Cornacopia Detail

This is a close up of the "cornucopia" bee skep some people asked about. Yes its real bread that will just naturally harden as it gets stale. The bee "skep" is a display object that imitates a cover that was once used in colonial times to protect a hive in bee-keeping for honey production. The wheat is dried and actually helps to lift the bread off the table so that moisture can be released and also helps to protect the table from any oils that might come out of the bottom. You could dry bread in a warm oven for a bit to take out moisture faster and reduce the chance of mold.

I wouldn’t keep this too long for fear of bugs or household pests but it’s an inexpensive display that can be fed to the birds after use. You could also combine the breads with gourds and a few colorful fall leaves.

Creating a Harvest Table

Creating a" harvest" table or any table that you want to warm up in a cool season like early fall is easy when you add accessories that help you to create the character you desire. Wooden Bowls in assorted styles, shapes and woods as well as the wooden accent plates, salt and pepper shakers add tactile warmth and feel to this table. Visually, the basket creates a stage from which to serve from and the wooden sticks in the glass "Woodbury" vase add a natural reference.

 

 

No, everything doesn’t have to match the wood of your table or furniture. Serving spoons with a hand carved detail as well as the "coffee root" spoons (yes, carved from a coffee tree plant) and the small "live edge" dishes that they are resting in (made of olive wood) give this table its unique interest. The roughly textured place mats and the hand forged stainless flatware (Woodbury flatware) stress the hand crafted and organic aesthetic of the table.

Belmont dinnerware would be wonderful to use because of the off white softness of the crackle glaze. Let's say you start with a tomato soup, and then a wonderful Arugula salad served from the wooden bowl. The other wooden bowls and dishes could hold grain salad to serve on top, grilled chicken, nuts, dried cranberries or shredded cheese to layer into the salad and allow guests to choose what they like.

Here's another table that shows a straw bee skep used as a cornucopia with bread and wheat for a display effect. Inexpensive breads can be left out as a decorative prop for a few weeks or dinner parties in close proximities. Wooden Chargers and an actual wooden bread board bring in the wooden accents and contrast nicely to the Belmont Celadon dinner plates being used here.

All products shown are from the Simon Pearce Collection and available online at simonpearce.com and retail stores.

Fall Inspriations



Addca

Fall is one of the most inspiring times for setting table.  Using the seasons to inspire us with colors or textures is a great way to express our creativity and design skills.

Take a look at these yellow green leaves against the dark bark.  I used this contrast as an inspiration to set this table in the Simon Pearce showroom using Barre in the slate color and then added these yellow crinkle linen napkins to make it all crisp.  The yellow willow branches were a perfect accent.  If you look back in the blog, using natural branches is a great way to add color and texture and I often talk about that concept.  Consider what you might clip, snip or cut from your yard to add the perfect accent to your next table.





All Roads Lead to Eataly

Eataly is the place to learn about cheese.  Thank You Oscar Farnetti, Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich, Joe Bastianich  and Slow Food (Alti Cibi).  I am attaching the following article from Retail Gourmet because anyone who loves cheese the way I do will love exploring and experimenting with their selections.

Dont let that plain looking plate fool you, the accoutrements of honey with almonds, appricots and fig jam are all you need.  The honey with the riccotta cheese was absolute candy heaven!

Eataly is at 200 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10010 at the corner of 23rd Street and 5th. eatalyny.com

We now have a part of Italy right here with out the flight!

By Anna Wolfe

With 2011 retail sales of $3.44 billion*, cheese continues its domination as the best-selling specialty food category. And with no signs of slowing down, specialty cheese is expected to expand, with cheesemongers and caseophiles seeking more unique items and knowledge about them.

The cheese case at A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, N.C., is stocked with 250 cheeses, including local favorites from Chapel Hill Creamery and Goat Lady Dairy.

*National Association of the Specialty Food Trade's State of the Food Industry 2011

The store's cheese buyer Alexander Kast encourages his clientele to cook more with cheese.

As any specialty food retailer can attest, the cheese case can be intimidating for many consumers.
Helping customers feel comfortable is part of the mission of many retailers including San Diego-based Venissimo Cheese. "Our goal is to make sure everyone feels welcome," says Gina Freize, who co-founded the cheese and specialty foods retailer with her husband Roger.
Their hospitality includes offering cheeses in all price ranges. In each of the four locations, three of which are 500 square feet, there are about 125 cheeses, everything from mass-produced cheeses to hard-to-find artisan cheeses. "We want to have a mix of price ranges, including some that are not expensive," Frieze explains.
Venissimo, which opened its first store in 2004, also let shoppers sample any cheese before they buy.
"Sampling is not passive," says Freize. "We're aggressive samplers. With a $50 per pound cheese, it is really about tasting how good it is. That's what we're about."

