shiner + another giveaway

a newcomer to the design industry debuted their totally fab, “eco-friendly” lighting line at the atlanta market.  i was fortunate to get to spend a lot of time looking at this new line and talking about the company with the owner since i was working at the booth across from him.  the lighting and furniture line has a very industrial feel to it.

shiner, the brainchild of joe manus, was designed entirely by joe himself.  at first glance you may not recognize the materials used in the modern lighting and furniture.  a closer look and you’ll see that a lot of the lighting is made out of cardboard and styrofoam.  shiner uses a machine that cuts all of the shapes out but instead of throwing away the wasted pieces they make smaller pendants from them.  each pendant comes in a large and small size.  this way there is minimal waste.  other lighting is made from wood veneer and drop cuts (wood that’s otherwise destined for landfills once it is cut down from larger pieces in a factory).

the furniture is made mostly out of stacked plywood and drop cuts.  the plywood furniture is turned on the cutting machine so that almost every last little bit of plywood is used.

you would not believe the amount of designers and retail shop owners that bombarded the booth during the show.  everyone was just as amazed as i was at how beautiful cardboard and styrofoam could be. 

late in the day on saturday shiner was awarded the “best in show” award, which is a huge deal, for their awesome booth.  joe not only designed the whole furniture and lighting line but he also designed the booth itself.  he was so excited that he won “best in show” at his very first show.

i think that we’ll be seeing much more of shiner in the design world after watching the buzz that surrounded them at the show.  congrats on your success shiner!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVEAWAY!!!!!

{this giveaway is now closed}

the giveaway will be one of the shiner small square pendants.  it would be perfect in a small bath, entry or even a bedroom.  its valued at $150.  the dimensions of the pendant are 13”x13”x13”.

to enter the giveaway leave a comment on this post with the words “SHINE ON.” make sure to include your name and also an email so that i can get in touch with you if you win (if you are on blogger then i can locate you through your profile).  this giveaway is only open to people in the continental US.  the giveaway will close at 12 noon on sunday, january 16th.  i’ll announce the winner the following monday, january 17th. 

once again, i still haven’t figured out what’s wrong with my comment box so if you are having problems commenting on this post please email me at charmhomedesign@gmail.com and i’ll manually enter your comment for you.  sorry if you are having trouble.  if anyone out there knows how to fix this i would greatly appreciate the help. :o)

{this giveaway is now closed}

GOOD LUCK!!!

LiveJournal Tags: shiner,atlanta market,giveaway,lighting,furniture

baby-mo

last week when i was freezing my little tush off i did this post about the throws i had seen in the february 2010 issue of house beautiful.

house beautiful

while i was walking the high design floor at the atlanta market my eye caught some throws that looked to be identical to the one’s featured in house beautiful.  i started up a conversation with the owner of the baby-mo booth and sure enough, these were the throws.  she was so excited that i had seen the feature because she hadn’t even seen it yet.  it’s not out on newsstands yet.  i told her i would make a copy of it to bring in to her and i brought it to her the following day. 

these truly are amazingly soft throws.  it feels like you are touching a cloud when you touch them.  they are made of mohair from kid angora goats in the angora region of turkey.  the goats are not harmed in any way when their fur is taken.  because it’s from the baby goats it’s extra-extra soft.  then it’s died and woven into beautiful shawls, scarves, blankets and pillows.

if you want to try to find one for yourself you can click here to go to the store locator on the baby-mo website. 

LiveJournal Tags: throws,baby-mo,atlanta market

wonderful wunderley

i was at the atlanta home and gifts market over the weekend along with thousands of other designers and retailers.  i helped out the lovely people at wunderley by working at their temporary booth in high design on friday and saturday.  i was surrounded by so many beautiful pieces of handmade furniture and lighting.  if you aren’t familiar with wunderley, they are importers of syrian and morocan furniture, art and lighting.  you can view their website here.  all of their pieces are handcrafted and they have some of the most beautiful mother of pearl inlaid furniture and mirrors that i’ve ever seen.  they sell to the trade and are wonderful to work with.

