Welcome to the very first installment of our new series called “Tuesday's Trends”! Catchy isn't it? We certainly think so. Tuesday's Trends will cover the latest trends that our design teams in their travels have "unearthed" in home decor. The best part is, it will come to you through your inbox every week. Something to look forward to!
For this inaugural post, we would like to pay homage to Jonathan Adler, whose modern aesthetic is a mainstay and quite identifiable in the design industry, as well as Thom Filicia, another one of our favorite designers extraordinaire! The chic color combination of yellow and grey hits the nail on the head. We just can’t get enough! The marriage of these two colors can bring any decor to an entirely different level. It exudes freshness, luxury and modern sensibility.
Whether on a pillow, or a bedspread, or even a wall, yellow and grey in any setting most certainly earns a spot on Tuesday's Trends. Enjoy our "Tuesday’s Trends" today!
With Spring just around the corner, many of us are thinking about tabletop design and how we will entertain this season. Garden party? Elegant and intimate dinner? The buds on the trees signal new life and it’s fun to think about breathing new life into your dining room.
At Dining by Design in New York City, many of the industry’s top names contributed their talents to this annual fundraiser and the results are inspiring. In addition to the AERIN for Lee Jofa table we posted last week, there were lots of other creative and inspiring tables on display this past weekend at Dining by Design. Events Thursday and Saturday raised much needed funds to advance the cause of DIFFA, the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS.
If you missed the event in person, there are lots of other ways to show your support for DIFFA throughout the year, including Dining by Design events in several other major cities. Stay connected with DIFFA on Facebook and Twitter for ongoing news and information.
Without further ado, here are some of the other fantastic tables we spotted at Dining by Design:
Now in its third year, Blogfest is hosting a two-day event in New York City May 20-21. This year’s event will kick off at Hearst Tower with HGTV Magazine, and will include appearances by designers and TV personalities Candice Olson and Thom Filicia. HGTV Magazine has a great program planned for the kick off, and we’re looking forward to seeing all of our blogging friends again at Hearst.
Candice Olson, Thom Filicia, HGTV Magazine editor in chief Sara Peterson
After the kick-off, we’re hosting a fabulous cocktail party featuring several top design names, a few are old faces from Blogfests past, a few are new friends we know you’ll be excited to see. On Tuesday, we’re hosting a tour of our design studios downtown and we MAY have a super special guest stopping by to meet everyone.
Registration for Blogfest NYC opens on Friday, Feb. 15 at noon EST. CLICK HERE
Registration will be first come, first served and we’re expecting an immediate sell out, just as we have experienced in years past.
As always, we’ll announce additional events, venues and sponsors as we approach the event, so this is just the start.
In addition to Blogfest NYC, we are also a sponsor at the Design Bloggers Conference taking place in Los Angeles March 3-6. Blogfest-sponsored events will take place throughout the conference (not to mention before and after!), including A-list keynote speakers and special guests and parties that are sure to be the talk of the town. Event information is available on our website, and registration is available through the DBC website
Around this time last year, I wrote about the history of linen, and I received many emails asking how the flax plant is actually made into fabric. Because of your interest and questions, I have decided to follow up with more information about linen. In addition to the information provided below, please take a look at the accompanying video, which provides more in-depth visual information about the process.
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, “Linum usitatissimum,” which is the Latin botanical name of the plant. Flax blooms in groups of bluish, navy blue, and occasionally in violet, rosy and white flowers. Each flower blooms for only a few hours. It opens up at dawn and closes and falls off at around noon when the heat sets in. The flax plant is not difficult to grow but it flourishes best in cool, humid climates and within moist, well plowed soil. Flax can only be grown on the same field twice before signs of “flax fatigue” begin to show. It will be another seven years before flax can be cultivated again on the same field.
The quality of the finished linen product is dependent on the growing conditions and harvesting techniques. Linen yarn is spun from the long fibers behind the bark of the plant stem. These fibers vary in length from 2 to 36 inches. The process of separating the flax fibers from the plant is a labor intensive and painstaking process. In order to retrieve the fibers from the plant, the woody stem and the pectin, or gum, which bonds the fibers together in a clump must be rotted away. To produce the longest possible fibers, flax is either hand-harvested by pulling up the entire plant or stalks are cut very close to the root.
After harvesting, the seeds are removed through a mechanized process called “rippling.” The fibers must then be loosened from the stalk. This is achieved through retting. This process uses bacteria to decompose the pectin that binds the fibers together. Natural retting methods take place in tanks and pools or directly in the fields. There are chemical retting methods that are faster but more harmful to the environment and to the fibers themselves. After retting, the stalks are ready for scutching. This process removes the woody portion of the stalks by crushing them between two metal rollers, so the different parts of the stalk can be separated. The fibers are set aside for other uses.
The short fibers are then separated by hackling or combing them away to leave behind the long, soft flax fibers. After the fibers have been separated and processed, they are typically spun into yarns and woven or knit into textiles. Linen’s natural off white color ranges between shades of ivory, ecru, tan and grey. Pure white linen is created by heavy bleaching.
It amazes me that thousands of years ago someone had the idea to take something from nature’s beauty growing in the fields, break it down and then weave it into one of the most luxurious fabrics that to this day remains in demand for homes all over the world.
Alice Guercio, Vice President of Product Coordination and a Kravet veteran for more than 15 years, travels the world to source and develop new product for Kravet. She is one of our top experts on textiles. If you have a question about fabric for Alice, email her at askalice@kravet.com and your question may become the subject of a future article.
*This article is modified from the original, which originally appeared in the summer 2011 issue of inspired.news.
Blogfest 2012 was a whirlwind three day design event hosted in New York City by Kravet, Lee Jofa and Brunschwig & Fils. Along with our magazine partners and several great industry brands, we hosted more than 150 interior designers and bloggers for a series of exciting parties, panel discussions, show house tours and more.
The blog mentions have poured in, and we are overwhelmed with positive feedback from the event. We can’t possibly put into words how much each photo and kind thought means to us, so we’ve put together a photo recap showing just how much fun we had at Blogfest 2012. Today you’ll see all of the excitement from the first day, and in the days to follow you’ll see day two and day three.
Several attendees are posting recap blogs on our Facebook page so make sure to follow us there for more information about the event. If you didn’t have the opportunity to attend this year, stay in touch. We’ll be announcing details for Blogfest 2013 towards the end of this year.
Cheers!
JP
Margaret Russell welcomed bloggers to the Architectural Digest kick off party at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House.
As you can see, it was a full house!
Savant hosted our bloggers at the high-tech, high style Savant Experience Center in Soho.
Thom Filicia (center) designed the space at Savant, and joined us for the party.
Next stop was Savoir Beds. Bloggers sipped martinis, nibbled on sweets and lounged on Savoir's luxurious beds.
Check back for photos from Blogfest 2012 Day Two and Day Three!
