I traveled to North Carolina last week and, as I always do, I stocked up on fashion magazines for the flights.  It’s my little “hey, I’m going to be stuck in a cramped seat on a crowded flight for way too long” indulgence.

Valentino Spring 2012

As I flipped through magazine after magazine, a particular trend caught my eye.

Louis Vuitton Spring 2012

Designers were embracing lace.

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2012

A LOT of lace.

Which means that the current trend for vintage lace in interiors is only going to get stronger.  But how do you embrace the look without going full on frilly?  Here are some suggestions….

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I must have this…

Think of it… a lampshade you wouldn’t look half bad in if you party just a little too much during the holidays!

The lovely Miss Wool knitted lamp, with that charmingly feminine bow, is from Italian design company Doimo Decor.

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Equal parts ethereal and threatening, this prickly looking lamp is by Amsterdam based product designer company Ilias Ernst.  By using magnetic fields to attract and hold nails to the lamp, the configuration of pendant can be easily manipulated, resulting in a completely unique piece every time.

I’m just not quite sure I would want to stand under it, you know what I mean? Read the rest of this entry »

The little wooden robot sits there, head cocked, arms outstretched, vacant drilled eyes staring into space.  Its expression is puzzled and innocent.  It looks like it wants a hug.  It’s cute.

Sometimes, in the earnest seriousness of striving to live green, we forget our sense of humor.  Marjolaine Poulin of M Design hasn’t forgotten… and she loves nothing better than to make other people smile, hence the little army of wooden robots marching out of her workshop in El Salvador.

Marjolaine (“Mao”) has taken scrap wood & discarded furniture and raised them both into art.

A native of Quebec, Canada, Mao splits her time between Montreal and El Salvador, always looking for inspiration.  Her introduction to woodworking came in 2004 in Guatemala, where she learned classical bamboo carpentry from a Taiwanese master.  Shortly afterward she began crafting her own designs hoping to promote bamboo’s many advantages as a building material in Central America.

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Sometimes a company’s product is difficult to define: I had this trouble while browsing Tim Leefeldt’s RailroadWare website.  Is it rustic?  Industrial?  Modern?  Nostalgic?  Well, take a look.

You decide.

There’s simplicity in these glass and steel designs, a clean look, one that’s versatile enough to be used in any number of decoration schemes.  I think they would complement just about any setting.

As much as possible, the materials are reclaimed objects.  Old glass & ceramic insulators, traffic light lenses, and hardened steel parts – the clips, spikes, and random hardware so abundant along unused rail lines – all hand-gathered by the artist and repurposed into lighting, door & cabinet hardware, and home furnishings. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night we took a “zombie lawyer”(aka my son) trick or treating.  This morning, he woke up with either a cold, or a really bad Halloween hangover.  So home he stayed, and here I sit, trying – not succeeding – to get things done.  I need a(nother) coffee.

I might also need this lamp!  Created out of 300 of those classic “It’s our pleasure to serve you” coffee cups (though I fear they were not used), by designer Christian DuCharme, this fun lamp hangs at the Lafayette Espresso Bar + Market in New York. Read the rest of this entry »

Shhhh…

Hear that?

You don’t?

Perfect!

Milano Wall

That sound you don’t hear is Zephyr’s new Next Generation Europa line of range hoods.

Napoli Island

The reason you hear hardly a thing isn’t because the hood is so loud it drowns out your smoke alarm when you set the bacon on fire (come on, it’s happened to all of us, right?).  No, it’s because these range hoods are equipped with Zephyr’s DCBL™ Suppression technology.

What’s that you ask?  Well, let’s take a look under the hood, shall we?

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I just returned from a brief (but fun) business trip to San Francisco, and once again I remember why I love to travel.  Seeing new places, making new friends, and getting out of my daily routine are so invigorating to me.  Now all I can think about are the places I want to go next!

Since I have such a severe case of wanderlust, I thought it appropriate to make this week’s “Etsy Find” a globe and map themed one.  Enjoy!

Map covered wooden chair by New Yorganize.

Collier’s 1935 Map Drawer Pulls by Sherry Truitt

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The latest installment in a series of artisan profiles by contributing writer Emerald Atkins.

The ancient Greek poets were said to be inspired by the Muses, nine goddesses who were the source of all art.

Visitors to the whyrHymer Store in Los Angeles may well believe that a tenth Muse is informing Brandon & Sundeep Morrison on their own creations.  The couple & their work have been featured in California Home & Design and California Homes.  The style of their lighting & furniture is solid yet elegant, evoking the philosophy of the early 20^th century Arts & Crafts movement yet speaking in its own distinct, thoroughly modern voice.

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I’m excited to welcome back writer Emerald Atkins for another of her excellent Artisan Profiles!

There are many lights in New York City, but perhaps the most unusual are created by Allison Patrick of Zipper 8 Lighting.

Although the core idea behind her designs is simple – the covering of plain lampshades or paper lanterns with repurposed materials – there is a playful wit at work there: quirky, modern, fun… and green.

Allison has always been a creative person and early on was influenced by a craft-loving family friend with whom she was “constantly creating things.”  Over time she realized that what she truly loved was creativity within the physical world, which led to a degree in Architecture.  Place, too, influences her work, as the “already built” nature of NYC limits the scope of creativity while focusing the latter into the elaboration of interior space, such as the transformation of “a simple white box of a room” into something personable and unique. Read the rest of this entry »