the entryway to the booth was so stunning.  most everyone that walked past made mention of the beaded chandelier hanging at the entry as well as the 80 year old vintage syrian mirror hanging directly behind it.

here’s a close up.

they have taken their line for this year in a more modern direction.  they added many silver lighting pieces to the collection.  the response was overwhelmingly positive.  the stark white booth really made the chandeliers stand out too.

does the white punched tin lighting shown below look familiar to you?

if it does, it’s probably because you saw it featured in the december 2009 issue of elle decor in their “what’s hot” article.

 elle decor

here are a few of the mother of pearl, inlaid furniture pieces.  you can also spot some authentic ikat pillows on a moroccan bench in the background of the first pic.

this year wunderley has branched out and is taking on a new venture.  they have decided to start carrying an all natural olive oil soap line.  the soap is made in syria by way of an ancient process using mainly olive oil and laurel oil.  i used the soap this weekend and i LOVE it.  i had never used any kind of all natural soap before, but my dry skin really soaked it up.  i'm looking forward to seeing how well my skin responds after a few weeks of using it.

i had such a great time getting to know everyone from wunderley as well as seeing all of my other vendors.  i’ll be posting more on the show throughout the week.  there will also be another awesome giveaway thanks to an amazing new atlanta lighting vendor.  stay tuned.  it’s a good one. 

i hope your week gets off to a great start!

LiveJournal Tags: wunderly,syrian,syria,moroccan,mother of pearl,inlaid furniture,lighting,atlanta,ikat,olive oil soap

loving…

wow, i just realized that because of the holidays it’s been 3 weeks since i did a “loving…” post.

i hope that everyone’s first week of 2010 got off to a good start.  mine definitely did.  i got a new client; an old one asked me to put a proposal together for designing a home that is part of her new business venture; i got to see a little bit of snow and i got started on decorating my own guest bedroom room. 

now, onto my list…

1. this beautiful suzani coffee table from viva terra.  and it’s on sale for $355, previously $895. 

2. these clear glass pendants from roost.

3.  these felted pebbles from reyart on etsy.  aren’t they cute!

4.  this farrah indoor/outdoor rug from ballard designs.

5.  this adorable before and after pic of a night stand turned play kitchen featured on better after blog.  go to better after to see the before.  you won’t believe the difference.

try to stay warm this weekend.  i’ll be inside the americasmart all weekend at atlanta market.  see you back on monday.

LiveJournal Tags: suzani,viva terra,roost,reyart,etsy,ballard design,farrah rug,better after,AmericasMart

finding fabrics

i was at lewis and sheron fabrics on tuesday and saw this beautiful linen trellis fabric.  take a look and see what you think.  at $25 a yard i think it’s a steal.  they would make beautiful panels.

sandstone,  sky, sprout & graphite

i also came across this fabric.  look familiar. 

here, let me jog your memory. 

it’s on the front of the ballard catalog.  it retails in ballard by the yard for $24.00.  you can get it at lewis and sheron for $19.98

and i saw this fabric for $24.98,

but pottery barn has a duvet, pillows and panels already made for less than the cost of the fabric it would take to make them.  great deals.  i’ve told my mom to keep an eye on the duvet for her master. 

LiveJournal Tags: lewis and sheron textile company,trellis fabric,ballard design

freezing

for the past few days the temperature in atlanta, ga has been insanely cold!  i know i’m a wuss when it comes to the cold weather, but it really has been freezing and windy which makes it even worse.  the sun has been shining so brightly so it looks like the weather should be beautiful outside.  then you walk out the door and cold air slaps you in the face.  i don’t think i would ever be able to live in a place where the weather was like this most of the winter.  i just saw on the news that its supposed to be 14 degrees on saturday night.  craziness. 

my new house beautiful came in the mail this weekend and i got a chance to open it up today.  one of the first pages showed some beautiful throws.  i think these throws are quite possibly the most comfy looking throws i have ever seen.  i really, really want one to curl up with on this freezing january night.  you can get them here.  i’ll probably have to wait a while since they have a $295 price tag.  i guess my target throw will have to do for the rest of this winter.

