For me, reality TV is the reason there are some three hundred channels to choose from on cable with absolutely nothing to watch. Still, there is one program I enjoy watching for the sheer voyeuristic pleasure of it, and it never seems to get old. House Hunters International travels the globe covering real estate purchases [ read more… ]
The month of August is speeding by. With vacations and summer laziness this has not been a very active blog. I made an excursion to Taliesin, in Wisconsin, and visited the summer school of architect Frank Lloyd Wright — loved it and every stunning view of the green Wisconsin countryside. Interesting factoid: the family room [ read more… ]
If you have an interest in mid-century furniture design, you may want to know that the Elmhurst Art Museum is having a series of exhibitions on architecture and design. There is a panel lecture and opening reception for the Glass + Steel exhibit on Friday, August 7, 6:00 to 9:30 pm. The lecture begins at [ read more… ]
Century Furniture has a new line called Milan that follows the natural direction found in Nakashima’s work (see below). Century describes it this way: “As environmental consciousness grows, furniture design has also become more organic. Century, with a lot of help from Mother Nature, follows this natural direction to create Milan an eclectic collection featuring [ read more… ]
The first piece of George Nakashima furniture I ever saw was at the Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian, in Washington, D.C., about 15 years ago. His Conoid Bench demonstrates his maxim that the form of a piece should be influenced by the natural grain within the wood. I am a huge fan of [ read more… ]
Do you have the inside scoop on how to shop a warehouse sale? Share it with others here. Toms-Price has a big furniture and rug warehouse sale coming up this weekend, July 18 and 19, at the Bloomingdale warehouse/outlet location. I’d love to hear what all of you think of these warehouse sales. Thanks to [ read more… ]
Do you remember where you were when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down? How about the fall of these other icons: Enron, AIG, General Motors. . . the list goes on. Names like Stiffel (the Chicago lamp company that went out of business in 2000) and Pennsylvania House have been casualties of a changing industry; [ read more… ]
Choosing the right sofa means thinking about the finish you want on the legs or any other exposed wood parts. The days of matching exactly to the other wood pieces in a room are over. Now the more popular idea is to choose what you like, even though it may vary from your other pieces, [ read more… ]
In your search for the right sofa fabric you have to ask yourself how and where it will be used. Who will be sitting (or napping) on it — the whole family, the book club, the dog? This all speaks to your lifestyle and what best suits your particular needs.
If the sofa is going to be in a family room, getting tons of action, you can think about using leather, unless you have budget constraints at the moment that prohibit it. In that case, use a synthetic or synthetic blend to add strength to the fabric. These days a lot of the blends have [ read more… ]
