Guest Blogger, The Buzz on Antiques

The Buzz: GIRANDOLES

By Buzz Kaplan, Decorati Contributing Antiques Editor and author of The Buzz on Antiques, and Executive Director of Decorati manufacturer C. Mariani Antiques, Restoration & Custom in San Francisco.

Girandole (pronounced JEER-on-dole) can mean one of three different things:
-A candelabra with multiple ornamental branches;
-An elaborate wall bracket/sconce that’s very ornate with one or more branches and often incorporating a mirror to reflect the light;
-Or, in jewelry, a broach or earring that’s very foofy;
And here’s what each one looks like: (more…)

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Guest Blogger, Paint

Update your space with 2010’s “IT” color – TURQUOISE!

By Marlaina Teich

“She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar.” - Janet Fitch, White Oleander

There’s a new star this season and her name is TURQUOISE! After a cold, snowy winter season, we’re all dreaming of the Caribbean’s sugar-sand beaches and sparkling blue waters.

Even if we can’t get away for a vacation just yet, we can still infuse our spaces with a full-out TURQUOISE vibe.

Grab a gallon of Benjamin Moore paint and a Saturday afternoon to wrap your room in the seductive cool of color. (more…)

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Events, Resources

You Are Invited Feb 3-5: Design San Francisco

You are invited to Design San Francisco, the premier annual event for design professionals.

Click here for complete event schedule.

Join these Decorati manufacturers at De Sousa Hughes:

Dakota Jackson- Doing it Right: 21st Century Style

Wednesday February 3rd, 4:00 to 5:00

Does designing in the new millennium require that the slate be wiped clean or ask that designers consider the best of then combined with inventing the now in creating the environments of today. Please join Dakota Jackson for a talk on exploring this new design landscape. Light refreshments to follow. Media Sponsor: California Homes.

(more…)

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Product Picks, Sponsored

Product Spotlight

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Book Review, Special Offers

Win a Free Copy of Mattia Bonetti

This week’s book giveaway features Mattia Bonetti. Thanks to our friends at Rizzoli, one lucky reader will win a free copy of this wonderful design book.

Exquisitely crafted out of often-unexpected materials, and designed to be functional, Mattia Bonetti’s seductive works are both art and object. As Bonetti himself states, “I don’t know if you can call my work only ‘design,’ or only ‘art’; it is something in-between, where there is a special space.” Collected by tastemakers as diverse as Christian Lacroix, Philip Johnson & David Whitney, and Reed Krakoff, Mattia Bonetti’s designs have perhaps been known until now only by design aficionados. This volume shows three decades of Bonetti’s limited-edition furniture through compelling photographs by Reed Krakoff taken in residential interiors, galleries, and Bonetti’s studio workshop, plus handsome black-and-white portraits of the designer and his team of craftspeople.

To enter to win your own free copy:

Select your favorite image below and tell us in 1-2 sentences why you think the this image evokes both art and design.

How to register your entry: Click the link below your favorite photo. You will be taken to our Forums where you can enter your response. Our editors will select ONE WINNER from all entries received by Friday Feb 12th at 5pm PT. Click “more” or scroll below to see all images.

To choose Image 1 above, as your favorite, CLICK HERE and tell us why.

Click more to see the other 5 images and links to enter.

(more…)

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Guest Blogger

The Modern TV Wardrobe

By Lisa Adams, LA Closet Design

Sleek, sexy, and seductive. The latest in luxury media and wardrobe storage has finally migrated from Europe to the United States… (more…)

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Guest Blogger, The Buzz on Antiques

The Buzz: How High Should a Dining Table Be?

By Buzz Kaplan, Decorati Contributing Antiques Editor and author of The Buzz on Antiques, and Executive Director of Decorati manufacturer C. Mariani Antiques, Restoration & Custom in San Francisco.

My most popular post on Decorati was the one on How Many People Can Sit at a Dining Table?” Go figure.

Just as surprising was the number of people who contacted me about how high a dining table should be and asked me to post that info as well. So here you go…. (more…)

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Product Spotlight

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Designer Profile, Guest Blogger, The Buzz on Antiques

The Buzz on William R. Eubanks

By Buzz Kaplan, Decorati Contributing Antiques Editor and author of The Buzz on Antiques, and Executive Director of Decorati manufacturer C. Mariani Antiques, Restoration & Custom in San Francisco.

I admit it. I’m jaded when it comes to fine antiques and the interiors that showcase them.
But that’s comes with the territory when you work at C. Mariani, better known as “The Louvre with price tags,” supplying antiques and custom pieces to the country’s top designers. And that’s what I do other than writing this blog and trying to raise my two dogs to be model canine citizens (a parent’s job is never done….).

