Bridget Otto Thursday on Saturday

Bridget A Otto had a beautifully illustrated article, Mirror Mirage, in Thursday's Homes & Gardens section in The Oregonian.

Our mirrors remind us of who we have become, but

A strategically placed mirror won't make you look younger, but it might lighten that dark corner near the entry or make the small guest room appear larger.

You can even create the illusion of a window.

We learn from the article that Suzanne Gallagher's new book is out: "The Fine Art of Wall Design" (Alta Press, 2006).

Bridget quotes designer Patti Marvitz.

A reflection doubles what's in the room, so you'd better like what you see in the room.

Gallagher notes

And just as that mirror in the bathroom has a practical purpose, so does the pretty one in the front hall.

That way you'll never end up saying, "I didn't know that was sticking to my skirt!"

The Bridget Otto article also has some practical advice for hanging those heavy mirrors on drywall (see pdf).

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Fads or Trends?

The Sacbee has an interesting article about fads and trends entitled
Can you separate the oh-so-trendy from the tried-and-true timeless?
By Alison apRoberts.

...there are ways to identify style trends that are likely to have staying power.

Two current themes promise to wear well. One is the Arts and Crafts style, which hews to the traditional, yet its simplicity and use of natural materials make it feel up-to-date and timeless.

...the other style du jour as "sleek, modern urban loft design." Again, simple designs and natural materials can keep the style from looking dated.

I liked this idea

"The shell of your home is like your body and the furniture is like the clothing, and the accessories are like the jewelry...

To avoid fads buy a few pieces of quality furniture that is timeless and change small things around it; throw pillows, wall colors, accessories.

Then apRoberts remembers the fads and trends of the past and what is fashionable today

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Art Glass: Contemporary Assessories

From Home Accents Today, Art Glass: Avant Garde Art Glass by Kara Cox

With art glass maintaining its contemporary appeal, these colorful pieces add a touch of eye candy to the mod mix. Abstract designs grab your attention in electric hues of red, blue and green or with graphic touches of black and white. Art glass is an easy way to update the home with a touch of modern appreciation.

Global Views' tall oval bowl in a fiery orange hue has a playful iridescent touch.

Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery is proud to carry Global Views.

Bev & Mike

Art Glass Contemporary Interior Design Mover Mike

Swan, ID and Square Scoops

Yellowstone 056
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

Bev & Mike traveled over 1000 miles to see and taste the ice cream at Rainey Creek in Swan, ID.

The story is: In 1943 the owners decided to expand into selling ice cream and Gracie ordered an ice cream scoop from back east. When it arrived it was a square scooper and she was very upset. Her husband said why don't we try it. That happy accident and some great flavors like Moose Tracks, Cotton Candy, Play Doh and Huckleberry & Cream have attracted visitors from all over. The present owners may go through 30 tubs of Huckleberry & Cream a week, and some are so taken with the flavor that they will walk out if their favorite is out.

Swan can be reached on the road from Jackson Hole, WY to Idaho Falls. The Swan Valley is one of the prettiest we saw on our road trip to Yellowstone.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Yellowstone 055

Yellowstone 055
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

Bev in front of Rainey Creek in Swan, ID, home of the square scoop ice cream in a cone. She has been to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole and is on the way home.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

San Gimignano Is Under Siege

One of our favorite cities is under siege. Three million tourists come to San Gimignano each year (compare that to two million visitors to Jackson Hole) and they come in fast, take a quick picture of themselves against a tower and whisk out to another city in the triangle.

“Some people, jokingly, say that we have to get out of the ‘Bermuda Triangle,’ a reference to the hordes of tourists in sandals and shorts who migrate between St. Peter’s in Rome, the Uffizi in Florence and Piazza San Marco in Venice,” said Francesco Rutelli, deputy prime minister and culture minister.

In 2000, when Mike and I went to Italy to celebrate my 50th birthday, we flew into Venice, spent several nights there, drove to Radaa and spent a week there driving to the Uffizi in Florence, San Gimignano, Siena, and many of the towns in Tuscany, then we drove to Rome for another week.

If you have the time, I would encourage you to get to know these medieval towns, enjoy lunch and dinner there, sit in the sun and sip a cup of coffee, enjoy the Gelato, talk with the Italians, practice your limited Italian and marvel at the ancient buildings and the light.

“The problem is hit-and-run tourism, which doesn’t create wealth or guarantee the preservation of a beautiful but delicate city,” said Sabrina Benenati, the town counselor responsible for commerce and local productivity. “If all you want to do is get photographed in front of a tower, I’m sure there are computer programs that can do the same thing with no damage to the town and without spending much money.”

