Mondrian Art

What do you make of coincidences or are there such things?

Beverly and I were talking and she used the word "Mondrian" to describe a design she had seen. I asked her for a definition because it was a totally new word to me.

From Wikipedia:
Piet Mondriaan (March 7, 1872 — d. New York City, February 1, 1944) was a Dutch painter.

His paintings exhibit a complexity that belies their apparent simplicity. He is best known for his non-representational paintings that he called "compositions", consisting of rectangular forms of red, yellow, blue, white or black, separated by black rectilinear lines. They are the result of a stylistic evolution that occurred over the course of nearly 30 years and continued beyond that point to the end of his life.

Some examples of his art:

A couple of days later, a book I'd ordered, Spook Country by William Gibson, arrived in the mail. I sat down to read it and the second paragraph of the first chapter reads in part, "They'd had one previous conversation, the one which had resulted in her flying to L.A. and checking into the Mondrian." How weird is that?

I Googled Mondrian and found pictures of this fabulous new hotel.

Morgans Hotel Group arrived in Los Angeles in 1996, with the opening of Mondrian, located on the world-famous Sunset Boulevard. Mondrian presents the consummate expression of a balancing act between apparent contradictions – entertainment and spirituality, cutting-edge style and simplicity, fantasy and reality. The hotel perfectly captures the quintessential California lifestyle by uniting its deeply rooted appreciation of the outdoors and relaxed, casual living with a pervasive sense of magic, glamour and excitement.

After drooling over the L.A. hotel, and this Scottsdale Mondrian,



I found another example of this painter's influence. Contemporary Furniture.com has this cocktail table:



Is that it or will the word "Mondrian" lead me to some other unexpected places?

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Mondrian

Duralee Acquires Cavalier Furniture

FURNITUREToday announces

High-end fabric source Duralee has acquired Cavalier Furniture, a 40-year-old upholstery manufacturer in Cerritos, Calif.

According to Cavalier's website, "Cavalier produces upholstered hand-tied furniture in fine fabrics and leathers of the absolute highest quality. Owned and operated by the Button family since 1964, Cavalier not only offers exceptional products, but prides itself on providing its customers with the best service in the industry."

Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery in the Pearl Design Center is proud to carry Duralee fine fabrics and furniture and look forward to having additional designs from which to choose.

Bev & Mike

Duralee
Cavalier Furniture

Sei Amici

Six friends had dinner Wednesday night at Iorio Restaurant - Southern Italian Cuisine.

What a lovely little space on 912 SE Hawthorne Blvd. in Portland, Oregon 97214.

Michael started off with caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil and hand pulled mozzarella. Two of us had the beet salad with dolce gorgonzola and three shared organic greens and candied walnuts. We loved the salads. We brought three different red wines and corkage was $12 per bottle.

Mike and Gerry had Tagliatelle with oven roasted tomato sauce and our choice of meatballs or spicy Italian sausage. Mike preferred the meatballs and Gerry wished the tagliatelle, wide flat pasta, had a little more sauce, but the taste was wonderful. Darryl had the Duck comfit and the three ladies had grilled Alaskan Halibut, on a bed of roasted vegetables. It was like homemade goodness. Like the best chef in the world cooked it specially for us. Crispy bread was served with a summer squash spread. Delicious.

For dessert we ordered one flourless chocolate cake with crema gelato, two apple tarts with vanilla bean gelato and three old fashioned sundaes. Fine Illy coffee was served and it was hot and thick, just as if we were sitting in an outdoor cafe in Napoli.

That was one of the best dinners we've had in Portland for some time. Chef Christopher R. Thompson's signature style of southern Italian-influenced cooking is very tasty and the staff is very good. Iorio voted:

Best Italian
Audience Winner 2006

Best Date Spot
Editorial Winner 2006
Voted by Portland Citysearch

Best Romantic Restaurant 2007
Voted by AOL Cityguide

Iorio (E-Oreo) is open Tuesday through Saturday 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Call for reservations at (503) 445-4716

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

What is Blog Cabin?

Blog Cabin is DIY Network’s newest hit series, featuring popular expert hosts who pitch in to bring the Kinzel Springs retreat to life. Watch us build the cabin one blog at a time, then enter daily for a chance to win it!

