Comments(0) 
For some very luscious rooms done in pink, head on over to Style Rumors.
It’s hard to say which take on it is my favorite, but I’m loving this soft pink made even softer with the dove grey, and that retro look–very cool.
Great post all about pink!
Comments(0) 
Live blogging the Home and Housewares Show in Chicago, exhibitors have decidedly and overwhelmingly used color to offset these recessionary economic times.
The theory is manufacturers and retailers must give the consumer a reason to buy and color can immediately outdate a product and make it necessary to purchase on the basis of color.
Color has always been used, though generally cautiously by most housewares manufacturers and retailers, i.e., Target…Wal-Mart, but without question, color is now THE statement. Case in point is Whitmoor, above. They’ve taken an ordinary ironing board cover and used great eye popping colors to enhance its utility.
I can tell you I don’t need an ironing board cover, but this is an inexpensive (relatively speaking) purchase that is going to make me feel good. That dull green (that I purchased a few years back in hopes of updating my everyday routine) can now be replaced by a HAPPY COLOR.
Other show trends are focused on cooking (as a large percentage of consumers have decided fine dining is expendable); so celebrity chefs are here, and gourmet cooking utensils now rule.
Lauren Greenwood, my pr contact at the show, also pointed out when showing me through the media rooms selected products, that manufacturers have also responded to these recessionary times by creating products and offerings to enhance a new DIY sensibility…..where you may have farmed out the cleaning to a maid at one point in time, you are now doing it yourself and manufacturers are enhancing that everyday utilitarian product.
My favorite of these is ALICE Supply Co., a self described hip housewares company who is putting fun into home chores by using HAPPY COLORS and designs (stripes and camouflage) on plungers and hoses and dustpans and broom handles, oh my!
Maria Barnes and Raili Clasen are the brains behind ALICE Supply Co.. Friends since college, Maria and Raili both came out of the fashion industry having worked for Roxy and Quicksilver. Using those connections and those sources, ALICE Supply Co., now all of two months old, is bringing that same hip cool formula from the surfer world and making waves in a formerly staid part of the housewares industry. You can find their product currently at Fred Siegal in Los Angeles and Lisa Perry in New York. Their website is www.alicesupplyco.com but is in the process of being designed so is coming soon.
As to the GREEN category it’s still alive and well but it looks to have receded to some degree in importance (with the exception of water bottles which proliferate at this show) while manufacturers decide how best to define themselves in the green/sustainable environment. There is a focus on more durable long lasting product as opposed to throw-away disposable products. This in itself can be defined as part of the green movement. But I can tell, overall, the lingo of what is green and what is not or where a product falls on the GREEN SCALE (a term I’ve coined) is yet to be clarified.
In an effort to help not only the consumer but other manufacturers clarify their position on the sustainable movement, I’ll be using Aladdin and Eco Gen (I blogged about Eco Gen launched at last year’s housewares show) as the best of the best when it comes to walking the walk.
Check back soon for the details.
Comments(0) 
This collection designed by Edward Van Vilet for Moroso and previewed for Milan, is some cooly calculated combination of patchwork, geometrics and kid fun (thus the ’sushi’) Plus those colors!
It hits a lot of cords at one time which is why I give it a heads up. Edward claims he used a spirograph for the print design. I knew I recognized that from somewhere (I think from my daughter’s tool kit when she was a kid). So he’s gone beyond the usual stars and dots. Fabulous thinking and an even better result.
For more images and a video of the designer’s thought process see designboom.
(he was influenced by Marrakesh, too!)
Comments(1) If Michelle O’s inaugural day dress has anything to do with it, (and I think it does), Texturize Me will be the new watchphrase.
This movement, layers of texture, has been happening for awhile though and Mrs. Obama’s dress just is a stand-out example of the times. Prada used lace in a recent past collection, I’ve shown how lace is being used in home furnishings….these are just a few examples of how texture is giving us dimension, depth, and layers or even representing the very fabric of our lives.
After all, not much in life is one dimensional anymore except the worldwide web, many would have you believe. It’s flat and has served to flatten supposedly our daily heirarchy, but I don’t see that happening much. If anything, it’s veiled heirarchy and that takes us back to texture.
