Friday, March 29, 2013

EASTER IS HERE!

Pulling holiday decorations out to layer in festive-ness with fresh flowers-- these are just some of the joys of Easter's arrival. Like any holiday, traditions are for a reason, so why not create a beautiful environment to celebrate in style? From sweet chickadees to rabbits at ease,  choose your decorations with care for the Easter Bunny will soon be midair.

 Photo courtesy of Horse Country
For a regal rabbit, Horse Country's wall mounted papier mache Rabbit Plaque gets respect.

 Photo courtesy of Aero Home
 With the potential that an egg stands for,  new life in a perfect oval form,  swirled pink and green eggs from Aero Home make a pretty addition to your Easter decoration collection.

 Photo courtesy of Anthropologie
Create personal Easter greetings with Anthropologie's Ceramic Rabbit Stamp. The base has an inkpad in it and the bunny is held there by a magnet.

...this is a bunny on the move.

Photos courtesy of World Market
Now onto the children! Fuzzy chicks and bunnies dressed up in bonnets and bows from World Market adds a major cute factor to the kids table or the Easter Basket.

Easter classics with an old-world sensibility and vintage charm get me every time. World Market continues to sell traditional German papier mache eggs with playful scenes year after year. They provide a sweet way to hide jelly beans on Easter egg hunts and look far more elegant than plastic eggs from the drugstore.
Happy Easter!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

BIG DEALS @ JONATHAN ADLER

I noticed some of my favorite designs now on sale at Jonathan Adler. Why not introduce some colorful accessories into your home for spring?  Swing on over to his website for deals on some of his brightly-colored classics. If you like graphic needlepoint pillows in crazy colors, need a set of fun dog bowls or a geometric trays to serve sweets, you, my friend, are in luck. 
Here are some of the goodies included:

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Adler
These Bargello graphic geometric pillows take a sofa from basic to brilliant in seconds flat.

Mix up the patterns like the Honeycomb for a full-on Adler invasion.

Little Piggy all dressed up in polka dots holds the cookies.

Carnaby porcelain nesting trays in a mix of 3 patterns add a dash of fun for jewelry on your nightstand or serving little treats.

Hold down piles of paper in style with monogram needlepointed letter paperweights. Anything personalized makes a great go-to gift.

LOVE these.  Pull out the coasters for canapes and olives, they are good to have on hand with cocktails to entertain your world weary friends.

Your dog can enjoy mealtime in style with vividly striped stoneware dog bowls in an array of colorful alternating stripes.

This poppy square patterned Peter alpaca throw in a graphic artistic style for a burst of color on upholstery.

Last but not least, the Preston Game Table in stamped faux-croc  can perform double duty as a card and dining table for smaller living spaces.


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

I'M BLOWING INTO CHICAGO APRIL 18th FOR THE BOTANIC GARDEN ANTIQUES AND GARDEN FAIR



Photos courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden

All this chatter about spring really has me excited for it. One way I can force it's arrival is by surrounding myself with as many flowers and greenery as I can. The opportunity to do just that is on my horizon, as I head to Chicago April 18th for the Chicago Botanic Garden Antiques and Garden Show. I have been asked, along with other bloggers I adore and always learn from-- Peak of Chic's Jennifer Boles and EEE's Emily Evans Eerdmans-- to participate in Living with Color: Style Bloggers’ Musings on Super-Chic Living panel, moderated by the one and only Julia Reed. Girl power will be in the house, and so will Honorary Chair Michael S. Smith talking on his new May 2013 book, Building Beauty, and Charlottesville, Va-based classical landscape designer Charles Stick. A pretty stellar line up to be sure, so I am looking forward to learning from the greats. But lest we forget the shopping to be had, as antique dealers, garden statuary and home accessories fill the rows of aisles with garden-themed ephemera old and new.

The lectures will occur at the Alsdorf Auditorium in the Regenstein Center:

Friday April 19th:
11am- "Building Beauty", Michael S. Smith

Saturday April 20th:
11am- "Looking at Gardens", Charles Stick

2pm- "Blogger Style Panel Living with Color: Style Bloggers’ Musings on Super-Chic Living" with The Peak of Chic’s Jennifer Boles, Stylebeat’s Marisa Marcantonio, and design historian Emily Evans Eerdmans. The moderator of this discussion will be the delightful Julia Reed,  contributing editor at Garden and Gun and Elle Decor and the Wall Street Journal in addition to author of four books, including the upcoming "But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria: Adventures in Eating, Drinking, and Making Merry." The dialogue is sure to inspire your design senses as each of these women discusses her unique viewpoint on living and entertaining with style, including favorite finds for the home

Sunday April 21st:
11am- "From The Ground Up" by The Organic Gardener Ltd. founder and consultant Jeanne Pinsof Nolan 

For tickets and to learn more, click here. If you find yourself in Chi Town or a neighboring suburb, I hope  you will come for the weekend, to hear, learn and see everything the stunning Botanic Garden has to offer for this, the 13th year of the Antiques and Garden Fair. Just think, maybe spring will be here by then. Looking forward to seeing your friendly face in the audience!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

RING RING: TELEPHONE TABLES ARE BACK

I have an affinity for tiny tables.  I could go on a lengthy diatribe about how much I love them. They are charming and diminutive, functional and fun. So it was with great excitement that I came upon Johnson 3 and their custom telephone tables at the Architectural Digest Home Show. I love a good discovery, and this was her first trade show. As I got to chatting with owner Eileen Johnson, it was such fun to hear her say, "I know exactly who you are and have been reading your blog for years!" That was music to my ears, and our mutual admiration conversation began. To think that she worked for Karl Springer as an artisan in his workshop and is making these wonderful telephone tables in exactly the same way he did all those years ago is just amazing.  She realized the resurgence in Springer admirers and since 2009 has been creating custom tables in her Upstate New York studio. The same attention to detail, surface material and craft goes into each handmade wood frame.  Her specialty is exotic skins, which are becoming more of a challenge to source, but she can create leather, fabric and parchment wrapped pieces as well. The petite tables she creates are custom, made to order pieces, so if there is a color skin or fabric you prefer, it can me used to create a special version that is all your own.