From February until early April, 2007, DIY Network.com invited visitors to vote each day on 13 design areas for a future cabin to be built in the Great Smoky Mountains. Thousands decided on such areas as the floor plan, roof, countertops, even the front door. The results are here, and don’t miss a minute of the entire Blog Cabin television series, airing Thursdays at 9 pm on DIY.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

High Point Market revamps Web site

The High Point Market’s Web site, highpointmarket.org, has been redesigned to improve its functionality and ease of use.

The site will include guest columns by leaders from throughout the home furnishings industry, as well as clips from the weekly “High Point Market Live” video-cast.

The market’s weekly e-newsletters will also be archived there under the “Industry Insights” tab. Site visitors can register on the home page to receive weekly updates.

If you go to the front page of The High Point Market, you will see an a column entitled Encouraging Eco-Friendly Lifestyles by Sarah Barnard ASID, an interior designer specializing in sustainable design. She and Mike are both writing about "green" furniture. See his blog at Home Accents Today entitled Is Your Furniture "Green?"

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture & Design Gallery

The Landfair Retail Focus Debuts!

Mike is excited! He has been hired to post to a blog, The Landfair Retail Focus, on the Home Accents Today website. They have asked him to post to the blog at least three times a week. They rolled out a new website and his handsome face.

appears on the front page along with his first post, Establishing My Credentials. Down girls! He is happily married for 15 years..

He invites you to surf by occasionally and grade his efforts.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture & Design Gallery

Home Accents Today
The Landfair Retail Focus
Furniture
Retailing
Bev & Mike

Adam Kalkin's Housing Solution

If you follow the trade deficit numbers as Mike does, you might know that the U.S. receives those big shipping containers full with consumer goods from all parts of the world, but especially Asia. The problem is, we tend to send them back empty.

Now, hat tip to by Jennifer Chait at Off Beat Homes, one architect may have found a solution. Adam Kalkin has designed the Push Button House.

The Push Button House is exactly that: it starts as a shipping container until a button is pushed, and it turns into a house. Motorized walls unfold like a flower, revealing a fully functional house, complete with refined, understated furnishings.

Take a look at Kalkins website and watch the short video: http://www.architectureandhygiene.com/main.html

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

How To Light A Room For Reading

This is sure to cause discussion at home.

Elizabeth Bettendorf has written an article entitled Bookworms, illuminate yourselves on right light.

Mike complains that there are few places in our home to read. He says it is too dark, too filled with ambience. His favorite place is the den with the TV off, but then that excludes me if I want to watch some Tivo'ed program. If he moves to the bed in the bedroom, he falls asleep. So now we have Ms Bettendorf to the rescue.

There's nothing better than a good book, and nothing worse than not enough light by which to read comfortably.

She quotes Michael Berman, a lighting designer for the California-based Lamps Plus. He says a good reading lamp should do three things:

1. Reduce peripheral shadow around the reading area to reduce eye fatigue. "You don't want shadows around the reading area because as the eye wanders off the page as you read, the eye has to adjust," he says.

2. Provide good illumination, but not too much. Never consider any bulb less than 100 watts for reading, he advises, with 150 watts being ideal.

3. Eliminate squinting. "When reading, you want a light that helps you focus on the task at hand

There are so many sizes, materials and styles of lamps. In our home we are still searching for the perfect lamps that will meet both our objectives.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

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

"Age-restricted Communities"

I remember when King City was built back in 1966. King City was created as a planned adult community. The city's legal restrictions forbid minors from living within its city limits for more than a short time. Not only minors were forbidden. I was under the impression that anyone younger than 50 was not welcome.

The Association of Interior Designers (ASID) points out today that the new buzz phrases are "age-restricted communities" geared toward "active adults", not necessarily retirees built for boomers.

Builders are setting aside big sections of projects, if not whole developments, for older baby boomers.

Take a look at the demographics, said Vernon McClure, president of the Home Building Association of Richmond. The number of empty- nester baby boomers will double in the next 10 years, he said.

Active adults want low maintenance living, first floor condos and walkable neighborhoods.

