I'm really diggin' the geometric scale and proportion of the Brooklyn Console Table by the Villiers Brothers. Its robust form is constructed out of hollow rectangular steel and its sleek finish comes in old penny bronze (shown above), gold leaf or mirrored stainless steel with glass, polished granite or limestone on top. Delish! I asked Harry Villiers what inspired its form.... He adds, "the Brooklyn Coffee Table was inspired by the simple geometric Greek Key which symbolises love, devotion and unity and is also associated with eternal life, all perfect ingredients for a piece of furniture that is often at the centre of a room."
The Brooklyn Console table came along after the successful launch of the coffee table and is also based on the same simple lines as the Greek Key design.
Snazzy polished punch to any room, mod glamour! You can connect with the Villiers Brothers on their WEBSITE, FACEBOOK & TWITTER.
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Where did I find my eyewear mojo...? Well, It all started at Super Saturday in the Hamptons...I came across SEEeyewear....HIP frames that make a statement. If you are wearing SEE eyewear, then you know it is special. Cool lines, unique shapes and stunning colors...all at affordable prices. They had great deals at Super Saturday...so I snapped up my frames and proceeded to have the prescription filled at their Soho location!
I am beaming and thrilled to participate inDIFFA's Picnic By Design 2013 summer event next week and to be among an amazing group of design industry leaders! What is also really exciting is Robert Allen's participation as a corporate sponsor and key participant... they graciously donated its immense fabric range of bold colors and on-trend designs to the designers who are participating. Fabrics are showcased and utilized in five of the designers picnic settings from top design firms like Tyler Wisler Home, Cheryl Umbles Interior Design, Clark Gaynor Interiors, and Domoore Designs. MoD Design Guru included! I fell in love with their Palmwood Jet fabric which is an indoor/outddor collection with bold geometrics and a soft natural motif. Perfect for my picnic setting. See it...
DwellStudio and Robert Allen fabrics, Palmwood in Jet and Mod Reeves in Steel
SculptorLianne Gold has always been passionate about glass. Inspired by the intricate details of 20th Century Italian glass masters, Gold's creative pulse charged her to create her own gorgeous glass collection... Her designs demonstrate strong, elegant and pure geometric forms with wonderful attention to material and detail, a homage to the Italian masters that have been her inspiration. Gold joined Ralph Pucci Internationaland you can see her creations at their New York showroom.
I love her sculptural sconce beauties called Ice...handcrafted luxury that combines oil rubbed bronze, and translucent sculpted glass that actually looks like frozen ice....brava! and the geometric metal corner details that hold the glass in place are really impeccable.
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Vertical Gardens are growing in Manhattan by Plantwall design! I met Marie- Christing Steffanetti of plantwall design at Wanted Design NYC and my eyes googled at the spectacular vertical green display. I had to learn more and see some of her other green creations...She later shared with me her gorgeous two-story garden creation in a West Village apartment building. Two-thousand plants with approximately 25 different plant species create a kaleidoscope of color!
A vertical garden is easy to build and request low maintenance according to Marie. Their patented invention consists of a hydroponic system that nurtures live plants specially positioned on a vertical wall.
Different variety of plants are able to be nourished and watered with an integrated customized automatic irrigation system. Amazing how the plants stay in place....they are securely hooked onto a designed fabric filled with pockets of soil.
Each positioned plant is like a brush-stroke to a painter. Its living, growing art!
You can connect with plantwalldesign on their WEBSITE andFACEBOOK
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I love this image ..... pure energy surrounding a Brizo faucet in the makingat the Delta-Brizo Plant in Jackson, Tennessee.
PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition)- creates anti-tarnish and abrasion finish called BRILLIANCE, patented by Delta.
The forces of heat emanating in this image is reminiscent of the high energy vibe felt while touring the Delta-Brizo plant....I mean it, every employee at the Brizo/Delta plant loves what they do and are devoted to making top quality products. You really feel the satisfaction of the people working there. Every detail is attended to with a smile....
As a part of Brizo's Blogger 19 Memphis experience, we were able to interface with the employees and see where the magic happens. They were excited we were there to see what they do and personally showed us how the faucets are constructed. I was shocked to learn that all the faucets are assembled and finished by hand with stringent quality assurance checks built into the technologies leaving minimal room for error. Impressive!
Test after test also happens along the production lines.... like a water and air pressure test to ensure that the faucet is working correctly. To top it all off, a final inspector inspects all the boxes before they are shipped out of the factory to ensure a 100% perfectly constructed faucet. The inspector will not acknowledge anyone speaking to them while they are at task. Shhh!
The Delta/Brizo plant is extraordinary as well as all the engineers, designers, product and marketing teams. A special group of people I have had the privilege to meet!
