color

A paint chip by any other name would look as good

Written on July 5, 2011 at 3:07 pm
By Rebecca Christian

Not since Juliet has the psychology behind naming been questioned as intriguingly as in a recent piece about the small, and sometimes odd, little world of naming paint colors http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/us/30paint.html. The article has a nifty interactive multiple choice quiz where you are shown a color and guess its name.

Who woulda thunk that Weekend in the Country would be brown, Hey There would be yellow, Dead Salmon would be taupe and Arsenic would be green?

Farrow & Ball’s Arsenic

The fact that some of the names don’t sound all that attractive doesn’t matter, marketers say, as long as they capture people’s imaginations. I suppose the same could be said for book and movie titles, like Steve Martin’s Cruel Shoes and the kid movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Dorothy Parker, who got sick of reading about heroines with russet curls or ebony manes, used to refer to her hair as hair-colored hair.

I once bought moody blue-gray carpet that really didn’t work very well in my house and stained like a son of a gun because of its beautifully melancholic name, “October Storm.” Last year, when I had the exterior of my twenties-era Arts and Crafts house repainted, I chose from Valspar’s historically accurate Craftsman palette, with much better results.

Valspar Craftsman Colors

(alas, not my house)

Like many women, I’m a sucker for nail polish and lipstick with pretty names. Even though it’s a little dark for me, especially in warm weather, I can’t resist the Revlon lipstick  “Cherries in the Snow.” There’s a dessert by the same name. I wonder which came first.

Today’s cosmetic colors are whimsical and sometimes a little weird. Essie Nail Colors has Starter Wife (pastel pink) Jamaica Me Crazy (spirited magenta), Pillow Talk (nude), Tart Deco (Coral), Damsel in a Dress (deep purple) and Trophy Wife (teal). A comic blog, Shoebox, suggests lipstick names Stubborn Bloodstain, There’s Something on Your Lip, and my fave, Old-Lady-Scalp Pink.

Essie’s Starter Wife Nail Color

For the Goth girl, Urban Decay has a line of lip products with downright scary names: Envious, Greedy, Trainwreck, Buzzkill, and Paranoid. I guess wearing Trainwreck is no worse painting your house Tornado. If you’re going to tempt fate that way, better keep a bottle of polish and a fistful of paint decks handy in the southwest corner of the basement so you have something to do while waiting out the storm.

Design on a Dime!

Written on May 5, 2011 at 2:13 pm
By Amy Bleier Long

We are proud to again sponsor Design on a Dime, a fantastic fundraiser benefitting Housing Works, which is an organization working to end AIDS and homelessness. More than 50 top designers have created vignettes and every item in the vignettes – including new housewares, furniture, and linens – are for sale at 50-70% off retail prices. Proceeds of sales benefit a new housing project in Brooklyn which will provide a home for previously homeless adults living with HIV/AIDS.

Suysel de Pedro Cunningham and Anne Maxwell Foster of Tilton Fenwick (one of our 20 New Traditionals) designed a vignette for us (sneak peek above).

The opening reception tonight is completely sold out, which is great because the event is a fundraiser, and the largest crowd ever is expected. But the sale will be open to the public, for free, through Saturday night:

Friday, May 06, 2011 – Saturday, May 07, 2011  10am-6pm

Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W. 18th St. (btwn. 6th & 7th Ave.) New York, NY

If you’re in Manhattan this weekend, shop these spectacular rooms and support a wonderful cause!

Fiesta Forever (happy 75th!)

Written on April 13, 2011 at 11:49 am
By Candace Ord Manroe

Here are few fave facts about Fiesta ware I picked up recently.

1) It’s been in production 75 years. Happy birthday!

2) Between 40 to 45 percent of all brides register for Fiesta.

3) Any purchase comes with a 5-year “chip” warranty. Seriously? Unbelievable. How can they do that for families like mine? Answer: the product seldom chips!

4) It’s the number-one collected dinnerware on E-Bay. That doesn’t really surprise me.

5) It’s still made entirely in the USA, in Newell, West Virginia. (Only the metal parts on Fiesta’s colorful flatware, introduced three years ago, are made in China, but that’s not Fiesta’s fault; it’s due to a lack of American metal companies.)

