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Above is a photo from our recent vacation in Sedona, Arizona. There is a place called Buddha Beach where you can witness in awe thousands of stacked rock sculptures near a Vortex site at the Red Rock Crossing in Sedona. It was amazing! I love Sedona!
This is super funky! I saw this over at Kim Vallee! Check it out! I love the temari-like ball pillows!
Having worked at Glenn Richards, an Asian Antiques store in Seattle, I saw many kitchen, bath and TV console projects using Japanese Mizuya Tansu and Chinese Elm cabinets ...but this one featuring Greentea Design really takes the cake! I have been following Kim's Kitchen Remodel (Kim's from Desire to Inspire) and I'm totally head over heels for the final reveal! I love the fulfilling combination of global design and modern classics! I can't wait to redo my kitchen...
What more can I say? Doesn't this look like pure unsaturated fun! Feelgood Designs produces these amazing creative play shapes and eco-friendly furnishings for children. Each of the soft pieces are made from a
patented eco-friendly material called ecosoftx®. I love the vibrant colors and amoeba like shapes ala Karim Rashid... I want kids!!!
Housemartin reminded me to check out the latest selections from Habitat...I'm so glad I did! These images are inspiring!
From Acacia's new assortment for summer, here are my favorites...Fragrance Flower Diffuser (so fresh!), Reclaimed Wood Table with Stainless Steel Reversible Tray (so versatile!), and Ceramic Garden Stool (so beautiful!).
I just love this sweet bench made of reclaimed Chinese Fir! Check out this lovely bench and many other inspiring lifestyle products for your Body, Spirit and Home at Acacia.
Peep this beautiful antique credenza that I saw at Cargo Inc on a recent trip to Portland! I just love how the hand painted tiles add a splash of vibrant color to the distressed dark brown wood.
Wowee! I like the new Spring eCatalog by Marks & Spencer. These are some of my favorite images. I just love dark woods, cool whites and flashes of dark pink. I also love the jade green color of the plates and bowls in the bottom right photo.
I am also impressed by the Marks & Spencer environmental mission. It's called Plan A - because there is no Plan B! By 2012 Marks & Spencer aims to:
Very global cool!
Bahay means home in Tagalog (native language of the Philippines) and as a Filipino/Canadian/American, I am so happy to have discovered Bahay Home, an amazing global style furnishing retailer in LA. The Bahay Home collection embodies the style aesthetic I find myself drawn to time and again...natural materials, organic forms, modern aesthetics and cultural consciousness. I just adore the two chairs above! I have been secretly wanting the comfort of a papasan with the base of a tulip chair and look now I've found it, and without an overdesigned price tag ($580)! The other chair is a subtle take on the original Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen, but I love the Bahay Home version because of it's use of natural and sustainable Abaca fiber ($485). Dare I say that these naturally modern pieces are quite comfortable looking AND affordable? I'm lovin' it! For a review of the store, check out Apartment Therapy LA.
I couldn't resist posting my own Bahay Home-like chairs...these chairs, in the manner of Verner Panton, are wonderfully made of rattan, and I picked these up at a vintage store in Brooklyn. The pair was on sale for $200! I had to! For more inspiration on global modern style, have a peak at these related posts:
Environment Furniture
Muléh Furnishings
BlissLiving Home
Adrianna Shamaris
Abaca Resort and Spa
Zen Tea House In Your Own Backyard
T House
For all you sustainable designers, check out Ecolect, the first sustainable materials community! Via Treehugger.
Via Desire To Inspire I discovered Vixen Australia, a purveyor of timeless, global modern style and luxury! Take me to Australia!
Today I attended a wonderful presentation by Eames Demetrios, the grandson of the famed designer duo Charles and Ray Eames. As the director of the Eames Office in Santa Monica, an archival gallery, boutique, and gift shop of all things Charles and Ray, Eames Demetrios and his endearing family are making the rounds to celebrate Charles Eames 100th birthday (June 17th) every month for a full year. There are exhibits and special events taking place all over the world. One such special event is the limited edition run of the never before produced Eames Plywood Elephant that was designed in 1945.