Don't be a hit-and-run tourist!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Do you love Watermelons?

Are you frustrated with the fruit because they roll around when you are slicing them? Do you hate it that they roll around in your fridge? Well Brazil has come up with



Square Melons!

Tesco exotic fruit buyer Damien Sutherland: 'We’ve seen samples of these watermelons and they literally stop you in their tracks because they are so eye-catching.

'Melons are among the most delicious and refreshing fruit around but some people find them a problem to store in their fridge or to cut because they roll around.

In Japan they sell for about $75 a melon. We'll wait until the price comes down.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Square Watermelons Watermelon Bev & Mike

Is it time for wallpaper again?

Pure Contemporary thinks so in We're Stuck on Wallpaper all over again!

Button Up from Tracy Kendall is a bespoke look with buttons (large or small, plain or detailed, delicate or chunky) and their holes sewn into plain or textured wallpaper.

Caroline Kooshoian writes

...wallpaper's surging toward a comeback, and it’s left the brash, fussy and fuzzy behind.

[...]

It gets bold with stark geometric prints, fun with abstract flowers and artistic in hand-painted sheets. But it's the organic warm looks in cork, wood, grasscloth, textiles, even mother of pearl and glass, that have helped lead wallpaper manufacturers to almost $8 billion in sales last year, and showed the faux finishing crowd that walls can shine with luminous depth sans telltale sponge marks.

Exciting isn't it?

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bridget Otto Thursday

Can we get a hooha! for Bridget Otto Thursday? Hooha!

Her latest article is in today's Oregonian Homes & Gardens section entitled Pattern Recognition. She writes

Decorating with patterns takes an even hand and a trained eye.

Designers with the magic touch talked with me about what it takes to pull multiple patterns together to make one fabulous room, and I'm here to pass along their wisdom.

She interviews several designers including our friend Jim Yockey and finds that while rules can be restictive, there are themes:

"The first is scale," says Jim Yockey, showroom manager at Linde Ltd., a to-the-trade-only designer showroom in Southwest Portland. Especially when mixing patterns. If every pattern vies for attention, the designers agree, it's like a room full of toddlers all screaming at once. No one gets noticed.

Another friend of Landfair Furniture is Kimberly Jaynes:

"The eye wants rhythm and bounce," says Kimberlee Jaynes of Kimberlee Jaynes Interior Designs Inc. "What's interesting in the room is the play off one pattern to the next. If there isn't contrast, then it all becomes one big mess."

Sharon Tjader has some input about rhythm:

Contrast can come in solids, too. A solid-color wall or carpet, or even the tiniest muted print that looks almost solid, provides needed contrast when you're working with patterns, says Sharon Tjader of Design Concepts of Oregon. It also provides a place for the eye to rest. Or as Tjader says, a pause in the rhythm of the room.

"Design is all about rhythm," she says.

Bridget devotes the rest of the article to the use of color and explains a color wheel:

If you work within the colors of the feature -- or dominant -- fabric, then your guidelines are readily set.

But, if you want to cross over to harmonizing colors or contrasting colors, then you need to understand the all-important color wheel.

As usual Bridget gives us much to think about as we look at pictures of decorated rooms in magazines or tour places like the Street of Dreams this next month.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bridget Otto Jim Yockey Kimberlee Jaynes Sharon Tjader
Bev & Mike

To Market, To Market!

Bev is off to Las Vegas tomorrow, Wednesday, for the Home Furnishings Market. "I am excited to see Dinec'," she says. Dinec' is relaunching the company at market after seeking court protection and then being sold to Bermex in April.

Dinec' will be offering three new bedrooms and 10 new dining chairs. Apparently they have simplified their offerings and stress that they are one of the most personalized manufacturers. In addition, they are broadening their focus from purely contemporary to a mix of offerings, by adding some traditional.

She's excited about leaving with her sister Carol Brandis , but first she and I get to celebrate 14 years of marriage tonight with dinner at standing room only Nuestra Cocina at 21st and SE Division.

Bev will be visiting Hekman, Palecek, CBK, Mirador and many others. Speaking of Mirador, they will unveil more than a dozen TV cabinets some able to handle 60 inch flatscreens.


