High Style for the Home

Down in the dumps? Do you come home alone, not wanting to show anyone inside? Do you stare at the walls a lot? Can’t sleep at night in your sad little room?

Forget romance. This is a case of unrequited house love. And Architect Bruce Wentworth wants to help. He’s got a new advice column called Ask the Architect, in which he describes the most popular architectural styles of homes in the DC region and answers your questions about the best way to remodel to suit a home’s basic style.

The homes he portrays in his textbook-worthy essays on architectural styles don’t look like they need any help. The implication here is that your house – the house NOT of your dreams – could look like these:

Under the site’s Q&A Section, Wentworth offers advice to people who send in their remodeling questions. You can submit your own question by clicking “Contact” on the site’s home page and watch for your answer to appear in the Q&A.

And as they say on TV, that’s not all! Starting next week, Wentworth will introduce a blog containing his architectural observations, such as a green kitchen remodel he recently completed or the New England architecture he’s witnessing this week during his vacation in Maine.

Don’t despair, homeowners. Unlike a bad boyfriend, whom you’ll never be able to change, a frustrating home is eminently changeable. Just ask the architect.

Not even the big department stores have their holiday decorations up yet, and it’s starting already. Retailers want us to start thinking about our gift-giving obligations for the holidays. But that might not be such a bad thing. Many stationery shops offer great discounts if you order holiday cards before Labor Day, and gift purveyor Tara Riceberg is offering her consulting services now, so you can secure all the “IT” gifts before they get snatched up later in the fall.

And besides what you give, see how beautifully she wraps the gifts?

Riceberg is the owner of Tweak America in Los Angeles, but as an interior stylist, she hops the coasts with clients in DC and New York as well. She has an uncanny ability to talk to you about who you are buying for, and then come up with the perfect item even while you still have no idea what you would get.

I started out writing a post about a fabulous new tile collection I first spotted on the Trendir blog, called Rako 2008 by a company in the Czech Republic called Lasselberger.

The Botanica collection in particular caught my eye. It’s along the lines of some gorgeous new Ann Sacks tile introduced this year as well, which I wrote about in May.

But as I started looking through the dozens of product shots they include with each of the new Rako lines (some of which are a little too racy for a family blog!), I just started laughing. The Europeans definitely have a different approach to marketing than the Americans.

I love this man because he has built an empire of styling, advice-giving, and window-dressing around his delightful and witty personality – which is why I practically sprinted over to the Corcoran last night when I found out he was giving a talk about his new book, Eccentric Glamour.

Although he’s not an interior designer, we like what he has to say about the topic. Through his New York Observer column, he warned us about the pitfalls of decorator bullies (“One client was…forced to embrace an overly ironic Rumplemeyer-esque ice-cream parlor scheme in her kitchen.”), the phenomenon of Color Me Beautiful (“Why do Winters love to cast nasturtiums on us Autumns?”), and the see-and-be-scenery that is New York’s Winter Antiques Show (“Avail yourself of this unique opportunity to observe these Park Avenue incroyables at close range.”)

In Eccentric Glamour, the Barneys New York creative director and VH1 talking head isolates three types of women: the Gypsy, an ethereal bohemian with a penchant for all things flowing, the Socialite, a classic preppy who loves sweet, bright color, and the Existentialist, a brooding, intellectual type whose attire reflects the wearer’s cerebral nature.      

These three styles translate easily to home decor, he says.

Cheers to Diane Gordy of DGI Design Group, who is the featured designer in The Washington Post’s House Calls today.

We have a special fondness for her, too, as she was one of our winners in the Washington Spaces 2008 Best of Interior Design competition. Her winning bedroom/loft project was inspiring.

Janelle Tracy at Vastu sent us an e-mail this week with some pictures of incredible rugs for which they are the exclusive retailer in the DC area. The rugs are from M.A. Trading Company in India,  and instead of the standard Oriental fare, their line is surprisingly fresh, bright and modern.

