chair, and we’ve had some really good chair designs. It seemed to be where designers spent most of their creative energy.

With that in mind I wanted to highlight sofa styles for the year that will no doubt evolve through 2009, but these are great starts, and there’s more than a little something for every decorating style.

Modern:

Marcel Wanders Boutique Sofa from Moooi comes in 15 covers.

Slide Sofa by design collaborative Mark Product.

Alcove Highback by Ronan and Erwen Bouroullec for Vitra. Originally introduced for the Office environment, a lower back version is available for the home.

Polder Sofa by Hella Jongerius also for Vitra (this was introduced in 2006 but is fast approaching a classic).

Baroque:

While a softer more decorative piece, it still comes with the pink stripe against the black with a white frame so it maintains a more modern feel. From metrosofa, via DesignMilk.

Country:

The Canterbury from Squint Ltd.

Peebles for Squint Ltd…..Squint Ltd. has cabinets that have the same colorful patchwork design and many more sofa styles to choose from. This site is so fun and so colorful it’s well worth the visit. They feel like something out of a Mary Engelbreit illustration.

Novel:

My Beautiful Backside for Moroso. It also comes as a two seater.

Contemporary:
I consider these just the beginning of this style, and nickname them “group hug” as an extension of the Friends social archetype. While the cast of Friends actually congregated around a comfy style couch and chairs in their favorite coffee shop on the show, these styles more typify Friends who now group, stay, then crash after the get together.

Sherazade by Francesco Binfare for Edra.

BOA by Fernando Campana and Humberto Campana for Edra.

If I’ve left a style out that anyone thinks is important to the direction of home decorating trends, please let me know and I’ll pull it in. This notation, if you will, has come as a consequence of covering the design blogs and magazines for about a year now and they’re the ones that stand out as creating a definite style within the groupings I listed. I’ve seen similar and good looking as well designs with a different type of upholstery that gives it another kind of feel but as far as silhouettes without duplicating much these were the ones that made the cut. Feel free to chime in with your own thoughts.

One thing I have left out are the built in couches with pillows, Moroccan style and I left them out because the “group hug” styles touch on that same type of group and plop ethos but the Moroccan style requires more built-ins, lots of pillows and in some cases canopies, all of which I love, but I decided to confine this particular notation to just sofas.