She will have all the "dish", when she returns to the store on Saturday.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

ASID IP Focus: Merridy Gerlach

IP Focus
By Mike and Bev Landfair, Allied Member ASID

This quarter the IP focus is on Merridy Gerlach of Tufenkian Artisan Carpets. The interview took place in the Tufenkian showroom on 21st and W. Burnside. When we walked in, two golden retrievers greeted us. Henry is the lighter colored golden, ten years old, and Lucy is darker and eight years old. Merridy is a beautiful, tall blond, co-manager, who has been at Tufenkian’s for nine years. She stays fit by moving carpets around, walking her dogs and gardening.

Merridy has been an IP member since 2003. She has been highly involved with ASID, and was on the board last year as the IP Representave to the Board. She was in charge of the planning of last years's Vendor Fair in Ashland. She also regularly attends member meetings and has been a great support to the Chapter.

We discussed Tufenkian and discovered that there are three Corporate showrooms in the country: Manhattan, Los Angeles and Portland. There will soon be one in Dallas, Texas. Our first question was “Why Portland?” Tufenkian Carpets has been an established showroom in the Portland area for over 25 years, originally carrying carpets from all over the world. When David Tufenkian prepared to retire from the showroom in Portland in 2002, James Tufenkian, who is the Founder of the Tufenkian Corporation based in New York, realized that the Portland Showroom was such a fixture with the designer community that the relationship was too important to disrupt. The Tufenkian Showroom is now focused on the carpets that Tufenkian produces. The complete collections of the Tufenkian Tibetan and Armenian Carpets being made are displayed on racks, which makes it very easy to review the selection.

The carpets are magnificent, hanging on the walls like fine art. Still made in Nepal and Armenia the time-tested way by citizens who benefit from Tufenkian’s business philosophy. Special training, higher wages, work places with modern amenities, health programs and schools for local communities and a ban on child labor are hallmarks of the Tufenkian way of doing business.

“It is a wonderful place to work”, says Merridy. “Not only do I get to be a support system for designers, using my creative abilities as much as are needed, but I know that Tufenkian is supporting the people that are involved with our product. We feel passionately about making a difference in the places where our carpets are made.”

When not working, Merridy spends time with her husband Doug and their families which both live in the Portland area, gardens, travels (she would love to visit Nepal and Armenia) and reads. Two of her most recently read books are Sight Hound by Pam Houston and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

In addition, Merridy is a Tellington Touch Practitioner. The Tellington Touch is a holistic approach to helping animals get back in balance physically and emotionally.
We mentioned that we have a golden named Ralph that we rescued and live in Merridy’s neighborhood. In Merridy’s case, dog people are good people!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Merridy Gerlach Tufenkian Artisan Carpets
Quarterly ASID IP Focus Bev & Mike

1.25 Million Coming to Portland

We are going to need all those condos according to David Nielsen of the Home Builders Assn.. In New Home Monthly, a special advertising section of The Oregonian, he writes

Contrary to those who thought that Metro's growth projections were inflated and thus no Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) expansion was needed in 2002, Metro now acknowledges that they underestimated how quickly the million new residents would come to Portland.

The numbers now say that the population increase expected in earlier estimates will be here 10 to 15 years sooner (emphasis added)

Here are Metro's projections:

1.25 million more people in the Portland Metro area
700,000 new jobs, increasingly service-sector jobs not manufacturing

That is equivalent to squeezing an additional 450,000 households, or two cities the size of present-day Portland, into a metropolitan area that is already 80 percent developed.

And you thought traffic was bad.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Portland David Nielsen Urban Growth Boundary Bev & Mike

New Condos in Portland are Green

Today, New Home Monthly, a special advertising section of The Oregonian, is an interesting article about the lengths designers and builders are going to make "Green" the South Waterfront condos in Portland.

South Watewrfront Condos reach for the sky but design favors the Earth by Jeff Kuechle tells us soecial roofs of dirt, gravel and plants capture as much rainwater as possible before it reaches the river.

"Anything up to a heavy rain will be absorbed," said Kelly Saito of Gerding/Edlen, co-developer with Williams & Dame of the River Blocks at South Waterfront, a project that includes The Meriwether, John Ross and Atwater Place condominiums.

Kuechle tells us that is just the beginning of the green amenities.

"The doors and cabinetry have agrifiber cores, a type of fiberboard made from wheat straw or sunflower-seed shells and formaldehyde-free binder, covered with a thin veneer of hardwood," said architects Bruce Brown and Kyle Andersen of GBD Architects.

Other features include floors made from sustainably harvested, golden-brown merbau from Brazil. Floor-to-ceiling windows have high-performance glass that limits solar gain while admitting as much natural light as possible, cutting down on the need for electric lighting and helping to keep the units cooler in the summer.