"This is about a change in lifestyle," said Don-ald O. Allen, owner of D.O. Allen Homes, whose company has built six communities in the Richmond metropolitan area that are targeted toward boomers.

"They can have a first-floor master suite and they can get rid of the lawn mowers, rakes and shovels, and someone will clean their windows once a year."

My question: What is the definition of active-adult? Does this qualify?

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Newest Products From The Home Accents Marketplace

From Home Accents Today, new products from the home accents marketplace and several vendors are represented at Landfair Furniture:

Utterly elegant
A heavily antiqued gold leaf mirror with delicate embellishment from Uttermost lightens and updates the familiar, ornately framed looking glass.
UTTERMOST








Take me away
Roma Moulding’s Corner Fence is a moody landscape that captures a tree-lined fence post receding into the distance.

Nature lover
The Origins Cava table, a semicircular piece made from the shell of a fallen tree, creates a stunning focal point with a ceramic Buddha. Both are from The Phillips Collection

CANDLEHOLDER
with Stamped Round Back Mount with 2 Conquistador Swords and Antique Black and Gold Finish, Set of 3 (2 Swords, 1 BackMount), Back: 17"D, Swords: 9"W x 38"L, Holds 3 Taper Candles,
CBK











EIFFEL TOWER DESIGN WINE RACK
with Glass Holders and Brown Rust Finish,22"Sq x 71.5"H, Holds 20 Bottles
CBK




Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

This Just In, From Design's Front Line

There's a whole new world out there that is more current than the latest home furnishings magazine, the design blog. The Washington Post has a list of design blogs for the interior designer or the individual who is discovering his or her decorating style.

You can find trend forecasts, designer profiles, product launches and reviews, sale announcements and links to featured stores and merchandise along with practical decorating advice and inspirational eye candy. Reader insight and advice are welcome, creating a mix of design voices, resources and ideas from around the globe:

Apartment Therapy , about small spaces.

Design*Sponge

Decor8, an Elle Decor favorite by a blogger in New Hampshire.

Pigtown*Design, based in Baltimore.

Design hole, based in Detroit.

Bloesem blog, by a Dutch blogger.

SF girl by bay, from a self-described bohemian blogger based in San Francisco.

On the right side of this blog, you will find links to local designers and resources, interviews and links to design blogs around the world, for that is the reach of the internet. An article about you doesn't just reach the Portland area, but the U.S. as a whole and Europe and Asia and South America and is available everywhere there is a connected computer. Watch our blogroll grow!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

How to offset lack of space, light, cash

From Fort Wayne.com, you've downsized, now you want your loft, condo or apartment to look bigger and you want it to feel bigger, here are some tips:

Altering the lighting, from ambient to natural, for instance, can make a space feel less cavernous and more open.

A fundamental step toward renewing a room is to reduce clutter.

Find furniture and accessories that are multifunctional.

Low ceilings can make a room seem claustrophobic. Painting a low ceiling and the walls in the room the same shade can make the ceiling seem higher.

Replace the large, coffee can-like fixtures in track lighting with smaller, less conspicuous ones.

Mirrors -- even the small, decorative kinds -- can expand a space.

Lose the carpet. It's a lot more spacious with hardwood floors.

Hire a professional. They can help you avoid pricey mistakes.

At Landfair Furniture we can help you find the interior design professional that can match your taste and budget. Give us a call or come in.

Julie Herschbach at Huper Optik ProTINT

Summer has finally arrived here in Portland; 80 degrees yesterday and today. The arrival reminded me of an interview we did last year as part of an ASID Industry Partner focus. We interviewed Julie Herschbach owner of Huper Optik ProTINT and used her product on our Macadam store windows to protect our displays.

We discussed Pro Tint and how her husband Jim started the business in 1989 as Pro Tint Window Trimming. For a long time, she was in the background and people would call and ask for Jim. Gradually, callers started asking for Julie as well as Jim then just Julie. Now with two capable employees Pro Tint is not just the Jim and Julie show.

Julie says that fabrics, carpet, wood floors, art and upholstery will fade over time from not only ultraviolet light, but from heat and visible light. Through Pro Tint’s relationship with Huper Optik films, Julie and her crew can provide the best product in terms of performance, aesthetics, high quality protection and customer service, at work or at home.



