Take A Look At Hubel!

TODL is always fun to look through and today one casegoods manufacturer caught Mike's eye, Hubel! The manufacturer of fine furniture is HQ'd in Colorado Springs, CO. Here's a sample of what Mike Liked:


Passage In Time

Size: 21"w x 11"d x 70"h
Lead Time: 8 - 10 Weeks
Price: $4,800.00 - Net
Collection: Clocks


Flare

Size: 50"w x 13"d x 20"h
Lead Time: 3 - 4 Weeks
Price: $3,200.00 - Net
Collection: Bench


Splayed

Size: 38"w x 28"d x 18"h
Lead Time: 4 - 6 Weeks
Price: $3,600.00 - Net
Collection: Tables


Up-Lifted

Size: 70"w x 16"d x 46"h
Size Depends on TV/lift Size
Lead Time: 10 - 12 Weeks
Price: $12,000.00 - Net
Collection: Casework

Hubel is a small custom furniture studio making the finest in contemporary, hardwood furniture. All work is made to order using traditional joinery techniques combined with modern designs. Custom designed furniture by Brian A. Hubel allows you the freedom to choose the look, the wood and the feel that defines the style you are looking for. With artistic beauty, practicality and timeless designs, furniture by Brian Hubel will stand on its own like a piece of fine art.

Hubel joins the list of great small, independent furniture makers.

Bev & Mike
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Why are flame retardants required in furniture, anyway?

Florence Williams asks the question on her Slate blog.

The European Union had recently banned two of the major commercial formulas of brominated flame retardants, called penta- and octa-BDEs. Produced in large quantities in the United States to meet furniture and other fire codes, they were poured into products—and quickly migrated into dust, air, soil, waterways, effluent, and food. Because flame retardants don't break down easily, they remain for years in the tissues of birds, aquatic organisms and mammals, including us, albeit in small quantities. An endocrine disruptor and neurotoxin, the retardants are linked to thyroid disorders and reproductive problems in animals and humans. blockquote>

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Searching For Furniture Stores Online

When I come across a furniture store online, I check to see if the company uses Twitter or FaceBook. I automatically follow such companies. I want to see what they are Tweeting about. I also want to see what they are doing on FaceBook and the number of fans that follow. Next I look on their website to see if they have a blog. Do they post often? Is it well laid out and written well? So they accept ads? Do they have a blogroll?

If you are an interior designer. you should be doing the same things. There are a lot of designer blogs and many are just wonderful, full of creative ideas and filled with great pictures of their work or work they admire. It's a good idea to ask for a link exchange by emailing them. If you can't find an email address, try tweeting them or becoming a fan on FaceBook. You are networking and you never know what's going to rebound in your favor.

Just today, I found Rich Furniture in San Jose, CA. Rich Duke sells solid oak furniture at Best Oak Antique and Duke has a blog, Best Oak Antique Blog. What does Duke write about? Typical things for a furniture store:

• Why You Should Choose Solid Oak Furniture For Your Home
• What does "H.L. Registered Design" mean on the inside of my antique cabinet?
• Antique English Victorian bamboo 2 drawer bedside commode

But, what's this: How to Buy & Sell Books Online : How to Determine a Price for an Old Book. I didn't know about bookfinder.com. You can take all those books just gathering dust on your bookshelves and see if someone values owning them more than you do. I discovered that Molly Mackey at Expert Village, who does the video, has a whole series of videos on the subject of buying and selling rare books.

What would we do without the internet?

Bev & Mike
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Mike's Favorite Rock Band

I came across a company called 'MagnetMe', by Magnet. It allows kitchens to be truly personalized by printing favourite images, designs or photographs direct onto the cabinet doors. Some might think that a fan of World Soccer might want to decorate their kitchen cabinets with their country's logo.

Just for fun, Mike took a look at his options and chose the cabinets, wall colors and floor color. He is into rocks, you know. Here's what he came up with:



What do you think? Is this something you might consider when you design a kitchen for a special client?

10 Hot Kitchen And Bath Design Ttrends

Ideas 4 Home has an article on 10 hot kitchen and bath design trends from Builder Magazine

Speaking of Duralee Fabrics

From The Designer Insider

Duralee Fabrics: The Wainwright Collection!

This is a traditional collection of fabrics with more exciting and up to date colorways.



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DuraLee Presents The Big Kahuna Of Fabric Design

I mentioned that I was reading Casual Living the other day. There's another article that I want to direct your attention to, "Fabric Colors signal rebound" by Jamie Sorcher. In the article Sorcher says that consumers are looking for mood-lifting bright colors and that is a key sign of life for fabric makers and casual furniture retailers.