Bottom line the condos are expected to use 30 percent less water and 35% less energy. You can read the whole article here.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

South Waterfront Portland Condos Jeff Kuechle Bev & Mike

Casket Furniture

Browsing the net, Mike found this unusual and possibly "green"idea:

At CasketFurniture.com, our products can last you a lifetime, and still be the perfect vehicle to carry you to the great beyond. Whether it's a couch, shelf, or end table, our products are designed to blend effortlessly into most contemporary interior designs. Every product can also be transformed into a high-quality casket at your time of need.

Extremely contemporary design combines metal and wood to create this timeless masterpiece. This sofa will always provide you with the ultimate place of rest, whether its taking a load off, or doing the final send off.

It almost takes your breath away!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Casket Furniture Green Furniture Bev & Mike

A Wooden Severance Agreement

Hat Tip to Footnote.org for this furniture related item: a strange severance agreement that includes the office furniture.

The former chief legal officer of Mannatech (MTEX) asked for — and received — her office furniture as part of her severance agreement. That’s in addition to a consulting agreement that will pay her $10K a month for the next year. Oh, and there’s also her company car thrown in for good measure. But both of those are pretty standard compared to the office furniture, which the filing very specifically spells out as consisting of "the executive desk, executive chair and two side chairs".

Don't forget her computer. What's next?

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Severance Agreement Mannatech (MTEX Office Furniture Bev & Mike

Adding to the Blogroll: Article Dashboard

We added another resource to our blogroll Article Dashboard.

Article Dashboard is an online article directory for both publishers and authors. Formed in August of 2005, ArticleDashboard.com strives to become a leader in the world of online publishing by providing syndication services to website owners, ezine publishers, and more.

Here are a few of the directories:
Arts & Entertainment
Fashion
Food & Beverage (including Recipes and wine)
Health & Fitness
Home & Family (includes Interior Design)
Product Reviews (includes Book and Movie Reviews)

The Interior Design section has an article entitled Why Heavily Scented Candles? – Preserve The Aroma In Your Home

There is a difference between heavily scented candles, richly scented candles and triple scented candles. Many people believe that all three mean that the candle has a strong scent that will last until the candle burns out completely. For the most part, heavily scented candles means that a larger than normal amount of fragrance has been added to the wax in the candle making process. In general, one-half ounce is the normal amount of essential oil added to the melted wax. In heavily scented candles, this amount is tripled so that one and a half ounces are added.

There are many interesting articles and you can be an author for this or any other section. It is an excellent way to get name recognition. For fun Google your name or your interior design business. Many of you will find that you are not well known. You know who you are! This is an expensive way to communicate with potential clients.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Adding to the Blogroll: Home Decorating Reviews

Here's another new resource for interior designers, their clients and homeowners: Home Decorating Reviews (HDR).
What is special about HDR?

Home Decorating Reviews.com is an online magazine on interior design projects.

With detailed product reviews on a wide range of attractive and creative decorating products and accessories.

One of the first freebies we found at the site was this report

free with a free subscription to their newsletter!

The report covers care tips for Bamboo, Hardwood, Tile, Marble and Vinyl floors. I found much of the report informative with many useful tips to save us money. If you are like us, with too busy schedules, we have a house cleaner come in every two weeks.

Do our housecleaners know that using oil soaps on clear coat hardwood floors should be avoided because leave behind a streaky residue that can build up a dull the shine? Better to use mild pH balanced (ph7) household cleaner in a spray bottle.

Do our housecleaners know that vinegar, which is acidic, in water can etch or bleach our marble floors or counters; that removing gum from marble with something hard can scratch?

Do our housecleaners know that some harsh or abrasive cleansers can eat away at the finish of vinyl flooring?

For us, we feel this report is important enough to print and give to our house cleaner. Hopefully, all this information was included in her training. What? You say you don't know what kind of training she had. All the more reason to print a copy.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Adding to the Blogroll: DesignTalk

We are working on our Blogroll and investigating new resources on the web for interior designers and their clients. We have come across DesignTalk run by Karalee. On her blog she says

We’re about solutions, ideas, sharing and community. Whether you’re an experienced designer looking for home décor tips, or a college student trying to set up your first apartment, we have something for everyone.

Our articles focus on tips, suggestions and solutions:

One of the first articles that caught our attention was this one: Fast Tips for Selling Your Home. We are seeing some homes sitting on the market a little longer than what was normal and we're seeing signs that say, "Price Reduced".

Fast Tips for Selling Your Home has some suggestions about
1. What to subtract
2. What to add to get the house sold!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Gretchen Schauffler to Make Presentation

If you are a member of NWSID or a guest you are in for a treat at the NWSID General Meeting on July 13th. Gretchen Schauffler will be speaking.