The KB Occasional Table in natural snakeskin has cut corners with an inlaid solid border on the top

The same style in black with a Greek Key motif of inlaid natural skin on black snake

A wonderful overlapping pattern on a blush pink snakeskin ground

Red snakeskin with simple black border is a stunner

The KS Petite Telephone Table on casters is the style Springer was best known for. It is a little piece of art, so the surface area on all of her designs are lacquered to protect the surfaces.
In baby pink it is hard to not covet. I wanted to tuck this table under my arm and jump in a taxi, but I resisted the urge.

Nothing says chic quite like fire engine red snakeskin

Johnson also does this JMF Waterfall table with a bottom shelf and curved sides. It is a solid little table, great for using in areas where space is at a minimum. Covered in a fabric, it can be customized in skin, COM fabric or other material.

Monday, March 25, 2013

2013 DIFFA DINING BY DESIGN INSPIRES AND DELIGHTS

It is no secret that I adore creative table settings. Spring brings a bevy of charitable events where creative table designs are at their peak. One such event is the national charity event by DIFFA Design Industries Foundation Fighting Aids Dining by Design at Pier 94 on the West Side Highway. This year,  it's 16th, designers and industry heavyweights put forward their big production best, building out environments that just had to be seen to be believed.  This event, sponsored by the New York Design Center, Architectural Digest (the AD Home Show is  on at the Pier as well), The New York Times, Interior Design Magazine and Manhattan Magazine,  really sets the tone for table setting feats, with major theatrical installation pieces created by the best minds in the business. I have been attending this event for ages, and the fun part is that it draws an artsy cool and creative crowd mixing modern, traditional and artistic visual masterminds.

Here are some of the many tables that grabbed my attention:

 I was completely enamored with the Benjamin Moore table, with a riot of colors used to paint every surface area. The pop art fantasy their creative team came up with was fantastic, a bit Keith Haring, an bit Warhol. 

 Alternating chairs were painted in an array of bright hues and everything on the table was touched by color.

Even the floor was transformed by bold swaths of color

Providing the first look at her  Aerin for Lee Jofa fabric collection, Aerin Lauder designed a beautiful table with Montrose, a lavender on natural linen print.  Both feminine and strong, the graphic fabric was used en masse, covering the walls, long table and chair cushions. I can't wait to see what the rest of the fabric collection looks like. Hanging overhead is another sneak preview of her glamorous pendant lights with Visual Comfort.

A row of white parrot tulips arranged in her crystal and gold  bowls graced the center or the table,  interspersed with rustic woven wicker votives, and place settings were composed of crisp white and gold china with woven raffia chargers and bamboo handled flatware. The overall effect was understated chic with pretty touches. It was such a pleasure to join the Kravet's and their guests for the evening, dining with such a fun group. I was seated next to the delightful Jon Call and great color aficionado Lindsey Coral Harper, and Newell Turner of Hearst Design Group was  sitting across the table. 

Thom Filicia created a lounge atmosphere with living room setting and buffet service for the NYDC area. It was move-in ready.

He mixed his Vanguard designs with other great pieces, layering textural natural materials and burnished metal and luxe finishes.

A branch-inspired metal candelabra sits on a bar in front of a bright, multicolored modern abstract painting. 

Pairing striking black and white columns and a giant single lantern,  the Architectural Digest table was set with a tangle multicolored Ranunculus and Anemone arrangements, chunks of rock crystal, and black and white porcelain china.

 Ah, sweet fleurs

Shiny and matte mixed metal textured surfaces with exotic, animal and floral motifs at Michael Aram's table.  So transporting.

 A black and white cabana and a bike added a casual vacation feel to Frette's Italian countryside theme.

Ralph Lauren Home created a serene desert vibe with glowing lanterns overhead, a modern wooden table with benches and a stunning waterfall backdrop. Big bunches of monochromatic white Ranunculus (my favorite) were placed down the table in a row of vases.

 What a statement a single type of flower makes.

 Echo celebrated their iconic printed scarf, capturing butterflies in flight, snakes, and bold blooms. The back-lit scarves of various sizes was very creative.

Modern design lovers sat surrounded by iconic modern designs old and new at Design Within Reach with orb chandeliers from Roll and Jill lighting the long table.

Mark Blackwell created a pattern on an orange wall out of his china patterns, and set the tree stump table with tulips.

I never tire of plates on walls, as long at it is done with dramatic flair as it is here.

I guess spring has become synonymous with butterflies, since it is also a prominent motif at Eric Warner by Aesthete, Ltd. for Tracy Reese . An intaglio made entirely out of moss was a creative way to hang artwork from the wall.

Arteriors showcased their Barry Dixon collection, encasing their booth with his exotic cut-out white wooden screens. A grisaille painting adds an old-world feel to a modern setting.

Rachel Laxer Interiors and Robert Kuo created an ode to Fragonard with a mural of a girl falling from a swing, and lush centerpiece filled with fresh fruits and flowers.

Croscill had a zillion tiny flowers in bud vases around the centerpiece that sat on quilted fuchsia fabric.

A moody Midnight Garden showcased grey blue hues of Beacon Hill fabrics with a high arrangement of twinkling lights and mossy Orchid-covered tree.

Interior Design Magazine's MC Escher meets De Chirico table designed by Ali Taylor, with red and black squares accented with red.