Bernard Brucha of Mash Studios designed a dresser for CB2 and is featured on its blog. (Just Ries, Just Ries / April 22, 2011)

As one of the many vendors who sell designs to CB2, the affordable modern offshoot of Crate & Barrel, Bernard Brucha was used to working anonymously. Last year, one phone call changed all that.

“They asked if they could use my name and likeness on the website,” said Brucha, founder of the Venice, Calif., furniture firm Mash Studios, who now appears in a designer profile on the CB2 blog.

Brucha is not the first American designer to be promoted as a rising star by a retailer. Nor will he likely be the last. A quick flip through catalogs and visits to stores over the last few months has revealed a growing trend: In a recession-rocked economy, home décor manufacturers are using established brands and building home-grown designer-name franchises to entice increasingly savvy customers and hoist up the bottom line.

“As manufacturers swallow each other up, design becomes the differentiator,” said Grant Kirkpatrick of KAA Design, an architecture interior and landscape design firm that recently launched the Rusa outdoor furniture collection for Design Within Reach.

“Corporate America used to think beauty was frivolous,” he added, “but the great revolution has been that design sells because people want beauty in their lives.”

And home décor manufacturers, which, contrary to popular belief, are staffed by product developers and buyers but rarely maintain in-house design departments, are happy to oblige. In addition to Brucha’s Mash Studios, CB2 offers goods by some two dozen young designers and artists. Williams-Sonoma‘s West Elm hypes its ongoing collaboration with event designer David Stark and 24 others in the “We Love” page on its website. On a more upscale note, Garnet Hill has exclusive bed and bath linens by fashion designer Eileen Fisher. And Ballard Designs recently paired with Atlanta interior decorator Suzanne Kasler, a designer for Hickory Chair furniture and Safavieh rugs.

“Working with Ballard Designs has been a way for me to share my design aesthetic and bring some of my ideas to products that are affordable,” says Kasler, who is known for high-end interiors.

“Connecting with a designer is a great way to inject a fresh perspective to your assortment in an increasingly noisy and crowded marketplace,” said Ryan McKelvey, president of Ballard, which launched more than 100 Suzanne Kasler items last August. It was the first such collaboration in the company’s 27-year history and is showcased in 37 million catalogs mailed out each year.

This marketing approach is certainly not without precedent. Ikea and Design Within Reach have built reputations by cashing in on designer currency, often providing headshots and biographies of creators on catalogs, websites and in-store displays.

In the 1990s, Target pioneered the idea of designer exclusives, teaming with architect Michael Gravesto produce modernist housewares, and the chain continues to partner with of-the-moment international designers such as Philippe Starck, Tord Boontje and Marcel Wanders for limited-run collections. The retailer also has an ongoing line of home accessories created by interior decorator Victoria Hagan.

Crate & Barrel has a 4-decades-old relationship with the Finnish textiles and table wares company Marimekko, which has produced exclusive designs that account for 5% of the store’s merchandise, and in mid-May will open the first of a string of Marimekko store-within-a-store boutiques at its store at the Grove in Los Angeles.

“Marimekko had to come to us and say you need to use the name more,” said Raymond Arenson, executive vice president of merchandising and design at Crate & Barrel. “We do tend to be shy of using the name. We’ve always thought to shout another brand within our brand seemed odd. Once you become a vehicle for brands you are a department store and not a brand yourself.”

If the business model of the 2000s was brand building, it might be said that, for many home décor companies, the 20-tween years will be about strategic alliances — using other brands to survive and evolve.

“In today’s flattened market, the ability to have product that is not available anywhere else is a significant competitive advantage,” said Russ Gatskill, chief executive of Garnet Hill. Not every venture has been a hit, he conceded. The catalog company tried to sell the trendy Indian block print bedding of John Robshaw, but Gatskill said, “It did not resonate with our customer.”

Many in the home décor industry find less risk in heritage brands: In addition to Marimekko, Crate & Barrel reissued Classic Century, a 1952 collection by modern dishware designer Eva Zeisel. TheSundance catalog carries reissued pottery from Los Angeles-based Bauer; Garnet Hill carries Pendleton blankets and Frette sheets as well as exclusives from glassmaker Simon Pearce and linens and bath goods featuring licensed designs from the archives of preppy prints queen Lilly Pulitzer.

