Spark Fire

(Bethel, CT, November 2009) Spark Modern Fires, award winning manufacturer of modern, clean, and elegant gas fireplaces announces a totally new direct vent “slim” fireplace designed to hang on the wall. With a viewing area of 46” X 12”, this striking new fireplace provides substantial visual impact; while its depth of only 8” presents an exceptionally lean profile. Called the Direct Vent Slim 46”, this new fireplace saves space as well as time and cost of installation. Just vent through an outside wall or the roof, hang it—and enjoy. SPARK’s signature Fire Ribbon look has never been easier.

The Direct Vent Slim 46” is the perfect width for those looking for something between SPARK’s three foot and six foot wide direct vent fireplaces. And as a hanging unit, it does not require extensive cut outs or framing. In addition to its attractive size, this innovative fireplace features a porcelain enamel interior to reflect and enhance the beauty of the flame, as well as sleek surrounds in stainless steel or black satin. Also included is a fully programmable, thermostatic remote to allow lighting and control from anywhere in the room.

About Spark Modern Fires


Spark Modern Fires was co-founded in 2005 by Tom Healy, a former custom home builder who for two decades successfully built custom homes in VA and Washington, D.C. As a custom builder, Tom found that commercially available fireplaces most often did not match the distinct décor required by the designs of the homes he was building. As a result Tom was forced to fabricate special parts for each fireplace; a process that was costly and time consuming. Seeing a need in the market, Tom set out in 2003 to develop a product line and a company that made it easier for designers and builders to use a gas fireplace as a design element in custom and unique environments. In 2005 Spark Modern Fires introduced its first Fire Ribbons which were shipped in early 2006. The market enthusiastically accepted the new products, with many being installed in high end locations such as the Ritz Carlton, Mandarin Hotels, and “W” Hotels. The new products were so well received that in 2007 and 2008 Spark Modern Fires was nominated to participate in the prestigious Interior Design Award for Best Architectural Product of the Year, winning the award in 2007 for the Fire Ribbon and finishing among the top four in 2008 for The Linear Burner.

Color Trends for 2010

Hot off the press!! As interior designers we have access to the HOME INDUSTRY COLOR FORECAST months before being released to the general public. (Choosing paint colors made easy) provided us with the colors announcement.

The popular paint colors of nature continue to dominate the color trends for 2010. However the uncertainty about the future, leads to a new direction of personal discovery and alternative thinking. Gone is the harshness of Black Satin from the 2009 palette but the carbon grays and earthen browns are again present in the 2010 three color trend collections. Gold and bronze metallics are still trendy paint colors, adding optimism in our chaotic world. The infrequent presence of blue in the three collections implies a reminder to conserve water. Vision of hope for the future is seen in yellow rays of sunshine that are sprinkled in each collection.


May the 2010 Color Schemes for Home Decorating Inspire You...

EARTHEN GODDESS


Hybrids, sustainability and concern for the earth’s vulnerability are the core of this collection. Reducing one’s carbon footprint, buying natural materials and organic food permeates our lives. When deciding what colors to paint a room, nature provides the solution.
The colors of Earthen Goddess range from moss of the forest floor to the tan and gray stones of the riverbed. Blasts of color are extracted from fruits and vegetables. These earthen organic paint colors seem to make the home feel healthier.

INNER OPULENCE


Richness in life is personally defined. Discovery of one’s uniqueness, harmony of life, and well being gains new importance. Adventure has no global boundaries. Inner opulence is complete with romance and passion.
The Inner Opulence collection has rich shades of passion purple interspersed with mulberry and fades to a pale pink. Gold metallic provides the confident luxury while soothing hues creates the harmony. Unexpected bold shades provide the adventure of the Inner Opulence.

PLAYFUL PANACHE


Playful Panache is composed of artistic, technical, and intellectual inventiveness. A new culture emerges that is daring, entertaining and flamboyant. Multitasking creates a universal need for multifunctional products. Vitality and youthful spirit crosses all generational groups.

Brilliant colors add zest to the Playful Panache collection, and dazzling bronze provides the intellectual energy. The techno green and mysterious blue are never to be seen without a color in between. Medium shades associated with the earth’s natural habitat complete this collection and provide the neutral paint colors.

