I can’t get enough of this Baby Zoo Rug by Boym, which you can buy from the great kids’ Web retailer Modernseed. Not only is it a fun, funky rug for your kids’ room, but it also contains a (brillianty) built-in night light.

As for room décor, it’s hard not to fall for these sweet animal shapes cut from vintage wallpaper by Inke, a designer in the Netherlands whose work can be purchased in the U.S. right here.

This wallpaper from Sweden-based Sandberg is subtle but imaginative. But find an interior designer friend to get it – you can only buy it at to-the-trade Stark Carpet.

I flipped over these Rug Company wall hangings by Paul Smith – they remind me of the crazy graphics and storybook illustrations of my early-’70s childhood.

And how can you resist getting these toy boxes from Mod Mom?

Photograph by Gordon Beall

Sort

You have cleared your soon-to-be sanctuary of all invading items and can now focus on what’s left. Separate the items that you deem worthy of remaining in the bedroom into categories (books, music, appropriate decorations, and so on).

This is also a good time to rearrange the furniture. Try different arrangements until your goal is met (i.e. move the bed closer to the window for more natural light). Moving things around will not only rejuvenate your personal space but should also improve the flow of traffic moving through the room.

Photograph by Angie Seckinger

Store

The last step in organizing the bedroom is to store your items accordingly. For instance, use your nightstand for books, reading glasses, and other items you will need when in bed; store winter linens or things not frequently accessed in sliding bins under the bed.

Photograph by Anne Gummerson

Maintain 

Get into the habit of putting items in their proper places on a regular basis. Take five minutes each morning to distribute rogue items to other parts of the house. This small task will help you effortlessly maintain your bedroom’s harmony.

For more help with bedrooms and beyond, contact Nealey right here.

Nouvel Studio

Because I can’t stop looking at beautiful glass. Nouvel Studio, based in Mexico City, creates a stunning array. The best part: The bowls and vases are stackable. Here are Nouvel’s new offerings. E-mail Jane Burd for U.S. retail information.

Caterpillar bowl, Small bowl

High ball and tumbler glasses, “skinny” vases

Canasta bowl

L’Objet

It’s no surprise that the principal retailers who sell L’Objet’s haute-couture housewares are Saks and Neiman Marcus. They can also be found at upscale shops such as The Tiny Jewel Box and A Mano in DC. Feast your eyes:

Exquisite candles:

Dinnerware:

Wine toppers:

Desk and serving accessories:

R&Y Augousti

As a Francophile, it’s no surprise that the things I liked best come from Paris. I was mesmerized by the jewel-like quality of R&Y Augousti’s furniture and accessories – especially its lovely little tables. To inquire about U.S. retailers, write to parisoffice@augousti.com.

Gilles Caffier

This Bangkok-based French designer makes mesmerizing products, from embroidered ceramics and leather to fur-lined trays and votive holders studded with Swarovski crystals. Go here to inquire about U.S. retailers.

Embroidered vases and leather trays

Backgammon game with horn playing pieces, ceramic dice, and a board made from horse’s hide and shagreen

Fur-lined trays, Swarovski-studded votive holder

The videos are part of Pottery Barn’s new Style House section, where you can also get tips on paint color, match throw pillows to paint and furniture, and read various articles on design and furniture tips. How cool is that?

Yet the tension still exists. Decorno, the snarky-but-fabulous design blog that noted the PB house tour videos on Wednesday, posted a New York Times story earlier this month that made a not-so-complimentary reference to the store: 



“There was a period not long ago when a young, urban professional could maintain an apartment with a functional Pottery Barn sofa and walls painted in quiet neutrals and still be considered someone of reasonably good taste. Today he might well face criticism that he lacked imagination and soul, that he was a slave to an outdated aesthetic that sacrificed personal eccentricity to a collective right: the dream of demure, unsullied affluence.”

Comments like that hit a nerve. I’m excited by all the new things PB is doing, but at the end of the day, is it still … just … Pottery Barn?