Such licensing arrangements, Gatskill said, “allow us to expand into new product categories where we may not have perceived expertise.”

Other retailers, particularly young modernist-oriented CB2 and West Elm, which don’t have designers on staff, forge relationships with lesser-known names.

“We’re building our brand on the shoulders of all the new fresh designers,” said CB2 director Marta Calle. “We don’t know how many people actually know who they are, but we think people deserve to know.”

Working directly with a designer instead of buying already manufactured goods from a factory is a more arduous process. It requires finding resources and materials, creating prototypes and getting designer approvals before products can reach the shelves. According to Calle, it is well worth the effort.

“Having merchandise that doesn’t look like cookie-cutter products churned out by a computer brings credibility to a brand,” she added. “And there is no greater joy than seeing a young designer who thinks there is no way in hell he can get his product made and then we do it and get him a royalty check.”

Having collaborated with some 25 designers and artists in the last few years in a design scene she compares to indie music and film, West Elm Creative Director Alex Bates calls the trend a celebration of individual talents in a world of mass-produced goods.

“Consumers are romantic. They care about how they spend their money and love the stories behind the things they buy,” she said. “I mean, who really needs a vase? But if you buy one that you love and it supports a new artist, it’s a win-win.”

Ceramist Sarah Cihat, who became a darling of the DIY décor set with her Rehabilitated Dishware, agreed. “Design has become more accessible and people actually seem to care about it,” said Cihat, who worked with West Elm on a June collection based on her over-glazed vintage plates. “They are interested in the person behind the piece that they put into their homes and ultimately their lives.”

For everyone involved, this wave of designer décor is a tide that lifts all boats.

“Companies are getting a product specifically for them, and are able to charge a little bit more if it has an association with a designer,” said Mash Studio’s Brucha, who created one of CB2’s hottest sellers, the lobster red Shop chest.

Designers who license their creations get to see their visions realized by companies with the resources to manufacture and sell products.

And for the consumer, the product has cachet, because it’s not something that the company just bought off the floor at a trade show in Shanghai, Brucha added. “People who buy my furniture at CB2 think, ‘Oh he’s an L.A. designer who lived in Brooklyn. He’s one of us.'”

Source: LA Times

Many homeowners are now leaning towards going green to save energy costs and to create a more comfortable and healthier place to live. There are many ways to go green from switching to energy-saving appliances to repainting your homes with non-toxic paints. These kinds of changes you may feel comfortable doing yourself. But should your project be more complex, you might want to consider getting some help.

Remodeling whether green or not can be a huge undertaking. It’s one thing if you’re going to be turning a bathroom into a mini spa. But many makeovers involve changes to floor plans, electrical and mechanical infrastructure, or structural elements. There may be a significant amount of demolition and even exterior reconstruction if you plan to add windows, doors, and skylights. Any physical change to the exterior envelope of the house is going to be rather complex and will involve careful planning, design, and materials selection.

Why Hire a Remodeling General Contractor?

Professional remodeling contractors have the skills, knowledge and experience to successfully plan and complete a remodel. The pros will save you from major stress and significant time commitments during the course of the project. And because you will avoid costly mistakes, you probably won’t end up paying any more for their expertise than if you had done the project by yourself.

And since you are specifically doing a green remodel, you will need additional expertise. Installing solar panels, adding insulation and eco-friendly home fixtures must be left to your trained tradesmen. Contractors can also identify other things that need upgrading during the process of remodeling such as defects in mechanical systems, wiring problems, mold issues, and structural abnormalities. These can and should be remediated during the course of the remodel.

Tips on Hiring a Contractor

There are many people in this world who call themselves contractors but lack the expertise you will be needing for your project. Putting the project in the hands of the right person is critical to the success of the project. So where to start. The best source of information on a contractor comes from direct referrals. Friends and associates can often recommend someone who did work for them. You can also contact professional organizations such as the National Association of the Remodeling Association (NARI) or the National Association of Home Builders Remodelers. Ask for a project resume, sample budgets and inquire into the method of accounting the contractor will employ. Do check references. Do make a call to the Better Business Bureau. And if possible, ask to see other completed projects in person. The contractor should at least have a portfolio of photographs from completed projects to show you. And certainly, if this is to be a green remodel, the contractor should have a commitment to green practice and procedures as well as expertise in the specific areas of sustainability you wish to employ. And last but not least, be open in discussing a budget and put procedures and policies in place, and in writing, to help control the project costs. It’s better to delay the project and take some time in the beginning to lay everything out with the contractor than it is to rush in and have things spiral quickly out of control.