New Year's Sylish Glassware

I love unusual accents and accessories, these are fabulous finds for your New Year's party and great conversational pieces for any gathering, functional and works of art

Holiday Ambiance

The holiday season, especially Christmas, is known as time for family and friends to gather. Table Ambiance offers a variety of Holiday table settings ideas to entertain your guests while they dine.

Creating a festive holiday ambiance for your holiday feast can be as fun as wrapping and unwrapping the gifts.

Are you planning a Christmas feast? If so, you know how important it is to create a festive atmosphere for your guests.

Yet, with all of the hustle and bustle associated with the holidays, searching for the perfect Christmas table setting ideas can seem nearly impossible.

Even worse, once you do find the perfect table setting, gathering all the elements necessary to pull off the ideal table layout can be difficult and quite time consuming.

But, with the help of TableAmbiance, you don't have to worry about driving store to store, searching through numerous websites, or scanning multiple magazines for the right holiday table setting ideas.

TableAmbiance.com strives to offer the best Christmas table setting ideas while making it easy for you to put it all together. This is because they offer…

· A variety of different table setting ideas for you to select from
· Easy access to all of the elements needed to put together the ideal table setting
· Simple design ideas that are easy to duplicate at home

Whether you want to create your own design with the help of their a la carte system, or you want to take one of their holiday table setting ideas and recreate it at home, you can purchase all of the design elements you need right from their site!

Tub Furniture

Black Lacquered Bathtub by Jaime Hayon

This black lacquered bathtub is from a collection designed by Jaime Hayon in 2005. The styling combines baroque and contemporary design as "modern meets old". The legs provide a bit of the baroque styling whereas the clean lines and play of black and white make it quite contemporary.

Supernova

In review of Dornbracht’s 1992 offering,Tara—a collection of vertically oriented taps and mixers that presents a clean, streamlined aesthetic—showed us that slim is good, that a simple, minimistically-designed and highly-functional faucet can become iconic within the space of 17 short years. With the Supernova line, manufacturer Dornbracht is attempting something of a reprise, though the new collection of course sports a brand new aesthetic.
By placing all the fixtures in the center of the room, and thus establishing the “island” motif, Dornbracht and Sieger Design have created “a form of architecture which becomes a solitary unit in itself.” This new creature—the “island” bathroom—establishes the sense of spacious luxury at the nexus of the Supernova aesthetic. And this aesthetic is both innovative and pervasive, since the futuristic angular “shower wall” that emerges from the center of the room, very like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, is patterned in turn (and precise miniaturized replica) by the basin and tub mixers, while the whole ensemble (the series includes proximal shower seating as well as tub-side shelves or counter-space) mirrors the hard angles and precise lines of the central architectural element.

As Dornbracht puts it, “the result is an island in the room which places all of the functions and zones of the bathroom right at the very centre… upon closer inspection of the exposed design, it becomes clear that the high-gloss surfaces of the fittings constantly reflect the island’s individual laguna-like water zones.” The unified nature of shower, tub, and mixers indeed establishes this motif of reflection, a theme that’s also suggested in, as Dornbracht says, the way the fixtures’ finish (available in chrome, champagne, or platinum) reflects the water back upon itself. In sum, Supernova is very like the name might suggest, “an extremely luminous burst of colorful radiation, occurring about once every 50 years.” Let’s hope this bathroom collection, like the earlier Tara, shines on for many years to come

All Modern

Felt everyone would enjoy viewing the All Modern site. I found the accessories fun and classic.

Although, I showed you a few accessories they also inventory furniture, lighting, rugs, and much more. Also check out their upcoming giveaway, for a chance to win something fun and unique for your home!

Italia

B&B Italia's Up Furniture Series Celebrates its 40th Anniversary

Before they became B&B Italia, the company of C&B Italia and Gaetano Pesce collaborated to create the Up series in 1969. This collaboration brought together the furniture industry and an artist on the Up project. Gaetano Pesce brought his influence to the project and in particular his own personal interpretation of women as viewed by society. He stated, "I was telling a personal story about my notion of women: despite themselves, women have always been prisoners of their own making. Along these lines, I liked the idea of giving this armchair a feminine shape with a ball and chain, the traditional image of the prisoner." Thus, was the inspiration that created Up 5_6 which is now an iconic piece of furniture history. The "ball and chain" chair and ottoman set were reproduced in 2000 with improved upholstery and manufacturing techniques. The Up series remains a popular part of B&B Italia's furniture line. Via.

