TheDesignFile

Home tour: European elegance, modern spaces

The Indianapolis Star has put its weekly home tour on its web site and it's a great one! This is the lavish, 9,200 square foot home of Stephen and Jane Goldberg in Carmel.

It's a European style place with big, formal furnishings, light fixtures and accessories. But the bright basement is more simple and modern with cozy leather and contemporary art. My favorite spaces are the gorgeous curving staircase and the three sided bar that is perfect for any party. Check it out for yourself here (and thanks to the Indy Star for making the photos available):

At Home With the Goldbergs - More The Indianapolis Star Galleries

View this gallery at The Indianapolis Star: At Home With the Goldbergs

All done: Final change finishes our virtual room!

Designer Brendan Kwinter weighs in on results

It was never a contest.

In the last decision in our virtual designer room makeover, voters overwhelmingly voted to switch out the $60 vintage bench (see below left) from eBay for a couple X benches from Ballard Designs (shown in the final room collage). The ottomans eat up the last of our $3,000 budget so we finish the room with no accessories.

Still, readers seemed happy about the decision -- as did Brendan Kwinter, the New York designer who created the room that served as our inspiration.

Brendan has been watching the process from afar and resisted commenting because she didn't want to affect the outcome.

"The first thing that I was reminded of early on is how important it is, when doing a room, to have all of the pieces picked out before purchasing any of them!" Brendan wrote to me this week. "The green bench is a perfect example.  It seemed fine early on before many other pieces were chosen.

Brendan said what she didn't catch immediately "was how the shapes of the furniture would become so important -- the long straight sofa with the long straight coffee table with the long straight bench.

"The shape of the bench, in the end, did not work at all - in my opinion," she said. "That was a faux pas that became apparent only when viewing all of the pieces together."

Spotlight: Inhabit's new "Modern Classics" line

I'm crazy about the new Modern Classics products from Inhabit, an Indianapolis-based online store and designer of fabulous pillows, linens and other products.

These pillows, fabric panels and wall canvases celebrate some of the design industry's most influential and popular modern furnishings throughout the decades. Silhouettes of these fantastic chairs are printed on sustainable materials and produced in some fantastic colors, including sunflower, chocolate, scarlet, and cornflower.

You can order Inhabit products at the company's website, www.InhabitLiving.com, or watch for them in stores across the country.

In the collage, from left to right, top to bottom:

• 1951 in Cornflower and Chocolate fabric panel, $238
• 1946 in Rust and Chocolate pillow, $60
• 1956 in Sunflower and Chocolate pillow, $60
• Modern Classic 2 in Scarlet and Sunflower fabric panel, $119
• 1948 in Lime canvas, $72
• 1929 in Cornflower and Chocolate canvas, $72

Much anticipated IKEA catalog now on web site

Regular readers know what a huge IKEA fan I am and so I'm excited to share that the retailer - who has locations near Cincinnati and Chicago - this week unveiled its 2010 catalog.

Although not yet mailed to customers, the catalog is now available on the IKEA web site. I haven't had time to fully browse the book yet, but according to the company, it's filled with "new offerings from IKEA as well as new, lower prices on many of the quality items consumers have loved in their homes for years." Check out the IKEA LACK tables at right.

"While the IKEA 2010 catalog debuts brand new items to make everyday life better at home, it also showcases the brand's deliberate thinking to offer lower prices on favorite products," the company says.

For example, in 1985, the KLIPPAN sofa sold for $395. In 2010, KLIPPAN is only $249.

"By designing smarter, using materials more efficiently and reducing transportation costs, IKEA continues to ensure customers get more for less money," the company says in a release about the catalog.

The new lower prices on many items will roll out throughout the year.

And here's my favorite line of the news release: "At IKEA, we are not happy until it's free," said Marty Marston, product public relations manager for IKEA U.S. Now that would make for some busy stores!

IKEA promises that shoppers can find "wallet-friendly inspiration" and new products for every room in the 2010 catalog, including:

