One of the coolest debuts at the dwell on Design Conferences and Exhibition in Los Angeles last month (June 7-8) is hopefully going to set future trends for economical, eco-friendly housing. HOM Escape in Style is a line of home design products created by top-notch designers, who reimagined the concept of manufactured houses and the accompanying furnishings, lighting, textiles and accessories.

The HOM designers wanted to usher a connection with nature in a way that was cost-effective, low-impact on the environment and stylish. It is difficult to call these residences “pre-fab” because there is such an incredible focus on the craft and materials used.

Furthermore, these residences are not just slapped together from sub-standard materials in a factory in China, but rather carefully built and transported by expert teams in North America (thus eliminating the extensive carbon footprint transportation cost across the ocean).

There are three different models:
1,000 square foot, 2 bedroom/2 bathroom
2,000 square foot, 3 or 4 bedroom/3 bathroom
3,600 square foot, 4, 5 or 6 bedroom/4 bathroom

Lead time is only 3 to 4 months from time of purchase, and you can purchase one for the reasonable price of $200/square foot (depending on options). Additionally, the factory process means equals a more environmentally conscious end product than traditional construction, and also limits the waste, material and labor requirements of traditionally built houses.

The concept of living lightly on the land, with style, and close to nature, is further emphasized by the additional accessories and custom finishes, including furniture lighting, textiles and accessories made from natural, non-toxic and sustainably-derived materials.

Designed to sit lightly in the environment the homes incorporating a foundation system that doesn’t affect the natural terrain, and offers homeowners flexibility to move the HOM to another site.

At this point you may guess that I am incredibly enthusiastic about this type of housing option for the market, simply because I have seen way too many ugly, sad and depressing tract homes sprawling across the cities, towns and suburbs of our country.

It is time that designers of affordable homes begin to take responsibility for crafting more sustainable residences that tread lightly on the land while offering a connection to the outdoors. Living in a comfortable, good looking home shouldn’t just be reserved for the privileged, it is a right for all.

–Kate Bailey

Technorati Tags: HOM, Dwell on Design Conference 2008, best prefab, affordable housing, well-designed prefab homes, affordable sustainable homes, new HUD housing

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Rich, velvety, cool, vintage, yet so of-the-moment, I have completely fallen in love with peacock blue. In homage to my last blog about Couture Interiors by Marnie Fogg, I picked up the latest issue of Vogue at the post office today, gasped when I saw Nicole Kidman’s dress on the cover, and knew that I had to write about the way this hue can (and should) be incorporated into your interiors.

A stunning Nicole Kidman is swathed in a custom-designed frothy silk gown with swirls of different shades of peacock blue, a hue once popular during the Art Nouveau era (approximately 1890-1905), but today is experiencing a massive renaissance in both fashion and interior design. Later in the feature she is shown in a form-fitting jacket and skirt combination, the perfect blend of cream and strut-your-stuff blue (above).

The popularity of this hue, in both fashion and interior design, has surged in the last couple of years, and continues to appear in both disciplines, whether in the spring/summer or fall/winter seasons. It is so versatile that you can use it to create a feminine vibe, imbue a more masculine ambiance, or a family-friendly tone depending on the pattern, color palette and room in which it is used.

This shade is bold and sophisticated, yet versatile enough to complement tobacco brown, burnt orange, black, white, cream, or other hues of blue, such as turquoise and navy. When paired with lighter colors this blue is more tranquil and casual. When fused with a darker palette it provides an ambience of grand hotels and turn-of-the-century libraries.

For example, in the photos, featured here in a 2008 issue of Domino magazine, a brighter version of this blue is used as an accent next to black and white interiors. This combination imbues the rooms with a family-friendly vibe.

In the living room photo from Southern Living (above), the color is featured in a more chic, traditional interior with a peacock blue silk wallcovering that creates a bold contrast to the bone-colored bookcases. The result is strong and sophisticated that is softened with pale, feminine pinks.

If you want to go all out with a deep hue, try painting a powder room with one of the colors above: Galapagos Turquiose by Benjamin Moore, 2. Oceanside by Sherwin-Williams, 3. Blue Lagoon by Ralph Lauren

Or, if your taste gravitates more towards an East-Coast nutical vibe, try the color in a striped pattern, such as in the photo below.

No matter what you decide to do with peacock blue, you can’t go wrong with a jolt of it here or there in your home. My apartment is currently swathed in a palette of browns, deep oranges, and various shades of green, but a pop of this exciting hue may be just the thing to update it for the coming months.

What will you do to update your rooms? Let me know so I can help you put together a home that is a perfect reflection of you and what you love.

Technorati Tags: peacock blue, new blues for interior design, hot design colors, Vogue, Nicole Kidman, Southern Living, Domino magazine, art nouveau, art nouveau blue, new color combinations

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I was flipping through the current (April 2008) issue of Food & Wine magazine last night and came across a plug for a kitchen slide show featured on the mag’s website–including those of celeb-u-chef Mario Batali and restaurateur Steve Hanson (whose Hamptons cucina is above). [Photo courtesy of F&W and copyright Douglas Friedman.] Many magazine websites just slap a bunch of pictures on their sites and call it a day, so I was excited that F&W included full articles, too. They do an amazing job of breaking down each space, including an annotated resource list of where to buy the appliances shown (or, heck, the whole look!). I only wish they ran a few additional photos so that you can really get into the space. Nonetheless, I consider it required reading for kitchen lovers–or anyone in search of design ideas.

