Consider Concrete Decorating Solutions for Your Home

Irwin Weiner ASID - I've not been quick onto the custom concrete bandwagon for home design, having relegated concrete to the realm of the too-architectural approach to home design and home decor. Concrete can be an amazing addition to a home, both as a practical design feature and as a tactile element. There's nothing cooler than a concrete floor - one kind of texture - overlaid with a shaggy knotted handmade rug - another rich contrasting texture.

Here are some of my favorite concrete applications from Concreteworks East, a supplier of custom concrete products out of East Brunswick, NJ. My personal favorite is the use of terrazzo within concrete in the tub below. Out of this world! We need to look forward to the "next thing" in design, and I like the use of color within concrete, moving away from the concrete-only look (I'm still not a huge fan of tinted colored concrete - I think the final product comes out a bit too gloomy and muddy).

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Come See the Houses of Tomorrow!

Irwin Weiner ASID - There's a lot of Disneyland thinking in designing a futuristic home - and we're not talking your run-of-the-mill contemporary architecture. We're thinking of Tomorrowland, the Jetsons, Star Trek, and the house that just landed in your neighborhood from outer space!

I'm fascinated with what houses may look like in the future, and for decades there have been numerous attempts to design and build the future of family homes. Here is a sampling of my favorites; click on each photo to learn more about them.

For more futuristic housing wonders, see Design2Share's Scrapbook Collection of Photographs: Favorite Housing Innovations.

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Refreshing Collaboration Between Architect and Interior Designer

Irwin Weiner ASID - Whoa! I was delighted when I found a video that documented a close and respectful collaboration between a group of architects and an interior designer. So often the two design forces have a tendency to clash and fight for turf, much to the client's consternation and dismay. I would encourage every homeowner who's seriously considering working with both sets of design professionals to watch this video to see how a house planning process should be done, either the redesign of an existing structure or creating something brand new.

I've had some training in architecture, and that's helped me respect and integrate construction and building phase planning into all my client design work; it also helps me speak the language of architecture with a client's architectural team so we can quickly get on the same page. Oftentimes architects aren't thinking, however, of the interior space that a client's family must experience every day ... and this can sometimes boil down to planning enough wall space to accommodate a client's art collection or incorporating windows overlooking an important view which we interior designers want to closely integrate into the design scheme. I extend a professional tip of the hat to UK interior designer Christina Fallah and the architects at Hampson, Williams and Kimble for having the courage to document their planning process, empathizing with the client, but at the end, realizing that the client's own degree of involvement - from hands off to micro-managing - will greatly determine the end results.
 

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Creative Talent Hangs Out on the Behance Network

Irwin Weiner ASID - A good friend told me recently about the Behance Network website, and you need to check it out. It's a place where creative professionals hang out their shingles - we'll do that soon at Design2Share, as this seems to be THE place to be - and that means that you can dip into the Behance waters by using their professional field filters to find what you're looking for. You can follow creative professionals and their work, hire them to help you out on a project, follow their blogs, etc. Here are some of the folks I just found ... and love ... from the Behance Network. Click on each image above and below for more information.

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