Fifteen years after Jim started the business, he is retired, but Julie and Julie’s office manager Amica Quesnel and sales consultant Sandy Coleman are busy seeing clients and making estimates. She does find time for a workout and an occasional book by Nicholas Sparks. There is precious little time for gardening so she and Jim have converted garden areas to grass. Julie has recently added a DVR from Comcast to see some of those TV programs commercial free. Now she can decide when she will view a popular show and she can record one show while watching another. She says she even has perfected a technique to record two shows at once.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Summer Introductions

From Casual Living, Courtney Mueller highlights new products at the summer gift shows. Here we are some new items from vendors we carry that will make a splash this summer.

Metal figures from Palecek are constructed of strip metal in open weave forms to create graceful woman designs.

CBK's Classic Bulging Design Lantern is highlighted by a mix of bamboo, wire and iron in a natural and black finish.

Palecek debuted additional outdoor-friendly designs, including the Bamboo club chair, crafted of bronze wrought iron with gold bamboo nodes accents. Suggested retail with outdoor fabric and cushions is $1,316


Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

The Back Deck

We've posted several times about The Resort Effect, the act of taking

the comforts of the house's interior to a nearby outdoor space, usually one that is attached to the house. This means plush furniture upholstered in weather-resistant fabric, a cooking area or heat source and a covering, such as a canopy, to keep the rain out.

Combine the comforts of home, outside, with plasma TV and expensive electronic games, not to mention stereo systems and you have created an Eden, a perfect world at home.

Not so fast says June Fletcher writing in the WSJ.

...some homeowners say they’re falling out of love with their expensively furnished backyards, which require hours of upkeep and costly repair. Others are abandoning the rooms altogether.

The backyard misery has been a boon for exterminators and repair shops. Fire ants nest in speakers and televisions. (They’re attracted to the hum and vibration.) Squirrels chew on the arms of teak furniture and on speaker wires. When expensive electronics come into contact with water, dust, pollen and heat, burnouts and other problems can occur.

Yes, every year I plant pots with new colorful annuals and Mike refinishes the deck every two years. I've even had to replace some clay pots that flake in the cold. In the fall, pots need to be moved closer to the house to keep plants from freezing and lots of summer nights one of us waters front and back.

While the answer may be Less is more, here in Oregon there is nothing like the back deck for a quiet place to read a book, dine, listen to the birds and the wind chime, and gather with friends. Some evenings we fondly recall our nicest evenings in Tuscany by hauling the dining room table outside. We invite the kids and grand kids over for dinner and conversation as the stars come out in the candlelight.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

The Klismos Chair

Klismos: Ancient Greek chair form with saber-shaped legs, splayed at the front with a concave back. Originally popular in the 18th century, the klismos chair saw a revived popularity in the 1940s in the work of designer T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings.



Carol Prisant in the July, 2007 issue of House Beautiful claims she is seeing this design frequently, lately. Originally it was designed in Greece and its popularity peaked around 400 B.C.. It was revived in the 18th century. You'll know a klismo by its concave top rail that cups your shoulders and four curved saberlike legs.



Furniture of Ancient Greece by by A. Whitham writes

The Klismos, used principally by women, was made with delicately curved back and legs. These features allowed the sitter to be in a freer and more natural position. According to Bishop (1979), the backs of these chairs, referred to as Stiles, were designed to the curvature of the back for comfort and extended to the shoulders. The Klismos, like most other furniture, was made of wood and not ornately decorated. In order to increase the comfort, cushions and animal skins were usually placed on the Klismos.

We have a variation of a klismos in our home, high curved back, curved legs, but ours has arms with an upholstered back, seat and arms. The wood is dark honey colored and I chose a black fabric with nickel sized gold polka dots. It's Mike's favorite chair for reading, feet propped on the ottoman.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bonnie Trumbull, Season to Simplify

The Portland Tribune in Season to Simplify has a nice article about our friend Bonnie Trumbull of Bonnie Trumbull Interiors.

Trumbull says this time of year, we pack away our winter wardrobe and hang our summer clothes. It's time to lighten the interior of our homes and "It's a breeze to make the transformation."

