Blog Archives

Furniture with a side of rhumba

12/31/2009

Ready for yet another "green" resource that has a fantastic (and rare) combination of interesting items and good prices? I thought so. Furnish Green, located in Herald Square, is a furniture showroom by day and dance studio by night. The owner Nathan Hescock rescues furniture and refurbishes it, saving it from a sad fate in a landfill somewhere. You can find listings for items like coffee tables, end tables and chairs on craigslist by searching "furnish green". As an added bonus, for every $100 you spend on merchandise, you get a $50 credit to use at the dance studio.

Field Trip-Pearl River Mart

12/28/2009

One of my favorite sources in Manhattan is Pearl River Mart, located in SoHo. They have a ridiculous amount of product there. Three floors filled rather neatly with everything from clothing to dishes to snacks. I love going there and just brainstorm ideas. A while back, when my best friend was getting married, I thought it would be fun to do decorations from here. A combination of brightly colored lanterns and parasols (a play on the whole "showers of happiness") as sort of a nod to her Karate black belt status. Alas, this did not work for the Italian restaurant where the event was held.

Get on It-start with grey

12/23/2009

Dovecote Design

Perhaps it's because of the recent project I completed, but I'm noticing more grey being used by designers. And not just with pale blue as part of that "icy chic" look--which, frankly, is overdone at this point. In this picture it's mixed with chartreuse (that's the fancy way to say bright green) for a fresh look. Over the summer, I stopped into Lignet Roset's showroom where they had grey paired beautifully with lilac, orchid and some white lacquer pieces.

Small space tip-go monochromatic

12/22/2009

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Movies and Interior Design

12/21/2009

Since winter has decided to officially arrive (even though it unofficially arrived two days earlier with a foot of snow), it's a good time to stay in and cozy up with some movies. I'll admit that I don't watch movies like a regular person. Sure, I care about plot and character development and all that stuff; but what I really want to know is where did the set designer find that awesome lamp.
Tom Ford's new film A Single Man is getting a lot of buzz--and not just for the acting performances. This film (with some help from Mad Men) may bring back the conversation sofa. And not just to the Mid Century Modern hipsters who already found one on craigslist.

Color combination-grey, yellow, and cream

12/17/2009

As promised, I wanted to do an entry that went through the 2nd new vignette I added to the Portfolio section last week. This one is also adapted from a stunning showhouse room put together by the very talented design team in my corporate office. Again, they were working in a much larger space (5x what you see here) so I was tasked to pick the right pieces that would both suit the space and appeal to clients.

Design dilemma: one long room, 2 wall colors

12/15/2009

As open floor plans become even more popular, homeowners are faced with the question of how to paint more than one color on the walls. Very frequently, there is no clear break between, let's say, a living room and a dining room. Your best bet is to work with an existing architectural element like a doorway to provide a more natural break. But even if there is a doorway, that leads either down a hall or to another room, it most likely doesn't extend up to the ceiling. What I do here in the showroom is paint the area directly above the door going all the way to ceiling the same color as the trim. It provides the necessary visual separation without drawing too much attention. Keep in mind this works best when the two paint colors are comparable in intensity and/or hue.

Design Question-what to do with the random space

12/12/2009

I received a question the other day that I thought would be helpful to share with you all. Most of us have those random spaces in our homes--they're too big to leave empty but too small for a piece of furniture.
Hey Christine,
I had a question for you about some shelving options for the new apartment. We have a small unused area of wall about 4 feet wide running between the corner of a room and a window. There is a radiator at the base of the wall, and so we can't just put a book shelf there, so we were thinking of doing some silhoutte shelves for some display items.

The stuff I saw from Bed Bath and Beyond looks a bit thick (I used to have Lack shelves from IKEA, and I didn't like how thick the shelves were). They also look a little mod, which is not precisely our style. I like the sort of non-traditional layout we could do with something like that. I don't really want to just blandly center three shelves on the wall. I didn't know if you had any suggestions for places to look for something like this, or interesting way to layout these types of shelves is would be a great help.

NY Times-Renovating Rentals

12/10/2009

I just finished reading an article in the NY Times about a couple who basically gut renovated an apartment in Brooklyn. An apartment they rent, not own. They are knowledgeable about how to renovate and worked out an arrangement with the landlord to take money off the rent for the 4 years they originally agreed to stay. They get a nicer place to live, the landlord's investment increases dramatically. Great for everyone, right?

Making it work-downsizing

12/9/2009

This room setting was originally in a showhouse on Long Island. There were 2 of each chair instead of one, square end tables and 4 large leather ottomans grouped together as the coffee table. Obviously that would be way too much furniture for this space. Working with the sofa and one of each chair, I added appropriately sized items to finish off the room.

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