Mirador Chosen for Design Gallery

From Home Accents Today, Design Gallery focal point for trendy looks in Vegas

The Design Gallery, a juried exhibit area featuring stylish products and displays of up-and-coming trends, was created as the centerpiece of the temporary venue at this week's Las Vegas Market.

The Design Gallery will be located in a dedicated section of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center and will feature a broad cross-section of new designs.

Companies and products were hand-selected for inclusion in the showcase by an internal show management committee.

"At the Design Gallery, attendees can expect to see more of the high-style products that represent home decor and furniture," said Babs Blair, director of leasing at World Market Center. "We want this area to be a destination that showcases trend-setting products and serve as an incubator for unique new companies. Even companies selected more than once will be moved to different locations within the Design Gallery to keep it fresh and exciting.

"We use our collective knowledge of what is being promoted at different shows - including European fairs," said Blair. "In addition, we look at the quality of the exhibitors displays and review their catalogs as part of the basis for our criteria."

Lois Richards, trade shows and temporary leasing manager at World Market Center, stressed the Design Gallery is not simply a collection of trendy furniture or home decor products.

"It is more visual merchandising," she said. "The companies merchandise in unique ways, using the layouts of their booths to make it aesthetically beautiful so the booth is part of what they're showing. The whole ambience of their location, their booth, their stage and how it's designed is what's trendy - not specifically a piece of furniture or a designer color. It's more of a total look."

Richards said market attendees won't want to miss this innovative gallery. "It is going to be fresh, new and vital," she said. "It's an ever-changing area that is a must-see."

The selected exhibitors at this market's Design Gallery include: Antiques 2000, Bojay, Bull & Stein, Charles Carol Design, CTC/Chicago, Dare Deco, IDS Interior Design Source, Ital Art Designs, Leftbank Art Company, Mel V, Mila Brown International, Mirador Furnishings, Pulvermacher Designs, Rags, Roberta Schilling, Shawna Stoney, Sweet Smiling Home, Texture Home Decor, Thumprints, Van Teal, Wallternatives and Zambezi Trader.

Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery carries the Mirador Furnishings line and is pleased that a jury has selected Mirador to appear in the Design Gallery.

Bev & Mike

Flat Screen for Super Bowl XL

From the SacBee (registration required),

The new dilemma in home decor: Finding the right spot for flat screens

The 55-inch plasma screen at Joe and Patty Caldero's house in Elk Grove found a home over the fireplace. Increasingly, new houses are being built to accommodate both flat-screen TVs and the hidden wiring they require. Sacramento Bee/ Lezlie Sterling

Before opting for over the fireplace, try sitting and looking over the fireoplace for an extended period of time. You may find you get a crick in your neck, because the set is too high.

Credenzas, long and low cabinets sometimes also called buffets or sideboards, marry well with flat-panel TVs.

[...]

Install a flat-panel TV on a wall and you gain usable square footage. Big-screen behemoths of the past protruded as much as 30 inches into rooms. They dominated and were considered an unsightly focal point by interior designers.

[...]

After a flat-panel (or two) is purchased, its placement and installation likely will require professional help. Wires need to be hidden, sometimes in walls, and component installation of a home theater system often requires a pro. You don't just plug everything in and adjust the rabbit ears. There never have been more options for installing a TV.

CNET has some great information about getting HDTV and their recommendation for Flat-Screen TV's

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Eight Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Interior Designer

It seems that every day a new magazine comes in the mail detailing home decorating ideas. I'm having trouble keeping up with my reading!

Home, in their January 26th issue has an article entitled Hire It Out: Interior Designer. The lead paragraph asks a great question:

If you're a regular Home reader, you may be thinking, "Interior designer? Why?"

After all, each month our editors work to give you the know-how to design and decorate with confidence. But a day may come when scheduling constraints, blocked creativity, or a thorny layout problem makes hiring an interior designer the best option.

The article makes some very good points.

First, make sure the scale of the project really warrants an interior designer.