Venissimo Cheese, which has four cheese shops, will begin offering classes at second location.

Setting the Standard
Active sampling is also par for the course at Standard Market, a chef-driven gourmet market that opened last November in Westmont, Ill. About 10 percent of the 33,000-square-foot store is the wine and cheese bar and cheese cave.
"Cheese doesn't sell itself," says fromagier David Rogers. "Having passionate cheesemongers behind the case is one of the most important things to make it work."
At Standard Market, customers and cheesemongers can sample any of the "best-of-class" international and domestic 150-200 cheeses.
"Sure, you can take 40 to 50 pounds of cheese and put it in a bucket. We prefer to drive the experience of our customers out of the cheese case," says Rogers. "It is much more effective."
Like other specialty retail stores, the Standard Market cheese case is dominated by local and regional favorites and is driven by the seasonality of many of the cheeses. During the winter months when many of the American artisan cheeses are not available, "we ramp up on European cheeses, then in the summer we expand that American artisan selection," explains Rogers, who previously worked for Whole Foods Market, working his way up from a team member to a regional buyer.
An Education
"There is a lot of education to be done," says Rogers. "A lot of people are new to specialty cheese. It gives us the opportunity to introduce people to new cheeses," says Rogers, adding he and his team are focused on "expanding on what they know."
Among the store's suburban Chicago clientele, "there's a great willingness to experiment and try new cheeses. There is a surprise in there, a desire to find and try new stuff in the case," says Rogers. "It has really opened up to what we can buy and can sell. They are done with having the goudas of the world and are ready to move on to more exciting cheeses. And every category has some exciting stuff."
The store offers a guided pairing class once a month, and does free wine and cheese pairings where customers can sit down and sample two or three wines and cheese and learn about how they're paired and why.
For specialty retailers, education — by knowledgeable staff or through classes, is a central part of their mission.
Into the Kitchen
At A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, N.C., there's both. Inside the 60,000-square-foot gourmet market, there's a state-of-the-art cooking school called CLASS that attracts cookbook authors and notable chefs. Every month there's a cheese-oriented class at the 60,000-square-foot gourmet market. During an April class, a wine importer from the Loire Valley demonstrated the classic pairing of goat's milk cheeses and white wines.
Every Friday, A Southern Season's wine department hosts a wine tasting, pairing the wines with some of the store's cheeses. At a recent event, mini cheeseburgers stuffed with blue cheese were sampled.
A Southern Season's cheese buyer Alexander Kast is educating the clientele about cooking with cheese, encouraging them to look beyond the cheese plate and cook more with cheese. Recipes cards using cheese are given out.
"See what you can do with cheese," suggests Kast, who is one of the two official cheesemongers for the upcoming American Cheese Society conference in Raleigh, N.C. "It becomes a different thing (when cooked or used as an ingredient.) Even if you're tasting out a cheese, try lightly melting it over a baguette. You get a really different flavor."

Venissimo Cheese's customers are more curious and "are more interested in everything," says Gina Freize, co-owner.

Take for example, the washed-rind cheese Scharfe Maxx. "When you cut into it, it has a very pungent strong aroma," Kast explains. "When it is room temperature or cold, some people are turned off by the big oniony flavors.
"If you melt it, you can show what it becomes. It softens and has less abrasive flavors."
At Venissimo Cheese in San Diego, cheese education, both formal and informal, is part of the stores' regular offerings.
About two years ago, Venissimo started offering classes at its downtown San Diego location. These days, Venissimo's customers are more knowledgeable about cheese, says Freize.
Venissimo's 1,100-square-foot-store in downtown San Diego store is home to the Academy of Cheese — its own AOC, Freize points out — where it offers a variety of cheese pairing classes, such as wine and cheese, whiskey and cheese and beer and cheese. It also offers a Cheese 101 class to help cheese newbies learn about the basics such as milk types, styles and pairing information in a fun and approachable environment.

More than 10,000 people attended the second annual Pastoral Producers Festival in April.