The Delta/Brizo plant brand strives to improve their products performance and the homeowner's experience. They truly research and study how people use their kitchen and their showers with video coverage. Yes, people actually volunteer to show Brizo how they shower. Would you do it? Their Smarttouchtechnology grew out of this research. The touch ON and OFF technology changes your interaction with water, designed with pure aesthetics, food safety and water conservation in mind. See the VINE:
We were also drooling over the new H20Kinetic shower system...prepare yourself for the feeling of more water....Their innovative technology creates an unique wave pattern which gives you the feeling of more water without using more water. Basically a plastic chip is built inside each of its four nozzles and deflects the water just like your thumb would when placed over the end of garden hose. The image below shows how the wave is coming out of the holes.
The water is sculpted into larger droplets and gives a more concentrated experience. One of the Delta/Brizo engineers told us that they studied rain droplets around various regions of the world and wanted to attain plump shower droplets which means more water-body contact...ultimately attaining a luxurious feeling shower.
See the Video to see the wave in motion:
But ofcourse, the all around experience can be achieved with up to six H2OKinetic body sprays in addition to the H20Kinetic showerhead.
We can't forget the tub experience.... Their new tub fillers for stand alone tubs are also beauties...very sculptural!
Brizo invited me to attend an all-expenses paid reunion in Memphis.
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Brizo Blogger 19 Alumni at St. Jude Children's Hospital
Brizo is a fashion forward faucet brand who believes in the power of dreams and realizes their dreams with beautiful and distinctive fashion for the home. Their biggest dream is their partnership with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in their combined fight to cure childhood cancer. With St. Jude, local contractors and leading manufacturers, Brizo has helped supply bath and kitchen faucets and accessories for several homes and in turn has given thousands a chance to win a new home in the St. Jude DreamHome Giveaway. The money raised has helped research and treatment efforts for St. Jude and helped countless children live out their dreams.
Brizo invited their #Blogger19 Alumni down to Memphis to reconnect, make new friends, learn about new Brizo products and tour St. Jude to see first hand the wonderful work and research St. Jude is doing. The experience is forever imprinted in my mind. I went with a very heavy heart to the St. Jude Children's Hospital but left feeling very uplifted.....the power of design combined with pioneering treatments and research is saving children's lives!
Scott Hamilton's Art room in the Target House
The best doctors, the best staff and the best researchers are at St Jude Children's Hospital. Their unique mission ..."is to find cures for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases through research and treatment. And no family ever pays St. Jude for anything." I will say it again, No family pays....St Jude's hospital is truly unique and an inspiring hospital!!! Lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer, once a deadly disease, now has a 94 percent survival rate thanks to the research, treatment protocols and healing spaces developed at St. Jude....
MDG was a Hampotonite on Saturday night.....celebrating the 9th annual A Hamptons Happening in Bridgehampton, NY. I always wanted to know what it would be like to attend one of these Hamptons events...let me tell you it was nothing but amazing.... Maria and Kenneth Fishel opened up their home or rather extensive backyard where guests were treated to signature delicacies from acclaimed chefs from the New York area. Six of Todd English's restaurants were featured..... He was also there along with his executive chefs! A nice surprise was seeing Chris Wragge, the WCBS anchor who was the M.C. for the evening. He kicked off an unbelievable auction of goodies ranging from villa vacations to a an opportunity to swim with Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte. All proceeds benefit the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation. Mr. Sam Waxman was at the event and was honored for his dedication to curing and preventing cancer. His foundation has done some amazing work on uncovering the causes of the disease and reprogramming cancer cells.
Enjoy some of the pics from the evening..
Snuck a pic with gal pal Sheryl Berk who invited me to attend....
Colored lights under a sprawling white tent set the ambiance of the night...
I spent the weekend in the Hamptons with my amazing friends, the Berk family and went to Super Saturday, the annual charity shopping event in Water Mill that benefits the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Under a sprawling white tent, the event unfolds......one can get major discounts on designer clothing, bags, glasses, etc. The event was hosted by Kelly Ripa and Donna Karan and was crawling with celebs.... well, I only spotted Kelly Ripa, Lisa Rinna and Susan Lucci on the red carpet and that really tickled me pink!
Besides digging thru piles of designer clothes and bags, there was a psychic reader, nail and hair stylers, a kids carnival, food galore and CampDivaLyssicious where kiddies too can have tons of fun like walk the red carpet with Red Carpet Kids, dance to the music of KBC kids, face paint, glitter tattoos, shirt artistry, enter a cupcake contest judged by cupcake critic Carrie Berk, and co-author of the wonderful children's book series Peace, Love and Cupcakes and so much more....pics are below
Check out some of the clothing and food galore...
