Escala Table

My client once made the observation that I liked furniture that have linear patterns and straight lines. It is true. However, I also like furniture with wood, leather, or fabric that are clean and not fussy, since they bring warmth to a room without adding visual clutter. Since I often mix furniture styles, I rely on clean and simple accent pieces, so that when you look at a room, you don't necessarily know what style it is. You just know that it looks good and you want to be in it. The Escala Table from Crate and Barrel is a great example of what I love. It is clean, simple, functional, and warm. Best of all, it is a chameleon. It will work in a modern room or a traditional one.

Knock-Offs or the Real Thing?

I have a friend. Let's call him, "Gene." Gene is a brand snob. He has to buy the real thing, from real designers, dead or alive. I've been eyeing these knock-offs at Sleek Spaces and the price is a lot better than the real thing. Love the pony leather in the Le Corbusier Basculant Arm Chair and how it picks up the brown wood in the Eames Lounge Chair. Of course, I need a coffee table, so I opted for the Eames black stained plywood table instead of the normal blond wood. Even if I purchased all three knock-offs, the total is still cheaper than one very real Eames Lounge Chair, at a whopping $3995 at DWR. Sleek Spaces also carries many other stainless steel accessories (Gene is a sucker for stainless steel) and they have a customer support phone number, where you talk to a real person instead of sending your questions and grievances to a database. I'll be thinking about this for awhile more, as we are painting the exterior of our house and the home improvement budget is already out of control.

Blik Wall Decals

I've been fascinated by Blik Wall Decals. These oversized surface decals allows anyone to quickly and easily create custom wallscapes in no time. Bliks are self- adhesive and removable. These would look great in the kids' room in my client's home. Blik Paisley in pink and white would look great in the girl's purple room. For the boy, I may do the Blik's Pack of Dogs or Blik Transport.