Shop Small Saturday!

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend and shopping small today!  All Christa Pirl furniture, custom and vintage throw pillows are 30% off through December 1st.  Email me for more details.  christa@christapirlinteriors.com

MY NEW FAVORITE LIGHTING COMPANY

I seem to fall totally in love with one lighting manufacturer at a time, go through several months where I only use their fixtures, and then move on to someone else.  Kind of like an exotic affair in a foreign country that one eventually wakes from.  Well, my latest love in lighting is Hinkley.  They are well priced, have a great 'updated tradition' look, and are also good quality.  Some of my current favorite lines are-

The Hampton series which were just installed in a project, the great thing about this line is that you can use the series without everything feeling too matchy-matchy, there is plenty of variation the sizes and shapes which is so important-

I also love the Ion, going into another project soon, this one can be extended or collapsed to suit the size required in the space and available in 3 cool finishes-

And a few others I just love for their design...

WHY I LOVE HOME GOODS

I know, all you other designers out there are cringing...but honestly, I do love Home Goods, the home store extension of TJ Maxx, and I will tell you why.  Living in Utah presents some significant hurdles when practicing interior design.  One major hurdle is finding good sources for accessories.  Sure, I can purchase items online, but that is just not always convenient.  I often accessorize homes after I have completed renovations for my clients, which typically entails my going out, purchasing items, and then bring them all to the home and trying everything out to see what works best.  I then return anything that is not needed.  You see ordering a ton of things online is not exactly the easiest way to go about this. 

So I try to purchase at least the majority of items here in Salt Lake.  That means I am really limited to Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, (finally a Crate& Barrel which opened about 2 months ago), Ikea, and a few select unique boutiques that charge and arm and sometimes a leg for their cool accessories.  There are great consignment stores here, but one is not able to return anything in these stores, so I can easily end up with excess accessories.

And then there is Home Goods.  What I enjoy about Home Goods is that while yes, there is a lot of bad holiday decor and bad art and ugly furniture-

there is also quite a goldmine of reasonably priced, different and somewhat one-off (at least one-off in Utah) accessories- if you have the time to dig.  One certainly has to do an extreme search, but it can be very rewarding.  And of course the bonus is that I can return anything that does not work for my projects. 

And while many would claim that Pottery Barn and Crate&Barrel yield many more cute, stylish and sophisticated items, I must admit I prefer to keep accessories from these popular chains to a minimum whenever possible.  Not to say they don't have some great items, however, such an important part of my design philosophy is mixing and coordinating, never matchy-matchy.  And who wants their friends to walk into their newly decorated home, the home they have spent lots of time and money renovating, and have the friends say 'oh look, I saw that at Pottery Barn the other day!'  I want my clients friends to say 'wow, I have never seen any of these things, where did you get them?'  Of course in an ideal world (like New York, LA, Chicago, or San Francisco) this is never an issue as there are so many stores to mine.  But here, I must admit Home Goods has become one of my standard 'go-tos' for accessories.

Cringe if you will, but see how many Pottery Barn and Crate&Barrel items you can pick out of my design projects :)

HUDSON GOODS IS COOL

I love the ever increasing interest in Steampunk and Dark Nostalgia styles within the world of interiors.  If you are not familiar with these trends (you probably are even if you do not know the terms), well, that is a blog for another day...coming soon (but think updated Victorian, mixed with technology and a rough industrial element...the film equivalent would be the latest iteration of Sherlock Homes starring Robert Downey Jr.). 

One supplier I particularly like that embraces these styles, is Hudson Goods.  They embrace the industrial, the unique and the oddly Victorian. 

They are based on the East Coast but ship everywhere.  And so far, all the product I have spec'd for clients has been great.  Some of my favorite pieces which I have yet to use, are:

Essentially all their lighting, of which some similar versions have been popping up at Restoration Hardware lately (another huge proponent of the Steampunk and Dark Nostalgia):

The Industrial Bottle Lights for $35-$450 each:

The Industial Cage Lights for $250 each:



And the Vintage Tripod Lamp for $85:

And my favorite which they do not seem to be selling despite the fact it is on their home page....the awesome bowler hat pendant which I totally want in my house:

Some furniture I am hoping to use sometime soon, this very cool dining table:

 Any number of their console tables and cabinets:

And I love these recycled burlap pillows (wouldn't these be great in a rustic Park City home?):

Check out their website and all additional products here.

THE NEW ONLINE SHOPPING PHENOMENA

There seems to be more and more 'exclusive' special sale websites popping up in all avenues of internet sales.  Recently there seems to be a plethora of home sites that have manifested, such as the Foundry and One King's Lane.  While they try to maintain an air of exclusivity and membership, they are still pretty darn open to the public.  But their main function is to offer up supposed great deals from a range of retailers.  The great part are of course the discounts, but I think even more so the exposure to lots of smaller retailers located throughout the country that I may have never ever encountered otherwise. 

Yet, my biggest problem with these sites in terms of being a practicing designer, is that I have yet to reach the echelons of dealing with clients that just let me purchase things without reviewing with them.  Ahhh, to have the turnkey client who says - "I want it done by this date, just do it".  Alas, I mostly work with clients that have one or two homes, not six or seven, and want to be a bit more intimately involved in the design of their homes.  (Don't get me wrong, I love my clients all, and love such projects that become much more personal).  Anyway, my problem is that all of these sites have flash sales that end within a few days or hours.  This makes for a hard sales situation for me.  First of all, it means I can really only look for items the day of a meeting, and then I have to push a client to make a decision almost on the spot so we can get the items before they are sold out or the sale just plain goes away.  This can be frustrating and a waste of time.  Maybe there is a better way to deal with these sites, but I have yet to find them hugely beneficial from a business standpoint, other than exposure to new brands.  Of course I am sure there are those times where I search for that perfect something, and if it happens to pop up on one of these sites, it would be possible to get the client on board quickly.  Anyway, that is my perspective.  I would be interested to know if you use these sites, love them, find them useful or not.

SHOPPING AT MoMA

Who would have thought the MoMA Store would be a great place to find affordable pieces of design?  Recently I have been working with some younger clients which is lots of fun.  Despite the fact they have somewhat smaller budgets, they are also very open to different design ideas and just having some fun with their space.  Often I troll the standards such as CB2 and West Elm, but I am always on the lookout for modern design that is not DWR or Hive Modern expensive.  One day it dawned on me to have a quick look at some museum store websites, and low and behold, MoMA Store was actually quite affordable!  I was thrilled to find funky light fittings, great rugs, and general interesting chachka....something different.  And everything is online so no need trek to midtown Manhattan (although it would have been a good excuse...)!  Here are a few things that caught my eye:

Phrena Hanging Lamp for only $92.00:

And the Midsummer lamp also only $92:

And this cool coffee table for $129:

The Unfinished Clock that sits on the edge of a shelf or ledge and is fully functional for only $47:

Love the loop candelabra for $28!

And how cool is the Conceal bookcase where all hardware is hidden and all you see are floating books?! $15:

Of course there are quite a few pricy items at the store too, but I must say I was quite impressed with the selection of affordable and different items.  Thanks MoMA!  Now if I could only afford some of the things in the museum....