Home & Garden Blog » Designer Spotlight

Holiday Wreaths on Sale

colleen — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:41:33 +0000

What day is it? The day before the day before Christmas! This is not-quite emergency time, but the time to freak is nigh. The most important thing, of course, is that this is the last day you can try to get items overnight shipped in time for Christmas day. So if you need some presents, or need to send some cards to a distant family relative, or some holiday decorations or even just some holiday food for the parties and party gifts you will need to give this holiday season, I recommend you get ordering stat!

Since I’m interested in all things green today, I’ve been thinking a lot about holiday greenery, namely shrubbery, namely that large tree that gets covered in tinsel and lights and placed in your living room next to the nice fireplace and antique rugs. While you can’t order a Christmas tree online, you can order holiday wreaths and smaller items that could brighten up your home, or make perfect gifts to send to a relative, mother-in-law, etc. Since it’s getting so close to the big holiday, a lot of the wreaths and garlands are on sale, too! Check it out:

36-inch Green Apple Wreath from WreathsGalore.com: $89.00, marked down from $129.99

9ft x 12in Juniper and Pine Garland from WreathsGalore.com: $54.99, marked down from $69.99

Shop for more holiday wreaths at Smarter.com.

Dennis Basso and the Art of Entertaining

colleen — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:43:13 +0000

NYTimes.com consults Dennis Basso, a fashion design who specializes in couture furs, in an article about coat hangers and the art of storage. Storing coats is clearly no laughing matter for Basso, whose own designs can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And when you have a luxurious, beautiful coat like that, you don’t hang it on any old drag coat hanger. He recommends, if you are storing coats for months at a time (during summer storage and whatnot) to put them on specialized coat hangers that maintain their shape and don’t stretch, whether you have a multi-thousand dollar coat or a $200 one from Target. For the daily life of the coat though, in the throes of winter where you barely seem to take it off, Dennis Basso recommends the coat rack, which he considers superior to the ultimate sin, for him: throwing coats over the furniture.

Basso’s criteria for picking out a coat rack fitting of his coats:

1. Has to be sturdy and durable: the base of the coat rack must be heavy and wide enough so it won’t tip over with multiple coats on it.

2. Coat racks should be objects of art on their own terms: even without coats on them, they should still brighten up the room.

3. Look for coat racks that have bulbs or orbs at the end, and not hooks. Hooks can damage the fabric is left on the coat rack for too long–if you are using a hooked coat rack, always use the small loop of fabric at the neck of the coat to hang it up.

Wooden Coatrack from SchoolOutfitters.com: $81.99

Cherry Oak Coat Rack from Officefurniture.com: $395 (brought down from $510)

Find deals on coat racks and hangers at Smarter.com.

Style Spotlight: Newlyweds

colleen — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:33:56 +0000

NYTimes.com home and garden spotlight this past Thursday was on newlyweds Elizabeth and Andrew Wooten, who want to mark their nuptial home with a fresh style that compliments their personalities, but also their budget and timetable. Moving into a Greenwich Village apartment, Mr and Mrs. Wooten are looking for fresh style on a simple budget, and they called in Brendan Kwinter-Schwartz, an interior designer who owns Kwinter & Company, a New York firm, who agreed to consult the family pro-bono.

Ms. Kwinter-Schwartz suggested looking on the thrifty side, at such places like Craigslist, or even Classified ads in the New York Times or local newspapers. If cheap is the way to go, you don’t want to have to pay large shipping fees, and sometimes the best finds are right in your neighborhood, where moving neighbors want to get rid of their furniture fast and will pass it off for a pretty penny. She suggested two major style traits for the newlyweds: one, brighten up the rooms with fresh, light colors and woods. Two, don’t over-clutter the rooms with wall hangings and extra accessories. Keep it simple and clean and fresh.

Here are some suggestions for how you can style your home like the Wootens:

Ikea: perfect place to shop for the fresh, super affordable furniture you love:

Karlstad Armchair and Chaise Lounge from Ikea.com: $548.00

Billy Bookcase from Ikea.com: $69.99

Find more chaise lounges and bookcases at Smarter.com.