These gorgeous lamps speak louder than any words:

Lampara Esterhas

Lampara Piramide

Again, we have a study in contrasts as the softest, most gently diffused light radiates from severe geometric pillars. Couldn’t you picture a set of these creating a sculpture-garden-esque ambiance at an evening wedding?

Now, for our favorite: Kokonut. This chubby, ergonomic line of outdoor seating is jaw-droppingly cool.

Kokonut Chaise Lounge

Kokonut Lounge Chair XXL

Where did this incredible line come from? A marshmallow’s drawing board? Outer space? My dreams? Actually, it came from Sifas, a French furniture designer on a mission to “abolish the frontiers” of exterior furnishings, and to “make sophisticated the outdoor.”

After seeing all of this, I really wanted to talk to Robbie Fitzgerald, the mastermind behind Garden Architects. My most burning question concerned how she amassed such a vast collection of interesting and well-made pieces. After a career working as a director for technology projects, she decided to make a change. After a lifetime in the corporate sector, she says, “I needed to do something that I loved.” After a period of schooling (she is now a “master gardener”) which included training at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA, she started out dealing in fine art for gardens. “I realized that I was in a market where it was much harder to reach the buyers that I wanted to reach – I wanted a bigger and better niche, and to serve the community better.” From there, she moved into outdoor furniture “with a focus on quality, style, and design over mass quantity,” and Garden Architects was born.

“I really have a love of the arts and a love of design,” says Fitzgerald, “and a love of working with phenomenal designers who really care about quality and style.” Her vendors “understand how bodies are shaped,” and their “well thought-out” pieces speak to this understanding. When choosing items, she looks at a line’s reputation in addition to its style: “Are they in good company? Are they well-respected?” Above all, she says, “my vendors are my partners,” and she seeks to cultivate “relationships based on integrity and conversation. When it works, it’s so much fun!” Her favorite part of her job? “We’re outside all the time.”

Less than two years ago, SpaCushion inventor Kami Gallaher was on vacation, sunning herself in a chaise longue – and found herself very uncomfortable. What, she asked herself, would make it more comfortable? “I saw a need,” she says. Despite her day job as an importer for an energy company, she went about designing and manufacturing a massage-table-inspired cushion that wouldn’t put stress on weight-bearing body parts.

Despite having only been in business since 2007, she has already won two awards for her product – including the Best Booth award at the Ingenuity Expo at MIT. “I’m fairly successful,” she says, “in that I have gotten so much interest in the product,” which has kept her “engaged and motivated” as she learns by doing – a process she admits has been “an enormous educational experience.”

Thanks to Gallaher’s hard work, we can all enjoy a crick-free neck and spa-style reclining while “roughing it” outside.

The SpaCushion looks nice here:

Or maybe here:

Ooo, maybe here:

The boutique is in a converted home, so different surprises lurk in each room. The main area holds larger pieces – a vintage robin’s egg blue dresser, a rich mahogany wardrobe, and a few smaller ones as well – antique garden shears and eclectic wire votives. I had a hard time not picturing how every item I saw might look in my own home, and it was clear that others felt the same way. I heard one woman exclaim, “I need to find my husband so he can buy something for me!”

The store’s warm and welcoming owner is Frances Brayshaw. I asked her what her favorite piece in the store was, and she pointed to a set of metal lockers. The lockers (more like cubby holes) were used by schoolchildren in Europe and if you look closely enough, you can see where their initials used to be.

The store gets its name from the picturesque Pear Tree Cottage in Cotswolds, England. From the shop’s crisp white exterior and forest green shutters, to the striped awnings, explosion of flowers, and inside walls doused in pastels, the boutique truly feels like an English cottage.

To celebrate the store’s opening, all items will be on sale during the month of July, with larger discounts changing weekly. The shop is open Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Pear Tree Cottage is closed on Monday and Tuesday, but as Brayshaw playfully notes, “when I’m here, it’s open!”

Pear Tree Cottage
130 Maple Avenue East
Vienna, VA 22180
(703) 938-1131
theptcottage@aol.com

The program began unassumingly in 2007, when P. J. Kimball, one of Thos. Moser’s “oldest and dearest customers” approached them about spending his vacation at the shop. Kimball spent a week working and learning at the prototype shop, an experience that turned out to be unique and empowering – to the extent that he encouraged the Mosers to extend the opportunity to other customers.