If you just want to add a piece or two to a room, many furniture stores have in-house stylists who can advise you. On the other hand, if you're talking demolition, you'll need an architect. Interior designers fall somewhere in between: They create furniture plans, coordinate colors, handle purchasing, and manage the installations through a rolodex of reliable subcontractors. To find a pro, peruse shelter magazines, seek recommendations from folks whose homes you admire, and check the American Society of Interior Designers website's (asid.org) referrals page. Meet at least three candidates who satisfy your style and budget needs, and trust your gut on rapport. "You have to like the person; they have to like you," says Debbie Wiener, of the Washington, D.C.—area firm Designing Solutions. "After all, you're hiring a new best friend for the next six months—and that's assuming it's a short project."

Second, get a contract.

Third, how much will it cost?

Four, Eight must-ask questions for the designer, plus the answers you want to hear.

Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery has an interior designer on staff Mondays and we specialize working with designers and their clients. In addition we are members of NWSID and ASID. Because of these associations, we believe we are in a unique position to recommend designers that may fit your needs if the scale of the project warrants.

Bev & Mike

It's Bridget Otto Thursday!

Thursday is becoming "Bridget A. Otto Thursday". Today via The Oregonian's Homes & Garden section, Otto captures our attention with the article
Color vision, Forecasters home in on future trends.

Color is big business.

Steve Noble, with the Luxury Marketing Council, told people at a 2004 interior design seminar in Seattle that accurate forecasting translates to fortunes. He talked about an ad featuring a chartreuse Saab. Looking back over my notes from that seminar I find this notation next to chartreuse: "sleeper color."

He called it.

Color Marketing Group uses a democratic approach, as Conroy calls it. Each year, during conferences in the spring and the fall, members break into workshops and, before discussing color, consider what key influences will drive color direction.

Those influences can come from the economy or world events, such as Hurricane Katrina.

"These things dramatically impact how people look at the world," Conroy said. Sad news keeps people closer to home, which, in the color forecasting world, translates to more soothing colors.

Conversely, just like the expression "the future looks rosy," colors brighten when things are going well.

Cultural influences also have an effect. As technology knits the world more tightly, we see, taste and feel other countries' influences more quickly. This plays out in a category the color group labels "Hybrid."

The bottom line for 2006:

"Colors for 2006 will be warmer, clearer and brighter," the color forecasters report. "Reddened oranges will replace coppery hues; yellows will gain importance; blues will dramatically recede; and complex neutrals will add sophistication and luxury to the 2006 Consumer Color Palette."

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Online Spending in 2005 Up 22%!

Here's some very heartening news for our on-line furniture and accessories store, Landfair Furniture Annex, from comScore Networks.

comScore Networks just released holiday season and annual online spending figures for full year 2005, concluding that total Internet spending for the full year, including travel, reached $143.2 billion, up 22 percent over the $117.2 billion spent online in 2004.

Non-Travel (Retail) spending for the Holiday season was up year over year by 25%! For the full year of 2005, Non-Travel (Retail) spending increased to $82.3 Billion, up 24%.

Within the Non-Travel (Retail) Home & Garden spending was up 32% in 2005; and spending on Furniture increased 24% in 2005 (and "they" say that furniture is not sold over the net).

Further, according to data from Goldman, Sachs, Nielsen//NetRatings, and Harris Interactive eSpending Report, the distribution of spending in stores over the last four years has declined from 78% to 68% and online has grown from 16% to 27%.

What do we conclude from all those numbers? The internet is increasingly a place where people shop for their homes and Landfair Furniture will continue to emphasize the internet for awareness of our offerings. We will continue to use our blog to deliver information that based on your feedback, is useful, entertaining and valuable.

We will continue encouraging you the interior designer to get a web presence; web site and/or blog. Based on visitors to Landfair Furniture+Desugn Gallery. your future clients need your input. Some don't want to rely on their judgement when it comes to spending money. Some are not familiar with many of the terms you use. They want to see examples of your work and read about your design philosophy. The market is relying more and more on the web and you need to be there.