6) Did you realize all Fiesta ware is ovenproof? Guess I didn’t. And now the Fiesta Bakeware line of cookware can progress directly from the freezer to an oven of 500 degrees. (There’s little flint in the pottery so that it defects the heat.)

7) 88 percent of all customers buy two or more colors with their first purchase. Mix-and-match is definitely Fiesta’s “thing.”

Fiesta’s best-selling color caught me off guard: scarlet. I would’ve guessed an earthier tone.

9) The second best-selling color is “lemongrass.” Sharp, punchy, lovely, and just a couple of years in the line.

10) This company actually receives letters from grateful shoppers saying, “Thanks for being made in the USA.” And: “Thanks for making me happy.” Nice. Again, Fiesta, happy birthday. Available at department stores like Dillard’s and Macy’s.

Hip, Hip, Hibiscus

Written on March 30, 2011 at 3:35 pm
By Rebecca Christian

The hibiscus is an immodest, look-at-me sort of flower, so impossibly showy and over the top, even for a tropical, that it’s even used as inspiration for tattoo art. It’s as temperamental as the soprano in an opera, too, only blooming in late summer. I like it anyway.  So I was pleased to find out about this one, a Rose of Sharon hibiscus, with blooms more subtly colored than most and beautifully variegated foliage. Called Miss Jilene, it is cold-hardy enough to bloom until first frost. It does well in full heat and sun in zones 5-8, but also blooms in partial shade. Nationally distributed for the first time this year, it will bloom its first growing season and is available exclusively at Nature Hills Nursery for $32 (http://www.naturehills.com/product/miss_jilene_rose_of_sharon.aspx).

sweetness and light

Written on December 1, 2010 at 4:41 pm
By Amy Bleier Long

When asked to do a feature vignette at the Lampworks showroom in Manhattan, designers generally bring in a cabinet here, a console there, and it’s all a slightly serious undertaking (Albert Hadley has done one). Interior designer Felicia Zwebner, founder of her own firm, Art De Triomphe, decided to attempt her most ambitious installation ever and go outside the box and off the floor.

Her initial inspirations were fall, but not pumpkins and hay bales, and the outdoors. Her love of France led her to ideas of eating outside and vineyards. A little bit of Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland and the vision was complete.

photograph: (c) 2010 Dwight B. Tobin

A canvas floor cloth is painted to look like the sky, and the stairs are a rushing waterfall, both by Faux Time Design. Ceramic mushrooms and butterflies dot the faux rock formations. An extra bit of whimsy is the French-inspired taffeta hot air balloon.

Tilt your head 90 degrees to the right and take in the “blue stone patio” with table fabricated by Window 25 and Pierre Deux wheat-back chairs, Kravet fabric (as the tablecloth) with Samuel & Sons trim, as well as the birch canopy. There are so many sweet details, such as the burlap seat cushions also from Window 25; I love the tiny one on the child’s chair. It took a lot of effort and finger-crossing to pull off this wall-mounted scene.

Of course, the light fixtures are the real stars. Hung or mounted at different heights is a mix of new, custom, and vintage indoor and outdoor pieces in varying scale. A favorite fixture was the Vaseline glass-and-iron pendant from 1925. You can see its milky-colored sphere in the center of the above image.

Felicia’s installation could have fit perfectly in our October Enchanted Forest story, don’t you think? It’s a totally fun way to show off the beautiful range of products at Lampworks, and it should be up until late winter, if you get the chance to stop by. Lampworks owner Bebe Regnier says that this sort of display is exactly what draws her to Felicia’s work: “Everything has precise detail. It’s its own little world, like she’s created a movie set.”

The Lampworks showroom is located at 231 East 58th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.

Dedar cushion launch

Written on October 5, 2010 at 4:56 pm
By Amy Bleier Long

Sometimes we get to put down our pens, notepads, and cameras and celebrate a new product or collaboration. Italian textile house Dedar hosted a colorful evening at their Bergdorf Goodman installation to officially launch their new, first-ever retail product line.

Owners, and siblings, Caterina and Raffaele Fabrizio celebrate their new venture.