Charles and Ray urged us all to "surrender to the design journey," and in this spirit, Demetrios has journeyed into art, writing and filmmaking. In conjunction with the Plywood Elephant's release, Demetrios created a darling film called, "A Gathering of Elephants," that breaths life into these elephants as they overlook the hustle and bustle of LA. The film is due to be webcast soon. Check out this sweet trailer and read Eames Demetrios' blog for a behind the scenes look. Oh, and if you want to pre-order these fabulous Plywood Elephants (available in red or maple, delivery in November), you can do so here for $1907. Remember these are limited edition! Oh, how I wish I could get one for me and my red head friend that's expecting and loves elephants!
Inspired by a golden yellow ginkgo tree that I passed by yesterday, I thought that I would do my own modern take on a ginkgo theme. So here goes (left to right)... Ginkgo chair by Weber furniture, ginkgo drawing by a French artist, Favorite Choses, ginkgo fashion illustration by Darren Whittington, ginkgo chairs again, ginkgo metal wall art from Viva Terra, and a great ginkgo graphic by Sunny Frog. For more ginkgo inspiration visit the blog dedicated to all things ginkgo, Ginkgo Dreams.
Also, here's a nice poem about the Ginkgo by Johan Wolfgang von Goethe:
This leaf from a tree in the East,
Has been given to my garden.
It reveals a certain secret,
Which pleases me and thoughtful people.Does it represent One living creature
Which has divided itself?
Or are these Two, which have decided,
That they should be as One?To reply to such a question,
I found the right answer:
Do you notice in my songs and verses
That I am One and Two?
-Goethe
This beautiful indoor/outdoor bench is a modern and sustainable piece by Acronym Designs. Inspired by the Swilken bridge in Scotland, it's made with reclaimed hardwood and a concrete base. See more modern sustainable furnishings here.
Muléh means "to come home," in Javanese. This modern retailer is another one of my favorite global lifestyle companies with sustainable style. Muléh founder Christopher Reiter, spent several years in South East Asia and returned to share with the world a lifestyle store that reflects the "harmonious subtleties of Asian modern interiors." (yay!)
Featured furniture design collections include Kenneth Cobonpue (my favorite Filipino furniture designer!) and Warisan (from Bali). Many of these modern and savvy pieces are made in southeast Asia with natural & rapidly renewable organic materials ~ like abaca (manila hemp), bamboo, rattan, reclaimed teak ~ and with self-imposed eco-friendly manufacturing guidelines. I just love all the dark woods, distinct lines and textures!
Ok, so I'm a die hard fan of classic mid century modern furnishings and aesthetic. I really support the original visionaries and designers from the modernist era. However, as much as I would like to, I'm in no position to sacrifice a mortgage payment for one select piece, not yet anyways. I blame my thriftiness on my Filipino upbringing (my mom saved all plastic bags, utensils, glass jars, containers, etc because "we might use this one day"...You see, recycling is a Filipino invention! J/K).
That said, whenever I come across an aesthetically pleasing piece of furniture "in the manner of Panton, Eames or Noguchi" and the price fits the bill, I'm all in. Everybody knows the classic Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman. You've seen it in movies, commercials and magazines. But you've also seen the non-sustainable prices for a new or vintage set. I scour the Seattle Craigslist weekly but usually searching specific terms like "danish modern," or "eames era."
Yesterday, however, I viewed the first listing of the day, which was simply listed as, "leather chair & ottoman." Much to my glee, it was a caramel colored Lounger look-a-like with a horrible substitute for an ottoman. But that's ok, the price was right! For the price of about three movie tickets to see Transformers, I took home this lovely chair for my hubby! The look-a-like mini Arco lamp was another Craigslist buy. They both go together quite nicely for under $100! Ikea eat your heart out (but thanks for the AS-IS paper lamps in the corner)!
Other reclaimed vintage pieces that I have acquired from various sources include this Danish modern sofa, two Pantonesque wicker S-chairs and a Lane coffee table. The sofa is from ebay/uship and the chairs are from Fresh Kills in Brooklyn via Greyhound. I scored these unique wicker chairs while in New York for business last summer.
The Lane coffee table has the most heartfelt story. On Valentine's day I found this table at the valuable "Village" for under $10. I brought it home and caused quite a stir. Isaac nearly fainted when he saw it. It turns out that it was his late grandmother's coffee table and he and his sister use to color & draw on it. How did he know it was his grandma's? It had the coloring marks & water stains to prove it! Needless to say, I am not allowed to refinish it. How precious! Now if I could just afford to splurge on the Womb chair for myself :)
Last year on a design trip to LA, I discovered H.D. Buttercup, the really cool home design "manutailer" ~ manufacturer/retailer. H.D. Buttercup serves the gap between customers who are buying mass produced furniture and those purchasing from a design center. Each manutailer is hand selected and given a showroom area to display their designs, giving customers a stylish & hands-on shopping experience. I liked many of the lines they selected, some of which were very eco-friendly. 