Vastu used the Bilbao pattern for a condo model unit here,

And the Shanghai Mix for this living room.

Other cool designs they currently have in the store include Madeira White,

and Pamplona.

But Vastu has samples of all M.A. Trading rugs for you to check out. And it’s really worth it. For instance, Portland Brown makes a strong, crisp statement;

And Planet Red/Orange/Brown would literally make a room pop.

For a little girl’s room, Flora Pink or Messina White would be just the ticket:

There are so many great designs from M.A. Trading, I spent way too much time surfing to look at them all. So stop by Vastu so you can look AND feel these great rugs.

When I was younger, I couldn’t quite understand why my mother kept buying new sets of china. I think she’s up to at least six sets by now, not counting her more casual place settings. But alas, I seem to have caught the bug. You know that feeling you get on the first warm day of springtime, when you just relax your shoulders, exhale, and think, “Ahhh…”? That’s the feeling I get when I see truly gorgeous china, and it came right back when I saw Haviland’s new porcelain collections.

With the Beijing Olympics fast approaching, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the Eventails line:

And who wouldn’t want to have a summer soirée with Jardin Français?

Just look at the intricate detailing of the edges on these pieces, which are meant to resemble the symmetrical gardens at Versailles:

Jardin Francais is perfect to mix and match with Haviland’s crisp new white collections –

Complice Blanc

and Ranson Blanc,

But keeping it all white would be just as exquisite.

And finally, the new Saâri collection brings to mind a gorgeous Indian sari, to bring me on the summer travels I wish I were taking.

Although I’ve never had one myself, I’ve always loved old-fashioned quilts. They make a bed so yummy-looking. Once I considered taking a quilting class to try to make a quilt out of all my old T-shirts, but sadly, it didn’t pan out.

So it’s a good thing that talented artists such as Denyse Schmidt are out there, sewing the most gorgeous and colorful quilts. One of her lines, Couture Quilts, says it all. And to top it off, they are made for her by Amish ladies in Minnesota.

Along the lines of my failed T-shirt idea, Schmidt handles custom designs like this one for her friend Wendy, who wanted a quilt made from the dresses her grandmother hand-sewed for her as a child.

Or this one, made from dozens of old ties from a customer’s husband.

Schmidt was recently honored with perhaps her greatest custom order of all – a commission from the Philip Johnson Glass House organization, located in Connecticut at the 47-acre site of the famed architect’s most notable creation.

Schmidt is one of many artists and designers who have been asked to create products for Glass House Commissions, which sells limited editions of each design to raise money for the organization. The commissions are part of the Glass House’s overall mission is “to become a center-point and catalyst for the preservation of modern architecture, landscape, and art, and a canvas for inspiration, experimentation, and cultivation honoring the legacy of Philip Johnson.”

If you love Schmidt’s quilts as much as I do, and you have more motivation than I could muster with my T-shirts, you can go to one of her workshops in Connecticut this fall and let her help you make your own.

So, would you pay almost $600 for a stock pot?

I had to wonder when I noticed this new line of cookware by British architect John Pawson.

After some clicking around, I quickly realized the cachet behind his name. He is credited with bringing the minimalist look into public consciousness. His architectural commissions include Calvin Klein’s flagship store in New York,  a monastery in the Czech Republic,  and the renovation of a London car dealership into a retail temple for B&B Italia, among many other celebrated works, including homes, museum galleries, restaurants, and stage sets. He literally wrote the book on minimalism, called Minimum. 

The new line for Belgian cookware manufacturer Demeyere is Pawson’s latest homewares design, introduced on the occasion of Demeyere’s 100th anniversary in May.

This is what Pawson has to say about it on his Web site:
“A museum director once said of my work, ‘Everything starts with the kitchen.’ What he meant was that houses are the heart of the work and kitchens are the heart of the houses. My collaboration with Demeyere started with the idea of providing these most important of contemporary living spaces with a set of core equipment which would combine functional sophistication with the highest design values.”