(*Additional recommended F&W reading: The issue also featured an excellent, informative article on home wine cellar design, including a Q & A with David Spon.)

If that leaves you drooling, then check out Domino’s cool series of kitchen and bath slide shows, too. These chic designs are a little closer to home for me, since many are in urban apartments. They also have great nuts-and-bolts primers on topics like choosing countertops, plus inspiring before and afters. Get a taste!

–Jen Renzi

[Photo copyright Laura Resen/courtesy of Domino:]

Technorati Tags: modern kitchen design, chef’s own kitchens, Food & Wine magazine, Domino magazine

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Pop a cork for…cork!

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than with a paean to my favorite eco-friendly material? Versatile, sustainable cork (made from the renewable bark of Mediterranean cork oak trees), is experiencing something of a rebirth, with new shapes, colors, formats, and uses. Take a look:

1) Use cork on the ceiling to deaden sound, as edgy design firm AvroKO did at Park Avenue Spring, above!

2) Cork accessories are always divine, especially when rendered in really sleek lines, like VivaTerra’s tray.

3) Use it on the floor, where it’s both cushion-y and resilient; the material’s structure traps little air-like bubbles inside, so it spring back after you walk on it. Check out Globus Cork’s beautifully colored versions, which come in crazy shapes like hexagons!

4) Check out this great new(ish) product: cork penny tiles–love. Habitus will do them in custom colors, too.

5) You can even use cork to cover furniture! Try Tessuto in Sughero, a quirky-cool upholstery fabric, also from Habitus.

6) Cork comes in all sorts of intriguing formats. Try MIO’s easy-to-install, interlocking tiles on floors or walls–where it can dampen sound, function as a bulletin board, or even warm up a chilly room (it’s a natural insulator). MIO also just came up with these cool modular cork trivet/placemats, too:

7) Try out these other intriguing designs…Cork Concepts’ plank-shaped floor tiles that look like painted wood, AmCork’s tiles, animated with colored rivulets, and Expanko’s darkly decadent Terra tile.

Or pop a bottle of organic bubbly to celebrate the day. Check out picks from Treehugger, who grilled my fave New York shop– Appellation Wine & Spirits–on the subject.

–Jen Renzi

Technorati Tags: cork accessories, colorful cork planks, eco-friendly flooring

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While the design world does have its occasional celebrity moment–think Brad Pitt’s New Orleans project with Global Green, Venus Williams’s interiors firm, or basically anyone on the cover of the scarily trashy Architectural Digest–what I love most about working within this field is that the famous-people antics are minimal.

Thus I was shocked–shocked!–to read in the New York Post yesterday that none other than Britney Spears has embraced the industry in the hopes of career revival. In case you missed the big news, she’s supposedly in talks with some Danish celebrity broker (um, is there really such a thing?) to be the “face” of a Danish furnishings/accessories line.

Which leads to a few questions that the various tabloids and blogs have yet to address:

1) What the heck is the Scandinavian Style Mansion mentioned in all the gossip articles? A store? An event space? Some cultural nexus? Their website is, alas, enigmatic…just a link to an email address. (Although the home page is quite tastefully designed.) If you have any insights, please share!

2) Why was Britney paid squillions of dollars to throw her recent birthday party there, why was Sharon Stone hosting it, and will they pay me, too, to have MY birthday party there next week (I’m still looking for a venue)?

3) When did Britney start collecting Danish design??

Ah, celebrity culture. Something I know nothing about. But! I do know a smidge about Danish design. Herewith, a few great places to find it:

* Baxter & Liebchen in Brooklyn. This under-the-radar warehouse of vintage furnishings is one of my favotite shopping destinations of all time. Great affordable storage pieces and accessories mixed with some excellent finds of rare provenance. Plus, they have a searchable online inventory of pieces by Nanna Ditzel, Poul Henningsen, Arne Vodder, et al. Take a look.

* In addition to works by design icons Serio Rodrigues, Wendell Castle, and Jeff Zimmerman, the crew at R 20th Century Design is currently showing pieces by Danish master Poul Kjaerholm, including a pair of 1956 PK 22 lounge chairs and this rare PK 32/2 two-seater (below). At last December’s Art Basel Miami Beach, R also released four limited-edition Kjaerholm pieces, produced under the supervision of the designer’s family in Denmark (and highlighted at a stunning joint exhibition with Sean Kelly Gallery–pix at top.)

* Thomas Loof and Pernille Pedersen, my fabulously talented Danish photographer friends, who shoot architecture, portraiture, food, design, and much, much more. Check out this fabulous shot of Poul Kjaerholm’s house in Denmark!

Take that, Britney! –Jen Renzi

Technorati Tags: Celebrity design gossip, vintage Danish furniture, Britney Spears, Brad Pitt, Global Green New Orleans, V Starr Interiors, Thomas Loof photography, R 20th Century Gallery exhibitions, Poul Kjaerholm rereleases

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