Baby, it's Cold Outside

If you’re looking for something that combines the modern and the traditional, this collection of wood-burning fireplaces has something to suit every style. The Dinamico flamed copper finish is warm with a twist, while it’s also available in the Dinamico grey satin finish for a cooler, more contemporary aesthetic. Sliding steel doors on either side are adorned with simple square cutouts for added interest, set in front of tempered glass.










The Linea fireplace is an ultra-modern fixture that’s an instant focal point in your living room, den, library or bedroom. The stove’s bold, black finish and slightly pyramid shape complement the upward direction of its flame, which is visible through a tempered glass door. For a touch of Nordic style in your home, check out the Linea fireplace.

The Labirinto and Dedalo are modern fireplaces with an artistic edge. This grey painted steel frame features inserts in black and white for a bold, bicolor statement. The horizontal shape appeals to more traditional settings, while the vertical fireplace design also works well in compact urban homes or rooms with tall ceilings.

Floating Beds

Lago’s Fluttua is not its only unusual characteristic, or even its most unusual one: what we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a gravity-defying bed… and we haven’t even left the earth’s orbit yet (so far as we know). Fluttua isn’t the only piece to play with our Newtonian expectations. We’ve seen the amazing, evaporating legs of the Fade Out Chair, as well as the inscrutable two-legged balancing act of Duffy London’s Shadow Chair, but never before have we witnessed such comprehensive airiness in a place of repose. The ostensibly floatational character of Fluttua is ideal in a bed, for what other symbolic/metaphoric device better evokes an idealized slumber? Defying the very pull of the earth, Fluttua’s fortunate inhabitants would seem to become weightless as they slept, drifting into the land of nod atop so many diaphanous and vaporous clouds.

The illusion is lovely, and I believe it will foster the best kind of dream-less sleep, but as the better half of Penn and Teller knows, a great trick only becomes more beautiful when its secret is revealed. Lago knows this as well, so they don’t deign to inform us that the bed’s levitational appearance is achieved via a simple cantilevered concept: the bed frame is mounted to the wall at one end, while a single pedestal foot in the center provides the structural lynchpin for the perfect distribution of weight around the bed’s circumference. The strategy achieves a sort of 360 degree cantilever—distinct from most cantilevered structures, which distribute weight along a rectangular plane. The supportive foot is “hidden,” from most perspectives, because it’s low to the ground and thus out of sight, or obscured by “perfectly” arranged coverlets and duvets. But even with the backstage mechanics of Fluttua revealed, the piece remains exceptionally enchanting. And, if you believe the fairy tales, a nightly dose of enchantment is the perfect segue to the wonderful rejuvenation of deep sleep.

Little Drummer

Sometimes a trend sneaks up on you. By the time you notice its pervasiveness it is all around you.

In glossy publications like Architectural Digest and even at your local mass retailer (a sure sign of overexposure). Recently the object in question is the ceramic garden stool. Once reserved for Asian inspired interiors and Japanese gardens, this versatile item is popping up everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Granted, the object itself is not new. Nor is its use in well-designed homes. But over the past year its popularity has soared to such a degree that it has become hard to open a magazine without noticing one tucked into the frame.

If you’re a trend watcher, you’ve no doubt noticed chinoiserie filtering down from luxe hotels to your neighbor’s dining room. As nouveau Asian works its way through the trade publications and high-end design firms it was only a matter of time before these iconic ceramic drums made their appearance in the mass market. And as we are wont to do, modern designers are adding a fresh spin on the iconic form. Classic white stools can still be seen serving as tables, ottomans and extra seating. But my favorite iteration is the mirrored variety making appearances in sleek hotel lounges and posh shops where it is left to the guest to decide whether to rest upon it or place a drink on its glistening surface.-via