But I digress.

Oddly enough, I hadn’t previously worked with Bill Eubanks and only first saw his work in person when I attended a dinner party in Palm Beach last year. This was just after the Madoff scandal, and I heard our hosts had lost gazillions. Nonetheless, they seemed completely unruffled and still quite comfortable serving up Krug Champagne to accompany their truffle-laced lobster risotto. Not only that, but their house was dripping in old masters, 18th century palazzo-scaled antiques, and priceless Oriental carpets and porcelain.
Our hostess dismissed their Madoff losses with a “que sera sera” shrug and asked me what I thought of their William R. Eubanks-designed home. I was momentarily speechless (a rare occurrence for someone voted “Yakkiest” in the Senior Class of ‘67 at Van Nuys High). The level of opulence of their home was truly incredible as was the exquisite taste that pulled all that opulence together.
And that was my introduction to William R. Eubanks design. So I was intrigued to interview him. Not to mention the rumor that one of his first clients was “the King” himself, Elvis Presley.

As I think back on it, I think that if I was asked to rename William R. Eubanks, Inc., it would to be “OMG Interiors”.

Bill Eubanks is one good ole Southern designer who apparently missed the news that the North has won the war and so he’s designing like, well, Sherman through Georgia. And he’s taking no prisoners, having offices not only in Memphis and Palm Beach, but also in New York as well.

So this Yankee was understandably intrigued.

(more…)

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Guest Blogger

Separation of Space

Click Here to View This Antoine Proulx Bookcase on Decorati

By Lisa Adams, LA Closet Design

It is hard these days to draw a line between where work ends and where your home life begins. Even if you don’t intentionally work from home, your Blackberry, papers and stress inevitably come home with you at the end of the day. Within the context of organization, a “separation of space” must be created to set boundaries and regain the comfort that you once felt in your home. Here are some rules to live by:

(more…)

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Guest Blogger, The Buzz on Antiques

The Buzz: The Dark and Stormy History of English Tortoise Shell Tea Caddies

By Buzz Kaplan, Decorati Contributing Antiques Editor and author of The Buzz on Antiques, and Executive Director of Decorati manufacturer C. Mariani Antiques, Restoration & Custom in San Francisco.

The history of antique English tortoise shell tea caddies is a tale of intrigue, drugs, prestige and power. Just like MTV’s The Real World only classier.

Tea caddies in the 18th and 19th centuries were the ultimate status symbols because tea was prohibitively expensive and stylish.

In fact, tea was so valuable that the upper crust gave their used tea (called “slop”) as a gift to their appreciative servants. And once the servants had re-used the tea, they would cut it with cow manure and resell it to the peasants who wanted to taste the high life too. (more…)

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Product Picks

Product Spotlight

Designer Profile, Profiles

Design Therapy: Tom Stringer

By Donna Sapolin

It’s not uncommon for designers to cite travel as a source of inspiration, mention the role they must play as psychoanalyst to their clients as the least favorite aspect of their jobs, and denigrate the design disruptions that occur after projects are delivered to the families who commissioned them. Tom Stringer, Chicago-based principal of Tom Stringer Design Partners, however, turns these common sentiments on their heads.

Stringer is an avid scuba diver as well as a frequent passenger on the many yachts he’s designed, so it’s not just any unfamiliar sight that generates design ideas for him. More specifically, it’s the juxtaposition of color, texture and pattern seen under water in places “that feel like the ends of the earth,” he says.

(more…)

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Guest Blogger, Paint

Paint Color Samples Everywhere, and You Still Have White Walls? Part 2

By Pangaea

In part 1 of this article, we checked to see if painting is truly the next step for you. We also looked at what to do before your professional paint color consultation to really be prepared. If you haven’t read part 1, see Paint Color Samples Everywhere, and You Still Have White Walls? Part 1 (more…)

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Guest Blogger, Paint

Paint Color Samples Everywhere, and You Still Have White Walls? Part 1

Decorati is excited to introduce our newest guest blogger, Portland, Oregon Interior Designer,  Pangaea. Keep reading to learn helpful tips on how to finally select a paint color…and love it!

Are you nearly buried alive under a mountain of those tiny sample paint chips from your local paint store and still staring at white walls? Been trying to decide colors for … oh, … six years? Have you painted a room only to end up horrified at the result? If this sounds like you, hiring an Interior Designer to help you with your paint color choices can be just the ticket! So, here are my tips and tricks for getting the most from a professional paint color consultation. (more…)

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