Mozzarella and ricotta cheesemaking classes are the retailer's most popular and are offered regularly, Freize notes.
At press time, Venissimo was in the midst of expanding its Del Mar location so that it too could offer classes and have room to serve light fare such as cheese and meat boards. "We want people to be able to walk in and grab something, Italian-style, and have a little bite," Frieze says.
Like other retailers, Freize has noticed that her clientele is entertaining more at home, and as a result, Venissimo has seen a sales increase among its cheese trays and platters business.
"They want the best they can get with the money they have," Frieze explains. "They're not going out for $100 dinner, but will spend $70 on cheese. The quest for the best has gotten better."
Overall, Venissimo's shoppers are seeking more in-depth knowledge about what they're buying.
"People are more curious. They are more interested in everything — in what they eat and what's in it," explains Freize.
Back to the Roots
Carrie Davenport, general manager at The Rogers Collection, agrees, adding the Portland, Maine-based import company has noticed a shift towards a great appreciation of artisan traditions.
"One of the biggest things is people are trying to get back to the roots," Davenport says. "They want to know where it comes from, how it is traditionally made. It's not just with cheese, but all kinds of products," Davenport says.
Like their European counterparts, domestic cheesemakers are focusing on quality, paying more attention to the nuances of cheesemaking, such as affinage and the quality of ingredients such as brines and rubs, observes Marilyn Wilkinson, director national product communications for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB.)
It's a shift from a few years ago. "There for a while it was every month or so someone was introducing a new cheese," says Wilkinson.
Part of that quality-centric, back-to-the-roots movement is fueling the demand and appreciation of raw milk cheeses, Davenport adds.
From Rogers' retail and foodservice customers, Davenport has also seen an increased demand for "more unique producers of protected designation of origin (PDO) cheeses, and she's also fielding an increasing number of requests for certified organic cheeses and cheeses made with vegetable rennet.
In Salt Lake City at Caputo's Market, there are daily conversations about raw milk cheese.
"About once per day, we get a customer who is looking to buy only raw milk cheeses," says Tony Caputo, director of marketing. "They are in luck, because about half of our selection is raw milk, but most people don't care, they just want cheese that tastes good ... Just as often as someone requesting only raw milk, we also get pregnant women or people buying for them that specifically do not want raw milk."

"It's my duty to find those cheeses that are unique," says Sheana Davis, owner of The Epicurean Connection in Sonoma, Calif.

