One of the things I plan on purchasing for the kitchen/great room is a wine rack. I would like to have a display rack or maybe even a table with a wine rack underneath. I wouldn’t need much, since I wouldn’t keep more than 6 or so bottles on hand at a time. Most of the wine racks I’ve seen have the bottles arranged in a way that you would have to pull out the bottle to read the label – that’s not very conducive when guests have to pull each bottle out just to see which wine they will enjoy.
This one caught my eye because of the cool puzzle shape and would brighten up a countertop. The Puzzle Wine Rack by Gideon Dagan. Available at the SFMoma store.
If I end up with wall space near the kitchen, I am also considering a wall rack. I found this one to be useful in its simple and utilitarian design (labels are shown). Though, I’m not sure how wine bottles fare when all the weight is on the neck. Rosendahl winetube winerack available at Atmosphere.
I also saw this Wine Finer at the SFMoma store – it filters and decants wine as it is being poured – neato! No need for a separate decanter.
Now here is a tool that more furniture retailers should offer. The Raymour & Flanigan room planner is a flash tool where you can input the dimensions of your room, then tweak the layout – add walls, add angles, and other misc furniture. This will help me immensely in planning a general layout of what furniture I would like; and help me decide if I will go with one large sectional, or a couple smaller pieces.
This could be fun to have around the house during the morning sunlight hours. You can groove to some music and this Kikkerland Design disco spinner while making your morning coffee. The solar cell atop this spinner powers the mini motor, which then centrifugal forces will cause the sides to stick out farther. [via Gizmodo]
Consumerist features an article on tips for online furniture shoppers – straight from the mouth of an industry insider. Here’s the gist
Time is money. Buy locally, even if it’s more expensive. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Now here’s the tips:
1. CALL THE RETAILER. Speak with a human. Ask some of the following questions.
2. Do you have a brick and mortar storefront? Most legit furniture retailers will deal with the pubic personally by having a storefront. If the location is near to you, opt to visit them and look around their showroom before placing a purchase online. In most cases the furniture will be more expensive, but you can get a feel for how they take care of their property. This will follow over into the way they take care of their customers and their freight (if shipped from THEIR warehouse)
3. If they have a warehouse, ask for a tour. Take a look at the way they warehouse employees act and handle the packages. What the retailer expects of its employees is what they expect from their manufacturers.
4. If the retailer is located in a different state, do not be afraid to ask off-the-wall questions. Ask them how long they’ve been in business, even if it’s posted on their website.
5. Ask them if they are a member of the Better Business Bureau. If so, inquire about their standings with the organization. Verify this against their actual standings on www.bbb.org
6. Ask them what the furniture is made of, and if it can be configured in a number of different ways.
7. Ask them about the shipping procedure and how long it takes for the order to be processed.
8. Ask them about how long it takes for the order to be processed -in the warehouse-
9. Ask them how long it takes for the trucking company to come and pick it up
10. Ask them if you will be notified and WHEN you will be notified and HOW (email, phone)
Keep reading…
Continue reading “20 Online Furniture Buying Tips”
Very clever wallpaper made to look like an antique pattern – except it’s comprised of Ants. An entire bathroom in this pattern would be pretty cool I imagine. [via Boingboing]
After bugging a certain ebay seller about their Marimekko towels, they pointed me to the Wexner Center for the Arts store. Very neat online store – they carry a variety of Marimekko offerings and many other items such as these Wool Runners by Angela Adams.
Floor lamp in the shape of branches – I like! but WAIT – how much is it? $6350 eek! Wired Custom Lighting’s Branch Environ – 7-feet of solid Honduran mahogany. [via SFgate]
After seeing fabric wall hangings being offered by Inhabit I decided for sure that I would have a large stretched fabric wall hanging to display in my great room. Probably above the fireplace. I liked what Inhabit had to offer, particularly the wall slats, 
but their stretched fabric offerings were not big enough. So then I started looking into making my own, and stumbled upon this reseller of DIY kits. I especially liked their selection of trees, flowers, and leaves prints – but I want something more conversational; not just a piece that looks good, but something with some history. I found out about Marimekko from one of the many decorating blogs I frequent and liked the variety of looks by different designers. 
From my research, I learned that Marimekko has been in the textile industry since 1951 and made a large impact on the fashion industry. Unfamiliar to the textile and fashion industry, all of this is mysterious and alluring. The wiki says “They are particularly noted for brightly-colored printed fabrics and simple styles.” I’m sold. I like patterns, prints, and simple styles.
Something keeps drawing me back to prints of nature. Particularly tree branches and simple flowers. I guess growing up around flowery decorations by my mom really did have an impact on me. Or maybe it’s because I moved to the Seattle area and really turned into an “outdoorsy,” person a big change from my Bay Area-self.
Marimekko prints are on all kinds of items and sold through tons of different channels. I am particularly fond of their Kaiku print, which I discovered off of tea towels on Ebay. 
This print can be bought as a repeating piece here – which I am still unsure if I want to do so or not. Considering the colors in my kitchen, I am not sure how green will look. Perhaps I can buy this piece and hang it in the spring time and have other accessories around to complete the “spring” look. Rotate out the stuff in the room to give it a different feeling. All these ideas are going to hurt the wallet if I follow through…
If I end up with wall space near the kitchen, I am also considering a wall rack. I found this one to be useful in its simple and utilitarian design (labels are shown). Though, I’m not sure how wine bottles fare when all the weight is on the neck. Rosendahl winetube winerack available at Atmosphere.