Source: TreeLiving.com

Did you know April is considered New Homes Month? If you’ve been thinking about planning and building a new home, now is definitely a great time find information on constructing your dream home! Current homeowners looking to build a new home and prospective homeowners alike can find lots of beneficial information on the National Association of Home Builders website. There you can find resources on the home building process, as well as the basics on financing a home and so much more information that can help make the process of becoming an educated consumer a lot less stressful.

Trilogy Partners can help you create the home of your dreams! Since 1998, we have partnered with our clients to create custom homes throughout the Colorado mountains. We use an integrated design-build process to serve our clients from concept to completion. Visit our website or contact us to learn how we can help you build the mountain home you’ve always dreamed of!

Contact Trilogy Partners to begin planning your new home!

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Lake Norman resident Starr Miller considered getting rid of the whirlpool tub in her master bathroom when she realized her housekeeper was in it more than she was.

“She has to climb in it and clean it every week. It’s a total dust magnet,” said Miller, who works as an interior designer in Davidson. “Every time I walk by it all I think is, ‘That’s 42 square feet of wasted space.'”

Miller is not alone.

Patricia Dunlop, a spokeswoman for the American Society of Interior Designers, said many people are opting to replace their oversize tubs and Jacuzzis for extra vanity, shower and storage space.

“We all have more products and appliances in the bathroom than we used to,” said Dunlop. “We want the space to be calm and relaxing, so having the ability to put those items away and keep the space clear and serene is important.”

And while most interior designers and real estate agents agree it’s still important to have at least one tub in the house for bathing children, animals and other needs, oversize tubs are now seen as a frivolous use of space.

Dunlop cited one study that found the average whirlpool tub is used only seven times during its lifetime as reasoning for the shift in home design priorities.

Residents would rather invest in shower amenities that will create a spa experience, such as multiple shower heads, benches, steam showers and jets, said Miller.

Huntersville resident Deborah Maher said remodeling the master bathroom was her first priority when she moved into her home in Birkdale.

While the bathroom had an elegant whirlpool tub with stone work all around, it also had a vanity with only one drawer and a tiny shower.

Maher decided she was through with large tubs after living at her previous residence in Cornelius, she said.

“All I ever did was dust it and put decorations around the edges,” she said. “I never used the thing.”

So Maher worked with Miller to redesign her bathroom. With the help of sub-contractors, they removed the tub, expanded the shower by 2 square feet and added plenty of cabinet space for the couple’s bathroom supplies.

Maher said she’s most pleased with the shower, which now features a bench, a rain shower head, a handheld shower head and a built-in shelf.

Miller said she has many clients like Maher who are opting for larger showers over whirlpool tubs. Still, Miller said homeowners should be cognizant of how the remodeling will affect resale value.

“It’s more about how you do it than whether you do it,” she said. “If you take it out and do something fabulous with the rest of the bathroom, you can come out even or above. If you take it out and don’t do anything, I would suspect you’re taking value out of your home.”

Kathy Byrnes, a Realtor with Re/Max Executive at the Lake, said most real estate agents still consider a bathroom to be a full bath even if there is no tub. What really decides the classification is whether there’s a shower in the room, she said.

Source: Charlotte Observer

I don’t know if it’s just me or what but almost every design magazine I come across seems to feature the same interior designers doing approximately the same thing over and over again. Elle Décor looks like Better Home and Gardens looks like Traditional Home. Even the new Lonny Magazine seems to have fallen into the same trap. The website is very cool. But as for the contents: have we really exhausted creativity to the point that we need to publish the same basic design concepts over and over again? And why do all of these designs make the rooms look cluttered?  Does every square inch of space have to have something in it?  What about clean emptiness? As homes get smaller and space becomes a scarce commodity do we really want to be cluttering up each and every room with multiple layers of accessories?  I think not. In the case of design, I say we go back to the idea of less is more. For once I’d like to see a room featured in an interior magazine that actually looks lived in. The worst are the staged rooms. I mean, fantasy is fine. But not at the expense of beautiful but practical design.