Bev & Mike

UPDATE: In a recently released Memo/Report on the use of the Internet by both men and women, the study found

women are catching up in overall use and are framing their online experience with a greater emphasis on deepening connections with people.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

New Items: Sonoma Large Urn with lid

New Items: Sonoma Large Urn with lid
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

Yipes Stripes!
Absolutely stunning color. If you need a punch for your room, this is it.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

New Items: Three Vases

New Items: Three Vases
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

16" orange orange
and two 20" one is orange orange and the other is orange red.

These vases would be great in any setting from mid-century to now.

Notice the colors, Orange, light blue and Chocolate are the latest interior colors.

New Items: Three Vases

New Items: Three Vases
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

16" orange orange
and two 20" one is orange orange and the other is orange red.

These vases would be great in any setting from mid-century to now.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

New Items: Two Ceramic Canisters

New Items: Two Ceramic Canisters
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

One is 22 Inches high with lid
Second is 16 Inches high with lid
Color: Caramel

The lids are cool and impressive.

Lamp can be used with Asian or Transitional. Ask for details.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

New Items: 22" Ceramic Charger with Stand

New Items: 22" Ceramic Charger with Stand
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

Caramel in color on stand, 22 inches in diameter.
Great large accessory for transitional to European environment.

Do you send enough "Thank You" notes?

I was impressed recently, by my brother's fiance. She held Christmas dinner at her house for the whole family of about 30 people. She asked me to bring a salad. Three days after the dinner, I received a thank you note in the mail for bringing salad. Now here's a woman with three girls, she's an emergency room nurse, she's planning her wedding on January 1st, hosting a large dinner, and she finds the time to send a note. The wedding took place, there was a honeymoon and yesterday a thank you note came in the mail, thanking us for the wedding present.

Mike has a friend in Bend, Billy Two Hawks, who is also very good at sending notes thanking us for something or other. Recently, we received a note thanking us for attending his 60th birthday party.

I raise the issue of "Thank You" notes because I came across Jim Logan's Blog and he writes about 8 Tips To Writing Personal Notes Of Appreciation. He writes:

Personal notes of thanks are probably the most powerful thing you can do as a person in a relationship. The goodwill represented by taking the time and personal care to write a note is incredible.

Check out his web site for the eight tips here.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

New Items: Sonoma Collection Box with Lid

Sonoma Collection Box with Lid
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

Yipes Stripes!
Keep your secrets here.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

New Items: Empire eliptical bowl

Empire eliptical bowl
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

Exotic wood inside, hammered finish outside

This would make a dramatic transitional to contempory statement.

29 inches long

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

New Items: Lorenzo Collection:Two Candalabras and Table lamp

Lorenzo Collection:Two Candalabras and Table lamp
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

20 inch and 16 inch Candalabras and Table Lamp, color is champagne gold

Great way to unite a theme in one room.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

New Items: Large Orange Orange Bowl

Large Orange Orange Bowl
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

19 1/2 inches in diameter, 4 1/2 inches high.
You can see light through this big bowl.
Forget football. This is the real Orange Bowl!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

New Items: Nambia Charger with Metal Stand

Nambia Charger with Metal Stand9
Originally uploaded by gily122000.

Target this!
Black and cream in opaque ceramic.

Use in contempory loft space or setting or update your accessories.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Decor8, the Blog

We discovered a new blog, Decor8, written by Holly from Boston, Mass. It's a very interesting blog with lots of great ideas and interesting pictures. We were struck by this photo of a poster:

The poster, "The Illustrated History of Rocking Chairs", is available from Design Boom for $10. Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery has to have it.

Bev & Mike

California Olive Oil?

January 18, 2006

From MercuryNews.com, Golden State's olive presses yield bottles on par with world's best.

For the most part, California olive oils aim for the high end of the market. The best -- handpicked, cold-pressed and unfiltered -- compare favorably to the most respected in the world, taking top honors in international competitions.

California's production is still small, about 400,000 gallons, and it is best used not for cooking, but for applying as a flavor enhancement. The greener the olive the more peppery, so many olive oil producers try for a balance between the black olives and green. It takes the olives from about three trees to produce a gallon of oil.

