Pretty Chinoiserie Furniture from Guild Master

Going to trade show requires tons of stamina, let us tell you. You usually walk floor after floor of showrooms, and because you don't want to miss everything, you try to stop at almost every single one of them.

Until your eyes glaze over and everything starts to look the same...

At any rate, we saw this line toward the end of our trip at High Point. Although we were dead tired, it caught our eyes and we thought we show it to you. It's Asian and rattan, two things that we normally don't like, but these are done very well.

Here are some examples from the line.

The items run between $1200/per pair for chair to $1800/per pair for barstools. Not too bad for very high quality stuff!

For more information on the line, visit the GuildMaster web site. The site is for the trade only, but it has contact information so that you can be directed to a dealer nearby.

Creating Your Own Destiny...

The LA Times has an article today on The Satorialist, a fashion blog. Although it has nothing to do with decorating, we thought you might want to check it out. The blog is about fashion, worn by real people on the street. It is full of great photographs of real people, occasionally accompanied by background stories.

What is most interesting to us, though, is how a unique yet simple concept-when done with passion- can be so successful. The blog founder started his blog in 2005, simply by taking pictures of people on the street who put clothes together creatively. It is now one of the most 50 popular blogs in the world. If you read the blog, you'll see how unbelievably simple it is.

We love stories like that! While everyday we hear about people being out of work, getting laid off, or mainly just surviving, here is a case that shows us that we can create our own destiny and make our path in life.

To read more about this great story, click here.

Lessons from a Home Stager

The New York Times Magazine has a great article about staging a home today. Eventhough the article is about staging for selling purpose, there are some great tips that you can pick up for your daily life as well...

For example:

1) Start with a white sofa and go from there, as you can change the look quickly by changing the pillows.

2) Have a story, or a theme, and build from there.

3) Do and reedo until it's right.

4) Avoid matchy matchy.

5) Build characters and personality by adding pieces that reflect your lifestyles.

To read this article and watch the video, click here.



Image source: NY Times

Gorgeous Silk Flowers from New Growth Designs

When it comes to silk flowers we like them to look as real as possible--this is why you'll never find us buying them at Walmart!

The good ones are pricey, for the very simple reason that they tend to look almost like the real ones.

We found some at New Growth Designs that we just love. The orchids are nice and tall, so they look super dramatic. Some of them are over 5 feet tall. We like putting them on a console table, in front of a mirror along with some other accessories.

Check out some of our favorite ones:






We'll be posting these on our silk flowers section soon.

Really Pretty Silk Flowers from Atrium Foliage

When the weather starts to get cold and gloomy, we find ourselves craving for colors. That's when we find silk flowers an attractive option--mainly for the fact that it's almost impossible to find fresh flowers in the winter, plus we're super lazy, and silk flowers require no maintenance whatsoever...

Here are some from Atrium Foliage that we really like. Based out of Atlanta, they make the flowers to order, one arrangement at a time... We like them because they look and feel expensive (and okay, they ARE a little expensive, but worth every pennies though).









We'll be posting these on our silk flowers section in a couple of days. Please check back with us to see the complete collection.

More Modern Vintage Furniture-Haute House

We featured Haute House furniture a while back. This line is kinda wild, kinda funky. It's great when you have great imagination and you are looking for statement pieces.

When in High Point last week we saw that they had a new collection called "Histography" that we thought was kinda cool. It is also much more livable and muted than their other pieces.

Here are some samples:







To see the entire Haute House line, check out their web site here. As always, if you need help with pricing, email us.

Modern Vintage from Noir

We were just in High Point last week for the home furnishings market. The weather was gloomy and cold--so was the mood of the market. This gotta be one of the toughest year for the home furnishing industry. Everyone we talked seem to have a rough time.

But it was nice to see that manufacturers are still coming out with new and fresh introductions. The trend we notice most this year is vintage done in a modern way. Maybe it's because we like to go back to comfortable things when time is tough. Generally the trend is muted, simple and organic.

Noir Trading has a few pieces that we just love. We wrote about them before but we are featuring them again due to the fact that this is a line that keeps getting better everyday. If you love Oly Studio, take a look at this line. It's very similiar but way more affordable.

Here are a few of our faves:











If you would like to see more of Noir products, visit their web site here. If you need pricing for any of the pieces, drop us a line...