Design Star Episode 2

So tell me, did you watch the second episode of Design Star on HGTV?

In case you missed the show you can watch outakes online.

I like most of the competitors and I'm interested in their sense of style and ability to create. Mike would have a hard time, if put in their situation, to visualize what he wants to occur in a space, colors etc. and then bring it to fruition. I admire their skills. I like the judges and their ability to analyse the output of the contestants. Good show! In the end Lisa's show was cancelled. She had the space by the front door and the judges "killed" her for her design.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Better.TV

There's a new channel on the net called Better.TV, Home-Family-Life. It's as clear as the TV in your home and one of the announcers sounds suspiciously like the woman of the local Landmark Ford ads.

Better.TV is brought to the air by Meridith Corp (MDP), publisher of these magazines:
American Baby, Better Homes and Gardens, Child, Country Home, Family Circle, Fitness, Hispanic Ventures, Ladies' Home Journal,
Midwest Living, More, Parents, ReadyMade, Ser Padres, Siempre Mujer, Successful Farming, Traditional Home, and Wood.

When you go to the Better.TV website, you'll see across the top a list of topics, such as "Events", "Remodeling", "Gardening", "Shows", "Family Now", etc. There seems to be a Portland orientation, maybe that's just demographics, but it certainly kept my attention. We've all read about the dying print media, but we are seeing a big push by media giants to take advantage of the net combining the best of both.

One local designer who has made it to Better.TV is Suzanne Gallagher, author of The Fine Art of Wall Design. When you go to Better.TV, click on "Home Now". To the right you'll see a number of tiles. Click on "Wall Decorating" and see her interview and a small tour of her home.

I think this is a great way to combine local information and advertising with a family orientation.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Surfing Through Trendir!

Back in September, 2006, I came across a blog dedicated to the high end:

Trendir is an online magazine about the latest Home Decor Products and Trends. We cover High-End Luxury products. Think of us as having both style sense and the ability to identify new and cool things.

I stopped by again and was impressed by the interest in their site. Their site gets over 5,000 visits per day, almost 180,000 visits per month!

If you visit, you will notice the beautiful photography, like this kitchen featuring an indoor waterfall:



or this stunning tub and view:



It reminds me of the Street of Dreams homes.

At first, I want to "chuck" our home, built in 1929, for the new clean lines of the contemporary siren, but then I would miss our established neighborhood and its nearness to town. I would miss the Grant dog park where Ralph loves to chase squirrels and the dogs of morning dog walkers. I would miss our home's coved ceilings and the gentle arch that frames the dining room. I would miss the memories made in our first home.

But...when I win the lottery, you can bet my second house will feature one of these showers shown in Trendir:



Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bridget Otto Thursday

It's been a while, but today is Bridget Otto Thursday in H&G NW. Today Otto writes in Banishing 'Aunt Matilda' how Bruce and Joyce Maxwell did a major remodel of the 1960's style home, but were unhappy with the home's living room and adjacent dining room. Their "heavy, old-fashioned furnishings clash(ed) with a (the) ranch's clean lines.

Enter Kim Jaynes of Kimberlee Jaynes Interior Designs Inc to save the day. She wanted the Maxwells to "embrace the home's Eichler-esque architecture with appropriate furnishings and color," but the Aunt Matilda furnishings would have to go.

The article is a case study of how a designer gets information from a client about their activities and preferences, budget, sizes up a home problem and brings about a solution, including shopping with the client. A designer can save a client so much time by knowing what is offered in various stores.

After the Maxwells decided on colors and direction, Kim went into stores and pulled together sofas and chairs and tables and took the Maxwells on tour. Once materials, finishes and sizes were established, orders were placed.

"Kim was helping us find the right place and right shapes," says Joyce, who admits she would not have been happy doing this shopping on her own. "Kim steered us through that process. It was very collaborative."

If you go to the web site of Otto's article, you can pull up pdfs of before and after pictures. What a change and the Maxwells are happy.

The new furnishings and their arrangement make both rooms inviting. The sofa and chairs in the living room take in the view and are placed close together to create a comfortable environment. Joyce says she finds herself standing in the entry, marveling at the change.

Well done, Kim!

If you not happy with the look of your home or just want a change, since more than 80% of our business is with designers, who better to recommend several interior designers for you to interview.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Kim Jaynes
Bridget A Otto

New Products From CBK Ltd.

AZTEC DESIGN VASE
ith Antique Brown, Gold and Patina Finish,
9.25"D x 15.25"H,Ceramic













BUNCHED FRAME DESIGN WALL CLOCK
with Antique Face, Roman Numerals and Antique Gold and Copper Finish, 37.5"D, Face: 26"D









CBK is just one of a number of accessory companies that we carry at Landfair Furniture.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Mike Landfair Will Blog for Home Accents Today

The latest issue of Home Accents Today makes it official with the announcement that my husband, Mike Landfair will be writing a blog at least three times weekly for the magazine's web site.

At the end of this month, we will introduce you to an all-new HomeAccentsToday.com. We have spent months working on our new look and refining the structure to make it easy to use and worth visiting every day.

We will feature four blogs once the site goes live at the end of the month. Susan Dickenson's Retail Update and our Designer Insight you may already be familiar with, but look for lots more postings. Retailer Mike Landfair of Landfair Furniture in Portland, Ore., will post at least three times a week with practical advice and other items of interest for retailers of home furnishings and accessories. And our two most knowledgeable staffers on style, trends and design, Senior Product Editor Tracy Bulla and Art Director Wes Kennedy, will serve up Style + Substance, a look at trends in fashion, industrial design, and, of course, home furnishings.