One thing that caught my eye was the mention of Alfred Shaheen and the introduction of fabrics by DuraLee's subsidiary Suburban Home. Alfred Shaheen is the big Kahuna designer of the postwar Hawaiian clothing movement.

Shaheen’s graphic prints, with colors pulled from the petals of the hibiscus flower and the waves of Waikiki, elevated the status of these often-quirky garments from kitsch to high fashion.

Capturing the spirit of the Aloha culture, tropical leaves, bamboo stripes and whimsical fish have danced across Shaheen’s apparel with universal appeal. The Surf And Sand Indoor/Outdoor Print Collection captures these fanciful patterns that evoke memories of luaus, sultry breezes, and the sweet scent of plumeria leis and adds a fresh twist with new scales and colorways to fit today’s modern applications.

Suitable for the sofa in any Tiki Hut or hanging outdoors on the Lanai, Surf And Sand Indoor/Outdoor Prints are designed to add notes of paradise to any setting while maintaining the durability required to face the elements.

The weather had been so cold and wet here that just looking at these fabrics invokes memories of sun, smells of hibiscus, cooling breezes off the water and the compulsion to body surf. Here are a few of the Shaheen designs:





See all the Duralee fabrics in the Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery showroom in Portland, Oregon, where we have memo samples of the fabrics.

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Sofa Basics At StoriBook Designs

There's a new blog (to me!), StoriBook Designs, that has a must read about sofas:

• Finding Your Perfect Mate

  Part 1: The Sofa Basics

• Finding Your Perfect Mate

  Part 2: The Styles of Sofas

Bev & Mike
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Interor Designer Found Dead

South Florida interior designer James Wallace Tutt III was found dead in a bushy area known as "The Narrows" near his home by his partner Don Purdy on Saturday morning. He was 53.

The interior designer born in Meridian, Mississippi, is best known for transforming the Miami mansion of the late Italian designer Gianni Versace into a South Beach icon.

He also designed homes for Cher and had celebrity friends, including Jack Nicholson and model Elle McPherson.

Digs Inside & Out

Did you know that Casual Living has just awarded the 2010 Merchandising Award, Single Store, to Digs Inside & Out for Best Overall Merchandising?

Digs Inside & Out is located at 1829-B Alberta Street in Portland, Oregon. The store offers total home and garden design services as well as real estate staging and party planning and a cute little retail shop.

Casual Living wrote, "A customer interested in succulent container gardens would find not only the garden but an instructional book and cute table befitting small spaces."

We love Digs Inside & Out and have referred customers to them and they to us. Congratulations owner JJ de Sousa! She even has a blog, Digs Inside & Out Blog.

Bev & Mike
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Contract Launches Call for 2011 Interiors Awards Entries

Calling all designers:

Contract magazine announced today (June 1) that it will begin accepting entries for its 2011 Interiors Awards. The annual award, now entering its 32nd year, recognizes the accomplishments of the most innovative design teams from the past year in 15 categories, including Large/Small Office, Hotels, Restaurants, Healthcare, and Retail, among others.

The awards will be presented publicly to the winners (notified by Oct 20) at a breakfast, along with the acclaimed Designer of the Year and the Legend Award, where the design community's best gather to pay tribute to the winning teams. Winning projects will also be published in the January 2011 Design Awards issue of Contract magazine.

Entries will be judged by a panel of esteemed industry professionals: Marlon Blackwell, Marlon Blackwell Architect; Randy Brown, Randy Brown Architects; Dirk Denison, Dirk Denison Architects; Lars Krüeckeberg, Graft; and Kimberly Sacramone, HLW International.

Those interested in entering can download full entry details. All application materials must be received by September 24, 2010.

Winners of the Contract magazine 2010 Interiors Awards included Graft (Designers of the Year), Art Gensler (Legend Award), Slade Architecture, and Clive Wilkinson Architects. View the entire list of last year's winners at ContractDesign.com.

Bev & Mike
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Hooker Furniture Promotes Online Community

Hooker Furniture has created an online community to educate and inspire furniture shoppers, retailers and designers about home improvement, decorating ideas, design trends and product information.

The online community includes two blogs,

• The "Envision the Possibilities of Your First Home" blog,
• The "Experience Your Home" blog

a Facebook fan page, a dedicated channel on YouTube and Twitter.

Speaking of "Experience Your Home", check out Nancy Lindemeyer's post LIVING WITH LOVE – Pull Up a Chair in which she features Sam Moore's Claremont Chair.