We want to "create a cooler nest" and we do that by removing many small items that make the room feel "heavier." Removing area rugs automatically lightens a room as does changing out lampshades. Trumbull replaced a mohair throw with a cotton one. The object is to "get rid of the heavier texture. Open the windows to let in more light and remove the candles to the backyard for evening light. Finally, "she brought in seasonal color, placing purple spring flowers on the fireplace mantel and white hydrangeas near the window."

Bonnie Trumbull can be reached at (503) 697-8513 in Lake Oswego, OR.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bridget Otto Thursday

It's Bridget Otto Thursday and she's served up a double helping of interior design news.

In Free Style, Otto writes that some furniture retailers have on staff designers to help make your experience as "fun as buying shoes." Shelly Greenwood says, "We work best to educate the buyers so mistakes aren't made." She helps buyers with scale and balance. In store designers advice is free, but they do expect you "to make Informed purchases at their store.

In Refresher course, Otto writes about Sue Augustyn of SAID Interior Design working with clients Dez Young and Karenanne Smith, to rework older furniture and make a living room more inviting. You can see the results of her work in Homes & Gardens of the Northwest in Thursday's Oregonian.

The point I take away from these two articles, is good design can be free from instore designers or can be hired, but in both cases designers help you avoid mistakes, confirm your design choices and can help you with the budgeting.

At Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery, over 80% of our business is done with designers. If you want design help, we can refer you to designers we think will be in tune with your needs and budget. You will also find on our floor, furniture ranging from contemporary to transitional to traditional, all chosen by me, Beverly Landfair.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

The Garden - outdoor entertaining destination.

We've posted about The Resort Effect, the move to take the inside of your home to the outside. In fact,

Troy-Bilt, a leading manufacturer of lawn and garden equipment, predicts that in 2007, gardens will continue to be viewed as an extension of the family room and grow in their role as an outdoor entertaining destination.

Savvy Gardening has some tips for your garden that will get the neighborhood talking, and make it even cheerier and more relaxing for you in your back yard:

• Less is more - any small space can be a garden or used for experimentation. To me, less is more also means allowing plants some autonomy, rather than the cramped beds I see in many yards.
• Add a touch of flair - with bird feeders, fountains, waterfalls, ponds, statues, globes — even lights. Remember tip #1!
• Traditional container gardening is out - Although plants in pots are still popular, gardeners are beginning to mix and match colored pots with bunches of various plants and flowers for a drastic but simple backyard makeover.
• Color is in - Hot hues add contrast to a space and can help hide dull outdoor furniture.
• It’s about you - a garden is an extension of your home and should mimic your tastes.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Gardening
outdoor furniture
Bev & Mike

Green Homes

Last Sunday, I wrote about The Resort Effect and noted that

...creating a resort at home becomes more attractive as transportation costs climb.

Pure Contemporary in Behind the Curtains has an article about GE,
A blueprint for building green homes called ecomagination Homebuilder Program.

This new program helps residential developers and builders design homes that are not only comfortable, but that are more efficient in their energy consumption and indoor water consumption than industry–accepted average new homes.

[...]

In the last two years, natural gas costs have risen 42 percent and electricity costs have risen 17 percent, according to a report in Energy Source, March 2007.

Homebuyers are choosing energy efficient homes and look at some of the things provided:

• an interactive wall panel that provides current and historical feedback on electricity and water consumption.
• appliances that pair innovative energy efficiency with groundbreaking features and cutting–edge design.
• indoor and outdoor lighting that consumes up to 75% less electricity than standard incandescent lighting.
• if the home is equipped with solar power, this system is designed to produce power year after year and typically meets 20–30% of a home's electricity needs and works in conjunction with the local utility to provide complete service.

We complain about high energy costs and our leaders declare goals of ending our energy dependency, however, those higher costs are spurring development of new products to ease our energy consumption and giving us greater control over our environments. All that R&D would not have found a market if energy prices stayed low. Some predict a future of $100 to $200 oil.