Not all print media is dead! Home Accents Today has recognized that the web is a big asset and by incorporating relevant features on its web site, it can maintain vibrancy.

Mike is honored to be recognized for his writing and encourages you to email him or add a comment about topics you would like covered.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Design Star Premiers Sunday

We just received word that the Season 2 premiere of Design Star, where interior designers face off for the chance to win their own show on HGTV, begins this Sunday with a 10 pm PDT start.

<br /><a href=&#8221;http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hstar&#8221;>DesignStar2</a>

Season 1 was fun!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Novica, A New Way

Considered by many as one of the nations top 50 fastest growing companies, Novica is home to artists and artisans around the world providing you with access to unique, hard-to-find items at great values that only the Internet infrastructure can allow.

The countries represented are the Andes, Bali and Java, Brazil, India, Mexico, Thailand and West Africa and artistic items include

• Area Rugs
• Chess Sets & Games</li>
• Furniture - Accent & End Tables | Beanbags | Chairs | Coffee Tables | Other | Ottomans & Stools | Outdoor Furniture | Storage Trunks & Chests | Throne Ottomans
• Masks
• Mirrors
• Musical Instruments
• Sculpture
• Tableware & Entertaining
• Vases
• Wall Hangings & Tapestries

There is a capsule about each artist on the site info page

One such artist is drum and mask-maker Ernestina Oppong Asante from Ghana.

"Before Novica, I had only one shop," explains Asante. "I've been able to make enough money now to send my six foster children to secondary [high] school."

Or take Isidoro Rojas, 41, who has woven tapestries in his Andean pueblo of San Pedro de Cajas since he was a child. Working through Novica saves the five-hour trips to Lima he once took to haggle with store merchants, he said in a phone interview. It has also introduced him to the Internet, which he navigates from a public computer kiosk two hours from his town.

It would seem Novica has found a unique way to cut out many of the middle man and directly employ artists from around the world then bringing them together with buyers on the internet.

Some may say we are living in the best of times!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Novica
Home Decor
Bev & Mike

New Products From Prepara

Somebody's been thinking!


I like this, the Herb Savor from Prepara

Nothing makes your meals taste better than the freshest ingredients. The Prepara herb-savor will prolong the life of your fresh herbs for up to 3 weeks so you can enjoy fresh, flavorful meals every time you cook.

How about the Water Resistant Mill from Prepara

Most meat, poultry and fish recipes call for fresh salt or pepper during preparation. When you handle raw foods before using your salt or pepper mill the harmful bacteria stays on the mill long after you have finished enjoying your meal. Now with our patented washable salt/pepper/spice mill you don't have to worry about contaminating yourself or your loved ones with harmful bacteria. Just twist the collar to close the door to the grinder. Then wash all of the germs off the mill without fear of getting water into chamber.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Green Light!!!

Speaking of Green Light, I saw this item at FABSUGAR:

Inside this traditional Mason jar hides a highly efficient solar cell, rechargeable battery, and low energy LED lamps. You simply place the jar in the sunlight and the solar energy charges the battery and powers the LED lamps providing a diffused and warm light from the frosted jar. Completely water tight, it can be left outside in any weather, and is the perfect garden light or night-light.

It's $55 at the MoMA Store.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Green Kitchen: Green Light

This headline caught my eye: The green kitchen: Green light

If you have a newish kitchen, I'll bet a pound to a pumpkin-seed that it has recessed ceiling lights using halogen spotlights.

Yep, that's our kitchen, with one spot over the sink and the other over the space containing the microwave and boombox. The one over the sink is connected to the light fixture that hangs in the middle of the kitchen and they're on a dimmer. Dang, that sink light goes out often!

...low-voltage halogen bulbs "are spotlights, like a torch. They just push light on to the floor." That's why so many are needed. "Ordinary light bulbs produce 10 lumens [the standard measurement of light output] per watt. Low-voltage halogen bulbs produce 20 lumens, but that compares with a minimum of 60 lumens per watt for compact fluorescent bulbs."

Compact fluorescent bulbs?

low-voltage halogen might be using 1kW of energy where a couple of compact fluorescent bulbs could do the same job at 40 watts.

I googled compact fluorescent bulbs and found the EnergyStar site. This is a Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL):

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

Ah, so that is a Green Kitchen!

EnergyStar has suggestions for choosing the right CFL:

• CFLs perform best in open fixtures that allow airflow, such as table and floor lamps, wall sconces, pendants, and outdoor fixtures.
• For recessed fixtures, it is better to use a reflector CFL than a spiral CFL since the design of the reflector evenly distributes the light down to your task area.
• If a light fixture is connected to a dimmer or three-way switch, you'll need to use a special ENERGY STAR qualified CFL designed to work in these applications. Make sure to look for CFLs that specify use with dimmers or three-way fixtures.

So now I know that using CFLs will save money and be good for the environment and will work with the dimmer.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Flexible Accent/mood Light

I saw this idea at Pad Style and checked further:

Ever wanted to update your decor or pull everything together but wondered how to do it without a complete overhaul? LIT is a flexible accent/mood light that is easily installed under most furniture. It's a virtually effortless way to update or add warmth to your space. Pick the vehicle, (sofa, bed, sideboard?), choose your color, (Passion Pink? Serenity Green?), and watch how the simplest of things can have a huge impact!

Secured under your furniture with special LIT universal clips that work with any type of frame (wood, metal or plastic). Includes dimmer.

Yoy would have to make sure there are no dust bunnies! I am wondering if it would work in backyard for mood lighting?

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery