Block 90 Wins!

Not to be missed! During an evening ceremony at NW Natural on August 26th, The Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland announced the 2009 NW Natural Street of Dreams award recipients.

Realtor’s Choice Awards
Best of Show: Bedford, 937 Condominiums
Best Interior Design: East Village, Block 90
Best Kitchen: The Manhattan, Block 90
Best Home Furnishings: The Manhattan, Block 90

Professional’s Choice Awards
Best of Show: Maison, 937
Best Interior Design: Maison, 937
Best Master Suite: An Uncommon Life, The Encore
Best Kitchen: Maison, 937
Best Architecture: 937 Condominiums

People’s Choice Awards
Best of Show: Bedford, 937
Best Interior Design:The Manhattan, Block 90/Skywatcher, Waterfront Pearl
Best Kitchen: The Manhattan, Block 90
Best Master Suite: Luster of the Pearl, The Encore

We congratulate Jim Gillespie and architect Don Vallaster of Vallaster and Corl Architects who developed Block 90. Special thanks to Debbie Melville of DM Designs and Dawn O’Shaughnessy of Westside Designs who were the interior designers for both units, The Manhattan and East Village. We are so proud of the work they did. We at Landfair Furniture are happy to be involved with the two designers along with Paul Schatz Furniture in The Manhattan, and Asia America and Cargo for East Village.

Imagine. Block 90 won five of the 12 awards!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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Balcony Bliss

We love the summers in Portland and we love sitting on the deck having dinner in the evening. Even most hot days eventually bring an evening breeze.

If you've visited the condos in the NW Natural Street of Dreams or are planning to visit, notice which urban condos have balconies big enough to furnish with comfort, style and use-ability.
Two buildings stand out: Block 90 and Encore on the Park. It looks like The Encore has decks of about 700 square feet with views of the river and the new park. Block 90 is showing two pent house condos on the fourth floor that have a 1,600 square foot terrace in The Manhattan and 800 square feet in the East Village. There's plenty of room for all kinds of outdoor comfort and great views of the Pearl.

One piece of advice for any buyer of a condo with a balcony or terrace: Weight can be a consideration. Check with your property manager for any building restrictions.

Let's Talk Pillows

I note with interest that Cindy Crawford has teamed up with JC Penney for a debut collection of bedding, bath, window, lighting, accent furniture and decorative accessory items. This item followed a press release last week that Jane Seymour has teamed up with Capel rugs for some new product introductions at World Market in Las Vegas.

Do the stars really design their collections or is done by some nameless designer, a ghost designer if you will, buried in the bowels of JC Penny headquarters?



Pictured above is The 'Indigo Dreams' bedding and window treatments are part of Cindy Crawford's new line for J.C. Penney. The queen comforter set is $179.99 (price will vary). It's available at jcp.com. The line comes to stores Sept. 4.

My husband always asks about the pillows on the bed. When, he asks, did we start to put more pillows on the bed than one uses sleeping? Some beds, at the Street of Dreams had pillows that came out from the headboard to the middle of the bed.

Then there's the stacking of the pillows before turning in. When you get up in the middle of the night, the last thing my husband wants to do is trip over pillows. In the morning the pillows need to be reapplied to the bed. With all that goes on in our busy lives, the time loss due to pillows on some of these beds must be huge.

I always have to trick my husband into helping me with the pillow cases. We have a race of it and I usually beat him. I can't imagine getting him to stand still for tens of pillows. The one area I agree with him about the excess pillows is that time I come home tired from a long day and I just want to flop face down on the bed. The flat space to flop is gone!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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NW Natural Street of Dreams Magazine Is Online

This is great! Now the whole NW Natural Street of Dreams magazine is on the web. You can read about each condo, see the floor plans, see who helped make it a success by contributing their talent, furniture and accessories to the whole.

If you are not from Portland, take a look at our city and The Pearl. Its a great place to live and work.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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30 Years Of Saving Corks

Mike and I golfed with friends Sandi and Gerry, yesterday. They've sold their house in Forest Heights and are picking up sticks for a move to Scotsdale, Arizona. Guess the winters are finally driving them out of Portland.

While we were eating our burgers at Rock Creek Tavern after golfing at Claremont, Gerry said in getting rid of "stuff", he was not going to get rid of his 30-year collection of wine-bottle corks. We gave him some ideas about their possible use in his new home, but they did not include this idea:

Made from recycled wine corks by Gabriel Wiese, the chair burn a contemporary design.Gabriel Wiese has intelligently used the cork caps of the wine bottles, keeping the shapes intact.I don`t know if you can patient to collect all the corks in order to be able to make new pieces of furniture. via Gabriel Wiese

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery
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The Biedermeier Style

Mike has just written a piece at Home Accents Today about the Biedermeier style, inspired by this sofa from an article in Luxist, The Beauty Of Biedermeier by Deidre Woollard.

Shown above is a rare Biedermeier sofa attributed to the workshop of Josef Danhauser. Danhauser opened Vienna's first high-end home furnishings store. The sofa has walnut veneer and maple inlays and ebonized detailing. This exceptional piece is priced over $50,000.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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Is It Home Yet? Ad

I shared with you information about the new campaign from the furnishing industry and the World Market Center, called Is It Home Yet?

