If your bedroom is large enough, I beg of you, please, add a chaise lounge.

Traditional Chaise Lounge

The chaise lounge got its start as a “fainting couch” — a piece of furniture those tightly-corsetted Victorian ladies could expire on most delicately, yet remain laced and proper. Funny how they could do that and have babies, too.

Today’s chaise lounges are all about relaxation and comfort, curling up with a book at the end of the day, Sunday morning coffee and crossword, or just kicking back with a favorite aria on your iPod.

Below are some of my favorites:

Cortica Chaise

Oviedo Chaise

The chaise on the left is 100% cork! Totally renewable substance, light-weight, and it rocks both side-to-side and back-and-forth. It can be used indoors or out, is perfectly molded to the body, and can be yours for only $4988 from www.branchhome.com . The next chaise is from Restoration Hardware, a channel-stitched leather seat on a chrome base. This piece strikes me as a great TV-watcher, too, and what a step up from the more usual over-stuffed recliner with that silly wood handle on the side. Doesn’t take up much more space, either. On sale for $1635 at www.restorationhardware.com .

Large Bean Bag Pod

Here’s another grouping of wonderful furniture and accessories from our inventory:

Alessandra Desk & Chair w/ Shaw area rug

This is the Alessandra Writing Desk and Chair — perfect for a laptop or even old-fashioned letter writing in a master suite or guest bedroom. The desk features three drawers and gracefully curved legs with gold detailing painted around the edge of the desktop. The chair is a high-back Victorian-style with upholstered back and seat. The fabric is black with gold dots and the wood trim is also feathered with gold paint. Retail price for both pieces is $949; we’re asking just $599, pick-up only. Email for photo close-ups of the detailing to info@metamorefix.com .

We’ve paired this gorgeous desk with a 4×6 Shaw olefin area rug, very soft and silky. Just the thing to curl your toes into when you’re finishing up work at the end of the day! Retails for $179; asking $125.

Check out our other inventory offerings under the category “For Sale By Metamorefix”.  All items are one-of-a-kind and available immediately.

I love a “workhorse” lamp — one that is tall enough to read under, takes a nice, bright bulb, and is bold and stylish at the same time.  Here’s a classic:

Simon Pearce Hartland Lamp

This is a beauty, available from Gump’s for $495. This lamp would look great in a formal living room, study, bedside table, reading nook, or just about anywhere you need a lamp that’s  beautiful  and stylish but makes no bones about its function.

Is the almost $500 price tag sending a shiver up your spine? Mine, too. That’s why I was delighted to find this baby the other day:

Glass Lamp from Design It With Consignment

Isn’t it great? Similar height, just a little narrower in the base, but the price tag is a beautiful $65. This find is from our favorite consignment store, Design It With Consignment, host of our free Living Room “Pizazz” seminar last week. And they have a pair in stock!

We’ll be giving another free seminar there in February 2010, details to be announced later.  But we’ll share plenty of finds with you before then. Keep coming back to read more!

News flash! Here’s another item Brad Pitt picked up recently:

Max Lamb Bronze Chair

The actual date of this acquisition varies widely, depending where you look online. Maybe last week, maybe last year. Who knows? Who cares? I guess I do, or I wouldn’t keep blogging about it! The main thing that fascinates me is just one of these chairs costs $25,000 and Brad picked up a pair of them, supposedly to furnish his French chateau. They are bronze, and the finish looks incredibly rough in the close-ups I saw. Art rather than furniture, I expect. Hope the kids can tell the difference.

Isn’t this fun? Oh, and you may also be interested to know that the foam “Family Lamp” in our other Brad Pitt posting only cost $56,000. I am *so* in the wrong business; I should be selling furniture. At our very reasonable rate of $135/hr, I bet we could Metamorefix that chateau into a coma!

Design is truly everywhere, and inspiration often accompanies it. Take a look at these photos from Florence and Cinque Terre, in Italy:

Amazing entry...and dog

This is a gate to a house. Someone has gone to an awful lot of trouble to nurse this thick hedge up, over, and around the simple iron gate. Look closely, and you can make out a neighborhood dog trotting by.

Next we have a great shot of asymmetrical shutters. Did they swing them open, yet opposite, on purpose? Design with intent? A sense of humor? Or just an accident? Who’s to say?

love that rhythm

If I keep my eyes open and look, I see great design all around. I see it in this photo of grapes below, with the straight red edge of the mystery object behind them, and the wonderful blue ocean beyond. Bright greens, reds, and blues are predicted to be among the most popular hues for 2010. They are happy, optimistic colors that will surely reflect the improving economy that is bound to come again. Until then, we will just have to find our fun wherever we can get it. Most importantly, keep looking!

grapes

All photos by Chelsea Livingston.

Isn’t this stuff pretty?

For Sale by Metamorefix

Any and all of it can be yours! These are all items that we have accumulated in the past year or so, things that didn’t work out for our clients for one reason or another. Most are brand-new and purchased at our favorite showrooms in the Dallas Market Center.