Known for Southern European products, Caputo's Market has about 200 cheeses on most days in its 11,000-square-foot market. "About 100 of our cheeses need to move in the next week or two. That's what we feel is our difference," Caputo says. "We have a vast array of cheeses that are peaking and ephemeral now that are not commonly seen."
Local cheeses such as Beehive Cheese, Snowy Mountain Sheep Creamery and Rockhill Creamery are popular along with Caputo's Cave aged Ossau Iraty that is aged six months in the store's cave. "The Onetik Grand Cru becomes full of crunchy casein protein crystals and the flavors of grass really pop," says Caputo.
In general, customers are "much more knowledgeable" about cheese than they were five years ago, retailers interviewed by TGR agree. Like other retailers interviewed, Caputo's is offering cheese classes. "Caputo's has been a major force for education," says Caputo, who was awarded Best Food and Wine Educator in the state by Salt Lake Magazine. "We used to have to really push to get even a small amount of our stinky cheeses to sell, but now people are buying them without being sold. As our affinage program and educations program has progressed, our customers have become more comfortable that we will not sell a cheese past its prime and this comfort factor makes them much more adventurous and willing to at least taste everything."
An Appetite for More
"People are hungry for knowledge," says Caputo. "Our highly educational — and opinionated — cheese classes are filling to capacity (50 people) and beyond, even though we are doing them more and more often." The classes attract chefs, food writers and the cheese novice.
At The Epicurean Connection, a specialty food store with a cheese, beer and wine bar in Sonoma, Calif., shoppers want to know the details. "At the consumer end, people want to know who is making their product," says Sheana Davis, owner. "I don't get asked as much if it is from Sonoma," she says, referring to the buy local trend. "I get asked, ‘Who is the producer?'"
Davis' cheese case features about 60 American artisan cheeses, with about 80 percent of the case split between California and Wisconsin. She rounds out her selection with cheeses from Washington, plus Kenny's Farmhouse brie from Kentucky and Great Hill Blue from Massachusetts.
"It's my duty to find those cheeses that are unique, that are not mass-marketed," says Davis, who also makes the Delice de la Vallée cheese and teaches cheesemaking and pairing classes and other cheese-centric events. "I can't compete on price with what I'm selling."
Unique artisan cheeses are also the centerpiece at Gastronomie 491, a 2,200-square-foot gourmet market that opened its doors March 21 at 83rd and Columbus in Manhattan. Like Caputo's, Gastronomie 491 is located near other retailers that sell hundreds of specialty cheeses. Still, the gourmet market has a niche. Instead of focusing exclusively on American artisans, Gastronomie 491's cheese case focuses on "high-caliber cheeses from small producers from around the world," says Martin Johnson, cheese, charcuterie, beer and wine buyer.
Engaged and Enthused
Johnson, who worked for years at Bedford Cheese in Brooklyn, said most of the Gastronomie 491 staff is relatively new to specialty cheese. Like Standard Market's Rogers, Johnson says an enthusiasm for food and learning are must-have qualities in employees. Johnson and his staff pride themselves on engaging the sophisticated clientele, talking about the milk, geography and aging process that's involved. "You can't do that when you're turning through 1,000 customers a day," Johnson points out.
Sampling too is crucial. One of the favorites is Alpine cheese rinsed in white wine. "It's very rare that anyone buys that cheese without tasting it," says Johnson, who also teaches cheese and beverage classes at the 92nd Street YMCA. L'Amuse, an aged gouda from Holland, an Italian goat's milk cheese with black truffles and Rolf Beeler's Gruyere were also popular at press time.
Cheese shops dedicated to cheese "are very involved in the community," observes WMMB Wilkinson. "They are giving more classes and doing more cheese education."
For example, Marion Street Cheese Market in Oak Park, Ill., and Pastoral Artisan Cheese Bread and Wine, which has three stores in Chicago, are a couple of the retailers that are "continually promoting and staying visible," observes Wilkinson. Eric Larsen, owner of Marion Street Cheese Market, "does a ton of classes," and he's also organized special dinners with cheesemakers in the store's restaurant. Larsen works with restaurants in Chicago that cross-promote with him, Wilkinson says, adding both Marion Street and Pastoral have developed small distribution businesses to restaurants.
On April 28, Pastoral hosted its second annual Pastoral's Artisan Producer Festival, a free event to meet 70 artisan producers from throughout the United States and around the globe, sample their small batch food, beer and wine. Twenty of the vendors at the Chicago French Market, where the event was located, also participated.
This year's festival was a huge success, attracting more than 10,000 attendees – double the number of 2011 – notes Cristi Menard, senior manager of procurement for Pastoral. "Our idea is for customers to meet the producers of the products we love and encourage them to engage in a meaningful way," Menard says, adding "I think we succeeded."
Overall, retailers agreed it is an exciting time to be in the cheese industry.

Textiles: Boho Chic continues

 

 

Pillow- Lore

Bohemian Chic has been out there since last fall but its roots have really been established as a comfortable style that can be retro and yet current. Today, I’m looking at pillows as an inspiration to fall color and pattern in home fashion. New readers, let me mention that although I’m showing pillows here, let me make sure you understand that it’s just a reference that is being used.  Look for these trends in everything from tabletop to accents to furnishings.

These patterns have a folkloric and crafted detail. The floral shapes on the pillow are stylistic and imaginary. The shapes are simplistic and appear cut-out, much like the panel in the back right, leaf shapes are actually cut out.  Flower themes, muted colors and light or dark backgrounds bring a gypsy shawl crafted style to the appliqués.

 

 

Embroidered, outlined and textural patterns are also trending. Geometric, velour’s and smaller scale animal prints are evident.  It’s a segment that says mix more than match. Notice all the neutrality in the colors: grays, dove, shale, pewter, burnished metallic colors with mixed textural references.

 

 

A Retro-collage look takes architectural elements and combines them with animals, plants, flowers and birds and bugs. In a similar way, a Victorian scapbook look gives us a comfort of combined elements that we recognize in almost fantasy or dreamlike visuals. If the world isn’t kinder or gentler, we can at least graphically put things we like and things that show a harmonious nature together to surround us with a new reality of a world we create ourselves. Think Victorian decals, transfer ware, sponge painting, scrapbooking, pressed flowers and ink stamps or letter press images that show fonts or small images from nature.

Look for these references in textiles like napkins, runners, placemats or actual dinner ware pieces as well in decals or impressions in the decoration.