Here's the first ad:


Click to enlarge

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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Art On The Edge, Rhonda Addison

I was given permission to film Rhonda Addison work. I was impressed with her Oregon Landscapes and her other images. In one case she photographed sheep in the Willamette Valley added texture and Psalm 23 in script. That Psalm, The Lord Is My Shepherd, means a lot to me. My father used to read that to me each night before he turned out my light.



Her paintings were displayed in the unfinished spaces in the Pearl Design Center as part of Art On the Edge, presented by Studio Art Direct, in conjunction with First Thursday art crawl in Portland, Oregon.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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Art On The Edge, Mandy Main

Mandy Main gave me permission to film her paintings displayed at the Pearl Design Center in conjunction with First Thursday and Art On the Edge, presented by Studio Art Direct. The artists were invited to display their Oregon landscapes.



I was struck by Mindy's interest in the clouds in Oregon, sometimes high Cirrus, other times big fluffy white Cumulous clouds.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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Art On The Edge, Sidonie Caron

Sidonie Caron gave me permission to make a video of her paintings displayed as part of Art On the Edge, presented by Studio Art Direct, First Thursday. As you can see Caron's art is hung in one of the unfinished spaces in the Pearl Design Center.

Caron has her studio close by and has spent some time looking at the underside of the Fremont bridge, the same view we have when we step out the front door of Landfair Furniture at 15th & NW Savier.



I just love people that find beauty in all that's Portland.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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Art On The Edge, Eric Bowman

Eric Bowman gave me permission to make a video of his art displayed in the unfinished portion of the Pearl Design Center. The occasion was First Thursday's Art On The edge, presented by Studio Art Direct.



Eric painted some familiar scenes, to me native Portlander that I am.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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Art On The Edge, Donna Young

Donna Young gave me permission to take a video of her paintings displayed at Art On the Edge, presented by Studio Art Direct, in the Pearl Design Center. I was struck by her use of vivid pink, she called it purple, in her paintings. She has been exhibiting since she was 17. The exhibit was all about Oregon landscapes and I saw a beautiful Oregon in her paintings I hadn't seen before.



While this space is unfinished, notice the two levels and high ceilings. In the front are big glass roll up doors. It's a great space.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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Art On the Edge, Darryl Ware

Last evening the Pearl Design Center on the edge of the Pearl, initiated Art on the Edge, presented by Studio Art Direct, our First Thursday monthly event. Nine Oregon landscape artists displayed their art in parts of the design center that are still unoccupied. The artists displaying were Sidonie Caron, Donna Young, Eric Bowman, Mandy Main, Brett Holstetter, Tracy Leagjeld, Jeni Lee, Scott Gellatly and Kathleen McIntire. In addition, in the Landfair Furniture showroom, Darryl Ware displayed his colorful collages of Venice and Mazatlan.

I talked with Darryl about his art that's based on his travel photographs and his graphic art background. The video capturessome of what he does, but not its vividness and detail.





Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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Have You Been To Block 90?

Block 90 consists of 11 units, basically all pent houses, with the most outdoor living space of any of the condos featured in this years Street of Dreams. Jim Gillespie and architect Don Vallaster of Vallaster and Corl Architects developed Block 90. The two found a way to preserve and enhance an historic Portland building that truly gives you that feeling that you are living in The Pearl.

Debbie Melville of DM Designs and Dawn O’Shaughnessy of Westside Designs fashioned the design of both units, The Manhattan and East Village, on a budget dwarfed by the budgets of the other buildings’ designers.

Debbie and Dawn worked with Paul Schatz Furniture in The Manhattan and Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery, Asia America and Cargo for East Village. Nothing was special ordered for the units. All accessories, upholstered furniture and case goods came right off the showroom floors. They are available for purchase along with many other beautiful pieces.

Last week, Debbie and Dawn presented their design to four independent designers, two from Seattle and two from Bend. The judges were stunned at what they had accomplished on their budget. Maybe, they suggested, the competition should be one based on equal amounts of money. The units have received quite a warm response from the public. It’s possible, they sense that the two units’ warmth and hominess is a realistic goal for their homes.

Both Debbie Melville and Dawn O’Shaughnessy are available in the units to answer your questions about your specific projects.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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New Sherrill Additions

The Designer Insider yesterday posted pictures of new Sherrill additions.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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"Is It Home Yet?"

From Las Vegas and the World Market Center comes this announcement:

In an unprecedented initiative to unite and energize the $133 billion home furnishings industry, World Market Center Las Vegas, along with leading industry groups, is launching “Is it Home yet?^TM” campaign.

The annual $20 Million marketing program aims to motivate and inspire consumers, by connecting people’s investment in their home, to the intrinsic and emotional value home décor and furnishings can add. September was chosen as the ideal launch window for this initiative due to consumers’ focused attention to their home, family and holiday planning, and because it marks the start to the critical fourth quarter retail sales period.

The campaign is targeted toward the household’s core furnishings decision maker— the ‘every woman’— who turns to the Internet as her number one source for information about the home, according to Market Research Insight data.

The goal of this campaign is to remind people that home furnishings helps shape the way we live, and that making an investment in what’s in your home is also a long-term investment in your family. The goal is to help make the old adage ‘home is where the heart is’ a palpable reality

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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