Sam Moore’s Claremont chair, roomy and comfy with blend down seating, is just the kind of chair that says “welcome” to guests and family alike.

Lindemeyer is author of “My First Best Friend,” a book about those once-in-a-lifetime first friendships and how they affect women for the rest of their lives.



Bev & Mike
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Premiere Designers, Erin Martin and Bokja

There's a new magazine out that caters to luxury living, wine, cuisine, destinations, real estate, luxury cars, authentic antiques, high end, custom and luxury furniture, fresh interior design ideas, and design trends. It's called "Premiere Designers."

In Volume One I spent some time on "The Real Deal : ERIN MARTIN."



Erin Martin, formerly of Seattle, is the daughter of an architect and an interior designer, who owns a very creative furniture store and gallery in St. Helena, California.

Premiere Designers has a blog called Clique. In the blog I came across "Bokja."



Bokja originates in Lebanon in a store opened by two women, Houda Baroudi and Maria Hibri. The two have a blog, Bokja Bites, that explains their design philosophy and the origin of their designs.

Bokja is a Turkish word that describes the elaborately and detailed fabric created to cover a bride’s dowry. Embroidered by the bride’s relatives, this fabulously worked textile is meant to be a reminder of her past to be treasured in her new life as a married woman.

Baeoudi and Hibri find fabric and assemble the pieces to upholster a chair or sofa. Each piece of fabric has a story and together a piece of art.

Each piece of Bokja furniture is a surprise for the eyes. The chairs and sofas appear to be calling the shots on how they want to be reupholstered. Says, Hibri, “We don’t care if things match. If we like the fabrics, we find they end up liking each other.” Fabrics are varied and one chair might consist of numerous textiles that originate from places as far apart as Samarkand, Aleppo and Istanbul. They submit to no rules when it comes to combining designs and styles: floral motifs might be matched with check and stripes; kilims with wood block prints; rich velvet with crisp linen.

So far the buzz is very loud. Their designs have appeared in International Herald Tribune Style Magazine, Elle, Luxury Culture.com. Style and Grand Designs, etc. Bokja is loved by Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, and Kate Hudson.

Bev & Mike
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Who Is Karen Fisher?

Looking through New York magazine, I saw an ad for Designer Previews. The website shows the work of America's finest interior designers and architects and helps you select the best based on your style and personal requirements through office consultations or online consultations from their private site.

Karen Fisher started Designer Previews in 1985 after having been an editor for Woman’s Wear Daily, Cosmopolitan, Esquire and American Home. Fisher not only represents the world’s top designers and architects, she is also known for selecting young designers who go on to become world famous. In the press, she's often referred to as "The Design Matchmaker" or as a "design psychologist" for her uncanny ability to help clients find their ideal match. Her place in the design world was commemorated with her induction into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 1996. She has also written six very well-received decorating books for Viking, Morrow and Random House.

Designer Previews caters to the public looking for help in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Phoenix and Greenwich.

Karen Fisher posts to a blog called in-Sites and it's filled with great information. Here's a sample:

• How to get your 15 minutes of fame?
• Bobby McAlpine’s Book: A Must-Read
• What You Should Know Before You Hire An Interior Designer
• Margaret Russell’s Vision
• Instant Glamour (with Christopher Guy)

The major point Fisher made is this:

As a former editor (Woman's Wear, Cosmopolitan, Esquire), I can tell you that receiving interesting work that's worth publishing would make my day. You didn't need to know a famous publicist or be social. Just show your work and give the editors a reason to publish it. Like Wood Allen says, "98% of success is showing up!" So put it out there, babes!

Bev & Mike
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Reading Al Dente

I was reading through the Al Dente blog at Amazon.com and came across the Perfect Burger Press by Progressive International.



Now that BarBQue season is finally here, we love a good, grilled hamburger, but I'm not looking forward to pressing burger patties. You first have to take a scoop of freshly ground hamburger in your hands and squish it into a ball. Then you need to press it flat on wax paper. Invariably, it plumps up on the grill and doesn't cook evenly. It's hard to cook it all the way through without burning or drying out the outside,

At Al Dente I discovered the answer: a burger press for less than $5 and it cooks the burger evenly. What's more you don't have greasy hands to wash!

As far as al dente, Michael does not like his green beans uncooked this way.

Bev & Mike
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Looking For A Special Gift?

Are you or clients looking for a special gift that’s fair-priced, but makes a great impression? Of course, you are.

