More About Feng Shui

Here's a follow-up to a post Feng Shui Made Simple:

Feng Shui Flow and Colors

There are basically nine different aspects each of which has specific colors and materials associated with it that the Chinese believed were important and influenced by your surroundings.

Those aspects included:

• Prosperity which relies on the color purple and uses wood or water as its primary textures.
• Reputation or how successful you are which has the color red and the elements of fire and wood.
• Love and Relationships which is reflected by the color pink and has the earth and fire as elements.
• Family which relies on the colors green, black, and blue and trusts only in the ever changing form of water.
• Health which features shades of yellow, brown or orange and has both earth and fire at its heart.
• Creativity and children or offspring tones of yellow and subtle earth tones are used here with the element of metal to add strength.
• Knowledge and Skill colors of black and green with the earth to balance them.
• Travel and Friendly assistance stark whites and blacks with materials of either metal or water are used here.
• Career aspects of career use the colors blue and white and rely on the strength of metal to reinforce them.

Home Decorating Reviews continually comes up with articles of interest to Interior designers and DIYs.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Furnish

Like furniture porn, the new book Furnish: Furniture and Interior Design for the 21st Century is over 200 pages of full-color photos of design objects made by the world's brightest furniture stars. With work by emerging designers such as Jason Miller, Joris Laarman, &made and Jamie Hayon, as well as by more established names like Tord Boontje, Tom Dixon and Hella Jongerius, the images will look familiar to anyone who follows contemporary design.

Chopped up, pieced together, deconstructed, ironic, patched over, mutated and irreverent, the furniture in the book gives an overall sense of ever-reigning post-modern influences and plenty of art-as-design. Rather than organize Furnish by designer (a more conventional choice), each well-curated section points out specific trends like "Transformation and Hybrids" and "Limited Edition."



Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

HGTV Design Star

Sunday, July 22 begins the second season of HGTV Design Star.

The die is cast, the expert judging panel is back and 11 finalists have been selected to compete during the second season of the original interior design competition, "HGTV Design Star." It's anyone's guess which finalist will walk away with the coveted prize - his or her own show on HGTV... (emphasis added)

[...]

As with the series' first hit season, fans can expect captivating challenges that stretch the creativity, ingenuity and skills of the designers, artists, stylists, architects and craftsmen who aspire to host a television show.

Does this have the appeal of American Idol? Probably not, but I can see a lot of designers tuning in to gauge the competition and measure themselves.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Portable lighting

Courtney Mueller writes in Casual Living,

Outdoor lighting has evolved over the past five years, resulting in the creation of more elegant, sophisticated tabletop lamps for outdoor. Weatherproof shades, cords and bases combine to round out the outdoor living experience.

One Company singled out is this lamp from Frederick Cooper, a vendor supplying Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery.

The Thatcher teak lamp from Frederick Cooper stands with a square baluster shape complemented by black marble accents and a beeswax round stretch shade.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

In Step & In Style

Don't miss this article by Erin Hoover Barnett in "inPORTLAND": Uptown style, downtown address/Victoria Taylor keeps The Mercantile fashion-forward amid change, including an impending move.

At Christmas time all the presents were wrapped for the family, Mike's Mom and Dad, our daughters and the grandkids, my Mom and Dad and my brothers and sisters. Now it was our time. We went downtown and the first place we stopped was The Mercantile on the corner of 7th and Park. Mike found a sweater for me in a style unlike any I had ever seen in a wonderful gray-brown color. It fit perfectly and I could dress it up, wear it to work or dress it down and wear it with jeans. We asked the very helpful sales woman to hold it for us while we continued shopping.

Mike looked across the street at the big hole in the ground and then saw the Virginia Cafe up the block next to The Merc and said that Tom Moyers new highrise will be taking out this block. He wondered how long The Merc will be at this location and where they will move.

Barnett's article gives us a history of the store and owner Victoria Taylor. Victoria is one year older than me. She was born in 1949. She bought the store in 1975, at 25. Don't worry about losing The Mercantile to progress. The PDC is wooing her to stay downtown and has invited her to partake of low-interest loans.

Victoria Taylor's advice on Suceeding as a shop owner:

* The store is an extension of yourself.
* Know your customer by spending a lot of time on the floor.
* Listen to what your customer wants.
* Believe in what you are selling.
* Be able to wear every hat that business requires.
* Build good relationships with your vendors.
* Learn how to sell.
* You must be able to invest the hours to make it a success.
* Remember, it's not a museum; the clothes have to go out the door.

The last thing we did that night shopping was to stop back in to The Mercantile. The special sweater was waiting and my husband added it to his Christmas presents for me.

I've already circled Victoria's picks for spring and The Mercantile can expect a visit soon:

Lightweight trench coat

The new "little" dress (Hint: It's not black)

Dolman-sleeve tunic top

Straight-leg jean, white for sure

Extra-long tanks and T-shirts

At-the-knee shorts

Lacoste polo shirt, the new fit (longer, more buttons)

Flirty skirt

Multistrand bracelets and hoop earrings

Extra-wide belt

Missoni anything, for the color -- Victoria Taylor (as translated by fashion apprentice Erin Hoover Barnett

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Kitchen Remodel in Dolph Park

Ruth Mullen has an article about how Caryn Urata of Arciform worked with Peter and Mary Osterberg, inspired by Art Deco graphics, to update a 50s kitchen in Dolph Park.

Mary and Peter Osterberg lived with their functional but oh-so-'50s kitchen for four years before they felt ready to remodel. Then, it seemed, everything just fell into place; their prized Art Deco table and chairs, for instance, which they discovered at a local vintage store. Photo by Marv Bondarowicz THE OREGONIAN

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bridget A Otto: Sliding Into Loft Design

Bridgett A Otto has an interesting article about Gary Lee and Jack Messick founders of ConstructaVision and the use sliding barnlike doors in lofts to solve the problem of privacy for their clients.

Ann Laman of Soderberg Laman Designers came to them asking for a sliding barnlike door that would make a bedroom area private...

[...]

(Lee and Messick) found that making the sliders out of frosted glass allowed light to pass through without compromising privacy. By not using a floor track, they avoided any sign of a retracted door, save for the frame it hangs from.

SCREENPLAY: Sliding doors close off a bedroom from the living space in Ed Tonkin's loft in the Eliot Tower. The design of the door echoes the glass-and-metal design of the loft's expansive windows. Marv Bondarowicz THE OREGONIAN

[...]

The two men, both native Oregonians, seem half shocked by the demand for their sliding doors and how it has led them to develop other loft furnishings that emphasize efficient use of space.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bridget Otto Thursday on Saturday

On Bridget A Otto Thursday, our friend Julie DeJardin was featured in Otto's Going With The Flow.

David Hyser and Nancy Werner sought a lifestyle change and "engineered" a move to Portland from Chicago in 2004.

Their realtor was "horrified" at their choice of house to purchase due to its "issues":

There was no flow between the kitchen and the living/dining room. Homemade built-in shelving crowded the living area. Flooring changed from tile at the entry to carpet in the living/dining room to laminate in the kitchen. A dropped ceiling and poor use of space made the kitchen uninviting. Poor-quality window casings detracted from the windows in the living/dining room.

The couple interviewed a number of interior designers and found that Julie DeJardin fit them the best "because they felt confident she would listen to them."

Isn't that one of the most important things in working with people? Our clients want to know that we are listening and have empathy with them. That doesn't mean we give up control over the process, but we let them know how the solution we propose fits with their needs as they expressed them.

"This whole space now is contemporary and minimalist and engaging," says DeJardin. "It is now more simple and more beautiful."

Hyser and Werner agree.

"We're thrilled," Werner says.

And that's the goal of a good designer.

Julie DeJardin OWNER: DeJardin Design
YEARS IN BUSINESS: 15
SPECIALTY: Kitchens and baths
STYLE TOUCH: "I really work to personalize the space to the individual," DeJardin says.
CONTACT: 1500 S.W. Fifth Ave., Portland; 503-768-4540; www.dejardin.net

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Storage Beds

We received a call the other day from a woman seeking a bed with drawers underneath, a storage bed. This article by Amanda Somers caught my eye:

Talking of beds, there are times we all crave for more space to store everyday bedroom articles. You know, those heavy blankets, matching curtains, cushions and the like.

Storage beds fit the practical ideals of viability and functionality and serve the purpose of small spaces to near perfection. ...a neat and tidy bedroom is the dream of almost every home.

We found a storage bed at BermanFALK, the Sonoma storage bed. It is solid birch with dove-tailed self closing drawers. It also comes in a variety of finishes and in three sizes.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Floors and furniture... made from cow manure

We are all for "Green", however I'm a little concerned if this gets wet!

Home-buyers of tomorrow could find themselves walking across floors made from manure.

That's no cow pie-in-the-sky dream, according to researchers at Michigan State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

They say fiber from processed and sterilized cow manure could take the place of sawdust in fiberboard, which is used to make everything from furniture to flooring to store shelves.

And the resulting product smells just fine.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + design Gallery

Haunted Furniture

I was checking out furniture blogs and came across this chair, perfect for Halloween. I thought I'd seen about everything!



I don't know if they will accept COM. Hat tip to Cool And Modern Furniture.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Hot products in High Point

Courtney Mueller in Casual Living outlines some of the hot products at High Point:

This month marks the first early start for the High Point Market, held March 26-April 1 in High Point, N.C. The change doesn't have any effect on the variety of outdoor products featured at the show. From outdoor lighting to full-scale casual furniture collections, there will be plenty to see in the Furniture Capital.

Several vendors whose furniture is carried at Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery are singled out:

Part of the Outdoorables line of outdoor lighting, Frederick Cooper's The Golden Stalk lamp is crafted from unique porcelain with hand-painted Tuscan leaves over black marble, topped with a sesame fabric round stretch shade.

Palecek's Al Fresco Marina Collection features a unique variegated gray and brown finish over an all-weather weave.

CBK's garden-style bench, formed with wire and iron, has an antique gold finish with a scroll design, creating an elegant piece for the outdoors.

Bev & Mike