LOVED Rachel Zoe's clothing and jewelry line!
Some refreshing watermelon drinks at the Moroccan Oil booth...
Delectable delights...
The Carnival Side...
Camp Divalysscious rocked! Hosted by event planner Lyss Stern who organizes amazing events for NYC Mom's. Check out her Website Divalysscious Moms.
I’m packin’ and off to Memphis tomorrow! Brizo, the faucet brand for the fashion forward has invited me to attend an all-expenses paid reunion in Memphis. Over 80 designers will be there! If you remember Brizo hosted me in September 2012 to a NYC fashion week experience (known as the Blogger 19) to preview their newest products and to attend the amazing Jason Wu runway show. Brizo are amazing hosts! Now, Brizo is merging all of the past Blogger 19 groups for a reunion. What an awesome way to connect and re-connect the design community! We will be getting an exclusive behind the scenes tour of the Brizo factory and St Jude’s Children’s hospital. I cannot wait to see what Brizo has in their pipeline because Brizo is a faucet brand that dreams…..realizes their dreams….and transforms spaces into fashion statements!
BRIZO Hands Free Technology: offers hands free operation allowing you to activate and turn off water flow without touching the faucet - promoting safer food handling, less water consumption and greater efficiency in the kitchen and bath. Innovation!!
The event is from July 16-19. You can follow me at the event on Twitter using #Blogger19, and onmy Facebookpage.
A trend in residential living today is an industrial-mod vibe that incorporates natural materials, flea market finds and industrial elements with an urban approach. Spaces are clean-lined, timeless, and texturally appealing with the integration of worn woods and aged metals fused with a mix of stone, concrete, and glass. Where we once may have designed spaces in order to hide wires, structure and piping, today we are designing around them. I love this urban look and to get factory-chic inspired products...... I look to GO HOME Ltd., a great vintage inspired brand that has exciting products from around the world. See some Industrial Mod Must Haves below...
(Go HOME actually interviewed me last week if you are interested in knowing why I started the MoD Design Guru blog. Clickhere for the interview.)
Philippe Grohe, head of Axor, the designer brand of Hansgrohe is an innovator who sees an alternate vision for the bathroom as a living space and works with various internationally renowned designers to investigate each designers angle on their water dream. Grohe adds," in this regard, the focus is not primarily on the products, but on providing additional scope for creative development for breaking down established behavior patterns, and for conducting an open, interdisciplinary dialogue." Now he seeks to re-envision and re-consider the way the shower is perceived and interpreting it anew with Swedish design trio Front and Japenese design studio Nendo.
Swedish design trio Front- axor waterdream
Pipes are beautiful and should be exposed. The design trio Front showcases the pathways of a shower system down to its rudimentary parts- copper pipes, valves, elbow fittings and funnel and emphasizes the simplistic beauty of water-flow. Love!
Copper pipes, elbow fittings and funnels or showerheads
NENDO- axor waterdream
Designer Oki Sato of Nendo design studio combines water and light and envisions the shower as a lamp. Wow, this is a very interesting spatial idea..... Nendo is overlapping the bathroom and living-room experience. We read under light in our living room and now to replace the typical shower head and bench with a functional shower-lamp and chair is going to widen our thoughts and re-consider what our bathroom experience should be in the future..brilliant!
(all images given by Axor brand) To get your daily dose of design, click 'LIKE' on the FACEBOOK page and TWITTER page.
Every year at the Architectural Digest show in NYC there is always a magnificent entrance that transports you into the world of DIFFA’s (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS) Dining by Design. Last year's 2012 intricately cut entrance was designed by Razortooth Design and this past year's phenomenom was created by two talented design studios -Input Creative Studio + Clark Gaynor Interiors.Together theydesigned a multi-media abstracted mirrored experience. It was powerful.... filled with a matrix of 272 mirrored light bulbs which reflects participants as they enter the DIFFA event. The designers add, "The entrance represents the journey of an AIDS victim; illustrated metaphorically through the " light at the end of the tunnel" that DIFFA's efforts provide." For me it was not only a portal; but also a place of pause. As I stood there, I was not only faced with my own image multiplied on the underside of stimulating tiny balls; but also reflecting on the cause and all those suffering with the AIDS disease. A beautiful and thoughtful provoking design!
How can cardboard get so sexy? In response to a mobile and environmentally conscious world, architect and designer Giorgio Caporaso of Studio Caporaso created the Lessmore Ecodesign Collection where modularity and sustainability are the driving ideas. What is really unique is the collection's versatility. Watch cardboard transform...all made out of modules where you can disassemble and reassemble again to create all furniture types like bookshelves, room dividers, consoles, seating and tables with integrated lighting.
