I leave you with the grand salon of globe-trotting, art-collecting, adventure-seeking Mrs. Tependris. Created by artist Konstantin Kakanias, she's the stylish illustrated character who searches for enlightenment.


This opulent room represents her past. Notice the walls painted -- or papered -- with a chinoiserie motif? The animal prints and the masses of Asian vases? Most of all I love how Kakanias has interpreted the numerous French chairs as almost abstract little blips of color.

All images above from Mrs. Tependris: The Contemporary Years: The Adventures of An Art Collector.

These pieces of furniture which aren’t practical shelving space, are called Dust Furniture and are designed by craft artist Vincent Thomas Leman. Vincent’s work has been described as ‘abstract traditional furniture.’ Each piece is essentially a traditional piece of furniture that is stretched, curved, stacked and stepped to fit his design intentions. While wood is the material employed to make his furniture, Vincent considers his actual medium to be ‘traditional furniture.’ The classical root of each piece helps maintain its identity as furniture and keeps the work familiar and approachable despite the unusual shapes. Environmental integrity is also very important to Dust Furniture.

They take care to use biodegradable packing peanuts during the packaging process, to avoid adding to the landfills. They also use waterborne urethane to coat the furniture, which is a gentle, high quality alternative to some very strong chemicals. One of their mottos is “We like to think that we’re changing the world… one piece of fun, American handcrafted furniture at a time.” Finnaly I don’t think that to many people would buy a piece of furniture like this, but at least you saw an interesting piece of furniture today. If you would like to buy a piece of furniture like this you can visit Dustfurniture or Vincent Etsy Shop - Via

Post from: Interior Design, Home & House Design, Furniture

Are you frustrated by the limited color options out there for kitchen appliances? Not into stainless steel, white or black? Join the club. Reader Denise wrote to me, asking for some advice:
To help tackle Denise's appliance quandary, I brought in the help of the very talented and knowledgeable kitchen designer, Susan Serra, author of the blog The Kitchen Designer.
Take it away Susan!

Colored Appliances, it's all the rage now. Color is in our lives as never before, and has entered our kitchens, often with gusto! And, why not? We are loving our strong, pro, appliances and often want to showcase them in an equally strong way, or, for that matter, in a whimsical way. The rules for blending and matching color have been continually redefined, and not by the "experts" but by you. Individual expression now trumps "safe!"
Appliance manufacturers have gone color-crazy! We have purples, we have bronzes, many colors of blue and on and on.
I consider Viking to be a leader of color appliances, going back quite a few years now. Viking has only expanded their colors for their appliances year after year.
Aga, always into color, brought in a soft purple, called heather.
note: AGA discontinued the yellow and royal blue and added pillar box red which does not appear on their site
And one sees lots of color in retro appliances, such as the very cool Big Chill line of appliances. I'm not a retro fan, but this line is awesome.

And, talk about color? What about Blue Star? Sit down for this one...190 colors!

It's all good. Or, is it?

Of course, the appliance manufacturers would just love for you to buy a whole suite of appliances in the color of your choice. And, so, one will see this concept in manufacturer's advertising. But, wait, what happens if, down the road, one appliance needs to be replaced and that color is no longer available? Something to think about, to plan for.

Or, another elegant way to incorporate color, short of an entire suite of color, is to choose one appliance, perhaps the range, which may be situated as a focal point, and select a color that will be picked up elsewhere in the kitchen. Thus, the color is isolated, yet, significant. Yet, another idea is to have an appliance painted locally, via a special process just for appliances.
As the color story for 2008 moves toward nature, such as greens and blues, even elegant shades such as our old friends, black and white, take care not to follow trends solely because the colors look fresh and new. Appliances are not pillows...they may last you decades!

Here's my advice...follow your heart, keeping one foot solidly on the ground.

Added thanks to Danielle from Canton Kitchens for additional picture links

Works by artist Hang Nguyen.