• Living Room - To celebrate its 30th birthday, a limited edition of KLIPPAN sofas -dressed in its very first cover, BLADHULT (at right) - will be released. Also debuting are new improvements to the Scandinavian classic POANG chair (upper left), including a wider selection of frames, fabrics and leather to suit different styles, and a rocking chair to add to relaxation.
• Kitchen - IKEA can furnish an entire kitchen with its brand new appliance line, including: 1) French-door refrigerators, 2) energy-efficient dishwashers, 3) 24 or 30-inch thermal or convection ovens, 4) gas or electric stove ranges, and 5) range hoods with built-in halogen lighting. Plus, all items come with a five-year limited warranty. The popular IKEA 365+ line is also growing with the addition of GNISTRA, a line of sturdy kitchen knives with a 15-year warranty.
• Adult Bedroom - Look no further than the bedroom to spot two home décor trends for 2010. Grey, the achromatic hue of the year, is elegantly brought to life by designers T. Christensen and K. Legaard with EDLAN collection (at right), and the retro chic wood tone, walnut, makes a comeback with designer Henrik Preutz's ENGAN collection.
• Child's Room - Give your child a new place to rest their head with the VYSSA mattress for children, designed to be firm, dry and safe using only child-friendly materials. Also new is the LEN STJÄRNA quilt, made of a renewable cellulose-based material friendly to the environment.

Etsy pick: Shop offers mid-century furnishings

If you're a mid-century modern furnishings buff -- or even if you'd just like to spice up your decor with a retro piece or two -- you've got to check out Lunar Lounge Design's etsy store.

I love these pieces. Although they're influenced by Eames and the other great designers of the time, these furnishings have their own unique feel -- funky and fun.

"Hands down, the best furniture on Etsy," said decorator Robin Callan on her blog, Room Fu.  "Reasonably priced, simple designs, good quality."

The pieces are all handmade when ordered and the company works to be environmentally conscious.

"We believe that good design should be available to people of all walks of life and we work hard at building furniture that is your best value for the money," says Jonathan Sebastian, founder of the Canada-based store, on its website. "We create unique, stylish and timeless furniture pieces for unique stylish people."

That's a great description of the store's selection. Check out some of the pieces above. And when you shop at the site, tell them The Design File sent you.

From top row, left: Booma-mid coffee table, $99; Mid Century Leentu Lounge Chair, $459

Middle row: Argyle Shelving Unit Mid Century Eames Era Furniture design, $400; Kidney Bean Coffee Table, $109 each

Bottom row: The Havana “Retro” Lounge chair and ottoman, $899; Ply-Bak Love Seat, $429

How to get a new look for much less

Yesterday I showed you the results of my enclosed porch redecoration, which I managed for less than $300. Granted, it's a very small room. But I was excited about some of the ways I found to save cash.

Here's how I did it:

Use materials in creative ways

I really wanted to add curtains to this space to make it feel less like a porch and more like a room. But I couldn't stomach the cost of nearly 25 feet of curtain rod. It was going to cost $150 or more. So I bought some inexpensive galvanized metal conduit along with some couplings and hung it with oversized cup hooks. Total cost: $14. It's not something I would do in a formal dining room, but on a porch with grommet-top panels, it worked perfectly and was an incredibly easy installation.

Create your own art

I wanted something colorful just to the left of the front door where there's a small strip of floor to ceiling brick. But I didn't want to spend much or put anything too valuable in place where it could get bleached by the sun. So I picked up a packet of scrapbook paper from a $1 bin that coordinated with my other colors and framed the pieces using some square, shadow box-style frames I'd picked up a few years earlier.

Reuse and recycle

The chandelier on the porch is one I'd bought at IKEA for just $40 about eight years ago (it's still available at that price today). When we replaced the chandelier recently with a much more modern piece, I tucked this black one away for use on the porch. My husband had to do a bit of rewiring so that we had enough slack to swag it from the center of the room to the spot over the table, but we didn't change anything else. I love it on the porch more than I did over the dining table.

Search remnants and the clearance bin

One of the biggest costs of this redo was replacing the horrible green carpeting with a more neutral carpet and linoleum. We found both in remnant bins at Menards. The carpet cost us only about $60 and the linoleum about $25. My husband laid it himself.

I found the green fabric on deep discount and bought just a little bit, enough to serve as an overlay for a more neutral and very inexpensive table cloth, which also was on clearance. The curtains were 20 percent off - just $18 per panel.

I really bought only a few things at full price -- the $15 stool/side table and $20 pillow from Target and two plants that were about $20 total.

Shop your own house

It's surprising how many things I pulled out of basement storage for this project. Not only did the gold initials on the wall, the vintage fan and the candle holders come from a pile of old stuff in the basement's back corner, but the gorgeous folding chairs came from downstairs too.

My husband built these before we were married so he'd have extra seating for company. They were never intended to be part of the everyday decor. But why not? They're made of solid red oak with beautiful brass hardware. They should be shown off! And this was the perfect place to do it.

Also, I must admit I actually bought a $130, retro-style chair for the space, but my husband liked it so much he insisted we use it in the living room. That freed up the chair at right (which we'd bought for just $100 from Walmart years ago) for the porch. I thought at first it might be too big but I really like the way it looks with the curtains. It warms up the space.