Trend: Making an Entry

 

 

 

Entries are the first thing people see when they walk in your home. As a first introduction, consider them something of a handshake. What’s yours? Firm and looks them in the eye, or wimpy and looking down at your shoes? Art can create an entry; even collectibles can give the visitor a hint at what’s to be expected. Try looking at what you see when you walk in and where a piece of art or grouping might go to greet your guests.

 

I pulled these because they were a bit strong but sometimes we need a loud voice to be heard. And I want to emphasize my point. Note first the impact of the blue and white strip wall. Yours would be centered but this was a display and ended up where it did because of the space allowed.

Next, a beveled mirror was added which is almost always a perfect backdrop. it creates light and visually adds space. Thirdly the collection of blue and `white vases were balanced with a large but open and airy cluster of leafy branches. the color of the branches and the pink flowers with the light green leaves adds that touch of green i keep telling you about.

What’s extra fun here is the punch of turquoise that shakes it up in the gourd and ginger jar shape vases that are in front. The cool marble topped table is an elegant touch and the pale turquoise table with the Asian inspired hardware draw pull unites the statement. The vases would be nicer in different scales to give a more collected look and open it up a bit more.

 

 

This isn’t really an entry but I love this concept because it makes a statement and challenges the viewer to take a look. Bold yes, over the top, totally and punch you in the nose and then shake your hand- completely! There is another version of the ships cage lantern and I’m note sure how this went from ship to farm, but it was a show display and those things happen. Take out the light but use it in the entry, deduct the rope and all the small stuff at the bottom, center those 3 storage jars and bang. The table works the burlap works and those little mirrors are interesting.

 

Trend: Lighting Up Reto Nights

Lighting also took a bit of a nostalgic turn but the influence is more 50's, Mod and Post Modern as seen Oversize lighting as in big lamps, barrel shades, coordinated materials and retro textiles are everywhere.

 

 

Animal prints and bargelo geometrics are copular prints. Here, note the use of cages, star bursts, metal shapes, glass and chrome used.

 

Repetition is another great way to get impact. Above, smaller light fixtures as well as the graphic display of mirrors, used in multiples get mass appeal. Remember the "pit"? Modular seating is back- actually it never left- but as downsizers need more seating in limited space, it works and things that work return.  The little black dress works, modular seating works.

Trend: Past Tense

 

This week I am going to continue my trend reporting because although the main focus of this blog is about tabletop and entertaining (and trust me, I've got some exciting new recipes and serving ideas coming up just in time for fall entertaining with easy to prepare tastes from easily found foods that are easily made with little prep to get you big results!) it is important to know about the trends going on around us.

 

Fashion Week in New York is a big deal because from those fashions the styles trickle down to not only wearable fashions but Home fashions, Home textiles which in turn influence tabletop fashions and home accent products to even the very foods we eat. It all ties together so it’s important that as we live and entertain, our homes, guests and tabletops are all reflections of each other that stay bouncing around in the same fashionable currents.

 

If you’ve seen Devil Wears Prada, remember how Anthony Tucci (as Nigel) and Meryl Streep (as Miranda Priestly) both explain to Anne Hathaway ( as Andy Sachs) how this fashion power trickle down works- and it’s all true!

 

If you haven’t, consider for a moment that people in "rust" polyester pant suits used to eat "wine cheese": this cheese that was half orange and have dyed puplelish burgundy wine-color that was often rolled in nuts and served with Ritz crackers and high fat, cholesterol ridden "pigs in blankets" created from nitrate full little frankfurters with hydrogenated palm oil croissants baked around them (soaking up all the fat).

Now people are wearing natural linen shirts in LEED certified ‘green’ homes and eating sustainable goat and free-range sheep's milk cheese with all natural Stacy’s Pita Chips (sea salt please!) with raw almonds and organic baby arugula salad.

 Believe me now?

 

 

 

 

Ok, Ed, give us more, what’s it all about? Past Tense is a comforting trend to the Nostalgia Look that Baby Boomers and Gen X both feel a certain affinity towards. To the older groups it’s a rummage, antique look and to the younger scale it’s a vintage or retro industrial return to the interest of how things were made, especially hand-crafted items. Last week I talked about wire and wood, here the same materials, like the Tin Galvanized letters and the accents like basketry and wooden bobbins seen above show.

 

In the photo above we can see ceramic glove forms and wooden heads that milliners would use for hats as well as shop craft stools and in the back you can see wooden vises and tool boxes. Even the spherical lights above are nods to pre-electric ships lanterns, where the flame would be limited by the surrounding cage and not be able to bang against a wall and set off a fire if a wave made the boat sway.