And now too India is jumping into the fray. Talk about layers, of culture and history: witness the Jain Temple at Ranakpur.
The Jains are a Hindu sect known for their non-violence and asceticism, and this temple complex is one of the most important Jain sites in India. Photography by Murray Fredericks. July/August 2008 Vogue Living Austrailia.
Yes, of course, by all means, Texturize Me.
Comments(2) 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.
Comments(0) 
Patterns In Design, Art, and Architecture by Petra Schmidt (Editor), Annette Tietenberg (Editor), Ralf Wollheim (Editor).
I do like coffee table books and this may be one, but one I’d recommend.
In starck contrast to a contemporary and minimalist movement came the New Baroque movement. Flourishes, leafy patterns, stripes, polka dots, and pattern all appear on bedheads, wall papers, lamp shades, chairs or entire rooms. This book shows how new looks at old ways can produce fresh alternatives to the minimalist movements.
Using examples of contemporary work by internationally renowned designers such as Tord Boontje, Michael Lin, Olaf Nicolai and Sauerbruch & Hutton, the diversity of colours, shapes and applications are laid out before the reader, illustrating the impact and influence of technical innovations such as laser engraving and digital milling on patterns and our perception of them.
Often humorous, very colorful, and rarely plain the movement may be showing signs of maturity but I think it’s always important to see where we’ve been to also know where we are going. Not to mention that the technology factor they bring out has been a tremendous feature to this movement and is probably just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we will be able to accomplish as a consequenc of new technologies.
The book is available in both hardbook and paperback at amazon.
Comments(0) 
Prada created styles for Fall 08 that let us look at lace in new ways. (image style.com)
Furniture makers/designers are following suit in some small and not so small ways.
Aries side table CB2.
MISS LACY Progetto di Philippe Starck.
Reflections On My Grandmother collection from Nonesiste in Zona Tortona’s Nhow Hotel.
Even the architects are getting into it.
Architect Nobuhiro Nakamura of A-Asterisk has completed Leafy Shade, an interior design for an office building in Shanghai, China.
Dezeen.
I’ve been pondering this preponderance of lace for awhile now at the same time wondering what this really says….for one at least with respect to furniture and interior surfaces, I’d say it’s technology and that we aren’t living solid lives anymore…things are breaking up but in beautiful ways. Fabrics? Same thing, but it’s a way to evoke the old and the new at the same time which is very much how we are functioning these days. That’s good, keeping what works but using it in new and creative ways.
Comments(0) 
Do you love this look or not? This style actually satisfies my clutterphile tendencies and style yearnings at the same time (includes need for color and print)….can we pen the style clutterphilestyle?
Beyond that, I am quite excited overall about Pottery Barn’s latest fall (or should I say earliest fall) catalog. Just got it today. This is the most modern of homey statements I’ve seen yet. Well done. Bravo Pottery Barn! Their prints and colors are spot on, they’ve finally given some pizazz to their dark furniture by adding bold bright and graphic prints (some floral but very sophis).
Tell me they’ve got a new creative director, yes?
Comments(3) 
Design Editor, Danny Sinipoli, of GlobeandMail.com (Canada’s leading source for online news) wrote a great article on patchwork, “‘All patched up.’ From rugs to table runners, patchwork patterns are everywhere. Danny Sinopoli explains why designers are going to pieces.”
I recommend taking a visit, not just to read what he too has to say, but his slideshow examples are fabu! It doesn’t hurt that he’s quoted me in the article too….thank you Danny, but he’s also got a great pulse on patchwork, showing its more modern side for today’s more contemporary would-be purchaser.
top image from Casasugar: Tal R, designer, used materials from as far away as Istanbul and Denmark.
Comments(1) According to New York Times fashion critic, Cathy Horyn, and “On the Runway” blog fame, Bill Blass once said you should dress for the room you will be in.
I’ve been pondering that sentiment for awhile now and finally needed to blog on it. Like what would the room look like that would match one of Balenciaga’s Spring 2008 pieces from the catwalks of Paris?
And I decided this room would work with that color composition. It had to be at the very least contemporary….and white.
But this room would work as well:
How about you? Do you wear clothes that match the rooms you’ll be in?
