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October 2008
What Song matches your Home?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forget a decorator. What your home really needs is a personal music stylist.
Music certainly sets a mood and an increasing number of homeowners are hiring personal music stylists to custom-make a playlist of tunes suited to their home’s decor. Click here to read story.
The consultants, based mostly in New York and London, look at a client’s decorating style and consider the client’s musical tastes to come up with a playlist that works.
I’m thinking my richly colored bedroom and sparsely decorated living room would have a schizophrenic playlist, something like a mixture of Michael Jackson and Jim Croce.
What soundtrack would go with your home design style?
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Where to put dear ol’ kitty…litter…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I have a tough job as the home and garden writer, occasionally touring beautiful estates for our Private Quarters “Splurge” galleries. This week we’re featuring the home of Greg Gregory and Jeff Murray, two smart, multi-talented men with an eye for design.
My love for this French provincial masterpiece aside, I was struck by a charming solution to storing unattractive kitty litter. Murray designed this granite-topped storage bench, while Sawhorse Inc. brought it to life. Cats Cleo and Khan enter the “kitty station” through the cat cut-out, while the litter box conveniently hides underneath the center compartment. (Gregory is seen here with the design.)
I’ve wrestled with pet storage through the years. It always ends up as a massive kitty dome in my bathroom with granules of litter strewn across tile. Murray’s solution is as adorable as it is functional.
Do you have other suggestions for hiding a pet’s unsightly habits? And has your kitty complied?
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Pier 1 Furniture does beauty
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Would you like a side of perfume with that side chair?
You might if you shop at Pier 1.
Pier 1 Imports, the furniture retailer that hit a homerun importing Papasan chairs almost 30 years ago, recently introduced beauty products to the merchandise mix.
Last year, the store began stocking a line of spa products called Prann, which includes everything from body sprays to hair treatments. This summer, they added a body care line called Nature’s Minerals.
According to a recent article in retail trade publication, Women’s Wear Daily, the company is rolling out at least five more collections of bath and body care products and accessories for spring.
Information about the line, which includes scents such as freesia, and Pink Grapefruit and costs from $1.50 to $30, was unveiled at a press conference in New York earlier this month.
I have to say, generally when I stroll into Pier 1, the last thing I’m looking for is beauty products. But hey, it’s a tough market out there, who can blame them for diversifying?
What do you think of a furniture store selling beauty products? Would you trust the quality?
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Home Brewery
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You know holiday season is here when the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book arrives.
Yesterday after flipping through pages and pages of jewelry and clothing I couldn’t afford, I landed on Page 79…which featured one of the yearly Fantasy Gifts…
An authentic Guinness Home Pub.
Imagine never having to leave your home to get served a pint of stout.
For a whopping $250,000, RiRa Pubs will design and build a fully functional Irish Pub for your home in honor of the 250th anniversary of Arthur Guinness’ brewery founded in 1759.
They’ll even use authentic Guinness artifacts in the design, supply fresh Guinness stout for a year, and send you on a luxury VIP trip to Ireland (how nice!) to visit the St. James Gate Brewery where it all began.
Here’s a formula to help you decide if you should invest in a home brewery:
((# trips to local pub per week)x(cost of gas used to get there)+(yearly bar tab))/$250,000
If your answer is 1 or greater, go for it…
(Click here for a gallery of more fantasy items.)
What fantasy gift for your home would you love to have this holiday season?
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Stashing cash in your mattress, but in style?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s long been a joke that in tough economic times, there’s no better bank than the one on which you sleep. In fact, a classmate of mine back in West Virginia swore that his grandmother, a product of the Depression, kept all her cash in her mattress.
That expression now has a trendy reality.
Hollandia International, maker of luxury sleeping systems, recently introduced a “Safe-T” bed, complete with a safe under the mattress, storage area for a flatscreen television and a security system.
According to Hollandia’s website, the bed was originally designed for a customer who wanted to keep a handgun near him for security. That sparked the idea that other customers could use this type of bed for different types of valuables.
The Executive Safe-T bed costs a whopping $20,400, but perhaps a bed such as this is priceless for the wealthy and paranoid?
For those folks who don’t have $20,000-plus to spend on a bed, check out a few other options for managing your money.
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Calvin Klein’s new furniture collection
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Don’t you just love the fusion of fashion and furniture?
Ralph Lauren did it. Oscar de la Renta did it.
It was just a matter of time before Calvin Klein did it too. Calvin Klein, Inc. announced early this month the launch of the first Calvin Klein Home Furniture collection.
It’s great news for those of us who prefer a minimalist aesthetic. The collection - which includes two lines, “Calvin Klein” and the “curator collection by Calvin Klein Home” - takes inspiration from the textures and materials used in the apparel and accessories lines.