We wrote about Pottery Barn last month. When it was catching the eye of design watchers for using ultra-chic Hable Construction fabric on its nursery rockers,  and also for its style uptick in general, as you can see with the “Shop By Room” function on its Web site. 

But it’s in the news again this week, both in the blogosphere and also in publications such as WWD. This time, they’ve put videos on the site called “Where I Live,” which give us tours of the cool kids’ homes, such as Domino Editor in Chief Deborah Needleman, Domino eco-style blogger Zem Joaquin, and New York designer Bob Weinstein. During the narrated tours, each slips in items from Pottery Barn that are part of the décor. Pottery barn used the homes to shoot photos for their latest catalogue.


Watch the videos HERE

Need another reason to be outside on a cool morning, a sunny afternoon, or a velvety summer evening? I think we may have found one! Garden Architects in Annapolis stocks an array of outdoor furniture that Jennifer pithily described as “so unusual” – in the best possible way, of course. We’re talking beautiful unusual, envious-neighbors unusual, spend-hours-on-their-Web-site unusual.

The first thing that caught my eye was the Frank Lloyd Wright Stonework.

Frederick C. Robie Residence Vase

Johnson Wax Building Vase

These pieces have some power, right? They’re strangely primitive-yet-futuristic, blending noiselessly into the scenery, making a statement when you take the time to examine them. The beveled edges of the Johnson Wax Building Vase have me swooning! So strong, so refined…

This heading had me intrigued as well: Party Gear! No sense in mincing words, right?

We got a press release the other day about a new dual-fuel range from Bertazzoni, the Italian oven manufacturer that recently began selling its products in the United States. I was instantly reminded of an event they held in the Ferrari (yes, the car) showroom at the new Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas last year during the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show. We’re talking serious oven envy.

It didn’t look odd to see a bunch of ovens displayed among $200,000 sports cars. Turns out that the vivid colors on the Bertazzoni ranges are painted onto them in the Ferrari factory, so they all share the same shiny candy coating.

Bertazzoni was just one of the many ovens I have fallen in love with.

What do you do with an oddly angled tiny kitchen in a high-rise, anchored by a bulky refrigerator eating up valuable space? You get really creative, as Custom Crafters recently did for an apartment in DC’s Penn Quarter.

“The idea was to modernize it and make the finishes much more appealing and get the appliances under the counter to get them out of the way,” says Brian McGarry, who shared pictures of the final product with us.

Here, you see nothing but a swath of natural cherry cabinets, uninterrupted by appliances save for the range and microwave oven. There’s not even a refrigerator in sight. That’s because almost everything is cleverly disguised.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have the comforts of a spa while enjoying the great outdoors? How often have you been lying on your stomach and wished there was a pocket for your head so that you didn’t have to keep shifting it back and forth? Do you ever think about how nice it would be to have one of those special massage tables in your backyard? When we found out about the SpaCushion,  we had to share it with everyone – this item is cleverly engineered for maximum r ’n’ r – and it looks lovely next to any body of water.

Meet a cushion that will allow you to lie on your stomach and soak up rays without putting any unnecessary strain on your bones. The SpaCushion, with slats cut out for your face and knees, preserves the “natural alignment” of your body, allowing your head and legs to fall more comfortably than if you were lying on a completely flat surface. The cushion comes with a head pillow for when you want to lie on your back.

Pear Tree Cottage, a new boutique in historic Vienna, VA, invites its customers to “be inspired by the beautiful collection of European antiques, cottage vintage furniture and fresh, new modern elements” housed in the store.

The moment I walked into the boutique for an opening reception last night, I was greeted with the calming scent of summer flowers, a burst of color, and a menagerie of one-of-a-kind decorative items: A pearl pendant chandelier, a rustic spindle table with a matching mirror, a small nickel lamp, framed artwork depicting Parisian streets, and a set of wicker trunks were all artfully presented to the customers who walked in.