Archive for June, 2010

Monday, June 28, 2010

Lust for Lacquer

Some days I feel torn between my love of color and my love of sim­ple neu­trals. I'm not one to live in an all-white space, but I love to accent with whites. And my favorite white accent pieces are done in white lac­quer.  Be they pure white, warm white, cream or marsh­mal­low — the lus­ter of lac­quer lends an ele­gance to any space. White lac­quer blends eas­ily into both tra­di­tional and con­tem­po­rary spaces. What do you think? Would you invite a white lac­quer piece to live with you?

Clean and con­tem­po­rary, this cock­tail table from Hul­sta:

Sleek and smooth, this van­ity from Laura Kirar for Kallista:

Sub­limely sim­ple, this bar­cart from Jonathan Adler - its color and tex­ture "is like crack cocaine for your eyes". LOVE !!

Func­tional and fun, this con­sole table from Ozzio trans­forms into 4 vari­a­tions, includ­ing din­ing table size!

Light­hearted and light­weight, this faux bam­boo chair from Bun­ga­low 5 will go any­where it's needed.

Be it curly and girly or gor­geously graphic, any­one can find a spot for a small con­sole cab­i­net as dar­ling as these from Worlds-Away.

Won­der­ful white lac­quer renews a vin­tage piece — in white it's sud­denly "of the moment", like this mir­ror from C Bell.

Behold the power of white lac­quer - are you a believer yet?

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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Totally Turquoise

Rich and vibrant turquoise was named as 2010 color of the year from Pan­tone, the rec­og­nized expert on color.  Amer­ica has long had a love affair with all shades of blue, in fash­ion, home, cars or crayons. But I imag­ine in our tra­di­tional cor­ner of New Eng­land, turquoise might feel intim­i­dat­ing to many peo­ple. You might be think­ing "I can sport that on a neck­lace, but in my home?" Is turquoise too - scary or mod­ern or trop­i­cal - just too?

You might be sur­prised how well turquoise can fit into your tra­di­tional inte­rior. It pairs beau­ti­fully with other blues, and many greens.  Plenty of white lets turquoise shine fresh and crisp, think clouds in the sky or a box from Tiffany. Small doses of orange or coral off­set its cooler side and pro­vide lovely bal­ance.  The com­ple­men­tary reds, pinks, and deeper blues found in many Ori­en­tal rugs brighter up when turquoise is added to the mix. Turquoise can knock the stuff­ing out of a stuffy room!

So how can you bring this lus­cious shade in?  Of course, paint is always great, and easy to change. Look at these turquoise spaces from Eileen Boyd, Kendall Wilkin­son and Fash­ion­able Inte­ri­ors. Fab­u­lous, right?

Still too scary? These three rooms from Phoebe Howard and Tobi Fair­ley, punc­tu­ated by turquoise uphol­stery, ramp up the cool fac­tor and evoke casual and coastal chic. But the tra­di­tional aes­thetic still shines through clearly.

Finally, acces­sories might be enough to bring a new twist to your exist­ing rooms. Incor­po­rate turquoise lamps ala Markham-Roberts, a throw (from Viva Terra), pil­lows or dec­o­ra­tive objects (pieces shown from Global Views) to add the zest with min­i­mal commitment.

Admit­tedly, I’m a lit­tle biased in favor of turquoise - a pair of these lamps from Bun­ga­low 5 grace my office.

Try a lit­tle turquoise - you won’t be sorry!

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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Antiques, please, with a side of Industrial Chic

I went to Brim­field with fur­ni­ture on my mind, but came home empty-handed.  But I did not despair, because this past week­end, the Rhinebeck Antiques Fair brought together 175 antique deal­ers, with a heavy empha­sis on fur­ni­ture and the dec­o­ra­tive arts.  From across the North­east and as far afield as Florida and Michi­gan, deal­ers showed an inter­est­ing assort­ment.  Judg­ing from the num­ber of sold tags, buy­ing started early.  I arrived about an hour after open­ing, and many of the most inter­est­ing pieces had already been snapped up.

As you might expect in the heart of New York’s antique coun­try, Amer­i­cana dom­i­nates this show. But indus­trial chic is still wildly pop­u­lar. These two tables are great exam­ples, com­bin­ing old machine bases with solid glass or vin­tage wood tops. The results are unique and func­tional with an indus­trial edgi­ness.  I can see the glass-topped table with pale linen uphol­stery in a casual din­ing area or per­haps with the Alle­gro in a funky con­fer­ence room.

Dec­o­ra­tive indus­trial pieces were also a hot draw.  There was a crowd admir­ing these vin­tage pul­leys on cus­tom stands.  Gears adorned walls, and objets and frag­ments drew early buyers.

Does any­one know what that sput­nik shaped item is?

Signs and num­bers were plen­ti­ful and the best exam­ples sold quickly.

There were so many lovely vignettes to con­sider, and a few truly inter­est­ing pieces I fell in love with.  The first was this vin­tage fab­ric bolt holder; love the tapered shape and the patina.  Alas, sold before I laid eyes on it.

The sec­ond was this antique loom/weaving/spool holder.  Not sure what the exact descrip­tion is, but I think it’s charm­ing, and per­fectly sized to hang above a sofa.  I love how the dealer accented the piece with mul­ti­ple col­ors of thread.

And finally, this folk art sheep sign. It just made me smile!

If you missed this spring fair, it’s hap­pen­ing again Octo­ber 9 & 10.  You can catch the antiques show and the fall foliage at the same time!

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