Beautiful Things

While shopping for a few furniture items today I found a great shop and the name truly says it all, " Karen's Beautiful Things", they began in 1986 as Karen's Boutique, located in the quaint Reynolda Village in Winston-Salem, NC, adjacent to Wake Forest University. The small but charming boutique was filled with exquisite lingerie and romantic dresses, reminiscent of the Victorian Era. Being a designer myself, I was very impressed the way the store was arranged so beautifully. Everywhere your eye roamed, there was another breathtaking item, I spent over 1,000. in my mind immediately!!!!! I did purchase the animal print ottoman shown in the last picture, it worked well with my pillow and animal/oriental accents. I already have plans to purchase a lovely animal accent chair next month, which will complete the finishing touch in my family room.


During time in Winston-Salem, Karen was a flight attendant for the former Piedmont Airlines. On one of her flights, she met her future husband, Bobby Holder, who owned an Art and Antiques business. They married in 1991, merged their businesses, and relocated to historic Dilworth - a suburb of Charlotte. The business was renamed "Karen's Beautiful Things", inspired by many customers who came into the shop and commented on how BEAUTIFUL everything was. They soon outgrew this location and the business moved to McMullen Creek Marketplace south of Charlotte. After 3 more years, they moved to the Park 51 Shopping Center south of Charlotte and filled it to the brim with treasures from all over the globe.

Karen's Beautiful Things is proud to announce that as of June 1, 2009 they have left the Park Rd location and moved to a Beautiful and more exciting space. They are now centrally located in the Arboretum Shopping Center. (see Map below) They still have all the Beautiful Things, Clothing and Accessories that Karen's is known for as well as delightful vignettes with new home decor and furnishings, antique furniture, and home accessories from as far away as England and the Netherlands. Karen and Bobby stay busy on frequent buying trips, always finding unique and unusual pieces! They now have a quaint area filled with vintage clothing & accessories reminiscent of the days gone by.


Brian, their son, is a partner and buyer for the business. He graduated from Kings College with a degree in Retail Management, Purchasing, and Advertising. He brings with him over 18 years of retail experience. Brian has managed stores from Gadzooks to Stein Mart and decided to follow his family's dream and become a part of Karen's Beautiful Things.


And the MOST unique feature of Karen's Beautiful Things - is their Unique Greeter - Gracie! Gracie is a small Yorkie with big personality. As Karen's "Official Greeter", she is a major contributor to the charm and "GRACE" of Karen's Beautiful Things.
While browsing, I found Gracie sleeping on the ottoman I was interested in buying, I thought she was a toy until she raised her sweet head to look at me, startled me because I thought she was a toy.

You'll always be well taken care of at Karen's Beautiful Things. Karen greeted me, complimenting me on my choices of lamps which were gorgeous oriental and of course, my taste gravitates toward the most expensive everything, however, the price was quite resonable for the unique quality and size.

There are always New Arrivals!!

8042 Providence Rd, Suite 900 Charlotte, NC 28277

Arboretum Shopping Center at the corner of Pineville-Matthews Rd. and Providence Rd.

If you live in Charlotte, the shop, is a must visit. If you are visiting Charlotte you can ask anyone on the street where the Arboretum Shopping Center is located and they will know, it is one of our cities quaint shopping experiences in the city.

Tile Trends for 2010

Last year I introduced you to Ideal, Tile Studio Group, Giuseppe keeps me informed of all the new lines. I love these and I know you will find them unusual and classy as well.

Portable Warmth

A more traditional coffee table with smokeless biofire designed by Planika Studio. The square shape and brown colour make it ideal for modern yet traditional interiors. Arranging Square in the front room, you will add the luxury of design and the richness of real smokeless fire to your living space. Employing the patented Glassfire® Technology, Square allows you to enjoy real flames without worrying about installation, smoke or ashes.

It’s a “lighthouse” in every sense of the work – a beacon in outdoor entertaining, a portable outdoor fireplace that runs on ethanol. According to its maker, Planika, the main idea behind the Lighthouse fireplace was “to adorn spaces and to navigate people to wander inside a fire lit dwelling. People are naturally attracted to beauty and have been naturally attracted to fire ever since the first spark.” A simple stone base is capped by an artistic web which encloses the fire itself – the real star of the show that burns a clean-burning fuel. These portable fireplaces help make your outdoors warm, alive with dancing light and buzzing with conversation. For more info on the Lighthouse ethanol fireplace, visit Planika.

Futuristic Faucet

Making bathroom tasks less of a chore, these amazing futuristic faucet designs by Hego WaterDesign are the latest and greatest must-have. I.WO and I.WO.e are the newest series of smart faucets designed by Davide Vercelli, featuring two interfaces – a mechanical design that lets you control the water temperature and the flow separately, and an electronic design which puts the controls at your fingertips with touch buttons. The stylish one-touch bathroom faucets look cool too, boasting a sleek stainless steel style suited to any contemporary bathroom. And adding ergonomics into the fix, this modern faucet comes with a spout which can be angled to your needs, bringing customizable comfort to your bathroom. Check out these amazing one touch and mechanical touch bathroom faucets at Hego WaterDesign.

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!