Tool to help you do your own drapery treatment.

There are many mysteries in life--one of them is the cost of drapery. Seriously, can you believe how expensive it is? It's unfathomable to us how much one piece of fabric and four stitched sides can be so costly. But costly they are.

Aside from having a professional drapery workroom come to your house, measure and make the drapes to order, there isn't that many alternatives really. Sure, you can buy pre-made panels from Restoration Hardware or Z-Gallerie, but they usually end up looking like crap. And why? Because they never seem to fit. Either they are too long or too short or too wide etc..

We found Casa Fiora a long time ago when we were looking for an alternative to having custom-made drapes for budget reasons. We find that if you are looking for just simple styles, they are pretty good. We are writing about them now is because they now have a great tool for you to measure the draperies that you need. This, we feel, is one of the most important things you need to do. If not measured incorrectly, you can get the totally wrong size and end up throwing money away.

You can get the tool here. Again, we emphasize that this is best if you are looking for simple draperies styles. Complicated styles are best done by a professional workroom.

Fabulous Modern Dinnerware

We have this obsession with beautiful dinnerware--they just make the food taste better! If you ever drank wine in a plastic cup or coffee in a styrofoam, you know what we are talking about, right? It just ain't right.

We don't like the froufrou dinnerware that you take out once a year when you have company though. The kind you get when you register for your wedding. Nope, none of that for us. We love dinnerware that feel substantial in your hand, get more beautiful with frequent use, and stylish in a way that makes everything we cook look better.

If you have the same taste, take a look at this modern dinnerware collection from 18Karat. It's not huge, but it's fabulous!









You can view the products, pricing as well as download their beautiful catalog here.

Modern Planters from 18Karat

We never forgot the first time we saw the 18Karat showroom... This Canadian company sells the simplest things, yet they display them in such an incredibly clever way, the overall effect was just...genius! It's like Pottery Barn but with WAY, WAY more style. Their style is very simple, very organic (a very overused word, we know, but it's very true in this case).

Our favorite things to buy from this line are the modern planters. Oh my goodness, they are simply beautiful! It's the kind of planters you see in very chic and modern restaurants or hotels.

Here are some samples:








18K puts out beautiful catalogs that you can view online. In addition to planters, they also sells fabulous home accessories and dinnerware (we highly recommend the later). You can view the catalog and purchase online at the 18k web site.

Note: Be warned that planters are heavy and very expensive to ship...

Jamie Young Lamps Featured in Melrose Place

Are you looking forward to the relaunch of Melrose Place, premiering tonigh on CW? We just hope it's not as bad as the last few seasons of the old one, where the plots were getting so ridiculous it was laughable.

If you do watch it, look out for the Jamie Young lamps that were featured throughout the apartments. Jamie Young lamps are really, really popular with the set decorators, they are in a bunch of movies & TV shows.

This image is really small, sorry. Click on it to see the enlarged image...



The images are very fuzzy, sorry. It has to do with copyright and all the legalese stuff. If you want to see the entire collection more clearly, check out the Jamie Young lamp section on our site.

Postscript: We watched it and it was pretty good. The acting is way better, thank God!

Cool Wall Arts from Farm Boys

Have you ever walked into a really cool restaurant or hotel and say to yourself, darn, that decor is so hot, I wish I have that at home?

We find that with wall arts all the time. It's really difficult to find cool artwork for your walls, plus, you kinda want something different than just frame arts. Something that makes a STATEMENT, right?

For example, we have an empty loft that we're trying to decorate now. What do you do with a huge white wall that's 12-feet tall? We thought it would be really cool to take a favorite black and white photograph and blow it up as wallpapers, you know. Just one wall. How dramatic woud that be?

So where do you find that really? Well, because we're the kind of folks who share, we thought we let you in on a resource that we just discovered, Farm Boy Fine Arts. They usually work in commercial applications for hotel and restaurants, but we think they do individual work too. They have some amazing, amazing stuff for the walls/divider/headboard etc.

Here are some samples:

To see the rest, visit Farm Boy web site. We have to warn you, it's REALLY slow, so you'll need to be patient. There is a 800- number that you can call for assistance.

We think you can deal with them directly, but if you need help, send us an email...

Fresh & Pretty Bedding from WildCat Territory

A bed is usually the focal point of your bedroom and we think you must pay as much attention to it as possible. That usually starts with having a good bedding set. Most bedding sets are disappointing though, especially the bed-in-a-bag combination that you find in most retail stores.

We've used Wildcat Territory bedding in the past for various projects and we're pretty pleased with them. They are not wildly expensive. Most sets are under $1000.

Here are some pretty ones:





These will be posted on our site shortly. In the mean time, if you want to see the rest of the collection, visit Wildcat web site. If you need help with pricing/purchasing info, drop us a line...