One year and three sessions later, the furniture makers are staring down a massive waiting list. “Several hundred people have given us their names,” admits Wentzell. Due to the unprecedented and unanticipated amount of enthusiasm for the program, company executives are trying to figure out how to accommodate the demand.

Luckily, because the program is new and small-scale, it allows for a great deal of flexibility. The cost usually falls between $5,000 and $10,000, depending on the piece of furniture that a customer chooses to construct. The price includes materials, instruction, transportation, meals, and lodging at Freeport’s Harraseeket Inn (which features a newly renovated and redecorated Thos. Moser suite).

The Thos. Moser Room at the Harraseeket Inn

Customers spend about 30 hours at the Moser studio in Auburn, completing a piece with the assistance of a Moser master craftsperson. The schedule allots plenty of time to dine with the Moser family, tour the workshop, and explore Freeport. People come from all over the country – California, Nevada, New York, and many places in between – and from a variety of professions. Wentzell speaks of the “really great cross-section of customers” who run the skill-set gamut, from surgeons to lawyers and accountants. They are unified by “a thirst for understanding” and a desire to know “why they do what they’re doing” when creating a piece of furniture.

Customers put their own signature on the furniture they make

So, Thos. Moser fans, consider a camp of your own while your kids are away next summer – or the summer after that, depending on when your name comes up on the wait list.

The XO Bench was made in the 1920s in Java. The back is adorned with X’s and floral medallions.

The Pyramid Bed is made from recycled teak taken from a demolition site in Indonesia. The whole bed comes apart for ease in moving. Fits a Queen mattress.

Original Legs Coffee Table. This piece, made in Bali, is built around the legs of the table, which are taken from old archways.

Architectural Carving dating back to the 1920s. It was part of a window or door frame of an old Javanese house.

Moroccan Ceramics

Left to Right: Medium Dot Yolu Lamp, Black Luka Dot Lamp, Dot Dun Orange Lamp

The key is a healthy devotion to DIY. His battle cry? “It’s not hard!” Clicking through slides of his refrigerator, which he wallpapered using rubber cement on a Saturday afternoon, and his sapphire couch, reupholstered with the help of a televised tutorial, Olsen extolled the virtues of bargain-hunting, risk-taking, and elbow grease in the quest for stylish home design. More photos of his apartment are available right here.  

Olsen named flea markets, Craigslist, and “eBay!!!” (his emphasis) as great resources for inexpensive items to be refinished, repainted, or reupholstered to look sleeker, funkier, or sexier. A big shout-out went to cheap-antiques maven Miss Pixie of Miss Pixie’s Furnishing and Whatnots on 14th Street in DC,  where he had his eye on a set of pink-and-green malachite end tables.

He also listed some rules to follow – after stipulating that he’d “done all the don’ts.” His Do’s were simple and clever:

• painted floors
• natural-fiber rugs
• bamboo blinds
• Abstract Expressionist art
• Streamlined, modern pieces such as credenzas and x-benches can instantly chic-ify a home.

 

His Don’ts included:

• accent walls (“Just paint the whole thing!”)
• overstuffed couches
• chenille
• and slavish devotion to a specific designer or era.

 

He cautioned against the “Goldilocks” ethos (not too big, not too small), encouraging aspiring decorators to embrace scale, not to fear it. His example for this point was a photo of Redd’s living room, its focal point a picture of a panther, flanked by mirrors on either side. It was huge – and breathtaking. You can see that and many others photos of his apartment at New York Social Diary.  

After the talk ended, my boyfriend picked me up and we drove to Cleveland Park to collect the coffee table we had spotted earlier that day: 40 bucks, found on Craigslist. It was much bigger than it had looked in the ad – but I shouldn’t fear scale, right?

At Morton’s

Laura Lim, director of sales and marketing for Morton’s The Steakhouse Tysons Corner and Designer Lynni Megginson.

