More fun with tennis balls

I love the confused look on that dog's face. I imagine he's pondering, chew toy or beddy..it could be a chewy pet bed?!!. I don't know if this dog bed would be comfortable, but it sure is a creative way to recycle old tennis balls.

Own a piece of a ‘Real’ Broke New Jersey housewife

I thought VH1 was scraping the bottom of the reality show barrel (Rock of Love, Charm School…oh you know you watch). Then the Bravo channel said, “Step aside amateurs we’ll up your trashy and throw in some table flipping” and we got the Real Housewives of New Jersey.
If you don’t watch the show, it’s about some NJ hags who spend money like water, fight like rabid bikers and come up with new ways to destroy the English language.
Anyway Real Housewife Teresa Giudice and her juicy husband Joe owe various creditors around $11 million and are selling their marble and onyx palace and all their fancy furniture at a classy foreclosure auction.
Turns out that money doesn’t buy class but it can buy a ton of ugly furniture.

Furniture design reacts to changing fashions

Interior design, like fashion, is always changing. Styles, materials, furnishings and decor follow trends and seasons. Good interior design should provide flexibility, allowing a home or business owner to remain current in its aesthetic. Interiors expert Elaine Williamson of Elaine Williamson Designs offers this glimpse of what’s currently trending in the design and décor-scape:

Saving the base: For the past few decades, designers have purchased furniture that served one particular style purpose for a specific room. This meant that, as soon as the property owner or manager decided to redecorate a space, all new base furnishings had to be purchased. Lately, however, it’s become popular among designers to purchase a quality piece of furniture that has desirable, style transcendent “bones” with the intent to reupholster it as fashions change, rather than simply discarding it when it’s time to update the look of a room. This trend has resulted in an increase in purchases from domestically-based manufacturers that make quality furnishings built to last.

Dodge disposable decor. Designers are no longer purchasing one-time use “disposable” decor items, be it furniture, rugs, window treatments and decorative items. Instead, they consider a piece’s re-usability in another future design when considering a purchase. This is the most efficient and cost-effective way to make over a room.
Color craze: The world of color has undergone a makeover also, with yellow and gray leading the way. Together, these colors add a level of calm to the feel of a room, while still adding eye-catching pops of color. Gray works well as a base color on upholstered furniture, especially when coupled with another hot trend: espresso-stained wood. Yellow is best used in small bursts, serves as an impactful infusion of excitement in the room. For instance, a yellow throw pillow on a gray sofa can make a stellar statement.

See the Light: Lighting is currently making a huge push in the marketplace. As the design of table lamps have waned and the style of homes have begun to embrace cleaner lines, pendant and other types of overhead lighting are popular choices for making a major design statement. Beautiful materials, special shapes and versatile sizes are all important.
Ground Control: Natural wood floors are also making a major comeback, and other types of types of natural flooring such as travertine, limestone and honed marbles are in high demand. Recyclable flooring, either in wood or carpet, is also in fashion. Currently, consumers are investing in and embracing their home environment.

Simple swaps mean big impact. If you’re searching for a new look for a room, you can build on the baseline furnishings already installed and switch out accessories, including pillows, picture frames, vases, candles, statues, artwork and other portable items. “Interior design and décor trends change with every season,” Elaine notes, “But, with a strategic foundation of baseline elements like furniture and flooring, you can easily keep up with the trends without sacrificing essential style elements of the space.”

Can’t outgrow this table

Kids outgrow shoes, clothes and toys but not this table—it grows as they do.
Austrian furniture maker Perludi designed Caspar, an ergonomic, environmentally friendly children’s table. The design is simple: Four colorful legs are placed into the four holes in the hand-crafted solid-wood tabletop and secured at the desired height with o-rings made from natural rubber. To adjust the top’s height and inclination, or to balance out an uneven floor, slide the infinitely adjustable legs up or down individually within their holes.
The Caspar is made from locally grown spruce wood.

My kind of ‘eye candy’

Rowe Fine Furniture created the world’s most delicious custom candy chair for the April High Point Market. This sweet seat is covered in hundreds of pieces of chocolates, gumballs, Life Savers, Tootsie Rolls, orange, lemon and lime candy slices, jelly beans, Starbursts, peppermints, candy buttons and giant lollipops—just to name a few.
This gives new meaning to please don’t touch the furniture.

Something old, something new

Sotherby’s is featuring a cutting-edge, contemporary exhibition on the spectacular grounds of Sudeley Castle (across the pond) from May 28 to August 1, 2010. However at this exhibition you can touch and buy the art.
The selling exhibition arranged in association with Carpenters Workshop Gallery, is showcasing a series of one-off and limited edition pieces by contemporary artists and designers. The exhibition follows in the footsteps of previous successful outdoor shows by Sotheby’s at Chatsworth House in
Derbyshire (Sotheby’s Beyond Limits sculpture exhibitions at Chatsworth are now in their fifth year), and also at Isleworth in Florida since 2003. In contrast to Beyond Limits, which focuses on monumental sculpture, the Sudeley exhibition presents design pieces with a utilitarian aspect.
The works can be used as functional lifestyle objects or simply appreciated as works of art with profound aesthetic appeal.

That lovely draft is coming from your chair

Airport time is a great opportunity to try everything on the Starbucks menu, people watch and try to guess the funny smell.
However, Mineta San Jose International Airport has unleashed new chairs in its new Terminal B that may make your next “extended stay” a little more tolerable. These snazzy new chairs, Zenky Air Chairs secretly double as a ventilation system (not sure how I feel about that). The chairs are designed to hide the concourse vents, and provide fresh air from below each seat (riiiiight). The Air Chairs also have power outlets in the armrests for all your charging needs.
Right now the Zenky Air chair is only available in Terminal B at the San Jose airport.