Los Angeles (PRWEB) April 10, 2014

Dacor, manufacturer of ultra-premium kitchen appliances, is pleased to announce it is the official appliance sponsor of the internationally-recognized 2014 Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club Decorator Show House. An annual event, 22 celebrated interior designers will renovate Manhattans legendary, The Mansion on Madison adjacent to The New York Palace hotel. Featuring fine furnishings, art, technology and a new Dacor kitchen, guests will pay to tour the 26,190 square-foot mansion with proceeds benefitting the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club. This year, House Beautiful, a sponsor of the kitchen, is working with Dacor on this project, which will be seen in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

Since its inception in 1973, the show house has raised more than $19 million for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, which offers after-school and enrichment programs for New York City youth.

The Mansion on Madison is truly an iconic New York landmark, and Dacor is thrilled to be a part of it, says Dacor CEO Chuck Huebner. Not only are we pleased to participate in this must-see design event, but we look forward to simultaneously supporting the regions youth through this premier fundraiser.

The show house will feature several Dacor products, including its Discovery iQ 48 Dual-Fuel Range and Discovery iQ 30 Wall Oven, the worlds first smart cooking appliances with a fully-integrated, connected tablet. The Dacor Discovery iQ technology empowers users to customize their cooking experience. From downloading apps to accessing intuitive cooking tools, Dacor offers home chefs products that evolve and change with their lifestyle.

Dacor will host four private events at the show house for new and current dealers, designers, and builders to experience the home. Additional products to be displayed include Dacors Discovery WineStation, Discovery 48 Integrated Built-In Refrigerator, Renaissance 30 Epicure Warming Drawer and Renaissance 24 Integrated Dishwasher.

Leading expert in kitchen and bath design, Matthew Quinn will lead the restoration of the mansions kitchen, utilizing Dacor products to bring functionality, aesthetics and comfort to the space. Based in Atlanta, Quinn is a principal at Retrofit Ventures and Design Galleria Kitchen & Bath Studio. Additionally, he is the founder of the Matthew Quinn Collection, a new showroom concept in luxury kitchen, bath and architectural hardware that blends the best available with his own expanding lines of kitchen, bath and closet products.

This historic mansion in Manhattan is the perfect setting for guests to see Dacor's newest generation of appliances displayed in a dream kitchen, says Dacor President Steve Joseph. Dacor leads the smart cooking revolution, and we are eager to connect with design enthusiasts at the mansion in May.

More than 15,000 guests are expected to tour the show house located at 457 Madison Avenue in Manhattan. The show house will be open to the public through the month of May 2014.

About Dacor

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Dacor to Sponsor the 42nd Annual Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club Decorator Show House in New York

Southern Living Showcase Home at The Bluffs - Decorator Introduction
The 2012 Southern Living Showcase Home at The Bluffs (http://thebluffsofweiss.com) was inspired by the stunning Weiss Lake views of The Bluffs. Here the inte...

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LAUREL HOLLOW, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) Designer show houses are popularin wealthy suburbs and often draw thousands of visitors. But the village of Laurel Hollow says the attractions are illegal and has put an interior decorator on trial.

As CBS 2s Carolyn Gusoff reported, designer Claudia Dowling is charged with operating a commercial business in a residential neighborhood.

Dowling organized a designer show house at a historic Gold Coast mansion last year. Twenty-five decoratorstransformed rooms into showcases of their work, donating a quarter-million dollars in renovations to a homeowner trying to sell the house in exchange for public exposure of their crafts. Brochures were printed, and theshow house was set to open to the public on Labor Day 2013 before the village shut it down.

I thought I had the go-ahead, said designer Claudia Dowling. I certainly wouldnt spendall that time and money and other designerstime and money if I didnt think I had the go-ahead.

I didnt go out to harm anything.

Howard Avrutine, Laurel Hollow village attorney, said the law has to be enforced to protect neighbors.

Its no different than if I had a retail store, he said. Instead of selling shirts, Im selling my services.

If you lived next door to this home, would you want to see business activity going on on a daily basis for an eight-week period with vehicles coming in and out? Avrutine said.

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Interior Designer Faces Jail Time For Organizing Long Island Show House

Death Cab For Cutie - Death Of An Interior Decorator (piano cover)
From the album Transatlanticism.

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Bethlehem, PA (PRWEB) April 04, 2014

Having worked for two decades in New York City, Westchester County and Connecticut as an interior decorator and antiques specialist, Lucia Vanin-Agrusa is out to help todays home buyer in the greater Lehigh Valley, and Bucks County areas to find the home, and neighborhood of their dreams.

While home staging is vitally important to sell a home as quickly and as close to the asking price as possible, on the flip side, are home buyers who engage the services of a home decorator like Vanin Agrusa. By doing so, the home buyer quickly gains knowledge of a homes potential. Or in other words, is the home is a dud, or a diamond in the rough.