Environment Furniture, is an eco-design company that uses reclaimed wood from Brazil for their collections. H.D. Buttercup houses the flagship Environment Furniture retail store called Era. While shopping there, I was very inspired by their bedroom collection. I find shopping for a bed very difficult if you cannot see it and feel it in person. Luckily for me, I got to take a first hand look at Era's showroom. The following are last year's pictures of the Environment Furniture bed collection, and you will notice that each bed is very beautifully styled. I love the dark woods and textured linens in vegetable tones. I don't know where the textiles came from, but I am guessing they are South American. I'm thinking of this look for my own bedroom using neutral earth tones, capiz shell lighting and some of the Philippine textiles that I have been collecting...
I really LOVE the Carmel outdoor collection I found over at Allegro Classics. Unfortunately, my check book doesn't feel the same way about it...know what I mean?
Founded by two "Global Surfers, Travelers, Marketers and Lifestyle enthusiasts", Maku Furnishings offers "non traditional furnishings for a modern world." Their surf-inspired aesthetic is tempered by a distinctly modern feeling that yields a pretty unique set of products; Maku calls them "experiential, organic, and relevant to passionate lifestyle participants and design enthusiasts." All of Maku's products are made from sustainably-harvested teak from Indonesia, and they're also proud members of 1% for the Planet. Via Sustainable Style
I love the limited edition Maku lounge chair. It has beautiful hand carvings peaking out from underneath the armrest! Also, check out the incredible wood doors!
Greener Lifestyles is a modern sustainable furnishings store in Ballard. For those who don't know, Ballard is a hip and sustainable neighborhood just northwest of downtown Seattle. In this modern and delightful store, you will find refreshingly hip furniture, flooring, linens, bamboo tableware, gifts and more. They carry samples of Flor tiles, EcoTimber and Yolo paint for your green decor pleasure. Most of their furniture is custom designed inhouse. I love the sofa collections and the meditation chair you see below (in chocolate colored upholstery.) Unfortunately, there is no info about this piece on their website, so just give them a call and ask for Ben.
Kalon Studios is a LA based husband and wife design company that makes beautiful Sustainable furnishings. Husband, Johannes Pauwen is of German and Tunisian Bedouin descent and wife, Michaele Simmering is American. I love husband and wife teams, they make for a happy family and a happy world! I also love how their design philosophy embraces my global call for all to enliven your inner space!
"To be kalon is more than being beautiful; it is having a beauty that both is and inspires excellence. For the Greeks, this meant a beauty linked with moral worth and usefulness...The Greeks believed that an object that was kalon had a beauty powerful enough to inspire excellence in those who beheld it. It is our sincerest hope that our products will do this as well - that the thoughtfulness and consideration put into each object we’ve made will pour back out into the homes they grace and the world of which we are all a part." ~Kalon Studios
This LA based husband and wife team have created a beautiful & sustainable collection of essential furniture pieces and well crafted nursery furniture. "The project they are most proud of is their daughter Io Zara Pauwen for whom they both designed and named their children’s collection ‘IoLine.’" (Isn't that wonderful?!)
Kelly Hoppen: Kelly Hoppen Style: The Golden Rules of Design
Kelly Hoppen: East Meets West: Global Design for Contemporary Interiors
Colin Cowie: Colin Cowie Wedding Chic: 1,001 Ideas for Every Moment of Your Celebration
Cindy Ng: Girligami: A Fresh, Fun, Fashionable Spin on Origami
Robyn Griggs Lawrence: The Wabi-Sabi House: The Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty
Thich Nhat Hanh: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Maureen Whitehouse: Soul-Full Eating: A (Delicious!) Path to Higher Consciousness
David Kundtz: Quiet Mind: One-Minute Retreats from a Busy World
Michelle Cornell: Ikebana: Japanese Flower Arranging for Today's Interior
Sakul Intakul: Tropical Colors: Art of Living With Tropical Flowers
