Archive for July, 2011

Well, West Elm’s Figured it Out

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

In the mid-priced budget, there’s less and less need for a professional designer when retailers like West Elm have nailed a look that reflects a well lived and traveled life.

Have you seen their latest catalogue?  It looks like they robbed Nathan Turner’s shop to be able to offer their latest items at such affordable prices.   Add that West Elm is at the forefront of pushing retail one step further to help sustainable products go mainstream as a growing number of their items are 100% green and there’s little reason go elsewhere.

For years I’ve been teaching designers and the public about eco-friendly and healthy resources.  Lately my push has been for awareness of the people who make the goods we buy.  West Elm’s latest partnership is with Aid to Artisans.  I’m terribly impressed that a huge retailer has realized a way to profit and create economic opportunities for artisan groups around the world.

 

This season they are focusing on All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association. The  Indian women’s yarn co-op creates one of a kind, hand loomed and hand woven pillow and throws without the use of any electricity.  Pieces from Stray Dog Designs can also be found at West Elm.  Stray Dog Designs has been an enormous part of pre and post Haitian Earthquake artisan commerce among a lengthy, charitable, corporate agenda .

With Certified 100% Organic Cotton textiles for bedding and bath, FSC certified furniture and accessories that are rapidly renewable, reclaimed or recycled, chic and totally within your budget, West Elm has NAILED IT.

Add the new collaboration with A-List Design partners like Allegra Hicks, Benjamin Moore and David Stark and it’s clear that West Elm has made the taste for champagne on a beer entirely possible.

I’m not saying you’ll be able to pass their furniture on to future generations, but clearly West Elm understands  a green, triple bottom line.  They’ve got great style and you can feel good (physically, socially, mentally) about what you buy from them.

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Oysters and Gowanus Canal

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

When I think of oysters,  glamorous appetizers, champagne and  the resulting amorous night ahead flood my mind.  When I think of urban canals, especially Gowanus in Brooklyn, I can literally smell the stench of sewage filled waterways.  In my experience dilapidated waterways and oysters are no match.  Good thing Kate Orff thought otherwise.

Gowanus Canal Brooklyn, New York

 America’s leader in upcycling industrial wastelands (think High Line Park), fabulous New York City is the breeding ground for one more brilliant idea.  Known as “oyster-tecture”, Kate Orff,  founder and partner of Scape/Landscape Architecture , paired oysters and the dirty canal like Felix and Oscar and consequently has one huge hit on her hands.  The problem: a polluted bay. The solution: Oyster thrive while simultaneously  filtering  the dirtiest of waterways.  In fact, one oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day.  Imagine what an entire farm could do. 

 

When Orff approached the locals and Port Authority with her plan to transform the canal into an oyster nursery, creating a clean and dynamic new form of ecological life, their response was, “why didn’t we think of this sooner?”

It’s the simple things (and solutions) in life that are sometimes the most worthwhile.  Savoring oysters from the Gulf Coast to France’s Atlantic, it’s nice to know they satiate my appetite for cleanliness too.

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Top Interior Designers Selected for Greystone Mansion Showcase

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

Getting ready to settle into a relaxing Fourth of July weekend, I kicked back and opened the latest issue of LUXE.   Then I saw it, my name in the  first, official ad for the Greystone Mansion Showcase House.  What a way to start the holiday!

LUXE Maison de Luxe has chosen over 20 top leading designers from all over the world to participate in this fall’s show house for the historic Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills.  You can imagine how excited I am to be included.  This event is one of the largest and most majestic show houses in the country and is sure to be awe-inspiring. 

 

Lori Dennis

HGTV and my show The Real Designing Women will be following the action, along with celebrity friends like Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, Nathan Turner and Mary McDonald from Bravo’s “Million Dollar Decorator.”

Any reputable showcase designer list would include the old gaurd and this one is no exception.  You’ll see legends like Hutton Wilkinson, Jamie Drake, Barry Dixon and Suzanne Rheinstein.

My Fabulous Friend Hutton Wilkinson

Colorful Jaime Drake

Lady Suzzane Rheinstein

Lord of the Manor Barry Dixon

 Built in 1928, this Baronial-style estate is over 46,000 square feet with 18.5 manicured acres of land.  It’s our city’s most famous palace and certainly rivals those of Rhode Island Coasts.

Show House Tour runs November 4-20, 2011 and Designer Lecture Series are November 4, 11 and 18.  For more information, Please visit www.beverlyhills.org/maisondeluxe.

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