 

Past Tense feeds our curiosity about the cross over times between the pre-industrial and industrial revolution. Look at the interest in the Titanic as much as the first moon walks. The world was going from Victorian times to the early 1900's when woman’s rights, morals, flappers and prohibition changed the way people think, their manners and dress. In unsure times, dare I say election times, nostalgia is very attractive because it allows us to remember times when the world was more in control, expected and we weren’t as challenged in many ways as we are now. Past Tense signals us to think of a more hands on world and puts us back in touch with tactile crafted materials.

Trend: Marimeko, The Abba of Prints

Be on the lookout, first it was Adele with her mod look and now it makes sense that 50's color and pop are surfacing in the design world. Can Peter Max be far behind?

 

 

I’ve now seen Marimekko through several reincarnations from the 70-80's to the present. Marimekko is a Finnish textile and clothing company that started in the early 50's, known for its design sensibility of simple bold shapes and geometrics in bright punchy color combinations or black and white contrasts. You always know it when you see it and it’s always fun and familiar, hence the Abba comparison. I just saw the store in Boston, it’s fun and the merchandise is literally spilled out on to the street.

You can almost hear Dancing Queen.

 

 

Bean bag chairs make perfect sense and with the amount of students in the Boston area, should make a good hit. I’m not sure I could handle an entire room with these fabrics but a dorm or guest room that needs some punch could certainly get it here.

 

Maybe I hear S.O.S, either way you can dance around your room and fall into one of these.

Getting Green

So Green is the accent color of the time.  Terrariums are an artistic, creative and fascinating way to add green into your home. They tend to need little care and provide an environment thats perfect to sustain your green thumb look.

Besides plants, green accents, like these pottery oil jars and glass retro seltzer bottles.  Vintage is a great new trend in accents and they give us comfort to have familiar things around, such as these old wicker wrapped wine jugs or galvanized watering cans.

Note here how these planters combine the repeated sculptral shapes of the container to elevate plants and create interest. t

Element Trends: Neutral Glamour

 

I mentioned that antique looks abounded. I home furnishings they were the essential pallet of old world elegance in bleached, faded, washed and worn in every sort of way. Linen is the ruling fabric. It’s strong, has a wonderful variety of natural colors and will wrinkle to provide the comfortable, relaxed but dressy look it is known for. Carved details, scrolls, curves, French and Italian influences and more rounded forms over straight lines add to the opulence of this look.

 

 

 

Natural elements, like shells and sculptural elements, like this classic horse head were nice accents to add to the completed looks. The lighting fixtures also are considerate to this mix of Venetian Palazzo meets shabby chic beach house meets Palm Beach Classic.

 

I also wanted to point out the importance of green. Green is big. Period, the end. Green is the new black.  As an accent it lets us know nature is always in the wings. It makes everything alive.  Note how it brings life into the still life of these neutrals. But I like it best as a potent accent. 

Neutrals are unsinkable. I 'm proclaiming "concrete" as the best go to color other than white. The multitude of stone and mortar plays up fantastically with textures and light. Look at how the statue above, centered on the console seems to tie together all the elements in this display setting. It works because it brings an unexpected guest to the table; glamour.  I suggest you run out now and find some concrete to bring home, antique or 50’s is best.  If you can’t, paint it with buttermilk and leave outside to weather for a year before bringing in.  You’ll be glad you did.

 

 

 

Wire Trends : Metal, Line and Shadow

 

 

Wire, every gage, is another fantastic element that was present at the recent gift show in New York at Pier 92. It was used not only as an accent material but manipulated in extreme ways to create shapes and shadows. By creating sculptural forms it also helps to create a lot with a little, as you can see above with this airy clock frame that uses the entire wall as its canvas.  The tendrils extend to create lace like shapes, shadows and textures.

There is also a direct sculptural influence using the material is a very artistic and whimsical way, as in this abstracted interpretation of a horse head.

Lastly, wire was specifically used for utilitarian objects, like baskets and trays and pails. These nods to the old- fashioned hand crafted techniques and looks were very popular. The zinc or galvanized gray color is another big trend on the design front.

There are many ways these elements will make their way to table top fashions and accents as well as the interiors that we live in.  Be on the lookout in furniture, design shops and even hardware stores for this wonderful element.

 

Tomorrow I will be showing the array of antique looks that are on their way as we look for “nostalgia” in home décor.