Calvin Klein furniture includes pieces for living room, dining room and bedroom priced from about $850 for a glass end table to $2600 for a canopy bed and is organized into three groups indicating the type of wood used - City (walnut), Weekend (whitewash) and Destination (teak). The collection will hit Macy’s (including stores in Atlanta) in January.
The “curator collection” includes 65 unique items with elaborate detailing such as a tall chest of drawers with valet doors. Prices range from $1100 for a cocktail table to $5000 for a walnut sleigh bed. Items in this collection will be available at fine furniture retailers.
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Pottery Barn opens its first PBteen store at Lenox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hear ye, hear ye, Pottery Barn devotees: Lenox Square is quickly becoming your mecca.
As if having the nation’s largest Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids stores wasn’t enough, the home furnishings and accessories retailer is now opening its first-ever PBteen store in Buckhead on November 8, according to PB Spokeswoman Sarah Lynam.
She explained that Atlanta has consistently been one of the Williams-Sonoma-owned company’s largest markets; further, because the “Kids” store moved to old Pottery Barn space (across from Bloomingdale’s), the company had room to test out a PBteen spot. PBteen will open with an 1,800 square foot space. (By comparison, Pottery Barn Kids is an 11,700 square foot space while the new Pottery Barn at Lenox is a whopping 33,000 square feet.)
Most of us know the traditional PB offerings: transitional, (albeit craftsman-style) furniture, casual canvas upholstery, and an endless assortment of cozy pillows, linens, frames and other home accessories. But what will set the PBteen store apart?
According to Lynam, teen offerings include bedroom, study and lounge furniture (and bedding), lighting and iPod compatible products. She added that given the Nov. 8 opening, look for the Lenox store to have an array of teen-appropriate holiday gifts. For a preview, check out the PBteen website.
What’s next? Our money is on Pottery Barn “Active Adults.”
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Not So Top Design
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve been pretty out of touch with reality TV lately (there’s just soooooo much of it), but this weekend in an effort to avoid work, I camped on the couch (umm, the one I still haven’t sold) and turned on Bravo.
It wasn’t long before I was sucked into a show I hadn’t seen before - Top Design Season 2
The show operates pretty much like any other, except this time it’s interior designers competing for $100,000 and a spread in Elle Decor.
On Episode 5, the designers competed in a decorating triathlon designing a chair, a place setting and a photo shoot worthy room. They had the requisite clashes and catty comments, but compared to the personalities on Project Runway or ANTM, it was pretty tame stuff.
I found myself checking the clock and counting down minutes until the next episode of Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style. Not even when Natalie, a designer who currently lives in Atlanta, won the final challenge could I generate much enthusiasm (her winning room is above).
Is anyone watching Top Design? What are your thoughts on the show?
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How spooky is your Haunted home style?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With three children and a lifetime of collecting, my mother has decorations for every holiday my family celebrates.
Growing up, Christmas was the decor mother-load with an extensive Santa collection, stockings, several trees and Annalee dolls. Easter was awash in brightly-colored eggs and bunnies, while July 4th brought to our home stars, stripes and flags. Halloween was celebrated with friendly-faced pumpkins, whimsical black cats and “spooky” treats. Thanksgiving, of course, was symbolized with vegetable-laden cornucopias, pilgrims and turkeys — the brown paper bag variety my siblings and I crafted in elementary school.
In retrospect, all of this could sound rather gaudy, but as a child those decorations symbolized my mother’s love for her family and dedication to her home. She created a special environment for each holiday that in turn, created priceless memories. She’s much more reserved and refined in her decorating now that we’re grown, though Christmas remains a blow out. (Come early December, the house will glisten with white lights, orange-scented pine, red and gold ribbons and the aforementioned Santa collection.)
I share my mother’s love for Christmas decor, though as a single woman, I rarely acknowledge Halloween in my home. The holiday seems best-suited for children, who get a kick out of fake cobwebs and spiders. (Still, I’m a bit in love with these bizarre pumpkin-head dolls from Horchow.
Do you celebrate Halloween in your home? What elements do you use to make your home a warm, albeit Haunted House?
Need some decor resources? Check out such websites as Ballard Designs, Lillian Vernon and Horchow.
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Five Star Bedding (revised)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re all feeling the economic pinch.
I’d love to invest in some new bedding, but that’s grocery money.
Still, Macy’s and Domino Magazine are having an upcoming shopping event Saturday, October 11 at 2 pm featuring one of the hot trends in bedding: bringing five-star hotel luxury to the boudoir.
Annette Joseph, a stylist/ producer for HGTV and Fine Living will be on hand to run through the latest styles in Macy’s Hotel Collection including the steel hued bedding shown here.
The first 50 customers who spend $100 or more on Hotel Collection stuff will get a free subscription to the magazine. The event is free, but RSVP to 866-252-0450.
Visit Macys.com to search the collection in advance.
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