Tag: furniture

Green Thought Thursday: Green Decor

Josephine ButlerBlog, Furniture PR, , , , , , , , ,

We thought we’d do things a little bit differently this Green Thought Thursday. In celebration of one of our favorite holidays of the year, Saint Patrick’s Day, we’ve decided to share a recent blog we wrote for our client Drexel Heritage. Enjoy!

These days, green is everywhere. From emerald to jade, jasper to sage (and even environmentally), everyone and everything is going green. Right now, we’re spotting different shades of green all around us, from Pinterest to the runway to right here in the Drexel Heritage showroom – and just in time: Saint Patrick’s Day is just around the corner!

To celebrate the approaching holiday, we’d like to revisit a quote from our resident designer, Denise Alala. “Green is the ultimate perennial – the color of nature,” she said. “But a new incarnation is just starting to emerge.”

Denise took note of this in Fifth Avenue windows and SoHo boutiques during a trip to New York early last year. Now, her ideas have taken shape on the showroom floor. Here are a few of our favorites:

Nothing says sleek sophistication like Denise’s green leather desk with lustrous silver nailhead trim.
Invoke feelings of calm and relaxation with this muted green sofa. Want to make it pop? Toss in a few striped pillows.
Sick of the same old solids? Create an interesting focal point in your living room with this Missoni-inspired side table in differing shades of neutral greens.
Go green or go home. This sofa table will turn heads with its bright acid green leather upholstery.

What are your favorite shades of green? We’d love to hear your thoughts, and happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

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Trends Tuesday: COLOR!

Dana PhelpsBlog, Trends, , , , , 2 Comments on Trends Tuesday: COLOR!

Want to know the latest trends? Tune in on Trends Tuesday!

One of our favorite sources for fashion trends is InStyle Magazine, and this month’s issue has a step-by-step dressing-for-work guide with a story called 5 Ways to Wake Up Your Work Wardrobe! We couldn’t help notice how similar these trends are to the very ones we are seeing in our work with our home furnishings and interior design clients, so today is the first of a 5-part series that explores how these concepts can add some pizazz to your closet as well as throughout your home.

Anthropologie shoes!

Tip #1: Add in Color — The concept is easy to apply, especially if you wear mostly neutrals at the office: Select a boldly hued separate in a work-appropriate shape (such as a tailored skirt or cuffed trousers) and swap it into your usual ensemble. A vibrant shoe or bag does the trick too.

I think the words work-appropriate are key here. In the office, a little goes a long way. In addition to the examples in the article, here are a few colorful pieces that caught my eye while doing a little online browsing:

What are we seeing  with color trends in home fashions? Check out this post by Drexel Heritage (Clairemont client), Arrested by Color, that talks about intoxicating reds, not-your-granny’s green and  wild blue yonder to get an idea. And from what we saw in the Thomasville Furniture showroom (also a Clairemont client) at the spring and fall High Point Furniture Market, Thomasville already knows the secret behind mixing classic shapes with bright colors.

Thomasville’s homepage shows classic sofa shapes in bright colors.

Need more color inspiration? Go to the Kate Spade website where you can shop by color for Kate’s holiday gift guide and check out this video from the Kate Spade blog called Give Colorfully.

I for one have always been a big fan of color and lots of it. The resurgence of bright colors makes me happy and makes me want to repaint my entire house. How about you? Tickled pink to see brights back in the spotlight? Or feeling blue that neutrals are taking a backseat?

 

 

 

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Hey Chicago, Have a Seat (On Thomasville)

Dana PhelpsBlog, Clairemont Client News, , ,

Chicago is truly one of my favorite cities. As an Illinois native, maybe it is just in my blood. Maybe (and I’m dating myself here) the experience of being in Grant Park (in a tree no less — I’m short, remember) for the homecoming after the first Bulls championship forever bonded me. Maybe it’s just because I love Al’s Super Soaker.

Regardless, I wish I could be there Thursday evening for an interior design event that Thomasville (our client) is hosting at its new Lincoln Park store on Clybourn Avenue at 6 p.m. It will feature Thomasville’s fashion forecaster, Jana Burvikovs, who I met and instantly fell in love with at furniture market earlier this year.

You can tell Jana is a style maven with just a glance. She is also a sincerely kind person who is very passionate about interior design. If you can go Thursday, do it! You won’t be sorry. Here’s the invite.

The chance to win a free Thomasville chair is so secondary to the experience of meeting Jana and getting her design advice, that I almost forgot to mention it. Yes, the store will give-away a Thomasville chair. If you can go, please take some photos and/or video for me since I can’t be there!

 

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A Rose By Any Other Name…Might not be as Marketable

Dana PhelpsBlog, Furniture PR, Public Relations, Starting a business, , , , ,

Last month I had the honor of guest blogging on Spin Sucks about the art of naming. Since then, Clairemont has named three furniture collections that debuted last week at furniture market, so we thought it would be appropriate to share the post in its entirety on our blog, too. We hope you will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed naming the new collections!

A sampling of the furniture we named that was introduced during fall market.

In a few weeks, I’ll experience my annual ritual of kicking off Fall Furniture market by walking into the showroom and checking out my client’s toenails as I greet her. Yes, her toenails.

My client and I share a love. A love of OPI Nail Lacquer. Take a fashionable color, add a fun, catchy name such as Kiss on the Chic, Gliterzland from the Swiss collection or the best-selling I’m Not Really a Waitress Red, and it goes from a hue we might select once at the nail salon to a bottle we’ll buy to use again and again.

If you’ve ever started a company, you had to name it. If you lead a company or are in marketing, public relations or advertising, you’ve likely been asked to help name a product or campaign. It might not be nail polish, but chances are you want your target audience to respond the way OPI fans do. How do you do that?

Too bad it isn’t as simple as comedian Mitch Hedberg portrayed it to be. “I want to get a job as someone who names kitchen appliances. Toaster, refrigerator, blender….all you do is say what it does and add ‘er’. Hey, what does that do? It keeps shit fresh. Well that’s a fresher….I’m going on break.”

Start with some inspiration. From Altoids to Zima by Evan Morris tells the story behind 125 well-known brands. Morris writes that once upon a time, naming a product was as simple as taking the manufacturer’s name and adding a product description, such as Smith’s Pure and Effective Cough Syrup. Nowadays, as Morris notes, companies often create new words for brands. Google started as “googol,” a word that the nine-year-old nephew of a mathematician made up to mean a “very, very large number, ten raised to the hundredth power.”

Continue reading “A Rose By Any Other Name…Might not be as Marketable”

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