And you can solve your problems with selections from Global Views’ new Gifts for All Seasons catalog, available at the summer shows. There are more than 150 items featured that are ready to ship and priced to sell. From its beginnings in 1996, Global Views has offered a broad collection of unique gift items and with this catalog expands its extensive and imaginative mix of products. More than 125 of the featured SKUs are new for the summer shows.

Offerings in the catalog range from whimsical small vases to desk accessories to handsome decorative glass, candlesticks, and Global Views’ distinctive human figures executed in dance poses, clever hand collections and stylized stick figures. Geometric shapes are interpreted in crystal and metallic finishes for contemporary impact. The catalog will be available at the Landfair Furniture showroom this summer.


Bev & Mike Landfair
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery
In the Pearl Design Center in Portland, OR
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HBA Honors Paolo Design Group

We want to congratulate Paolo Scardina owner of Paolo Design Group for winning two top awards from the Home Builders Association (HBA) for his design work in 2009.

The firm received 2009 Excellence Awards in both the Residential Bath Design and Residential Whole House Design categories for its innovations in minimalist interior design and sustainable living. Among the projects lauded by the HBA is Oregon’s first LEED Platinum certified whole house remodel, in which Paolo Design Group helped pioneer green home design techniques to create a unique sustainable dwelling within the building’s existing footprint.

Bev & Mike
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Lynn Read Treats Us With Bargello Murrini

Interior designer Jason Ball over on Facebook said "Lynn Read has a showing at Vetri in Seattle." He accompanied his update with pictures of Read's work at First Thursday. I was struck by the unusual designs and creativity of his work and wanted more information.



Lynn Read's website says:

My recent series of murrini vessels is called Bargello. This body of work, glass is an exploration of patterns inspired by Florentine textiles. This Florentine embroidery is loosely referred to as Bargello style. The style typically has bold color and strong graphics. These patterns are both retro and contemporary. I use the murrini to embellish the surface and create shapes that balance the complexity of pattern with clean and minimalistic lines. The shapes are very intentional and illustrate my interest in design and the craftsmanship of execution.

Right away I wanted a definition of "murrini" and "Bargello."

Murrini - is an Italian word meaning colored glass patterns made by Venetian glass makers. This video shows how one glass factory makes patterned glass:



Bargello - "is a type of needlepoint embroidery consisting of upright flat stitches laid in a mathematical pattern to create motifs. The name originates from a series of chairs found in the Bargello palace in Florence, which have a "flame stitch" pattern."



Thanks Jason!

Bev & Mike
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A Solution For The Space Challenged

At Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery, we like furniture that does tricks. We've had on our showroom floor a teak coffee table that converts to a dining table and cocktail tables that double as extra seating. We sell lots of sleeper sofas to couples that want to convert the TV room to a guest room. Sleeper sofas work well for smaller homes that need a place for guests. The main drawback to some sleeper sofas is the mattress. They must be the kind that fold.

That's why we are adding a new vendor, Murphy Beds from National Casegoods, a great solution for the space challenged. Murphy Wall Beds can help you overcome space problems and provide you and your guests the comfort of a real mattress for a good night's sleep.

National Casegoods starts with real wood and is responsible by working to generate as little waste as possible. They avoid the use of particleboard, plastic laminate, melamine and Thermofoil. They believe their product is higher quality , more durable and more attractive.

Murphy Beds from National Casegoods come with a Limited Lifetime Warranty on the piston lift mechanism, a 10 year Limited Warranty on hardware parts and a one year Limited Warranty on the finish and wood parts. Basically labor is not covered.

The Murphy Beds come in five styles, five finishes and three sizes; Queen, Full and Twin. In addition, side cabinets are available in all styles and finishes.

Come to Landfair Furniture to view the Murphy Beds catalog. Bev will be happy to give you a quote for your particular project.

Bev & Mike
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It's Bridget Otto Thursday

You've been in homes where you enter into an entry with two-story ceilings. I've always thought they were a waste of space and probably responsible for high heating bills. Today, Bridget A. Otto writes about a family in Beaverton couple who need a bit bigger house and yet nothing they look at is quite as good as their present home.

Deepa Rao and her husband Prantik Nag considered adding on, but didn't like the alternatives; how it would change the appearance or change their traffic patterns or fit their budget. Then they asked, "What if the second-story space in the entry became a loft of sorts?"

Enter Joel Fraley of Neil Kelly Design/Build Remodeling. He had fielded many calls from people seeking the same kind of answer, so was familiar with the solution. He solved the problem by inserting a loft without blocking the natural light that they loved so much.

Another problem solved by a professional who could picture a final product before it was tackled. You can email Fraley at joel.fraley@neilkelly.com.

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