I love this Octagon Mirror from Oriental Accents. It’s a great addition to an entry, truly a cut above style-wise, with that great geometrical pattern worked throughout the frame. It is extremely adaptable to almost any style, traditional to contemporary, and pairs beautifully with wrought iron, cherry, or another dark wood piece. It’s 42h 22w, retails for $199; our asking price $139.30.

On the right are a couple of amazing wood-carved totems from Cyan Design. These are great for a console table; also for that hard-to-decorate art niche. We have three sizes: 40h 8w, 28h 7w, 18.5h 6w. Retail $175, $128, $76. Our asking price $122.50, $89.60, $52.50.

In the center is a simple candle arrangement with big impact: two decorative candles on a glass plate with river rocks, 5h 12w. Very pretty on a coffee table, console, or a romantic, low-key centerpiece for a dining table. Retail $25, asking $17.50.

And finally, a classic Pottery Barn lamp with a stylish wood cylinder base and drum shade. This piece is not brand-new, but something we acquired from a client. We think it was originally around $119, we’re asking $60.

All pieces are available for shipping, but pick-up is an option, too. Email info@metamorefix.com for details. And look for more to come!

Brad Pitt’s shopping trip last week got me interested in the designer of Brad’s new $293,000 hollow-marble console table, Jeroen Verhoeven. It turns out that Mr. Verhoeven has been very busy in the last few years. He is a young designer in his early thirties whose work has already been acquired by London’s Victoria & Albert museum. This is the piece they bought:

Back view, Demakersvan console

Front view, Demakersvan console

Jeroen created this piece under the auspices of a design collective known as Demakersvan. They have created quite a stir in the design world since their debut in 2006. This console, known as the Cinderella table,  is made of Industrialized Wood. Verhoeven says its design is inspired from 17th century furniture (I’d like to see those pieces!)

Twisty Stools

The Voice of Color

Recently Barbara and I were in Houston to attend a color seminar presented by Pittsburgh Paint and hosted by Design Within Reach. I can assure ou that the DWR folks were wonderful hosts, the showroom was impeccable, and the catered food was scrumptious.

The fast paced PPG presentation on color focused almost entirely on the demographics of style and trends – who decides what is popular, trendy, stylish, and hip. As you might guess, color is both a factor, and an element defining popular style, and is affected by current events, cultural moods, and even generational ethos.

For example, one such factor is global awareness of our need to conserve, and protect the environment – everyone is thinking green. Another, is the global economy and the desire for better days ahead, in other words, optimism. These two factors alone make the current popular colors that combine clear, crisp, natural colors. Even Pantone’s color of the year, Mimosa, evokes a warm sunny outlook. That’s not to say you’d want your whole house painted Mimosa!

But what colors would you like to surround yourself with? PPG introduced a neat little online color palette selection tool called the Color Sense Game. This “game” gives you a short seven-question personality quiz to determine your palette. To play the game online, go to: www.voiceofcolor.com , and click on the Color Personality box in the middle of the page. I have to say that I didn’t much care for the first palette (Al Fresco), but  the alternate, Desert Spice was much more to my liking. Try it, have some fun. Play the game more than once. Also on the VOC page you will find some other great color collections, one of which is sure to tickle your fancy. Enjoy!

We Metamorefixed a dining room today, and it got me thinking about what I love in a dining table:  a glass top.
There’s something so wonderfully delicate about dining on glass. I love the plink of the china and crystal, and seeing everyone’s knees and feet all gathered together around the base. It’s just so intimate and classy, all at once. Here’s a table I particularly love, from Nest Modern:

Barone table from Nest Modern

With that 1/2″ thick glass top and steel x-frame, isn’t it divine? I double-dare someone to cover it with a tablecloth! And the price? If you have to ask…seriously, though, it may not be too bad. All dining tables are 20% off at Nest Modern through Oct 16. www.nestmodern.com

Now about their logo:
Am I the only one who once thought the name of this store was “North East Street?”  I must’ve been under that delusion for a year. And I found out the truth from a client, no less. What an embarrassing moment! She was talking about “that contemporary furniture store on 6th” and I said, “oh, you mean North East Street?” and she said, “no, Nest.” The awkward silence that followed while I slowly figured it out! Yikes! Everyone knows the hip ID is supposed to know how to pronounce the name of the store! At least I know now. Interior design can really keep you humble.

Ok, so I’m not really a Brad Pitt super-fan or anything, but when this item came across my desk, I confess I was interested.

Apparently Brad Pitt went shopping solo in Miami recently and picked up a couple of items for his home. I admit it, I was immediately curious about what kind of stuff someone like Brad Pitt would buy. Are you ready? Here it is:

Family Lamp by Atelier van Lieshout

This lamp is made out of foam! Nice and soft in case the kids knock it over, something like that? I don’t have a clue what this lamp cost, but I did hear the price tag for Brad’s next purchase:

White marble table by Jerhoen Verhoeven

This hollow white marble rococco-style table set him back $293,000! Wow! Hope it’s kid-friendly as well.

So, Brad, sorry to be so intrusive, but I just had to know! If it’s any consolation, I’d be happy to share my recent purchase with you – this $40 leaf sculpture from Pier 1. It looks great in an art niche painted in an accent color!

Amber Leaves from Pier 1 Imports