Here comes the inevitable comparison or should we say inclusive list? As consummate daily shoppers of home décor, we at studiobstyle know a thing or two about fresh design and forward trend. Here’s where we recommend for a quick in-storeDashboard purchases:
For Area Rugs
West Elm wins hands down. Their patterns and colors outshine any other retailer, but we have been known to pull out a gem or two at TJMaxx Homegoods. The unfortunate situation with West Elm, however, is that they do not always have their rugs in stock.
Another good rug resource is IKEA. We’ve found special larger-sized options right off the floor there. Their stock is easy to check online, so you can find out if it’s in store locally.
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It’s that time of year when everyone in the northern half of the U.S. services their hoses and sprinkler systems. I’m no different, and while I was researching a lower flow sprinkler head I came across two products that help you save water and more effectively treat your lawn. Green products to make your grass green!
The Hunter MP Rotator
Hunter’s smart spray head uses 30% less water than traditional sprays because of its multi-trajectory rotating stream. Most systems spray water onto landscapes and there is waste in runoff.
MP Rotators deliver multiple streams of water at a slow steady rate allowing the water to gently soak into the soil. The MP Rotator can be installed onto any conventional spray head body or shrub adapter. For more information about…
Love the warmth and simplicity of the Farmhouse style? You can add elements to your everyday kitchen to bring that comfortable homeyness to your existing space. Here are few ideas for blending the Farmhouse Style into your kitchen today.
1) Change out your pendant lights to the schoolhouse or industrial looking style readily available at Home Depot, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. Look for simple shapes with more of a barn or vintage industrial feel.
2) Add a wooden surface to your counter top area. One of the easiest ways to add that old worn feel to a space is to look for a worn breadboard for one of your counter tops. Rummage through antique stores for an old surface and clean thoroughly before use. Wooden…
Here comes the inevitable comparison or should we say inclusive list? As consummate daily shoppers of home décor, we at studiobstyle know a thing or two about fresh design and forward trend. Here’s where we recommend for a quick in-store purchases:
For Curtains and Curtain Rods
JCPenney because they have an enormous selection in stock. Yes, you heard it here first – we’ve shopped this department for over a decade, and that’s because we always know that we’ll find what we need on the first try at a excellent price point.
Our second favorite is Restoration Hardware because of their superb linen and velvet drapes. We must have used the pale blue velvet drapes over half a dozen times in various projects. Their hardware really…
Want to stay in a hotel that feels like home? We stayed at the Public Hotel last week and here’s how the newly renovated hotel design feels like a residential space:
Rooms with a view
Both Rachel and I looked out onto the cityscape where trees and rooftops filled our windows. The view can enhance any room and we know that window placement is key to successful design. This particular hotel already had big windows to take in the surrounding neighborhood.
A place to rest
Our rooms had a chair at the end of the bed and a full seating area out in the adjacent space. The sofas and chairs had down cushions so that when you came to rest, you didn’t…
One of the top trends from the 2012 KBIS show was new laminate edging. Thanks to the IdealEdge line that Formica has just introduced, laminate is becoming more popular than ever. The IdealEdge line has two new finished edges that can be specified when ordering your laminate.
The two new profiles are the ogee and the bull nose edge. The ogee edge is perfect for more traditional rooms, whereas the bull nose edge is designed for more transitional and modern kitchens, bathrooms or laundry areas.
We are excited to use these new edges with our designs because they add a more personal finishing touch to the counter. With the new laminate patterns that look like stone, these new counter tops will really enhance our projects and give great…
As Rachel Lupton, bstyle Interior Designer, and I walked this year’s Kitchen and Bath Industry Show floor, we noticed a more positive audience. There were “New” signs everywhere, meaning the manufacturers had been at work designing new products. There was an excitement in the air and a lot of positive energy.
Here are some of the product trends:
1) Black Faucets
Matte black faucets were in just about every faucet manufacturer’s booth. We noticed one designer that may have influenced the trend; Jason Wu had designed a special line for Brizo. We saw new black faucets at Delta and Kohler; and we know that American Standard is coming out with a matte black line as well.
2) Low-Flow Technologies
Every plumbing manufacturer has their…
This week studiobstyle started designing several kitchens. Except for a few, nearly all of them are using new laminate colors.
When using laminate of any kind, the manufacturer suggests to top mount or drop in the sink. This is because laminate seams are water resistant, but not waterproof. Using the sink means a lot of water splashing down near the edge where the sink and counter meet, so it’s a good idea to keep exposed laminate seams on the outer counter edge.
For our under-mount applications, we are using a Formica solid surface and stone counter tops. These surfaces will give us the waterproof edge we need around the sink area.
The most popular solution is the under mount application. Consumers speak of the ease in cleaning and the…
Apparently the Butterfly Chair, so popular in the 1950s, was actually born nearly a century before by Joseph Beverly Fenby, a British engineer in 1877. The Tripolina chair, patented by Fenby, was a battlefield favorite because it provided comfortable seating and folded up for easy transport.
Even this chair may have been an iteration of chairs of an earlier era. Bruce Hannah, a chair designer and professor of industrial design at the Pratt Institute, said that a different version of the chair – the Hardoy – was “hundreds of years old.”
So our idea that the Butterfly Chair was created during the mid-century is really incorrect. It was mass-produced in the 1950s, when over five million copies were made, but it was really born much earlier. Knoll had acquired…
bstylehome just redesigned an entryway in a contemporary home. The original storage structure was made out of melamine open shelves. Sliding wire baskets were placed within the shelves, so the entire storage system and the stored items were open to view.
To redesign the entryway, we enclosed a closet area using maple woodwork that matched the rest of the home. The closet contains three areas for storage. The top area is a double shelf that holds medium-sized clear bins for hats, gloves, and mittens.
The second area is a sturdy metal rod for hanging heavy coats. Lastly, the third area is a layered shoe shelf for boots and shoes at the bottom of the closet.
On the opposite side of the entryway, we’ve designed a custom bench with drawers…