Wood Trends; Organic Comfort

 

These wonderfully creative bird bowls made from weathered wood are part of a strong trend in wood accents for the home.

 

Small furnishings- especially stools, used both for accent and occasional seating as well as a small table or foot rest- are also ways to add the popular wood and hand crafted trend to your home.

Primitive carvings and shapes lend an artistic sculptural influence.  Picasso, Braque and Brancusi all referenced arts of Africa because of the simplifications of forms in their masks and figurative carvings.  As you look at these stools you can see the creativity and interest created in the variations.

 

 

Note the natural forms being allowed to become part of the design from the material itself as seen in this bench, mirror and side tables.   Basketry, in lathe and cane provided another hand-made art to show in oversize and influential ways.

 

 

 

"Live-Edge"- the detail of leaving the edge of the wood after a board is sliced from the tree trunk- is  probably the most popular trend in wood out there.  The bark is peeled here on this table but often it is left as an original detail.  It is usually fragile but the wonderful edge of this table shows the texture left from the bark and the wonderful irregular organic edge.  Consumers want to know where things came from in country as well as material.

 

 

Reclaimed, recycled, and repurposed:

Note all the wood variations, reclaimed wood for shelving, repurposed bark made into vase form and recycled wood used for tabletops from old barn wood. Think also recovering, as in the cherry bark used to recover the circular formed frame of the mirror.

 

 

 

 

Tabletop Accent Items, Spice it up!

These are my assortment of small dishes and accent items.  These are not really for any particular thing but are to be used as needed to add interest to any serving presentation.

Yes,I do have more than one drawer, you are so right!

 

You know how you always see these small dishes that don’t really match or fit with any set? They are so handy to have when you just need that little something to hold olive pits, tooth picks, small amounts of olives, cheese cubes, mustard, mayonnaise, dip, cocktail sauce, nuts, jams, honey, cornichons, seeds, marcona almonds,  whole chestnuts- you get the idea.  These little bowls and plates, when filled with an array of samplings or even that last scoop of humus can provide the perfect “mini-snacks” to guests hanging out in the kitchen or having cocktails while you set up for dinner.

Think of it as a nice warm up time as people come after work or a busy day and have a cocktail to unwind.  We all have stuff on our minds and sometimes that first 10 minutes or so is sort of an “exhale” to all the things that happen to us.  Once settled in with a serving platter that is visually interesting, I think it helps to bring us into the moment.

The best parties aren’t about being perfect, they are about perfect beings. We are all “perfect” but sometimes it just takes a bit of time to get the layers of “stuff” off of our psyches and join in.

 

Here a mish-mash of items served in a mish-mash of accent plates served from a oversize cutting board keeps it real but still shows its own interesting casual and comfortable style.

Venetian Smoke: the true story

Hello Readers,

Taking a break from the exceptional design world of trends, tabletops and tastes I am writing about a true story that has just surfaced today as I woke up.  It’s called Venetian Smoke. Actually the story has been with me for over 20 years but for reasons to be announced at some later time, this story must be shared now.

 

Venetian Smoke

Vern was a designer at the company I worked with, Susan Crane, in Dallas, Texas. The company was known for fixturing, seasonal display trim and decorative props which were used in the visual merchandising for every major retailer in the country.  It was the 80’s when big rich glitzy Texas was quite a showy place in a decorator kind of way. As a noo-yorker and a young one at that with not really so much worldliness under my belt, it was a bit “over the top”, bigger than life and, I admit, somewhat alluring place. The homes included dashes of folly in their architecture; arches, entries, columns, huge dining rooms, multiple chandeliers, nine foot French doors to gardens, dramatic up lighting and dramatic down lighting and a Palladian window tossed here and there for fun and so forth. If Dallas didn’t have it, they built it, I’d say, and the thin veneer of stucco mixed with ‘southern hospitality’ was just fine with me.  It looked new and clean and spacious compared to old, dirty and cramped New York City where I had just recently moved to.

 

Vern, being the head designer had the obligation and expectations of having a wonderful home made all the more wonderful from the amount of wholesale props that adorned near every inch of the place. His partner Cliff would sit at the baby grand in the middle of the colossal living room and play Liberace-like renditions of classics, show tunes and either Barbara Streisand or Chorus Line melodies. Extra flourishes and tinkling sounds were added for drama and to also free up one hand to take a swig of some alcoholic concoction usually made with a gin brand you never heard of in big red or black letters.