Working with a designer or decorator as you look for a home is just as important as it is for a home seller to use a home stager, says Vanin Agrusa, who found her own dream home after viewing more than sixty properties on the market. Engaging the services of a visionary will also be able to identify up and coming neighborhoods.

It absolutely makes sense for a home buyer today to engage a designer or decorator with the knowledge of home renovations, costs, and with a vision of the homes true potential, says Senior Vice President, Cassidon Real Estate Group, Robert Agentis.

Every home buyer should have a wish list, but not many home buyers have the vision or ability to embrace the true potential of a home on the market, adds Agentis. Often, homes from the 1950s and 60s are passed over due merely to cosmetic fixes, i.e.. ripping out old carpets, window treatments, etc.

Even the smallest room such as the powder room can be transformed through finding and adapting colors, walls, and adding pieces from all over the world and from every period, adds Vanin-Agrusa.

For Agrusa, after searching through an inventory of sixty homes in a fifty mile radius, it was love at first sight for her elegant brick Georgian Colonial.

Her first big project, among many, was to create a back yard by thinning a line of trees and building a retaining wall, and designing and constructing a pergola.

Agrusa says homes with less potential were on the market for $100,000 more in the same neighborhood. The savings from the start can be substantial, and a designer can help crunch the numbers for you.

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Lucia Vanin-Agrusa Launches Design Service for New Home Buyers, Real Estate Market

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -

Families dealing with Alzheimer's disease confront all kinds of difficult situations, but one couple was stunned when they were asked to leave a Northland restaurant and not come back.

The symptoms of Alzheimer's keeps getting worse for Carolyn George. Her husband Larry takes care of her. He said it's difficult to see the slow decline of the vibrant interior decorator he married nearly 40 years ago.

"It's a slow disease. It's a bad disease. It's changed considerably as far as what we can do, but I try to get her out as much as possible," Larry George said.

But one outing took a turn for the worse when Carolyn George accidentally made a mess in a restaurant bathroom. The couple had eaten at Kate's Kitchen nearly every day for three years, but this last time the owner asked them to never come back.

"I was embarrassed, a little upset, depressed for the rest of the day," Larry George said.

The owner of the restaurant couldn't meet with KCTV5 Friday for an on-camera interview. Instead he sent a statement saying that similar incidents had happened in the past.

He wrote,

"Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident; this has been an ongoing issue. As an owner of a business that deals with the health and safety of all our guests and employees, we have to make decisions that are in the best interest of everyone."

"Our restaurant has been blessed with guests that overcome obstacles with many different types of disabilities. Throughout the day we work side by side with them to assure that during their visit with us they are comfortable and feel at home. We have several guests who are battling the terrible disease of dementia; we know their families, their likes and their dislikes."

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Northland restaurants tells woman with Alzheimer's not to return

When Italian-born interior decorator Alessandra Branca and her husband Steve Uihlein built a vacation home on Harbour Islanda long, narrow island in the Bahamas' where, per Architectural Digest's rendition, the "predominant mode of transportation is the golf cart," and one would have to choose between Bill Gates and Diane von Furstenberg if looking to borrow a cup of sugarincorporating vernacular elements was key. They chose classic regional materials like pecky cypress and coral stone for the two stucco-and-shingle British Colonials they situated at opposite ends of a 40-foot-long swimming pool, one a six-bedroom with a veranda on both levels, the other a poolhouse with extra guest quarters. Other traditional features have obvious benefits, like the Bahamian upside-down house plan, which puts bedrooms on the ground floor and public areas on the top, keeping the communal living and dining rooms breezy and cool, but the decorator added a few personal touches to the project, which she spent time away from homes in Rome, Manhattan, and Chicago to help oversee.

The main house's staircases, for example, were made wider at the base, so guests, including the couple's three grown children, "feel like open arms are welcoming them." As to Branca's work on the interior, it channels the same aspiration she had when decorating a Manhattan apartment for Hearst's seventh annual Designer Visions showcase; as she explained while giving a tour last fall, "Any time I can link the past and now in a new and unexpected way, that's where I'm happy." This kind of remixing plays out in the living room, pictured above, with a pair of vintage armchairs outfitted with Bennison-print cushions, and a few nineteenth-century campaign chairs run through with thick Alessandra Branca for Schumacher stripes.

Photo by William Waldron/Architectural Digest Another second floor living area brings together a vintage red cabinet from the 1960s, Hunter Douglas woven-wood shades, and an octopus triptych from Branca's Chicago shop.

Photo by William Waldron/Architectural Digest In the dining room, an RH table is set with vintage chairs. The light fixtures are from Ikea.

Photo by William Waldron/Architectural Digest An Oly four-poster with Les Indiennes curtains sits in the master bedroom. The blue print of an H on the pillowcases presumably stands for Highlowe, the name that Branca and Uihlein gave the place. It gets repeated in one of the poolhouse's guest bedrooms, pictured in the full set of photos over at Architectural Digest.

