Albert Pinto: Table Settings

Irwin Weiner - Are you one of those super-organized people who have all your holiday gift purchases wrapped up before Thanksgiving? I can only marvel at that. I wait until the last minute, but one thing is for certain - I will be purchasing a few copies of Alberto Pinto's Table Settings for good friends. It's filled with essential inspiration for tabletop fans.

Alberto Pinto is a highly respected specialist in photography, interior architecture and design, tabletop, and entertaining. I was not surprised that his generosity of spirit drives his love for entertaining and surrounding his guests with beauty, luxury, and whimsy. He respects guests who smoke, too, providing elegant containers for cigarettes at the placesettings.

His trick to making memorable tables is having vast collections of silver, china, stemware, linens, and other decor items on hand at his various residences - a Paris flat, a summer home overlooking the Mediterranean, and a NYC apartment. Company coming over? Not to worry. Mr. Pinto takes an average of 15 minutes to expertly style and dress a table.

He dips into his well-organized cupboards, pantries, and storage areas (beautifully photographed for the book, and certainly putting everything I've seen about storage to shame) and comes up with a glorious juxtaposition of objects which ranges from simple and refined to gloriously festive.

interior designGuest UserOctober 31, 2010Alberto Pinto, Rizzoli, decorating, table settings 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.

Trendy & Fun Design Resource

Irwin Weiner ASID -- If you're ever in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, NY, make it a point to stop in at the Future Perfect, a trend-setting design store that stocks home items that blend great art, design, and craft instincts. They carry fashion for your home from imaginative and playful designers, all curated with a good eye.

If you can't make it to Brooklyn, there's convenient online shopping on their website.

I enjoyed the diverse mix of playful and sophisticated design objects, ranging from wallpaper (like the London Toille samples below, updated and urban takes on classic toille from Timorous Beasties) and lighting to tabletop and furniture.

For more info: Go to the Future Perfect website for more information and the latest design merchandise.

The photos below will give you an idea of some of the items that really caught our eye.