Lynni Megginson, owner and principal of L&M Designs, hilariously recounted the story of how she called Senior Staff Writer Emily Lyons every day for a weeks to try to get Emily to tell her if her glorious bedroom project had won an award. Emily wouldn’t budge. Lynni then said she cried on the day the magazine was published, assuming she had not won (although she hadn’t yet seen the issue). When her husband called her at work the next day to congratulate her, she yelled at him for playing such a cruel joke. “I’m looking at the magazine,” he told her. “You won.” She cried again – this time it was tears of joy.

Eric Kole of Vastu with Washington Spaces Senior Editor Jennifer Sergent, Account Executive Rashida Creque, and Vastu Marketing Director Janelle Tracy

Eric Kole, one of the principal designers at Vastu, who was honored for his sophisticated bedroom design, said his hip DC design source and furniture store has acquired clients from as far away as New York and Miami. Here in DC, he said many people come in with copies of Washington Spaces, asking him to replicate a look they saw on our pages.

Camille Saum receives her award

Camille Saum, whose charming, summery dining room was also a winner, was floating on Cloud Nine with smiles and hugs all night.

Andreas Charalambous receives his award

Andreas Charalambous, principal of Forma Design, looked calm and cool in a retro-styled shirt. His winning bedroom, with its sleek built-ins and streamlined furniture, reflects that personality. You can see it also in his projects that are featured on HGTV’s Designer’s Portfolio.

Ken Lartey, Lorna Gross of SAVANT Interior Design, who received an “Outstanding” award for a stylish living room, and Jennifer Berman

Designer Karen Marvaso of Amber Fields Interiors, whose sumptuous dining room was a winner, is flanked by her colleague Ellen Roberts and Washington Spaces Account Executive Angela Carpenter

Designer Diane Gordy, right, of Diane Gordy Interiors, whose bedroom/sitting area was an “Outstanding” winner, soaks up the attention from Barbara and Robert Small.

At Boffi

Boffi Studio DC’s stunning showroom

Washington Spaces Senior Staff Writer Emily Lyons, Account Executive Mary Sue Jedele, Associate Publisher Heather Heider, Boffi Studio DC Owner Claude Zein, and Editor in Chief Trish Donnally

Architect Travis Price stands with his girlfriend, jewelry designer Heidi Hess, at right. At left is Shawn Afsharjavan, owner of Integrated Design Solutions and his wife Maria.

Architect Travis Price, looking elegant with his signature scarf draped around his neck, was admiring the beauty of the surroundings. “Don’t you feel like you’re in a home?” he asked. A very nice home at that. Boffi’s contemporary style is a perfect match for Price’s renowned modernist aesthetic.

Darryl Carter relaxes with his colleague Ashley Baumgarner at left and Washington Spaces Editor in Chief Trish Donnally at right. Greg Gaddy, sales associate with Tutt, Taylor & Rankin Sotheby’s International Realty, enjoys the evening, too.

Designer Darryl Carter was also impressed with the showroom, where sculptural bathtubs were filled with water, palm fronds, and floating tea lights and complete kitchens were camouflaged beneath sliding countertops.

"It was astoundingly eye-opening in terms of the possibilities. It’s so refreshing for DC. The design was so innovative, it was inspirational,”"says Carter, whose book The New Traditional (co-written with our Editor in Chief Trish Donnally) will be out in the fall.

Michael Merschat with Designer Karen Luria and Washington Spaces Senior Editor Jennifer Sergent

Architect Matthew Ossolinski and Designer Michael Merschat of Ossolinski Architects, who recently designed a “green” home renovation in Arlington that will be featured in our fall issue, also stopped by to check out the scene.

Meanwhile, designer Karen Luria was chatting up Tim McBride of BoConcept, (whose Cady’s Alley showroom is just up from Boffi’s) to talk about how comfortable her new BoConcept bed and mattress are.

In our ideal modern world, a BoConcept bedroom and a Boffi kitchen sounds just right.

Haluk Ilikyel and Jeannie Gregori, owners of Gallery Anatolian in Georgetown.

The treats were as delectable as the surroundings

– Written by Jennifer Sergent, Photography by Magenta Livengood