I'm not worried. I look forward to electric cars and zero point energy.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Lamps & Lighting
GreenHomes
Bev & Mike

Neighborhood Notes and The Pearl

Neighborhood Notes takes exception to The Oregonian describing Landfair Furniture's move, in Storefronts, as a move to the North Pearl Design District

...becoming known as the Design District, with Globe Lighting, Bedford Brown, Kravet and other related businesses within a few blocks of one another

She notes

While I understand the need to market the North Pearl, I think it's a mistake to label that small section as the one that specializes in design when we have a huge home furnishings group peppered throughout the neighborhood. It's like saying that the area around the armory is "the gallery district" because of a few galleries in close proximity to each other.

The North Pearl Design District leans to To the Trade and is easy for interior designers to make many stops and the area is very accessable via freeways from anywhere in the city. Landfair Furniture does 80% of its business with designers. However, we welcome home furnishing and accessory shoppers and are in a position to recommend designer help if needed.

Neighborhood Notes is correct that there is a huge home furnishings group spread throughout The Pearl. There are walking tour maps of the area to help you discover all that The Pearl offers. Many are having sales, as she notes, this Memorial Day weekend. For a full list of home furnishings stores see Your Guide to the Pearl District.

As for Landfair Furniture this day, we are closed Saturday through Monday. My first three day weekend since before the move and I would like to spend some time around the house with Mike, planting tomatos and basil, b-b-qing, and enjoying the first dry Memorial Day weekend in the last six years.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

HomeFurnishings Bev & Mike

Storefronts

by ANNE LAUFE

LANDFAIR FURNITURE AND DESIGN GALLERY

What's new: This spacious furniture store, the first tenant in the new Pearl Design Center, opened in March on the northern edge of the Pearl District.

Where & when: 1636 N.W. 15th Ave. at Savier Street under the Fremont Bridge, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

What's cool: Landfair carries an eclectic array of home furnishings -- from traditional to contemporary -- from designers such as J.D. Chamberlain, Sherrill, Rowe and Hekman. It also plans to add a line of durable, affordable children's furniture.

Who: Beverly and Michael Landfair opened their first store on Macadam Avenue in Southwest six years ago. Beverly says she travels to High Point, N.C. -- "the daddy of all markets for furniture buyers" -- every six months.

Why here: When the Landfairs lost the lease on their first store, they looked around for something bigger and more accessible. This section of the Pearl is becoming known as the Design District, with Globe Lighting, Bedford Brown, Kravet and other related businesses within a few blocks of one another.

Quote: "We have animal crackers out and water in the fridge," Beverly Landfair says. "We try to make it kind of homey." Get in touch: 503-245-4222

ANNE LAUFE Have a Storefronts tip? Send details to Portland@news.oregonian.com

Oregon Passes New Bottle Bill, Artists Deprived

Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, Oregonians will have to plunk down a nickel deposit on every bottle of water they buy. Yes, the Oregon House passed the Oregon Bottle Bill. The Senate passed a similar bill, so Oregon will recycle instead of dumping.

Oregonians buy nearly 200 million bottles of water each year and most are not recycled. The state Department of Environmental Quality estimates that Oregonians trash as many as 126 million bottles every year.

Over at Fabulously Green, we see that artists have been creative with these plastic bottles:

Aartist Michelle Brand was inspired by the bottom of Dasani water bottles.

The inspiration for these plastic petals were found at the bottom of a bottle--literally. Turn your empty Dasani bottle upside down and voila--a botanically inspired base. Michelle cuts, sands, and strings together recycled bottles to create this light catching fabric.

You can only do so much with 200,000,000 bottles. It's about time!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Woman Power: Are You Surprised?

C.B Whittemore posting at Flooring The Consumer writes that "Women hold the power of the sale". A big change is coming to retail in the world of retail:

Consider this: The majority of retail operates in a world designed, owned and managed by men for women consumers.

Whittemore says these retail establishments are "not connecting with their woman customer."

Connecting successfully means truly understanding who that person is, how she interacts with your store and what value she obtains from you. Although she may have tolerated the way things have been, she increasingly prefers environments that recognize her, welcome her and acknowledge her as having the means to make significant purchases.

Consider, also,

• Women represent 51 percent of the overall population

• Women are better educated than men

• Sixty percent of women work.

• In 55 percent of US households, women make half (or more) of their family’s income. Thirty percent of women out-earn their husbands

• Women are the major purchase decision makers for home furnishings

• Women carry 76 million credit cards

• Women are more profitable than men.