 

Vern and Cliff were both well groomed, tall, twenty or so years older than I and pleasant looking. Cliff was blond and wore silk shirts with bold colored patterns unbuttoned just enough to reveal a gold chain and smooth tan chest. He was always prepared to perform a lounge act at the end of the day as Vern would often come home with an unexpected group.  Places and parts were then to be repeated as if a daily tour had been reserved. Vern was often compared to Robert Mitchum (which he loved). On the street, someone might yell, “Robert Mitchum!” and then of course he would act as if he was Robert Mitchum, not saying he was or wasn’t, but playing up the unexpected discovery.  His eyes had that same slight droopiness in the corners, his dark straight hair, cut shorter to the sides with a pile in front whisked to the side of his round head and in his John Wayne gentle smile a cigarette seemed to give him an air of tough authority.  Dressed in a black turtle neck, black pants or jeans and black shoes he always looked the part of an accomplished designer.  

 

The experience was very grand, chandeliers sparkling against dark green velvet walls, the piano notes, elegantly lush, pushed against crisp white French doors, those polished brass lights above pictures gave the home a clubby feel as if Julie Wilson, big white lily in her hair, was about to come around a corner from the Algonquin.  It was quite wonderful visually and this was Vern’s stage set looking like a million dollars from his outrageous attention to detail, up lighted palm trees and vast amounts of Obelisks, huge ceramic Chinese horses, oversize works of well copied Titians and Rembrandts, each with their gleaming picture lights. You felt very honored and chic to be invited to such a home.

 

The house tour continued throughout room after room and cocktail after cocktail. Vern’s mastery of decadent Dallas design was limitless as he explained humbly but with great detail how he glued thousands of shells to mirror frames, set hundreds of tiles to columns and made enormous lamps from Peruvian statuary of questionable origin. There wasn’t any object or surface that he couldn’t talk about since you realized that he had touched every inch of every room with a hot glue gun, fabric, stapler, gold leaf brush or faux painting tool.

 

We came to a bathroom and on this carved wall panel was the most extraordinary color. It was something like peacock blue with gray added in and brightened with a touch of cream, something I’d say in a slate family. I remember asking Vern, what this beautiful color was.  “That’s Venetian smoke!” he exclaimed without a second’s hesitation of tour guide authority. No one had heard of Venetian Smoke before at least not as a color reference.  We all looked at each other, nodded our heads toward each other in instant approval and inaudibly mouthed the syllables ven- e- tian- smo- ke as if we had been given the chant that could turn lead into gold.

 

It was at that moment we realized that we may not really have been given the formula but we were standing in the results of someone that thought they indeed did have it. You don’t need to see a Venetian house burn to understand what Venetian smoke looks like. Venetian smoke is the way to describe any color you have no idea of what it really is.  It is what old guard show house designers do when they paint a floor vermillion red or ceilings black gloss or mirror the steps on a stairway.  They create a look of something you’ve never seen before, just as Vern had mixed several cans of leftover paint to produce the once in a lifetime color for his wall and it was unforgettable.

 

As we descended the stairs it seemed staples popped out at corners of the fabric covered dark velvet walls, the veneer of gold leaf paint on the frame wasn’t dried quite well when a texture of bubble wrap became imprinted across the Vermeer, the antique Chinese horse was made months ago it seemed and one side of the head wasn’t exactly lined up correctly with the other in the hastily produced mould. It all started making sense. Vern was the designer in a well worn cashmere coat who always had a one-hundred dollar bill prominently displayed on the left side of his billfold.  “Oh, you don’t mind getting this cab do you? I don’t have any smaller bills”. Years and many cab rides later that bill was as fresh as the first time I ever saw it.  Yes it looked like a million dollar house as a canvas stage set looks like stone or brick or whatever the artist wants it to look like. Although Vern was a Zefferelli, there was no doubt in that, as well as his being a kind and dashing person, you began to realize that pre-meditated appetizers weren’t going to be put out. A bowl of popcorn was offered, a smaller dish of Ritz crackers appeared. The nightly tour group, nursed with grain gin cocktails, would always offer to pay for dinner that was nonchalantly suggested.  The sparkle of chandeliers, the eloquent piano rhapsody, the mood lighting on velvet walls are all a swirl on a gentle breeze in an elegant cloud of Venetian Smoke.

 

Several years later, when I purchased my first house, I remember mounting four decorative moldings into each corner of my dining room.  At the top of each I hot-glued a Walnut shell, spray painted bright gold.  I am almost certain Venetian Smoke had gotten in my eyes.