Duh, Pinning
Have you heard of the website Pintrest.com yet? If not, you should check it out!
It’s a relatively new website to which you either have to request an invitation or be invited. Once you’re a member, you can peruse all the images on the homepage, or you can filter them out by category: home & furniture, gifts, food & drink, travel, art & architecture, design, DIY, prints, products, fashion and a slew of other categories. It’s like tearing great ideas out of a magazine and putting them in a folder to remember them, only it’s online and much easier to see all at once.
Pintrest Homepage. Everything.
The idea is that you have your own “boards” on your Pintrest profile. When you see an image you like you can “re-pin” it to the board you deem fitting. You can create your own fashion inspiration board, home ideas board, inspirational quotes board or beautiful photos board. You can have as many or as few boards as you like.
On the homepage, you can see the things that have been pinned and re-pinned by all Pintrest users, or you can simplify to just the pinboards that you follow (this could be your friends or favorite trendsetters), and draw inspiration from them!
My "Home Inspiration" Board. I'm a few years still from having my own place, but hey, I'll be prepared when I do!
There’s even a nifty application that can go in your web browser toolbar. With the “pin it” application, no matter what website you are on, if you see something you like, you simply click “pin it” on the toolbar. The application will ask which board you would like the image to be pinned to and then pin it there.
Another great thing about Pintrest, is that you can see the origin of the pin. By just clicking through on an image you will be taken to the original website where, perhaps, you just may find a number of other items to suit your fancy.
www.pintrest.com
Follow my pin boards on Pintrest @ Julianne Hilmes
Categories: Home | Tags: Design, Home, website
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Bespoke Elegance Finds its Way into a Pop-Up Shop
Usually attributed to trendy stores and hipster subculture, “pop-up shops” conjure images of impossibly long-lines, cooler-than-thou gadgets, and frenetic teenagers swooning over the latest iPhone case. One certainly doesn’t equate that kind of tchotchke-filled hut with the elegance of bespoke furniture and a venerable name. Check your preconceived notions at the door as the father-son duo that make up the legendary establishment F.P. Victoria & Son have turned that idea on its head and done just that–married the pop-up shop and handcrafted, classically inspired furniture for a first-rate, luxury shopping experience, to be sure.
What began in 1933 as an antique shop specializing in museum-quality English and Continental furniture, F.P. Victoria & Son quickly expanded into a full-fledged custom furniture manufacturing business when high-profile decorators and clients commissioned bespoke pieces based on the antiques they admired in Mr. Victoria’s inventory. Instead of red they wanted blue, instead of wood they wanted plaster, instead of tooled leather they wanted honed marble. Serge Roche, Syrie Maugham, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and Elsie de Wolfe, are just a few of the dazzling names that top the roster of clients who requested custom pieces. Mr. Victoria quietly grew both arms of the business and eventually his son, Tony Victoria, took the reins.
When the youngest of the Victoria men, Freddie Victoria, segued into the family business, there were warehouses full of rendering, drawings, sketches, and prototypes. The father-son team knew they were sitting atop a gold mine of beautifully imagined pieces and decided to curate what is now The F.P. Victoria & Son Collection.
Elegant grandeur reigns supreme with everything from life-size Maccassar wood and beveled mirror obelisks to shocking blue lacquer Pagoda-shaped etageres. Subtle beauty abounds when contemporary mirrors are treated with a dose of the age-old Venetian glass-cutting techniques historically employed on girly-girl dressing mirrors (think Marie Antoinette meets Jean Michel Frank). Customization continues as their specialty. Been longing for one of Billy Baldwin’s iconic brass étagères but want it with an oxidized nickel-plated finish? No problem. Dreaming about a 19th-century hairdresser’s chair with a heart-shaped back? Too easy. This line of bespoke furniture was intended for the designer and the consumer who won’t settle for off-the-rack pedestrian pieces but yearn for special and one-of-a-kind show-stoppers. They’ve even expanded their line to include more contemporary silhouettes like ebonized maple stacking chairs that are reminiscent of the 50’s Danish modern aesthetic.
And while this esteemed 3-generation business will be around as they have for the past 78 years, their tasteful version of a pop-up shop will only be in action for a hot, New York minute. If you’re lucky enough to be in NYC from May 3 through May 15, stop by The Silver Peacock on Park Avenue and 90th Street for a peek inside a treasure chest of exquisitely crafted furniture and bespoke finery.
Categories: Antiques, Design, Home, Interior designers, shopping | Tags: bespoke, Billy Baldwin, Design, F.P. Victoria & Son, interior designer, pop-up shop, The Silver Peacock
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give to me your leather
If you’ve been contemplating a new sofa, chair, or ottoman, now’s the time to buy: Select items from Elite Leather will be on One Kings Lane for up to 50% off retail price (OKL requires membership, but it’s free). Pieces available include the Belcourt tufted armchair, Old Course tufted ottoman, both below, and the Barkham chair from LA designer Nathan Turner’s collection. The sale starts Friday, July 23 and ends Sunday, July 26.