I previously provided a tiny sneak peek of Dedar’s new cushions on Facebook, but I love the bright, saturated colors of the mix-and-match pillows. They are made from 100% cotton satin Tabularasa fabric with a variety of available trim options. Available only at Bergdorf Goodman, the cushions range from $250 for a 10″ by 16″ lumbar to $375 for a 20″ square.

 

We’ve featured Dedar’s to-the-trade fabrics and trim in the past, but I like that these are an easy way to accessorize on your own, still using high quality fabric. And I think I’m not the only one. Another fan:

 

from the marketplace: amy butler for welspun

Written on September 20, 2010 at 3:22 pm
By Amy Bleier Long

If you’ve had a chance to check out the October issue (and I hope you have!) you might have noticed the feminine “Full Bloom” decorator pillow from Amy Butler for Welspun in the So Sublime color palette story.

That lime/light chartreuse color is one of my favorites and I had a lot of fun pulling those gorgeous products together.  And it’s no surprise that such a happy little accessory came from Amy Butler.  An artist who also has her own fabric line, Amy’s fresh takes on traditional patterns are always colorful and graphic, which I think is a great complement to a bedroom with classic furnishings.

Her 100% organic cotton designs use low-impact dyes so they’re easy on the environment, but her patterns are definitely high-impact.

The appliquéd decorator pillow comes from the “Full Bloom” collection, which is Amy’s interpretation of Victorian style mixed with rich paisleys from India – an “ode to the elegant Sari.”
 
 
The Bucharest & Constanta coordinating collections are inspired by the flourishes and motifs found in Romanian embroidery, which itself is often inspired by formal gardens.

I just love this textured “Bucharest” quilted coverlet, below. You may be seeing a lot more of this palette very soon…

 
 
In this close up of a “Dancing Garden” collection Euro sham, you can see the intricately embroidered details Amy often employs:

 
For more collections, and where to purchase, visit Amy’s site.

Movin’ on up to the East Side: 38th annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House

Written on August 19, 2010 at 6:43 pm
By Amy Bleier Long

This week, we received the wonderful news that the Kips Bay Decorator Show House has found a home for 2010 and is underway. Normally presented in the spring, this year’s previously-secured property fell through because someone purchased the townhouse and wanted to move in right away, forcing the project to be postponed.

The new house marks the 38th year of the event and fundraiser, which garners about $1 million each year for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, and receives 20,000 visitors over a four-week period. The non-profit Boys & Girls Club serves more than 13,000 children by providing after-school and enrichment programs at 10 locations in the Bronx.

A recently-renovated 17-room mansion at 106 E. 71st St in Manhattan was selected and will feature the work of designers such as Vicente Wolf, Katie Ridder, and Sherrill Canet (a full list of designers is at the Show House’s website). I can’t wait to tour it and see each designer’s inspiring ideas and applications.

The house is open to the public starting October 14 and remains open until November 11. Tickets are $30 and include the journal and sourcebook.
 
Here are a few highlights from recent past Kips Bay houses:

For those of you who said you like mixing modern art into your decor, this room from Jed Johnson Home (2007, photo: John M. Hall Photography) is one of my all-time favorites.

 
 

A beautiful feminine bedroom from Charlotte Moss, 2008 (photo: Francis Smith)

 
 

In Philip Gorrivan‘s tailored bedroom, art doubles as a compelling headboard (2008)

 
 

Looking from the living room into the dining room, both designed by Stephen Miller Siegel (2008)

 
 

A dramatic chandelier captures attention in this 2006 room by Larry Laslo. (photo: Evan Joseph/Alex Barrymore)

 
 

Another example of Jamie Drake‘s phenomenal command of color (2007, photo: Nick Johnson).

designer visions

Written on July 28, 2010 at 1:15 pm
By Amy Bleier Long

The proliferation of the Internet, social media, apps, and online collaboration has prompted a handful of interior designers to offer their expertise online at discounted rates, the caveat being that you do the measuring and the shopping. But that means you can set the budget and timeline, and have a little fun!

So far I haven’t come across a service that is as much of a bargain as Designer at Home. And if you haven’t yet used an interior designer—or are on a budget—this might be for you.

Read more

Arkansas Traveler: Antiques & Design

Written on July 21, 2010 at 4:26 pm
By Candace Ord Manroe