Celebrity Spotlight: Nature Inspired Design

colleen — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:06:11 +0000

NYTimes.com article of the Home & Garden section this weekend features Laura Guido-Clark, and interior designer with a penchant for nature-inspired, functional design. Her favorite time to shop is during the holidays, when she can pick out festive decorations that are both functional for the big holiday meals and parties that inevitably come with the season, and for everyday use as well! It’s not all about the bells and whistles, Laura Guido-Clark wants us all to “get back to the basics” and think about the usefulness of objects in our home. The recession isn’t quite over, but we all want to buy something with a little holiday cheer–to do this, we can justify our purchases by the feasibility and usefulness in our everyday lives, that bring us a bit more cheer because of their creative design.

With Ms. Guido-Clark’s advice in mind, let’s get back to the basics of holiday decor with some of these lovely inspired looks:

SET OF 3 COUNTRY STYLE NATURE INSPIRED VINE BASKETS from eBay.com: $125.00

Look at how beautiful, sculptural, and fantastic these bowls are! Who can resist such ingenious design?

Acorn Bird Feeder : $24.99

What a fun and nature-spirited design, with a bit of humor thrown in.

Shop for more nature inspired decor at Smarter.com.

Maryalice Huggins: The New and the Old

colleen — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:18:40 +0000

“For Maryalice Huggins, old things — particularly fine antiques — are living, breathing beings. Some radiate irresistible allure. Auctions might as well be singles bars.”- NYTimes.com Home and Garden feature article, 11/13

Maryalice Huggins, besides having a beautiful name, loves the artisanal and sumptuous quality of fine antiques and priceless heirlooms. And the heirlooms don’t just have to come from your family! Maryalice loves to mix and match from a variety of contemporary and historical artifacts and time periods, and we can do a lot to learn from her. Thank you, NYTimes.com, for bringing once again a refreshing mix of the old and the new to home and garden styling!

What if you want to recreate the aesthetic of Maryalice Huggin’s home? I suggest we start with a base layer of neutral, contemporary objects. Some standard white walls and solid colored rugs, some geometric sofas and glossy tables. From there, let’s look at some antique, rusted, inspired pieces to give your home a kick. Good objects to look for are mirrors, lamps, and table sculptures. Let’s take a look:

First, the base contemporary layer:

Zuo 900231 Fortress Sofa White : $1,322.00

And the antique lovely to set it off just right:

Uttermost 12525 Hesper Wall Art w/Etched, Antique Mirrors and Pewter Finish: $144.00

Find more contemporary style home decor at Smarter.com.

Celebrity Spotlight: Building with Trees

colleen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:07:33 +0000

NYTimes.com article on the Home & Garden section today talked about revolutionary architect Roald Gundersen, who builds structures, furniture, and whole houses with entire branches and trunks of trees. He bends and manipulates the trees to make beautiful organic structures that liven up any home and give it an earthy and fresh quality. Gundersen likes to build with trees because they represent the outdoors and nature, where he would spend all of his time if he could. Instead of living outdoors though, why not bring the trees indoors? And not in a potted planter or desktop tree simulation. Here are some beautiful pieces for you to add to your collection that are built with wood and make your home fresh and lively:

Canopy Swing Stand : On sale from $800 to $590, this beautifully built and organically curved structure will make you feel alive!

3400 Series Wood Chair : $114.99 Brings you back to memories of the old school house with this lovely, basic wood chair.

Shop for discount wooden furniture at Smarter.com.

Recommendations from That 70′s Show Interior Designer

colleen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:52:21 +0000

Jason Miller, the interior designer featured on the NYTimes.com this week, talks about the beauty and simplicity of throwback 70′s style. He recommends three things: Polyester, Pop Art, and Plastic. Think Andy Warhol’s factory meets Hippie global world views. What do you do with all this throwback? A classic part of the 70′s that Miller doesn’t want to recreate is the colors–according to him, the cheap fabrics, carpets and furniture of the 1970′s made for flimsy fabric and flukey, dry colors. He recommends springing a few extra bucks and getting some dark chocolate browns and nicely hued colors instead. I like where he’s taking the modern twist.

So what do you do to recreate the 70′s charm? Take a look at these options I found on Smarter.com. Hope it helps! With Halloween coming up this weekend, why not put your whole house in costume?

Retro Modern Chair: $290.99

Momeni Shag Comfort Rug from Walmart.com: $59.00-819.00

Shop for more vintage style furniture and vintage style rugs.

Celebrity Spotlight: Home Staging

colleen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:43:19 +0000

Home Stager Meridith Baer knows a thing or two about telling a story through household objects. Home staging is a fad technique employed by realtors and homeowners who want to have an edge on a tough housing market. Basically you hire a “home stager” to design a lifestyle that will entice would-be buyers into focusing on the “lifestyle” designed for this home, not just the bare bones and wood. It used to be houses could be sold with the floor barley tiled, but now times and tough and people want to get the complete package when they’re buying a home. Home staging has become the best way to stand out in a tough market–but of course, it comes at a hefty price.

Meridith Baer was featured in a NYTimes.com article in the home & garden section because she knows how to be selective in her designs without shirking her responsibilities to sell the lifestyle of a home.

What does Meridith Baer recommend? Think about the story of the person who you want to buy this house. Is it a young family? A heiress? An older couple who just wants a snug home that can fit a Christmas tree in the door for the grandkids?

She also is a big fan of strong, clean white lines and stone decorative objects to make the home feel filled, but not filled with miscellaneous objects.

Recommendations for how to make your home a fairytale:

LC White Leather Sofa: $740.99

Chic and elegant, this is the perfect base layer for a clean, fashionable home.

Dale Tiffany Marble Vase: $162.00

Stunning piece that captures the light and brightens a room. Imagine it in a dining room or on top of the fireplace–gorgeous!

Shop for affordable sofas and discount vases at Smarter.com.

Celebrity Spotlight: Paul Taylor + Home Design

colleen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:22:06 +0000

The NYTimes multimedia slideshow this week gets in touch with Paul Taylor, the founder of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, to discuss home decor and style tips at his house in Long Island. For Paul Taylor, design is all about the idea of the home space, heritage and family heirlooms. Nothing is less “homey” than all store-bought materials, but of course you can’t live solely with inherited furniture. Therefore, modernization is all about striking a balance between the rustic, traditional decor and design and modern necessities.

Let’s take a look at the Paul Taylor shingle-style home decor:

The Staircase: (what we can take from this: Dark wood, dark green accents, picture frames and bright airy windows without a lot of grid)

The Homemaker Image: (what we can take from this: Paul Taylor is an eccentric guy that fits the bill for this house. He likes worn wood and stone fireplaces, benches to sit on and beaded antique lamps. Green, again, is a very important accent color)

How you can recreate your own look:

Rustic Adirondack Log Pole Bench: $59.99

Walnut Bench with Storage : $121.05 (marked down from $225.00!)

Jubilee Green Lamp : $404.80 (you save 12%)

Grant K Gibson and California Dreaming

colleen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:15:53 +0000

New York Times online home and garden section features interior designer Grant K. Gibson this week in their On Location article. Gibson, a San Francisco inhabitant with his own design firm titled, creatively, Grant K. Gibson Interior Design, loves an element of luxury with a taste for thrifty design. He often shops at online stores such as 1stdibs.com to get the best luxury antiques from around the world. 1stdibs.com is designed for the elite, as you even have to subscribe to the website just to see the prices on the beautiful furniture, lighting, and decorative designs.

What to take away from Grant K. Gibson: Luxury, antiques, brass, cool white and gold lighting and light fixtures, and sumptuous carpets and walls. Here’s how to get a start on luxury:

Glass Candle Sleeve : $12.00-$16.00

Buffalo China Dinnerware Set : $30.00-$60.00