I hope you have as much fun - and save as much money - on your next project as I did on my porch. Send me a picture and tell me how you did it.

New bookcase from IKEA offers additional options

This is another in a series of posts highlighting some of the new products from IKEA that I found during a recent visit to the store just outside Cincinnati.

The EXPEDIT bookcase series is one of the store's most popular, offering an array of really practical, stylish options for storing all your stuff. This summer, IKEA has introduced a new piece that breaks away from the traditional symmetry of the EXPEDIT line. It's fantastic.

In this $119 bookcase, which is not yet shown on the IKEA web site, the sizes of the cubbies are vared, allowing you to really mix up your accessories.

There are two of the bookcases shown in the photo at right along with the $99 TULLSTA chair and the $39 LUSY rug.

A porch redo for under $300

With the help of some good girlfriends, I recently finished redecorating our enclosed porch, which serves as a sort of entryway for our house, a great spot to read a book and an overflow space at Thanksgiving and other gatherings. (And my kitty, Emmy, whom you can see in some of the photos later in the post, thinks the room is all hers!)

At right, you can see the results, which I managed for just under $300 largely by using furniture I already had. Today, I'm going to show you some photos and go over the basics. Then tomorrow, I'm going to share some of the specific ways I saved a lot of money in this space.

Below at right, you can see the before.

Shortly after I purchased my little brick house 12 years ago, my wonderful mom helped me decorate the porch. We painted it yellow and she brought me the cute little settee and coffee table you can see in the photo. She also made slip covers for a couple white plastic chairs using a navy and natural ticking fabric along with a slew of cute, coordinating pillows and cushions. She did such a great job that it even distracted from the awful, worn green carpeting a previous owner had installed.

The finished room really looked cute and we used it a lot, especially when we had company. In the photo above, the room is actually set up for Thanksgiving, with a big coffee pot, mugs and other drinks. There's also a rocker in the photo that is usually in the living room. Naturally, I forgot to take a typical "before" photo and was stuck with this one.

But after a dozen years I was ready for a change. The country/cottage feeling of the furnishings didn't fit my aesthetic anymore and I wanted to replace the ceiling fan with a light fixture.

So in May, I embarked on a mission to redecorate the porch without breaking the bank, and then during a recent girls weekend, my friends helped me put the room together.

Read on for details and more photos:

Design Star: Kitchen challenge too much for one team

Niki L. is doing a series of guest posts for us recapping Sunday night episodes of HGTV's Design Star. Let us know what you think of each episode by commenting below!

The dreaded-kitchen renovation comes early this season – episode 2 of HGTV’s Design Star.

The annual highlight of the reality show usually involves some questionable decisions and at least one team not finishing the room.

 

So let’s see how this year’s designers do with the 26-hour challenge.

 

The 10 finalists are split into two teams after Amy and Nathan randomly get the gold star paint cans and are deemed team leaders. Then they pick the rest of their team playground-style.

 

Team #1 is Nathan, Antonio, Jen, Jason and Torie.

Team #2 is Amy, Dan, Jany, Lonni and Tashica.

 

The leaders are pretty excited until host Clive Pearse tells them it’s time for a kitchen remodel. Amy especially is concerned that she doesn’t have the practical skills to pull it off.

Design Translation: Rethinking the ottomans

COMMENTS CLOSED

As regular readers know by now, we've been working for several weeks on a virtual makeover of an inspiration room by New York designer Brendan Kwinter-Schwartz of Kwinter & Co.

The very first decision readers made was to replace the green ottomans in the room with a bench from eBay. It was a choice that seemed largely driven by the budget. The bench was just $60, which was a great start to making over the room for less than $3,000.

But the voting seemed to indicate that if the budget were no object, two X benches by Jonathan Adler would have won. At $1,390 for a pair, however, readers didn't believe they were a realistic option.

Later, though, I found some X benches from Ballard Designs that were very similar but cost much less - $526 for two. The color is definitely not as rich as the Adler benches or the ottomans in the inspiration room. Still, the price is exactly what we have left in our budget.

So I'm giving readers a chance to reconsider the choice of the eBay bench. If you want to stick with the $60 bench, we'll have lots of money left over for some fantastic accessories for the room.

If you choose to go with the Ballard Designs X benches, though, we won't have any money left for accessories.

Don't forget to take a look at the inspiration room (above) and the collage depicting all our choices so far (at right) as you make your decision.

The choice is yours! Just tell us in the comments below whether you want to stick with the eBay bench or go with the Ballard Designs X ottomans.