• Women are more brand oriented than men

• AND...women are more likely to give referrals!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

May 17th Open House

Beverly (left) and sister Carol celebrate Open House on May17th at Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery in the Pearl Design Center.

Beverly and husband Michael look proud of their creation.

Shakti Space Designs

On May 20th we posted about Organizing tips from Mary Carol Garrity in Organizing: Think outside the basket, One of Garrity's suggestions for organizing was to create a message center in your home and suggested painting a door to look like a chalkboard.

Lo and behold I find out about Lucinda R. Henry owner of Shakti Space Designs, LLC. Lucinda does Custom Wall Finishes, Old World Plasters and Murals. Glancing through her site I see a chalkboard as described, only done by Lucinda at Shakti Space Designs.



Lucinda Henry can be reached at 503.998.2411 and is Licensed, Bonded & Insured
OR: #154545 WA: #SHAKTSD949N3

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Bib Aprons, A Great Impulse Item

Recently. I posted about impulse items in The $80 tube of Toothpaste. The secret to high priced toothpaste, that the big box stores use, is the careful placement of impulse items. Today, I learned that Popularity of aprons is remarkable

Long, short, frilly or barbecue-style, the apron has withstood the test of time, becoming a cultural icon of sorts.

In Arizona, local retailers suggest

● A floral-print half apron, embellished with two bold blue butterflies, brings a festive and springy look to the kitchen.

● Soft ruffles, hand embroidery and delicate floral cutouts on all-white fabric create a crisp, classic and feminine look for an old-fashioned afternoon tea or other special occasion.

● Mommy's or Daddy's little helper can practice cooking while looking adorable in a pint-sized apron

● Vibrant flowers, birds and metallic braiding

For me, I like the solid bib-apron.

A little web checking provides information that a dozen white aprons can be purchased for $48 a dozen. Most aprons sell in the $30 to $35 area. A logo can be added and you have a great impulse item. Can you believe it? People will pay you to advertise your store.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

The Resort Effect

On May 12th I wrote about the advent of Hularo, a man-made, totally weatherproof fiber, but unlike other plastic fibers it contains no PVC, will not crack or fade and does not give off toxic fumes. The unspoken story is that the hottest trend in America is moving outside.

The ideal outdoor room takes the comforts of the house's interior to a nearby outdoor space, usually one that is attached to the house. This means plush furniture upholstered in weather-resistant fabric, a cooking area or heat source and a covering, such as a canopy, to keep the rain out.

Deborah Krasner, whose recent book, "The New Outdoor Kitchen," explores one of the most popular new forms of outdoor space, explains the trend as an answer to our desire for instant comfort. Call it The Resort Effect.

"More and more we want the luxury we experience when we travel," she says. "We want that resort experience at home."

"This is a huge trend and an international trend," Krasner adds. Since she completed her book, Krasner has been asked to design outdoor kitchens in Sicily, Denmark and Britain.

Creating a resort at home becomes more attractive as transportation costs climb. (emphasis added)

Now if we can just get the sun to stay out here in Portland on the weekends.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Organizing Tips

Mary Carol Garrity, the proprietor of three successful home furnishings stores in Atchison, Kan., and the author of several best-selling books on home decorating, writes in Organizing: Think outside the basket at InsideBayArea.com. about organizing your home and increasing storage by suggesting:

• Cute containers for small items like stamps and office supplies

• Get the family to hang up their things with Hooks and Rods in the bathroom and mudroom

• Message centers of chalkboard painted doors

• Stealth storage with decorative containers that double as storage.

Baskets and boxes are another good way to increase storage in your home and they are attractive:

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

House Markers

While driving around Forest Heights last Friday, we noticed that many homes had very special and big house numbers. Now we've been to Home Depot and glanced at their numbers and generally they have individuals in black and brass that you nail or screw up individually. Not the kind seen in Forest Heights! I tell Mike on occasion that I want some of those big numbers that can be seen with ease from the street.

I surfed upon a site that carries what I'm looking for, Address Plaques, Signs and Markers.com and there are the numbers I have been looking for:


Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Alexa Hampton designs for Kravet

Interesting article in the Sun Sentinel about Alexa Hampton, the daughter of a famous designer Mark Hampton.

