Chair Love: 10 of Our New Faves

Jackson Crazy Armchair from Marie's Corner

Irwin Weiner ASID - So many chair, so little time. Here are a few of our favorite chairs. Click on each photo for more information. And enjoy watching the video on Thomas Heatherwick exciting interactive Spun chair! Our goal: to have every one of our clients sitting pretty.

Bubble Chair with LED Lights by RousseauPixel Chair by Vivian ChiuWoofer Chair by Saporiti Italia

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How Many Ways Can You Decorate with Gourds and Pumpkins?

Irwin Weiner ASID - This time of year there's a plethora of pumpkins and an engorged supply of gourds ... and precious little imagination when it comes to decorating with them. Plop a few here and there, line them up on windowsills, put a grouping of three by the front door. <yawn> It's what I call Fall (Asleep) Decorating. 

Well, if you'd like to escape from the boring same-old seasonal decor traps, I came across a Gorgeous Gourds and Pumpkins photo series and how-to guide with a good many novel ideals - praise be! - for putting these underutilized seasonal goodies to work in your home. Put a beautiful and original fall centerpiece on your breakfast or dinner table to put your family and friends in a more festive mood. Brighten up

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Splash Pop Comic Art on Your Walls

Irwin Weiner ASID - Only in New York: your waiter turns out to be an actor, an artist, or someone far-and-away something else besides a waiter. It happened to us recently in a favorite Italian restaurant near my office. Our server learned that I was an interior designer, and knew that I admired the artwork in the restaurant. They turned out to be his pieces - bright, pop art taken straight from the pages of comic books and vintage cartoons. Check out Filippo's Pop Comic Art blog and his Etsy store ... and next time you're in a restaurant, you just might run into the next Picasso, DeNiro, or Einstein!

 
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Happy Halloween: Do You Live in a Haunted House?

Jay Johnson - Is your house haunted? Are you experiencing the presence of others ... with no logical explanation? About a third of the population believes in ghosts, and according to a USA Today article on the subject, that's about the same number of people who are baseball fans.

Well, Happy Halloween to you! On Design2Share, we look at home design in a very serious way, and we wanted to acknowledge that for some people, their home may be an uncomfortable, fearful place due to reasons other than a bad decorating job we can blame on the previous owners.

We spoke with a feng shui expert last weekend, and she says that she now combines her practice with "clearing" procedures, to help rid a home of what's called predecessor energy. That's a fancy term for ghostly residue or unresolved issues from folks who used to live on the land or in your home. Even if you live in a new-construction home, you can be dealing with predecessor energy. We know a couple who just moved into a just-opened condo building in lower Manhattan. Nothing has gone right for them, and living in their ultra-modern apartment is supremely uncomfortable. When they found out that their home was built on the grounds of an old churchyard, they said "Ah ha!" and asked us for help finding someone who could clear the energy and help them restore normalcy in their home. 

As our feng shui expert told us,

If I don't deal with house clearing issues, it's like putting fresh flowers into dirty water. What's the sense of that?

I grew up in a small Midwestern neighborhood where most everyone believed in the paranormal (it's a long story!). Let's just say that set of beliefs was part of the history of our community of 30,000 people. Many people I grew up with can personally attest to the presence of an invisible world, and I've come to think that science just has to catch up with some explanations of what's going on. My mind is open to accepting many beliefs and respecting what others are experiencing firsthand.

The following video shows you some practical advice if you find yourself experiencing what you think is a ghost or paranormal presence in your house. If you're in that third of the population who believes, then this may be for you. If you're not, then this should be entertaining fiction. But I thought, being Halloween and all, that this would be an appropriate "holiday video pick." Please leave a comment telling us of any experiences you've had in your home. Thanks for sharing.

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