Unique Bathroom Sink

In the interest of saving resources and sanity, I want my home improvement choices to outlive trends and retain an up-to-date look. So while I like vessel sinks, I think in a few years some of the more basic styles will be screaming 2005. That's why I love this oragami inspired Trapezoid Sink from Fontaine. Elegant, sculptural, never basic and, through Overstock, a great price at $199.

Technorati Tags: Modern Sink, Modern Bathroom Sink, Vessel sinks, Fontaine

Architectural Furniture by Novo Design

Check out the Cubetto armchair from Novo Design. Debuting this year, the chair, part of the very distinct Cubetto Collection, was designed by Elisabetta Norfini and Irene Pini for the Italian firm Bini. Bini has been making furniture since the 1940s, but launched Novo Design Made In Toscana to create more high design furniture. The Cubetto definitely offers a very architectural presence for any modern living room. Made from slatted beech veneer, the chair is available through Europe and North America. The second collection, Dominello, offers a modular storage system. We are definitely waiting to see what new designs they add to round out these two new promising collections.

Technorati Tags: Novo Design, Elisabetta Norfini, Irene Pini, Modern Living Room

Comfort Colors -- Cocoa of course!

Cocoa, biscuit, cinnamon apple pie and pumpkin. These comfort foods (okay maybe not the pumpkin) turn out to be comfort colors!

Debbie Zimmer from Rohm and Hass Paint Quality Institute says that these homey hues are perfect to destress kitchen and living rooms and wrap them in warmth. But as cool nights are perfect weather for sleeping, cool, back to nature hues are great for the bedrooms. Use higher intensity sheens to give a glass like appearance.

And for the living, dining and powder rooms consider clean, clear reds and deep plums to the sophistication of black and white. These colors work both as accents and as elegant backdrops for many living spaces. For contemporary and modern use rubbed bronze to complement this bold and spicy palette.

Technorati Tags: Color Trends, Kitchen Colors, Warm Color Palette, Contemporary Colors

Chimes Like Modern

Nothing looks more out of place in a modern home than an oppressive and unflattering doorbell chime... so we took the pleasure of hunting for a few more suitable replacements.

The Contempo - sleek and graceful, the Contempo is made of stainless steel and a frosted insert.

Horns -- the steel cover and hand applied patina finish ensures each piece is unique while a perforated steel housing adds detail from below.

Find both at Modern Doorbells

Zen Doorbell - made from Walnut hardwood and plastic laminated rice paper insert. Program differing sounds for front and back doors. From Doorbell Factory

Doorbell USB - This cordless doorbell from Jacob Jensen comes installed with five high quality polyphonic tunes, or personalize your doorbell chimes with downloaded and self-composed jingles (software and USB cable included). Can be wall-mounted or left free-standing.

Technorati Tags: modern doorbell, doorbell chimes, Jacob Jensen, modern interiors, modern electronics

Wall Hung TV

Flat panel television sales are ever-increasing, yet during the purchase most consumers do not realize the importance of installation and cable management. Additionally, based on the position of connected components and location of the power source on the wall, installation of a flat panel could be quite costly – especially if there is a need for an electrician to re-wire existing power sources and/or conceal component cables behind walls to eliminate unsightly dangling wires. The award-winning Moda Wall Furniture System was designed to be the easy-to-install, aesthetically pleasing solution for that – a functional accessory to the flat panel that do-it-yourself consumers can install themselves.

Pricing for the Moda Wall Furniture System (MWFS) is $299.95. Additional wall panels (MWF8 and MWF16) are priced at $99.95 and $129.95 respectively.

Technorati Tags: home theater, plasma wall sytem, modern electronics, Plasma tv stands

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It's a Merry Marine Christmas

Interior Designer Jessica Dauray is not into traditional red and green for Christmas tabletop decor preferring instead to theme her tables and add to it sparkle in the form of chargers, candles and maybe one or two traditional bulbs. The result is spectacular and very very personal.

For her marine motif, she chose to make a candlestick out of coral and deposited an assortment of various sized shells, stones and balsa fir are laid on a bed of netting. The two gold ornaments cast that Christmas spell. A simple white bowl is filled with sand, grasses and a bulb for the centerpiece.

A Kaffe Fassett Christmas Tree

Textile designer Kaffe Fassett wanted to recreate a youthful memory when he was asked to decorate last year's Christmas Tree at the Vic & Albert Museum. He recalled a tree at the home of a Manhattan socialite covered in white lacey fans and wanted to replicate the effect. Instead of white, he chose a bountiful palette of reds, burgundies, oranges and yellows. The tree becomes an exploration of color, pattern and shapes for a very unique and contemporary Christmas tree.

Instructions on how to make the fans are here.

Download fan_instructions1.pdf
Download fan_instructions2.pdf

Technorati Tags: Contemporary Christmas Tree, Kaffe Fassett Christmas Tree, Victoria & Albert Museum Christmas Tree, Modern Design

These are a few of my favorite things

Preparing for the holidays can be a daunting task... The colors, themes, and endless assortments of ornamentation --- and that's just the greeting cards!

Here are a few of our personal faves:

From the Kate Spade holiday collection. Buy at Crane & Co.

From Kate's Paperie.

From Luxe Paperie.

From Fabulous Stationary.

Technorati Tags: holiday greeting cards, modern holiday, contemporary Christmas, kate spade

AirPod

Blue Air's AirPod delivers clean air in a contemporary style that's compact and attractive enough for any space. The AirPod weighs less than 2 lbs., retails for $99 and comes in white, black or blue. Packs of two replacement filters cost $39.95 and come in wave, tree or paisley patterns.

The AirPod purifies 45 cubic feet of air per minute and is made with strict attention to environmental concerns. According to Blue Air, "[AirPod] uses approximately 60% less material to manufacture, 50% less packaging and 85% less energy than other air purifiers with comparable performance. It also runs on less than five watts of power where other units require 40 watts. No chemicals are used on the filter or elsewhere and no ozone by-products are released from the unit. In addition, all components  and the packaging are 100% recyclable."

Plus it's the best looking air purifier we've come across.

Technorati Tags: AirPod, Air Purifier, Blue Air, Modern Design

Happy 100th Eva!!

Eva Zeisel, the prolific designer of functional porcelain and even stainless, turned 100 today. Exhibits of the centegenarian's work seems to be everywhere: Pratt is holding a retrospective through November 18, Bloomingdale's just reissued her Pinnacle Tea Set in her trademark white -- and black, and of course she is found on Nambe and UnicaHome. Happy Birthday to the great mother of modern!! (Read Pure Contemporary.com's  tribute to Eva Zeisel.)

Technorati Tags: Eva Zeisel , Eva Zeisel 100th Birthday, Modern Dinnerware, Modern Design