(She is) a busy designer for discriminating clients, she also designs furniture for Hickory Chair and fabrics for Kravet.

In the interview she was asked, "When do you think a room needs updating?"

A. Rooms that are done in the heat of a trend tend to need redoing five to seven years later. Rooms that are designed with a more personal or timeless approach usually last for a minimum of 12 to 15 years. At that point, I find that fabrics often poop out, depending upon the wear that they receive.

While she designs for the Florida market, she is a trend setter and there are some clues as to what will get picked up nationally.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Our Open House Was A Success

We moved to our new location in the Pearl Design Center on March 15th and Thursday night invited designers and friends to our open house. It was a wonderful night and many dropped by to wish us well and loved our new location. Face it, Macadam Avenue is just not that easy to get to, if you are coming from somewhere other than Lake Oswego or West Linn. We are actively getting involved in the Pearl community (more about that later) and had our first ad in the magazine "EXPLORE THE PEARL" (see below)

The building activity in the area is breathtaking. Just up the street, Safeway is building a new store and cranes are a fixture on the skyline. If you are in our area, stop by and introduce yourself. Mike's favorite food at the party was the Mexican Wedding Cookie.

We still have some cookies in addition to my favorite, fat-free animal crackers.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Wickes to close its five Minneapolis-area stores

And concentrate on Portland, OR.

The Top 100 company will close all five of its Minnesota stores and its Brooklyn Center, Minn., distribution center and “part of the company’s continuing strategy to focus its resources in high-growth markets including California, Chicago, Portland (Ore.) and Las Vegas,” Wickes said in a release.

[...]

The company said it is opening 10 new showrooms in those markets this year.

I counted 10 Cranes in the downtown Portland area this weekend, and might have missed a couple.

The $80 Tube of Toothpaste!

That's what good retailers like Costco and Target get for toothpaste, because you may have just stopped in for the toothpaste, but you bought impulse items that are strategically located around the store.

While few people would say they go to Target or Costco for pleasure, these retailers have gained an edge in luring people in for everyday products, and then enticing them to fill their carts with much more.

Welcome to the $80 tube of toothpaste, where a receipt ends up being far longer than the shopping list.

What can a small retail business learn from the big box stores? Your retail customers may walk in and say, I didn't know you were here and then on impulse walk out with a purchase because they derived pleasure from buying it.

In our store we have some items that look like a spilled wine glass. It always brings a chuckle and then the thought that this item would be great as a joke for that friend with light carpet or the white sofa.

Impulse items, the bubbles in the glass of good retailers.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture & Design Gallery

Green Hularo

Traditionally outdoor furniture has been made of teak, wrought iron and plastic. Teak was used because it wouldn't rot and wrought iron because it wouldn't rust. Now there is "hularo". From the Post-Bulletin:

During the past few years, a new material called Hularo has become the staple of high-end contemporary design for exterior furnishings. Hularo is a man-made, totally weatherproof fiber, but unlike other plastic fibers it contains no PVC, will not crack or fade and does not give off toxic fumes.

Here are some examples of outdoor furniture using Hularo

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery

Artistic Metal

From Ocala.com, Metal shows off its artistic mettle/Designs of all types are popular as wall decor

You might see decorative metal wall art pieces and grills outdoors, but they're now making decor statements inside the home.

These often-ornate pieces can be made of iron, other metals or even faux iron with the look of the real thing.

Pictured are some examples from Global Views:

Square Wall Panel - Circular Design - 42"W x 48.25"H

Louis Iron Wall Panel 24"W x 36"H

Maresca Iron Wall Shelf 7"L x 37"H

CBK also offers metal art:

Queen Headboard Bed with Oval Design, Iron Cast Top, Medallion Accents and Antique Rust Finish, 60"L x 2"W x 60"H

Wine Label Design 9-Bottle Wine Table with Distressed Red, Gold, and Antique Black Finish, 31"L x 11"W x 30.25"H

In many ways, iron wall grills work like any other piece of art you might put on a wall. But because they don't have an array of colors like you might find in paints or tapestries, they are less busy and blend in easily...

Both Global Views and CBK are carried at Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery, now located in The Pearl.

Bev & Mike