Belcourt chair in Grotto Cerulean
Old Course in Dover Jungle
Categories: Design, Home | Tags: Design, Elite Leather, furniture, Nathan Turner, One Kings Lane, sale, shopping
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Ethereal Angkor
I have to share with you a new book that is on my list of new favorite things. It’s John Mcdermott’s, Elegy: Reflections of Angkor (McDermott Gallery, hardcover, $75).
If you’ve been to Cambodia, it’s a must-have. If you haven’t, it will persuade you to get there. And soon. I’ve tried for years to describe to people what it is about Angkor that puts it smack dab at the top of my favorite places list. McDermott’s book communicates visually what I have not been able to communicate verbally.
eye on the tiger – behind the scenes at Shaw
I’m kind of a geek, so I was very into the heavy-on-the-science tour of the Shaw headquarters. It was cool to see the process from start to finish, and it really illustrated the advantages of Tigressá SoftStyle carpet.
We started where most things do: inspiration. We briefly discussed the colors, research, home and fashion trends, and qualities (strength, beauty, protection) that influenced the Shaw designers. Regional inspiration boards and displays showing national and regional sales of existing products by color were interesting to study.
The group was paired off to create our own inspiration boards. The Shaw team wanted to see what we were inspired by and what we were seeing in the market. I worked with the fabulous Carmen Natschke from The Decorating Diva. Here’s our board (including some pieces you may already recognize from past TH issues):
If you want to hear me discuss our board, here’s a video. More of what I’ve been seeing in the market will be in our pages soon!
Categories: color, Design, floors, Home | Tags: carpet, Design, flooring, Home, innovation, nylon 6, recycle, Save the Tiger Fund, science, Shaw, Tigressa SoftStyle
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eye on the tiger – Tigressá SoftStyle
In the market for new carpet? I just got back from a slightly whirlwind trip to Dalton, GA, for a press event hosted by Shaw, the world’s largest carpet manufacturer, and CCA Global Partners, where I toured Shaw’s corporate headquarters and had an exclusive preview of their brand new line coming out this weekend.
Tigressá SoftStyle is an innovative line of nylon carpet, but it’s also the culmination of a lengthy development process, one I learned a great deal about over two days. Shaw let us (9 bloggers, 3 trade editors, and me!) see the evolution of Tigressá by literally opening their doors so we could examine each step in the production cycle. Read more
Categories: Design, floors, Home | Tags: carpet, Carpet One, CCA Global Partners, Design, engineering, environment, flooring, Flooring America, Home, innovation, nylon 6, recycle, Save the Tiger Fund, science, Shaw, Tigressa SoftStyle
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bon anniversaire!
This week, Sabine and I visited Pierre Frey for a presentation honoring the family-owned company’s 75th anniversary.
“Exhibition 1935-1955: Inspiration & Realism of Fabrics” celebrates the whimsy of Pierre Frey’s early years and brings to New York a curated collection of textiles, drawings, and paintings usually held in their Parisian archives. The beautiful patterns are lively, and feel as fresh now as ever.
Categories: Design, fabric, fabrics, Home, textures | Tags: 1935-1955, anniversary, Design, fabric, Genevieve Prou, Irene Rohr, Janine Janet, Jean Chatanay, Jean-Denis Malcles, Patrick Frey, Pierre Frey, Sophie Rouart, textiles
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case study
Technology can be really wonderful or really frustrating.
In my house—and probably yours—there is a lot of technology: multiple computers and TVs, DVR, iPhone (his), BlackBerry (mine), a Wii, a Roomba, and iPods for everyone (mine’s custom-painted by the fantastic company Colorware - it makes a great gift). And the devices are all fun or make our lives easier.
Except when they don’t—how about our remote that doesn’t work for the first 5 minutes the TV is on? —though, we tend to live with it. Occasionally, I get wistful for simpler times when people wrote letters instead of emails, had to crank their phones, and men wore hats (possibly I’m watching too many Cary Grant movies, if you can do such a thing). Thankfully, when I feel that way, I can turn to Thomas Paul’s wonderful Luddite collection.
Categories: Design, Home | Tags: Design, gadgets, nostalgia, technology, Thomas Paul
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a marvel-ous cooker*
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the launch (and demo, with lunch!) of AGA MARVEL’s PRO+ line of kitchen appliances. New hot (range, vent hood) and cold (fridge, wine cellar) products were showcased, but the star was the 36” Range.
Categories: Design, Home | Tags: AGA MARVEL, appliances, cooking, Design, energy saving, kitchen, range
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Caldrea, take me away!
Sometimes—well, a lot of times—I spot something when I’m covering new products, or shooting in someone’s home, that makes me want to toss everything in my house and start fresh. I get this overwhelming urge to replace what I have with much fancier versions: this feeling extends from furniture to desk accessories, even cleaning supplies. After all, don’t functional items deserve to be beautiful, too?
Caldrea’s cleaners and detergents are some of those special things.