There are strong links between wine and olive oil. Both crops thrive in similar climates and soils. It's no accident the modern California olive oil industry took root in the wine country of Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Table olives had long been grown in California, but little premium was put on the oil until vintner Lila Jaeger began making oil from old trees growing at Rutherford Hill winery, says Vossen, the UC extension olive oil guru.

Today, most growers follow the lead of Evers (Ridgley Evers, a software executive, had brought the first Tuscan trees to the States in 1990 to start DaVero oil company in Sonoma.), who fell in love with a Tuscan oil and planted trees on his Dry Creek Valley farm that were grown from cuttings propagated in Lucca, Italy. Tuscan-style oils tend to be more herbaceous, with a pungent, peppery kick, depending on how early the olives are harvested in the fall and how long the oils have been stored. Oils from more mellow varieties such as manzanilla and those that have been harvested when the fruit is riper are more likely to be softer and more buttery. Oils also begin to lose their sharp edges when they're stored, so an oil from last year's harvest will be less bitter than one that was just pressed.

Olive oil goes perfectly with the good breads that are baked here in Portland. A good restaurant here pays attention to both.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

DailyCandy

January 17, 2006

Are you going to be traveling to one of these cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco or Washington D.C.? Check out DailyCandy!

We first learned about Daily Candy as most do: from a friend who was traveling to New York and wanted to know where to find those hidden treasures only insiders know about. The web site is filled with tips about Fashion, Food & Drink, Beauty, Arts & Culture, Fun, Services and Travel.

You can sign up for an email about your favorite city or one email for everywhere.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bridget A. Otto on Furniture Folly

Jan 5, 2006

Bridget A. Otto has an article in The Oregonian of Thursday Jan. 5th, about buying furniture,

Furniture folly
Don't sit down on a costly mistake

Jennifer Litwin's frustration drove her to write a book.

Even though Litwin is an antiques expert who trained at Sotheby's and reports on furniture for Consumers Digest, the Chicago-based author discovered the pitfalls of furniture shopping while trying to furnish her own home.

If she was frustrated, she thought, what must the average consumer experience?

One salesperson would say one thing about a sofa, and another would say something else. Litwin says she began to wonder who was being honest about the furniture.

The $75 billion-dollar-a-year industry is virtually unregulated, Litwin says. No one governs anything, leaving the consumer to be her own best advocate and driving Litwin to write "Best Furniture Buying Tips Ever!" (Random House, 2005, $14.95).

Litwin, who has been involved in antiques and reporting on furniture for about 12 years, says that unless you spend every day shopping and comparing, it's hard to evaluate the quality of furniture.

So, consumer, arm thyself.

Litwin recommends doing some comparison shopping online before walking into stores. The Internet is a good tool for learning about styles and checking prices and sales, she says.

Once in the store, ask what materials have gone into the piece, Litwin says, and get the salesperson to put it in writing. And speaking of writing, get a written warranty -- from either the manufacturer or the store. Warranties can run the gamut, so be sure you understand what is covered and how the warranty would work.

Litwin says consumers can't afford to be shy. If you are buying a piece that will require some assembly, ask how many pieces are involved and whether the store offers free assembly -- it can save you hours of frustration.

"Ready to assemble means not ready to use," she says. Litwin spent $75 on a desk for her son, and -- after finding that assembly involved 30 pieces and dozens of nuts and bolts -- she paid someone $200 to put it together.

Even the experts make mistakes sometimes.

Beverly Landfair, co-owner with her husband, Mike, of Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery on Southwest Macadam Avenue, advises buyers to assess how the furniture will be used.

[for the rest of this article, please click the link to

Furniture folly
Don't sit down on a costly mistake]

Bridget A. Otto: 503-221-8527; bridgetotto@news.oregonian.com wrote this article. It will be archived for two weeks only!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Link Requests

We get "link requests" from time to time and we actively solicit links to our blog. On our right side or sidebar you can see the web sites we link to. Links drive traffic to your web site or blog. There may be 25,000,000 blogs, but only a few hundred are getting large amounts of visitors.
For instance:

#1 Daily Kos: State of the Nation averages 445,240 visits/day;
#50 BTF's Baseball Primer Newsblog averages 14,103 visits/day;
#100 Althouse averages 6,477 visits/day;
#250 Curmudgeonly & Skeptical 2,566 visits/day.

