Seattle Homes & Lifestyles Blog

Inform Interiors 10th Anniversary

Bravo to Inform Interiors! For the past 10 years, the showroom has consistently raised the bar for contemporary furniture and design in the city—and that certainly calls for celebration! Just going to the showroom is inspiring, so join us this Thursday for a cocktail reception at their South Lake Union showroom (2032 Eighth Ave., 206-622-1608), 5:30–8 p.m. See new products from Poltrona Frau, Poliform and Cassina—plus Moooi’s "Brave New World" lamp, which we featured in our July/August issue and was just featured in The New York Times.

See you Thursday!

Add comment November 10th, 2009

Knoll Showroom Grand Opening

Recently, Knoll Seattle opened their new showroom—high above the city in a gorgeous suite—and we were there to celebrate the occasion. As well as showcasing the classics (the Bertoia Diamond Chair, for example), this space displayed their sleek office systems and the new Generation desk chairs, which won a gold award from Best of NeoCon 2009. Learn more about the chairs, and even design your own, at sithowyouwant.com.

Lobby entry

Lobby seating area, showing some of the Knoll Textile Collection,
and the famous Barcelona Chair designed by Mies van der Rohe

Chair superstars

Office system

New monitor stand designed by Richard Sapper

Some shots of the party:

3 comments August 18th, 2009

One Day Sale at Third and Wall Art Group

Don’t miss the orange tag art event sale this Friday at Third and Wall Art Group (208 Westlake Ave N., (206) 443-8459). Their sale on contemporary artwork coincides with the South Lake Union Block Party, which starts at 12 p.m. and goes until 11 p.m. Both events should be fabulous, so get out and enjoy some fun in the city!

Add comment August 4th, 2009

Design Notes

Get 20% off upholstered furniture from Gus Modern, maker of cool, urban furniture and accessories, at Capitol Hill’s Area 51 (401 East Pine Street, (206) 568-4782). 

Summer clearance sale going on now at Roche Bobois (1015 Western Ave., (206) 332-9744).

Ballard’s 44th annual Sidewalk Sale starts this Thursday and goes through the weekend.

Free electronics recycling dropoff at Ecohaus (4121 1st Ave. S., (877) 432-6428) on July 29th.

Going on now through September, "The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest - Striking exhibition of ‘beautiful necessities,’" at the MOHAI (2700 24th Ave E., (206) 324-1125).

1 comment July 21st, 2009

Did you Know? Craft Classes at Venue in Ballard

Handmade goods are all the rage these days, but we’re lucky if we are able to get a loose button sewn back on a shirt. Luckily, Venue (5408 22nd Ave NW, (206) 789-3335) will show us the techiniques to create cool crafts through their series of classes on everything from felting to bookbinding. Check them out!

Add comment April 10th, 2009

HGTV’s Kenneth Brown Shares Design Tips

Celebrity interior designer Kenneth Brown spoke to an eager crowd of designers and design-lovers at Saturday’s "Eye on Design" consumer event at Seattle Design Center. While going through a slideshow of projects he worked on for HGTV’s reDesign and for his own eponymous firm, he entertained the audience with behind-the-scene stories and practical design advice. 

Photograph by Sara Coe, courtesy of Seattle Design Center

A staunch defender of his field, Brown first argued that homeowners should hire designers for their knowledge and design skills. A good designer will stay in his or her budget and deliver what you want the first time, Brown says. He added that if homeowners attempt DIY-remodeling or
-redecorating, what they would have paid a designer will be spent in making mistakes or buying unwanted things. 

Other specific tips and tricks of the trade:

• When looking for an interior designer, interview more than one. Pay attention to who talks more in the interview—you or the designer. The designer should be the one listening to your needs and vision. 
• Bigger is not always better; when thinking about building spaces, know that smaller rooms and house can be cozier and lend themselves to have a bigger design impact. 
• Make sure you know what you really want. When you say you want a "modern, bathlike spa," what does that mean? Does it mean dark walls or light walls? A big tub? No tub?
• Don’t get stuck on "following the rules": Why does everyone think that wall-to-wall mirrors are necessary in bathrooms? Think outside the box and you might find a solution that is creative and unique.
• If you want your bedroom to be like a luxurious hotel room, think about installing wall-to-wall draperies. It creates a cocoonlike feel in any room.
• Think about how you use all the spaces in your home; in one project, Brown installed shelves in a hallway for the family to place rotating framed art and photographs.
• A kitchen remodel is like a cosine—it will be increasingly exciting and then increasingly frustrating, and then exciting again. 
• Good design can happen on any budget if you do the design right. 
• Never pick out your paint in the hardware store under fluorescent lights. Take a piece of white paper and poke a hole in it; look at only one color through that hole in natural light and in the light in your home. 
• Have a design plan and stick to it. You can’t judge a project before it’s finished—trust that the original plan will look great in the end even if it scares you now. 
• If you are going to go ahead with a project without an interior designer, make sure you can see everything fresh. Brown advises that homeowners move all the furniture out of a room, take a picture of the empty room and then make a plan.
• Layer the lighting in a room. Know that even art lighting can serve as a good layer—it bounces light off of the art and into the room. 
• Art can create a vista for a room, like a window, especially art with a horizon line. 
• Another great way to get art in your home is to buy a large canvas, tape off sections and use remnant paint from hardware stores to create your own abstract art. 
• Brown also likes to buy books with beautiful illustrations, like Audubon’s Birds of America, and then frame the art. 
• If you’re building a house, remember to budget money in for the furniture after the structure. 
• Brown believes in the principles of feng shui: "It just creates a nice flow," he says.
• Think of the six degrees of separation phenomenon when trying to get a room to work together. For example, the rug doesn’t have to match the window draperies as long as the rug connects to the sofa, and the sofa connects to the lamp shades, and the lampshades connect to the window draperies.

It turns out that the Seattle visit wasn’t only inspiring to the audience at Eye on Design; Brown find many inspirations of his own in Seattle. Check out his blog to read what he thought about the doors in Susan Mills’ showroom and the Seattle landscape.

1 comment April 22nd, 2008

Angela Adams at Design Within Reach

Undoubtedly, you’ve drooled over her work in national and international design magazines. Now get prepared to meet the icon in person: designer Angela Adams. Join the artist on April 30, 2008 at Seattle’s Design Within Reach for a presentation about her personal story, her work, and the sources of her inspiration. Six new rug designs will be added to the store, including Grace, Islands, Fern, Birch, Ocean and Stone. Don’t miss this chance to meet a world-renowned industry figure, and perhaps come away with some inspirations of your own.

Wednesday, April 30, 6-8pm
DWR Studio
1918 First Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
Phone: 206.443.9900
RSVP to seattle@dwr.com

P.S. If you can’t make it the store, snap up one of Adams’ designs online, and if you act quickly, DWR is offering free standard shipping on all orders through April 22!

Here are the new additions:

Birch                             Ocean                     Islands

Fern                       Grace                                   Stone

Add comment April 16th, 2008