Schauffler is the creator of Devine Color, a paint line, a color solution, sold at Miller Paint and many stores across the country and she says on her web site

I created Devine Color as my personal confirmation that wall color impacts the way we live. Backgrounds impart a visual .fragrance that makes a space unique and personal. I believe that our personal affinity for certain colors give us instant pleasure and we should give ourselves permission to live with them.

Like colors in a great painting, perfect color does not stand alone. It is the relationship and position of colors in an environment that makes it perfect.

Schauffler is an author of About Devine Color: When Color Sings, a seasoned speaker on the subject of color, an entrepreneur, and the subject of countless articles and national news stories.

Gretchen Schauffler was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where vibrant Caribbean colors influenced her personal palette for a lifetime. She moved to the United States to attend college where her diverse interests found her at four schools from New York to the Pacific Northwest, in programs as varied as architecture, fashion design and art therapy. She finally settled on a degree in graphic design from Portland State University.

After college, Gretchen's first career was in sales where she excelled, winning top honors at one of the world's foremost pharmaceutical firms. When her on-the-road career took a stay-at-home turn with the births of her two daughters, Gretchen put her schooling to work, experimenting with color and artistic multi-layer glazes for her own walls.

This led to her creation of original artwork - where her creative talent, combined with her strong sales background, yielded uncanny success. Her works have been displayed in numerous galleries, the Bellevue Art Museum and special ordered through Nordstrom. Gretchen was also much sought after as a faux finisher, creating a demand for her talent among corporate and residential clients.

All the while, Gretchen was still playing and experimenting with what would emerge as her one true passion: color. This - along with a steady flow of offers to duplicate her custom paint colors in private homes - is what led her to her lifetime vision.

Taking advantage of seven years' worth of art, color and design experience, she developed the 11 original palettes of Devine Color. Then the petite powerhouse used her sales experience and contagious enthusiasm to sign an exclusive 25-year contract to produce and distribute Devine Color with the respected Miller Paint Company, a 110-year-old manufacturer.

A self-confessed pop culture junkie, Gretchen lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon, with her husband and children.

The General Meeting will be held at:

Miller Paint co. International
12803 NE Airport Way
Portland, OR 97230
Social Hour: 5:30-6:30 PM
Host Presentation: 6:30- 8:00 PM

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Nanine Alexander writes about Mark Downing

Don't miss the article in Homes & Gardens section of The Oregonian entitled
Grace ingrained
Woodworker extraordinaire Mark Downing infuses his creations with elegance and a touch of whimsy by Nanine Alexander.

The first thing that caught my attention was a picture of a classic garden bench inspired by British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, built by Downing to fit a curved wall in a Portlander's garden. I found a picture of a Lutyens' designed bench:

Thakeham Bench

The Thakeham seat pictured here in English Oak was designed for the garden at Little Thakeham near Storrington, West Sussex. The rhythmical symmetry of the bench is typical of LutyensÕs love of form.

Downing's bench is in a salmon color or faded Chinese red. Beautiful!

Nanine Alexander writes

Mark Downing's woodworking shop in Northeast Portland stands as a demonstration of his many skills.

He built it from the concrete floor up. Painted a cheerful blue, red and yellow with cedar siding and shingles, it sits on a gray stucco skirt. Leaded-glass windows, cut by Downing, look out on bright perennials planted by his girlfriend. On one of the corbels projecting from the roof, he installed a miniature statue of a Chinese warrior, a note of whimsy that he believes deserves a place in design.

The smell of cedar sends a greeting and leads you into a shop so tidy it's almost Zenlike. Tools hang on the walls, awaiting their turn to put form to his elegantly designed furniture, cabinetry, garden structures and buildings.

His creations are evidence of that philosophy and the architects who have influenced him.

We have some wonderful artists in Portland!

Mark Downing may be reached at 503-709-4049
or craftmark@gmail.com

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Update: One more reason to read the article:
FURNITUREToday writes French-Asian Crossing by Tracy Bulla

West and East converge with streamlined grace, highlighting the opulent side of both cultures with admirable subtlety. A modern mixture of these seemingly divergent design genres results in sophistication and simplicity lined up next to vibrancy and complexity. Antiqued shapes reemerge dusted off and leaner, while motifs like birds, flowers and plants are a recurrent theme. Just like a coat of lacquer, eye-popping shades of chartreuse, orange and scarlet give the look a gorgeous gloss.