Photo by William Waldron/Architectural Digest Glazed French doors, Chinese Chippendalestyle railings, and one supremely enviable pool are visible from the outside.

Alessandra Branca's Chic Bahamas Getaway [Architectural Digest] All the Luxe Details in Hearst's Designer Visions Showhouse [Curbed National]

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The Printed Page: Come Tour Alessandra Branca's Bewitching Bahamas Retreat

Crystal Palace garden designer Georgia Lindsay reaches Grand Designs final

5:30am Friday 4th April 2014 in News By Robert Fisk, Chief Reporter

Garden designer Georgia Lindsay is in the final of a Grand Designs competition

Shakespeare said all the worlds a stage but for Georgia Lindsay it is more of a garden.

The 44-year-old, from Crystal Palace, originally trained in theatre design and is a mural artist and interior decorator.

But since 2010 she developed a passion for garden design and is now down to the final four in this years Grand Designs competition for her small city garden design.

She said: "Maximising a small space to create an interesting enjoyable place to relax is my forte.

"It is a family garden, where relaxation and play co-exist harmoniously.

"The garden has many sustainable, green features which is a strong ethos behind the Grand Designs image.

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BY Alexandria Abramian

April 02 - 2014 3:34 PM

BOWMAN GROUP ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Design inspiration can strike at any time. For interior decorator Robin Strickler, when it came to dreaming up her own Newport Beach family home, that moment came when she first watched Somethings Gotta Give, the 2003 Nancy Meyers romantic comedy with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. For Strickler and countless other design junkies, however, the true star of the film was the sprawling Hamptons home with its soothing and textured palette of neutrals. It was that movie that inspired me to create a home that is more Hamptons, as opposed to a beachy cottage look. For me, its all about a look that is clean and cozy at the same time, says Strickler, who is the owner of Design Works in Costa Mesa.

More research ensued as in, Strickler watched the movie more than a dozen times, closely studying not just its furniture and accessories but also its architectural elements and finishes, like transom windows, dark wood floors and high-ceiling spaces. The dark hardwood floors set the tone, says Strickler. Then pretty much everything else is white. The overall effect is to go with the cooler, monochromatic palette and leave the color to the artwork. It suits the house and is a soothing backdrop to the architecture.

Hence, there are no fuchsia throw pillows, bright yellow wallpaper or vibrant green armchairs here. Instead, Strickler, who sourced much of the furniture from vintage stores as well as Hickory Chair and Lillian August, created a rainbow of textures instead of colors. There are velvets and flax linens and woven fabrics. Gray was actually my accent color, she admits. Were probably the only firm in town that designs without a lot of color.

And while the home has a wine cellar, a chefs kitchen and indoor-outdoor flow, the scene-stealer is the great room. The large space, with its mix of new and vintage elements, its high ceilings and cleverly differentiated areas that dont disrupt the flow, works as a stylish anchor to the entire home. I put in pieces that look good, but that will also get used, says Strickler.

Not that the decorator got every last film-inspired design detail that she dreamed of. One of her favorite spots in the movie is Diane Keatons master bedroom desk, an area where the actress writes, ruminates and cries (a lot). Strickler hoped to create a similar space in her home, but the approval process intervened. I loved that office off the bedroom, but the city didnt approve it, so instead we did a window seat there. Now Ive grown to really love and use that space, too.

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Big Screen Chic

Mrs Apfel will sell the items on luxury flash sale site One Kings Lane She was involved in restorations of the White House under nine presidents

By Misty White Sidell

PUBLISHED: 17:51 EST, 31 March 2014 | UPDATED: 17:58 EST, 31 March 2014

Fashion icon and former interior decorator Iris Apfel is selling more than 800 pieces of vintage furniture, jewelry, and accessories on the luxury flash sale website One Kings Lane.

Mrs Apfel, 92, who is based in New York, was involved in design restoration projects for nine different presidents at the White House including Kennedy and Clinton.

Now a trendsetter in her own right, and famed for her love of bold jewelry, she is clearing out her warehouse storage unit.

Treasures for sale: Fashion star Iris Apfel, 92, will sell more than 800 items from her personal archives on luxury flash sale site One Kings Lane

Poodle play: These porcelain poodles are among the 800 relics for sale, and represent Mrs Apfel's habit of collection dog memorabilia

Global bunch: The relics represent an array of geographical areas including Europe (left) and Asia (right)

She told Refinery29: I've had all these things for many, many years, and they were a part of my home furnishing career. I kept holding onto them because I was thinking I'd go back into that business, but then all the fashion stuff came my way. I had those beautiful things lying in fallow in a warehouse it was time to let go.

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Iris Apfel to sell 800 pieces of vintage furniture and accessories