August Design Favorites

How-to Project of the Month

We enjoy the DIY videos produced by the Howcast folks, and some of them are absolutely hilarious! This one gives some simple, commonsense advice in applying the tips and principles of feng shui to enhancing your bedroom. You spend much of your life in bed, so why not optimize the energy in this part of your home?

Back to School Specials

Here are two great ways to hit the books in style. We're loving the Ptolomeo rotating bookcase, designed by Bruno Rainaldi for Opinion Ciatti (top photo) and available online at The Conran Shop. Each shelf is great for books or storage boxes and other goodies.

The Nureyev (bottom photo) is Roderick Vos's fab freestanding bookcase design for the wonderful Dutch design firm Linteloo. With either of these stylish furniture options, you won't need to use the floor for your files or sacrifice wall space to built-in bookshelves.

Sleepy-Time Pal

Your child will drift off to sleep in style with cloud b's Twilight Sea Turtle. It eases a child's fear of the dark by projecting stars onto the bedroom ceiling, with a softly illuminated shell that makes this little fellow a soothing nighttime buddy. So sweet.

Country Roads, Take Me Home

We recently went on the Tenth Annual Barns of Distinction Tour for the Bucks County Audubon Society (PA) and greatly admired the Trunnel Hyll Farm brought back to life by Sean Tracy and his great Bucks County TimberCraft craftsmen. The original 1850s barn had its timbers cleaned and restored at Sean's shop, then taken to the site, where it's been reassembled and converted into a custom barn home. The original 1820s settler's cabin studio, once hand-crafted by a Virginia preacher who used it to conduct weddings, makes a wonderful guest house on the property, too.

Tabletop Head Turners

The Hybrid everyday flatware service from Gourmet Settings is an award-winning set by Boym Partners with a straight/twisted and square/round mixed-up heritage, a nice breaking of the rules that make everything so matchy-matchy.

This lovely Limoges Porcelain leaf pattern dish is from Siecle Paris.

Drink hearty from the delicately painted Parrots of Paradise Mug from Lynn Chase Designs.

 

The creamer, coffeepot, and presentation plate are exquisite elegant everyday dining examples of one of our favorite placesettings, Caraibes from Philippe Deshoulieres France (distributed in the U.S. by BIA Cordon Bleu).

July Design Favorites

Happy July 4th!

Most of us will be chillin' and grillin' this month, so we thought it only fitting that we feature a Howcast video on how to grill the perfect burger.

Gardening Guru

Fashion and garden maven Dianne Benson has opened up an amazing new website and online store, The Best at Dianne B, featuring her 10 must-have gardening items and accessories. Included in her edited-down list, the gardening author (her classic, Dirt, is excerpted here on Design2Share) and Garden Pundit for Hampton's Cottages & Gardens Magazine serves up the best trowel, gardening gloves, yard bag, clippers, Felco, tool belt, plant markers, garden ties, gardening shoes and boots (see the chic French pair above), and shovel (see the monogrammed pure steel shovel above).

Epic Book

We are blown away by the poetic beauty and power of author Russell Goings grand survey of the African American experience in the United States, The Children of Children Keep Coming. Goings' book is beautifully framed with images by Romare Bearden.

The author's life is a book in and of itself: a professional football player, the first African American brokerage manager for a NY Stock Exchange Member firm, the first owner of an African American company to manage Fortune 500 corporate assets, the first African American chairman of the Studio Museum of Harlem, the founder and chairman of Essence magazine, and an inductee into the Wall Street Hall of Fame.

Window Shopping

What could be easier than the online workroom at The Shade Store to create custom shades, blinds, drapery, and panel systems -- all with workroom-direct pricing? We love the way you can select a drapery treatment, for instance (above are examples of, from top to bottom: ripple fold, tailored pleat, cubicle, grommet, and rod pocket). The examples above are all from The Shade Store's new collaboration with Robert Allen, showcasing 100 specially edited fabrics. It's an amazing collection, and they're definitely reinventing the boring old window!

Atlanta Peach

 

 

We love the product line from Bradley Hughes, the high-end furnishings folks in Atlanta. Fashioned from acid mirror, colored glass, hand-forged iron, exotic woods, stones, and concrete, they work with top designers and artisans to create unique pieces that will look great in any home.