Your Entrance, Dear




You wouldn't forget to check your lipstick, perhaps add gloss, be sure your tie was straightened and shirt tucked in. First impressions.
Your entryway might not be foremost in your mind when decorating your space, but ignoring it is like leaving the house in robe and slippers. Come on! Let your home properly and cheerfully greet and say hello to the world!
It's the first place people see when they walk in your home. If our home is our theatre stage, the director would be telling us, "Don't just arrive, make an entrance!"
Even if your entryway is just a small space, it is the place for a style statement; it sets the tone for the rest of your home. Experiment here, add drama overtones, think of your entryway as the poster for a Broadway play, it's the lead that provokes thought and wonder.
In the first photograph, see above, welcome this smallest of entryways. A 3' or so scan of wall and a bit of floor space, it is perhaps not an official entryway.
Hanging a gilded mirror and a sliver of a shelf, this entryway now has a double finger snap of fresh style.
Looking at the next photograph, can you imagine the unforgivability if this entryway/hallway were merely treated as a pass through, treated merely as a hallway? No, no no no no!
It is crying out, "let me have a chance to entertain!" This type of entryway may be considered an extension, but it also is its own little haven, punch it up.
And, the last photo..... Can't you just feel the energy of this homeowner? This home I expect has new discoveries at each turn. Again, entryways aren't places where people sit for long periods of time, it's so okay to 'over-glam' it. In this photo, in this view of the room, I feel calmness from the horizontal lines of the small artwork and of the one furniture piece, the chaise lounge. I sense this distinct piece of furniture is calling out to me, to come in and rest my toes from the harsh world.
Here are a few entryway decorating ideas.~ Mirrors are great for entryways, they add dimension (and you can check your makeup as you head out the door).
~ Assure that your entryway style connects or ties in with the rest of the house
~ Think bold
~ Tables are fun, as well as a place to sit, to put on and remove shoes
~ You might want to add a place designated for daily mail or a place to place keys
~ Sometimes entryways are also mudrooms, you may need to provide for storage, or hanging of coats, etc. Keep in mind it is properly an entryway, so efficient organization is key
~ If you have the luxury of a small lamp to place on a table, when lit it is quite welcoming.
~ A vase of flowers will give a smile to both family and visitors.

Ladies and gentlemen, have fun staging your entrys.

Recycling Emilio Pucci - Don't Tease Us!




Styled. Recycled. Preserved.

Va-va-voom, look what’s happened to your sitting room! Precious vintage fabrics from 60's groovy designers are now cool, fresh looks, how's that for recycle/go green trend. Sometimes fashion follows function, sometimes visa versa. However, Its working baby.

An exclusive little boutique RO-Living features specialty home decor items - original design. They're mixing vintage - (their collection features many out-of-print designs by distinctive Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci) and contemporary couture fabrics and textiles. Interior Design Magazine just featured them, oh, and all the shop's items are handmade, one-of-a-kind.



Brash blues, greens, turquoise and cobalt make a smash landing on this sharp, clear white palette. The Jelly Bean Kaleidoscope line is a delectable dynamo of circa 2000's Pucci fabric - with - unbelievable soft white ultrasuede. Yummm.....! And a matching ottoman, stop it, you're killing me!



The Bubblegum Cosmo Table Lamp (see photo above) lives somewhere between Georgia O’Keeffe and Austin Powers. Its got that contemporary, but still classic-lookin', Pucci print shade, with a mod wood base. The dark base does what dark bases do sometimes, when done well, they oh-so-subtlety calm and contrast nicely with adjoining wild colors, here RO-Living's got fab-wild pinks and reds. Set against a cool-colored wall, this lamp can’t help itself but also be a focal point in any room. What else can anyone want in a light source.
















The Nelson Marshmallow Couch With Customized Pucci Fabric Cushions is RO-Living's vision of this fantastically fun George Nelson classic. And they want to completely customize it, just for you... with fabrics that coordinate with your own quirky individuality, personality and decor needs.
RO-Living: Styled. Recycled. Preserved. (and Quirky!)

Fabulous Darling, Cellophane Houses! MoMA Exhibits Modern Dwellings


July 20 - October 20, 2008 MoMA Exhibit - MoMA is doing it again, gettin' jiggy full scale. Architects have taken over the New York museum's entire vacant west lot and constructing a handful of full-scale prefabricated houses. The "Fabricating, The Modern Dwelling Exhibit," represents the contextual component of the exhibition.

Sustainability And Swelling Global Population Issues - Facing sustainability and swelling global population issues, modern architects are causing prefabrication - again - to take center stage as a prime solution to a host of pressing needs. Prefab structures have long served as a central precept in the history of modern architecture, and only continues to, spurring innovative manufacturing and imaginative design. The exhibit will examine prefab potentials, such as cellophane, pressing forward to fruition the drawing board and the finished concepts.

The Cellophane House - Why a four-story transparent house? The cellophane house, one of five prefabricated homes as a museum exhibit, can comform to any site but the impetus, according to Kieran Timberlake Architects project plan, for the four-story row home was because it is typical to Philadelphia and because the firm wanted to keep the footprint small. The height of the structure forms a stack that allows the capture and release of heat from the sun, and provides ample surface area to harness solar power via the building envelope. For this exhibition, the materials are transparent and systems are exposed for demonstration purposes. In a private home, the opacity of the envelope could be modified according to the occupant’s desire for privacy and protection.

Dynamic Idea Is Revisited - While the prefabrication concept has perhaps never been more dynamic, prefab has been an idea of interest for some time, tracing back to Frank Lloyd Wright, Jean Prouve', and Richard Rogers, corporations such as Lustron, and the imaginative systems of other influential figures, including Thomas Edison and R. Buckminster Fuller.


MODA Eero Saarinen Exhibit & Tulip Table Presentation - For Fun


MODA EXHIBIT EERO SAARINEN - THRU MAY 5, 2008

Eero Saarinen is widely heralded as America's foremost architect in the 1950's and the MODA exhibit is the first ever to examine his complete range of furniture designs. This exhibit will present examples of Saarinen’s early furniture designs, sketches, photographs and descriptions of each of Saarinen’s furniture designs and collections. Knoll and MODA have provided archival examples and pieces of Saarinen’s timeless designs from current production.

Saarinen Famous Tulip Table -

I am including photos from a Turkish design blog, A Mad Tea Party With Alis, because he has produced the best collections of Saarinen's Tulip Table in different settings and expanded uses, and then teased us with chairs worthy of the table, first a collection we might lust for and the second collection, those that are stylin' and we can afford.


All photos collected By Alis - give him a round of applause, please! It is really well done. Additionally, he has given you chair examples similar to those in the photos. Alis writes, "After seeing all these examples you probably have an idea what kind of style you want to use your Saarinen table in. In order to give you more concrete ideas on what chair to get, I prepared two collages. In the first one I used very well known designer chairs, which are all beautiful objects - if you can afford them. The second has some more affordable options. Have fun!"




- Click Slideshow To Enlarge & For Captions -








Tulip Table Slideshow - Click To Enlarge


If you have design ideas but you're not sure how to bring them to fruition, I'd encourage you to make contact with an interior designer in your area, our Interior Design Guide can help you locate a interior designer. Working with a professional designer helps assure you get the look you desire while helping eliminate costly mistakes.