3 Key Rules for Interior Design Online Shopping

Jay Johnson - Shopping online for furnishings and home goods? Well, good luck to you. Some people need to sit in a chair or sofa in order to experience what it would be like to use the furnishings in everyday use situations. But most people love the convenience of online shopping, and it's a great way to shop around from store to store while saving gas, driving time, parking, and in-store jostling. Do you remember when most people went into book stores to buy books? Now 60% of all books are bought on Amazon.com - and online stores are growing in popularity and sales that outrun their brick-and-mortar counterparts.

In a recent guest post I wrote for Williams-Sonoma Designer Marketplace - which, by the way, is an excellent collection of advice for anyone interested in interior design - NYC designer Irwin Weiner and I checked out Pottery Barn online; he selected some favorites and we applied three criteria for picking out excellence in interior design purchases in an online experience. Read the Williams-Sonoma piece here: How to Shop Online for Your Clients. (It actually applies to purchasing home goods for yourself, too.) Check out the items we loved during our online shopping spree, and click on the photos in this article to see my current favorites from the store. Happy online shopping!

Irwin Weiner, interior designGuest UserJanuary 29, 2012Pottery Barn, home goods, online shopping, tipsComment

Modern + Versatile

Cassina

Irwin Weiner ASID - Interior designers need a complete arsenal of resources at their disposal, 24/7. Our clients ask us for the latest, the newest, the best - and a good designer needs to keep asking questions, explore new resources, and find the right solutions to match an individual client's needs.

Sometimes the best resources, however, aren't the latest or of-the-moment. I tend to default to furnishings and home goods that are flexible. One good example is the Toot sofa system from Cassina.

Irwin Weiner, contemporary, interior designGuest UserFebruary 20, 2011Cassina, Toot, furniture, seating, sofa Comments

Irwin Weiner, interior designGuest UserJuly 7, 2010Tools for Living, book, decorating, homeComment

Pillow Trends

Pillows now have an amazing,edgy rock-star glamor! I was impressed with the wide array of pillows and graphic pillowcases at the recent New York International Gift Fair in NYC.

We spotted some new pillow trends at the Gift Fair: handmade, punk and glam luxurious, authentically ethnic, and graphically bold and surprising,

Ethnic. We've always known Company C to be a style leader, and their push this fall and spring is solidly into bright and bold colors. One of these fashion directions is their Ikat damask pillows (see photo at right). These patterns are true to the originals, with blurred edges, yet the designs are distinctively colorful and large scale. Lovely.

One exemplary firm embodying the best of the ethnic pillow trend is

Irwin Weiner, interior designGuest UserOctober 7, 2009New York International Gift Fair, pillowsComment

A Few Gift Fair Favorites

Irwin Weiner ASID -- The recent New York International Gift Fair here in NYC was at times inspiring and other times exasperating. Inspiring: many new designs, top designers producing creative product, a renewed sense that the industry is starting an economic rebound with orders up in the 6 weeks prior to the show. Exasperating: much of the same old stuff, some very substandard products, a "Handmade" section being overrun by jewelry.

I liked the condensed home goods at Pier 94, instead of spilling over to a number of piers as in the past, but I wished the Pier was open for the full length of the show (it closed early on the penultimate day of the exhibits). It was lovely to see the strong international focus of the Fair, too, with 300 suppliers from 38 countries, many clustered for convenient browsing.

Here are some of the items and vendors who caught my eye at the August 15-20 Fair:

Middletons Old World Library Collection offers great service for homes with empty bookshelves. They offer beautiful antique books and can also specially cover books in colors that match any color scheme or decor to turn ordinary books into design accessories, a fun and unique service.