It drops off pretty substantially leading to what "geeks" and marketing people call "the long tail". The theory being, small blogs have loyal readers and those loyal readers may go to a blog or web site that is linked to the loyal reader site. Thus if you want lots of traffic, link to a lot of sites.

We recently received an invitation to link with Ceiling Fans Info Source. The email said:

I have visited your website and have found your
index page tasteful and I think the content could be
of interest to our web site visitors. I would be delighted
and grateful to become your reciprocal link partner.

Not only will I link to Ceiling Fans Info Source, but I found a number of articles that were informative and useful.

One such article is entitled Ceilng Fan Energy Efficiency

Ceiling fans can be a great way to increase the energy savings in your home while providing a comfortable living environment. Offering more features and functionality than a standard light, many ceiling fans can easily be installed in the same location as and replace your light fixture. Ceiling fan energy efficiency can vary greatly between ceiling fans and the accessories added to them, such as light kits.

With ever higher energy prices, it makes sense to investigate ceiling fans for your home.

Whether you are selling products on the web or providing a service, we all want people to know about us. A web site or blog that has links to supportive businesses or helpful information will get the word out about you.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Placing Ads in Surprising Places

Brian Carroll, e-business editor for Furniture|Today in his blog Tecnology Today writes in Placing Ads in Surprising Places

...advertising on blogs is a a huge growth category, giving advertisers a laser-like ability to target certain readerships that traditional mass media cannot provide. One example is Budget, the car rental company, which at last count is advertising on 177 blogs.

Budget says they can't outspend rival Hertz so they advertise on 177 blogs. (The owners of Landfair Furniture are going to rent a car in Cabo beginning Jan. 7th for a week. We are open to taking advertising money from a car rental company.)

Brian Carroll goes on to write

Ah! Outspend Sears or Crate & Barrel or Rooms To Go? Not likely. Outsmart them? Out-nimble them? Maybe.

One example: Sippican Cottage, a small furniture maker in Massachusetts. This is a nimble company, advertising-wise, that is choosing to invest in the blogosphere. You could even call what the company is doing a blog-centered integrated marketing campaign. The Web site I just pointed to. In the site is a blog, which is dedicated to news from the company (http://sippicancottagefurniture.com/page31whatsnew.htm).

Advertising on this section is automated, with a trickle of change coming from companies such as Amazon.com. Not much, mind you, but all automated -- no human intervention required.

Companion to the site is the Sippican Cottage blog, a thoughtful read by the company's entrepreneur, Gregory Sullivan. No advertising there, yet, but that has not stopped Sullivan. He's dipping his toes into blogads by advertising at, among other Web destinations, Althouse, a blog by a law professor with a readership Sullivan has determined might like his furniture.

Another blog-savvy furniture company -- Landfair Furniture in Portland, Oregan. Beverly Landfair emphasizes interior design and consulting -- in other words, a lot of customer contact. A blog, then, makes perfect sense.

So a blog is one click off the home page (http://landfairfurniture.blogspot.com/), where it gives readers (and potential buyers) tips and perspectives on home decor and quite a bit more. ( Click here to see our sister publication's writeup on Landfair.

On Landfair's blog are Google AdSense-place advertisements that, like the Amazon.com trickle, doesn't provide enough money for anyone to live on, but it costs only the space at the top of the blog.

I'll keep searching, maybe devote a print column to this subject. It's too easy not to consider, particularly the explosive growth in blogs and in the numbers reading them.

Need more on the study of blogads? An in-depth study can be found by clicking here.

Hat Tip to Gregory Sullivan for bringing this article to our attention. We were aware of Lisa's article but not Brian's. You will notice we have linked to Sullivan's web sites and will investigate whether we can use his line in our store.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery