Design

The New York Times has a great article today about how to haggle when you go furniture shopping: Read on: "But these days, the thinking goes that it’s a buyer’s market for anyone looking to buy anything. And, as it happens, I’m currently in the market for everything, having just moved into a new apartment where the sum total of my décor is two card tables and an old leather recliner. I may not be a regular customer of the design boutiques of SoHo and TriBeCa, but if there is ever going to be a time for me to furnish my home in high style, this would seem to be it." Read the complete article We can't help but put in our two cents on this subject. Now, we know the economy is tough. It's painful to watch. Too much so actually. The worst part of it is, we know it will get even worse in the next 12 months. But we hope that the consumers will see the OTHER side. As a consumer, you have the option of to spend or not to spend. As a furniture store owner though, you are ...

In the mountains for the weekend, we were walking near a city park. My attention was drawn by recently planted trees and shrubs near a recreation center. Much to my surprise (and delight), blueberries, a mulberry, apple trees, and yellow-stemmed dogwoods were among the plantings. The centerpiece was a largish apple tree, with multiple grafts, marked by aluminum tags. They read Esophus Spitzenberg, Winesap, and something else I couldn't read. What fun! There was plenty more space between the building and the basketball court for vegetable gardens, I thought... The North Carolina mountains are apple country, and heirloom apple varieties are getting more attention. Western North Carolina is home to a wide variety of small growers and producers, with locally-grown or produced vegetables, artisan bread and cheese, and seasonal tailgate markets, well-supported. A visit to a local organic market found a regional brewer giving away free samples of their ales; my gardening companion wa...

We would like to walk you through the following brief descriptions of the most popular interior design styles meant to give you an understanding and edge in choosing the look you would like your home to have. MODERN Modernist designs are known for their purist sensibilities including clean lines, spaciousness, and efficiency. It is a very popular styl e in Europe and North American condo living due to the spaciousness that it emphasizes. There is the absence of moldings and corbels, yet presence of very subtle textures, and nothing that creates a busy look. Style is reflected through technological materials such as stainless steel, glass, plastic, smooth wood veneers and other sleek materials . High-gloss lacquer finishes, exotic wood veneers , and stainless steel accents create a high-tech look. CONTEMPORARY Contemporary is of the moment. It is whatever’s different and what works for today. It’s uncluttered. Contemporary designs have some of the high-tech look and functionality ...

Time to getaway! The color palette of this country home designed by Steven Gambrel gives off such a relaxing vibe. It just feels so quiet...if that's possible! I think the first image is my favorite. The blue and white prints, the lanterns, the window panes...it's all so pretty!

I haven't grown brussel sprouts successfully myself to date; the few plants that I have tried were either eaten by a woodchuck or frosted in the shady conditions of my main vegetable garden in winter. So I definitely perked up in the fall when my greens-averse colleague mentioned how much she liked her homegrown brussel sprouts, as she put plants into the vegetable garden. I'd never eaten a brussel sprout before going off to graduate school. In (San Franciso) Bay Area vegetable markets, though, fresh brussel sprouts were a new, enticing vegetable (along with fresh mushrooms, red peppers, and all sorts of other things). I tried them, in my enthusiasm for the variety of winter vegetables that were available, many from the productive nearby coastal valleys, and enjoyed their fresh, cabbage-like taste. Spending time in Germany after graduate school, brussel sprouts were ubiquitous, but overcooked, offered up in little dishes at the Mensa (the University cafeteria). What was mor...

I've always been a little shy of having a window in my doorway...and this goes well beyond a little window. But I LOVE it! The turquoise door just makes it all the more incredible. Of course, this image is from Domino . *sniff sniff*

Architects have many great tools that they can work with.  And under skilled hands they can be a great benefit to their clients.  One such tool is a software program called Google Sketchup .  Sketchup is a 3d modeling program that is surprisingly easy to use.  The images you see below are of a house designed by  Larson Brenner Architects in Stillwater, Minnesota.  The images represent a series of color studies that were performed with Sketchup.  The basic design had already been completed and we were now at the stage of finalizing materials and colors for the roofing, walls, windows.  The top image is pretty much where we ended up and the images below represent the various intermittent studies. Pretty cool huh?  It is a great way to visualize your end product.  For more sketchup examples you can see the plans at  Simply Elegant Home Designs

Do you love colors? We do. In fact, we are totally obsessed with it. To us, there is nothing else that can elevate your mood so quickly, so completely. We saw the new furniture collection from Anne Selke for Vanguard Furniture and we just love it. Anne Selke is the creative force behind Pine Cone Hill , a very pretty bedding line. Her furniture reflects her aesthetic perfectly. It's pretty, colorful and liveable. Here are some samples of the furniture. You can see the complete collection at the Vanguard web site.

Can't you just feel the breeze? This Key West kitchen from Coastal Living is as good as it gets. I love the shutter-inspired wall and island, the painted floors and the beautiful mini-brick mosaic backsplash. What a dream!

I ran across this totally factual article the other day.  Could not resist posting the link. Architects are sexy!

This Queen Elizabeth Woven Cotton Bedspread is incredibly luxurious bedding for your home's interior design, yet completely easy care. Wonderfully thick, and deeply textured with a center medallion and knotted fringed trim for a classic finish. Available Colors: (01) Beige (shown), (00) White, (72) Silver Green, (60) Sky Blue, (52) Lilac, (77) Woodland Green, (65) Colonial Blueor (47) Brick 100% cotton Machine wash and dry Imported. You can get it easily in this shop. You can get easy the Queen Elizabeth Woven Cotton Bedspread in this shop, not only that special edition of interior design, in this shop, you can find about 94,788 matches of many bedding, waw...and its really easy, because you can shop online from your home directly. When you shopping the bedding for your home interior design in this shop, you'll find great deals on all the products they're famous for and thousands of items available for in-store pickup. It's easy to shop at this shop. With shopping the ...

Have you ever been in love at first sight? We have. With an object, that is. We first saw BoBo Intriguing Objects at the Atlanta Mart last year and we've been meaning to write about it. BoBo stands for Bourgois and Bohemian, and we have to say, that just describes the products PERFECTLY. We love this line because it takes reclaimed wood and makes them into amazingly beautiful things-- kinda rustic and organic--but in a very refined and sophisticated way. Here are some samples of their products. They look WAY better in person, we must tell you. You can check out the rest of the products on BOBO web site . They are a little bit pricey, but that's because the quality of the workmanship is so high. At the moment we do not carry BoBo products yet, but if you are interested in anything in particular, drop us a line .

Not all my Spanish lavenders look like this in late January. Most look rather spindly at this point. But, it's hard to beat a plant that looks this good after an usually cold winter. I think it was a 'thank you' from last summer's Master Gardener conference, a cultivar called 'Anouka' maybe (darn, a quick search of previous posts brought all sort of other interesting thoughts about Spanish lavender, but not the source of this one). I'll have to do a more complete search. Spanish lavenders are also tolerant of our humidity, unlike 'English' and 'French' lavenders.

This bedroom discovered by Oliveaux is just so beautiful. What lucky girls call this room their own?! The soaring blue walls, pretty pink curtains and beautiful chandelier are all lovely. And I love the mix of prints and colors on the perfectly disheveled bedding too. So cozy and cute!

In this time, I will introduce you the Wall Pops for your Home Interior Design. Its really easy, new way to wake up your walls! These colorful, peel-and-stick graphic elements are totally repositionable and removable, and won't leave sticky residue on the wall. Choose from a 5-pack of circles, a 5-pack of squares or a wall border to mix or match. Pssst, you can get it easily in shop.com. About Wall Pops, you can easily cut them to the desired size and shape with scissors to fit the space or express your creativity. Its really perfect idea to make your interior design more modern and up to date! Vinyl on paper with adhesive backing. Available color/pattern: ( 35) Totally Orange, (52) Purple Perk, (73) Stylin' Green, (69) Rainy Day Navy, (42) Bubble Gum Pink, (04) Lots of Dots Pink, (06) Lots of Dots Blue, (05) Ribbon Candy Purple, (03) Go Retro Pink or (13) Go Retro Orange Wipe-clean USA You can get easy the Wall Pops in this shop, not only that special edition of interior desi...

In my real job (non-blogging) I am finding that more and more people are interested in building a more environmentally responsible and healthy home.   Leaving political discussions and arguments about “climate change” behind (I don’t like being preached to and I don’t like preaching), I believe there are many common sense reasons to build a “Green” home .   Here are two pretty good ones: Save you money $$$ in the long run Reduce your stress level – improve your quality of life If you want to build a Green Home there is an abundant amount of information available to you.   But start investigating Green and you begin to realize there can be a daunting number of decisions to make – and they all impact your construction budget in some way.   Building Green can start to look incredibly complicated and expensive - and neither of these notions is inherently “Green”.   Well it does not  have to work that way. So what I want to do, starting with this posting is to help you simp...

Update: 2/16/09 Well, all of our birds that we had in January have flown the coup. Not a one has been spotted in my back or front yard. We've had food in the feeder. They stayed while we had all of the nasty cold weather and now it's been rather nice. I did see a few Canadian Geese and one robin while in town today. Less snow and more lawn showing. Hopefully if anyone participated in the bird count, you actually had some birds to count. Great Backyard Bird Count Take part in this year's Great Backyard Bird Count sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon . This special event is to take place February 13-16, 2009, so mark your calendars. What a great way to spend a winter weekend with your kids or grandchildren. Grab a pair of binoculars and a camera ... follow the directions her e . Stop back and let me know if you participate ... I'd love to see your photos. Photo Credit

A new twist to container gardening. Try turning an old hard plastic wading pool into the perfect large scale container garden. Check out the directions here . There are many other urban gardening ideas that I am going to try in addition to my traditional garden ... such as using old tires, burlap bags, etc. I just happen to have an old wading pool that is seldom used. This plan may yield my salad garden freeing up more garden space for larger crops. Photo Credit

American beech trees retain their leaves in the winter, giving successional forests a ghostly appearance. Beeches are abundant in the understory of hardwood forests here; shade-tolerant beeches have regenerated in the lower light levels of maturing forest. Lack of periodic natural fire is another reason that beeches are common where they didn't used to be; fire damages their thin bark, killing young (and old) trees. The dead leaves are shed as the new leaves expand in spring.

This deliciously colorful room designed by Scott Weston is everything I dream of in a living room. The shade of turquoise is perfect. The furniture is perfect. The rug is perfect. The shelves and embossed doors ? PERFECT!