How not to lose sight of the big picture.

Photo: Artful Magpie/Flickr

By John Brown, Slow Home Studio founder | Designing a house is a complicated task. Anyone who has ever built a home knows that there are literally thousands of design decisions to be made, ranging from the smallest detail (what color of grout do I want in my shower?) to the largest of issues (how big should my house be?). In between there are a wide array of technical decisions, stylistic questions, and functional issues to resolve. The addition of a sustainable design agenda to “green” the house complicates the whole process even more.

Every choice you make about a house is a design decision and every house is the sum of all of these many choices. A truly sustainable home is one in which all design decisions, from large to small, are made with an eye to reducing the house’s environmental footprint without jeopardizing its livability. To better understand what this means in practical terms, the Slow Home philosophy organizes the various aspects of residential design into a four level design pyramid. The goal is to help you make more balanced and effective sustainable design choices when either building a new home, remodeling an existing residence, or perhaps just buying a resale house.

The Top of the Pyramid: Aesthetic Choices

At the top of the pyramid are choices about finishes, materials, colors, fabrics, and furniture. These interior design decisions are significant because they define the quality of the surfaces that we see and touch on a daily basis. Green design in this context is about making choices that focus on such things as rapidly renewable finishes, recycled content materials, low volatility paints, and natural, low toxicity fabrics. On their own, however, decisions at this level are not sufficient to make a house sustainable.

The Second Level: Exterior Design

The second level of the pyramid deals with exterior design issues such as building style, roof shape, and window placement. These decisions are important because they define not only how the building looks from the street but also how effectively the construction performs.  From a green design point of view, this level of design primarily involves ensuring that the massing of the building is compact, construction materials are efficiently used, and the building envelope is designed for optimal thermal efficiency. This means paying attention to the design of the roof and wall insulation systems as well as properly detailing the windows and doors to minimize air and heat transfer.  Like interior design, however, this kind of decision making does not, by itself, constitute green design.

The Third Level: Systemic Choices

The third level of the pyramid is about technical design decisions regarding the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems. Green design in this context is about making

choices that reduce water and energy usage and employ renewable technologies and clean energy sources. These design decisions use technological fixes to optimize energy usage and reduce the amount of greenhouses gases that will be generated by the operation of the house over its lifetime. Technical design plays a very critical role in making a house sustainable, but as with the other levels, it is not sufficient on its own.

The Foundation of the Pyramid: Location, Size, Orientation and Stewardship

At the bottom of the pyramid is the most fundamental level of design decisions. These involve a consideration of the basic elements of inhabitation that are not normally considered in discussions about green design. In actuality, however, they are the foundation on which all other sustainable design choices should rest. This level of design focuses on issues of location, size, orientation, and stewardship. From a green design point of view it’s about ensuring that the broad decisions you make about where and how you live are properly aligned so as to reduce your overall environmental footprint.

Why the Design Pyramid Matters

Good sustainable residential design involves a coordinated approach that simultaneously engages all levels of the design pyramid. If green design thinking is limited to only one or two of the levels the result will not be a truly sustainable home.

For example, at present, too many people limit their green choices to interior design issues. It’s all about bamboo floors, low VOC paint, and recycled countertops. While these are certainly significant choices, in the absence of a more comprehensive approach to sustainability, their impact will be severely limited. It’s like worrying about the toxicity of the dyes in the cushions on the deck chairs of the Titanic. Important, but it won’t prevent the boat from sinking.

In much the same way, an engineering approach that concentrates too heavily on the technical level of design is also an overly limited way of thinking about sustainability. It’s all too easy to get caught up in the technological paraphernalia of sustainability and end up missing the forest for the trees. Heat recovery ventilators, low flow toilets, geothermal heat pumps, and solar arrays are important but their effectiveness is greatly diminished when they are not part of a more comprehensive sustainability strategy that extends to all four aspects of the design pyramid.

Practical sustainability is about making every design decision a green issue. Substantially lowering our environmental impact will not be achieved by just purchasing a few green products or attending to a narrow set of issues. In the end, these kinds of choices only serve to make us, and the homebuilding industry, feel better.

This article was reprinted with permission. It originally appeared here on Networx.com.

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