house beautiful

LiveJournal Tags: throw,comina,house beautiful

new year’s resolution

decorate my home!!!!!!!

i hope that your new year has gotten off to a fabulous start.  billy and i spent so much time with friends over the break.  it was a blast.  we got to see so many of our friends that i haven’t seen in a long time.  2010 is off to a great start.

a picture of billy and me at our friend’s new years eve party

numero uno on my new year’s resolution list this year is decorating my home.  after 2 years on the market and no offers we reluctantly decided to take our place off the market and stick it out for a couple more years.  i bought a two bedroom/one bath condo about 3 months before billy and i started dating.  i loved it…the location, the charm of the community, that it was mine.  unfortunately i was pretty short on money when i moved in so i never really designed it.  then i put it on the market right after billy and i got engaged and didn’t want to put any money into a place that we were about to sell.  when billy moved in we discovered how small my place was.  we are on top of each other all the time, and having one tiny bathroom is the pits.  my closets of course shrunk by 2/3 when he moved in because i gave him one of them and we put a stackable washer and dryer in the other.  we’ve done well with what we have but our beds are stuffed full underneath, and all of our closets are overflowing.  oh, and did i mention i also work out of my house.  wallpaper books, fabric books and vendor catalogs are everywhere!  so, since our real estate agent has basically told us our home isn’t going to sell unless we drop the price (…and we can’t afford to drop it as much as she wants), we have decided to stay here live here for a while longer and take it off the market. 

back to new year’s resolution #1: decorate my house!  i can’t bear the thought of being here for two or so more years unless this house gets a major overhaul, including adding a lot of extra storage.  unfortunately functionality is having to come first and i’ll be working on the storage issue before actually decorating.  my budget is also going to be very tight.  i have to get it done though.  i want a home that i’m proud of.  not one that i’m embarrassed to post photos of.  i’ve found that designers either have amazing homes or have homes that they have no time to design themselves.  unfortunately, i was the latter of the designers, but not anymore.  i’m determined to have my house decorated by the end of this year.  even if it takes all year.

i haven’t wasted any time getting started.  this weekend i went to ikea and bought some wardrobe units for the guest bedroom.  let me just say that i was floored at how many people were there.  it was a complete MADHOUSE!  i know ikea is crazy on the weekends so i typically avoid it, but i really wanted to get started.  they were having a massive sale too (hence the crowds).  i purchased both wardrobe units and all of the accessories for them for about $175. the wardrobes themselves were originally priced at $90 a piece so i was thrilled with my purchase.  i have already put them together but still have a long way to go before the room is complete.  i am planning on doing something similar to what john and sherry did in their master pictured below.

young house love

as if one trip to the the insanely busy ikea wasn’t bad enough,  i ended up having to go to three times before getting the units put together.   trip one - the first time i picked up the wrong wardrobe in the self service aisle.  note to self: always check the sticker on the box and not just the bin marker number.  i sat in a horribly long line only to find out that i had picked up the wrong color wardrobe unit.  i was going to be late for dinner so there was no turning back.  i had to abandon my purchase at the cashier’s desk.  trip two – billy and i headed to back this morning to pick up the right units.  we got there early enough to beat the crowds, made our purchase and were on our way.  i thought we were in the clear at this point.  then, trip three – one of the parts broke while i was putting the first unit together.  all i could think to myself was “not another trip!”  the part was pretty unique, and i knew i wouldn’t be able to find it at a hardware store.  i ended up returning to the return counter to retrieve additional parts.  i spent more time in ikea this weekend than in all of the past years combined.  i guess it was worth it because we already have so much more storage.  i’m excited and so is billy. 

i’ll make sure i post b&a’s once i get the room done.  don’t hold your breath for the photos though.  it could be a while before i can complete it.  i’ve got a busy month in January.

have you already started tackling your new year’s resolutions?  i really hope that you are able to accomplish all that’s on your list.  by the way, i’d love to hear your #1 new year’s resolution. 

happy monday!

LiveJournal Tags: new years,ikea,my home,wardrobe,guest bedroom,young house love,new year's resolution,billy