Hi Everyone! I’m back from our family trip to Portland, OR. Hopefully you read about how this city and environs inspires me  so in my newletter. If not, please visit www.furbishhome.com/news.html and sign up now. It’s FREE and fun!

Today’s post is about the hotels in Portland. I’m writing about them first for a few reasons:

1. I’m obsessed with hotels and their decor
2. Because of this obsession I spent HOURS researching where to stay
3. Many hotels in Portland are really COOL and well decorated!

So let’s get right into it. Michael, Aadi, and I stayed at the Heathman Hotel. It was not my first choice (I spent so long agonizing over which cool place to stay at that most rooms in town were booked by the time I made reservations). But it was a neat choice because it is kind of legendary. Many famous people have stayed there and the hotel displays original artwork throughout the public spaces and even in the rooms. The Heathman also houses one of the best restaurants in town (though it is NOT very veg-friendly). They also offer the city’s most high end high tea (which we skipped because of the 1 year old we had in tow with us : ).

Above is the hotel lobby. It is a SMALL lobby, showing signs of wear and tear, but it also has a certain eclectic flair that I like. The tea/sitting room off of the lobby. Grand stairwell. It is a  dark, heavy kind of space. Moody. More like tea at the Ritz Carlton than at the Plaza.

They upgraded our room to a King Suite, likely because of the crowds in need of a place to sleep. July is high season in Portland and there were several conferences in town too. The suite was small. It felt even more so because of how tightly packed it was with furniture and amenities: tea sets, coffee set ups, mini bar and fridge, multiple television, separate vanity area for the bath, tons of furniture and art. All crammed in. But again, it had a certain flair to it.

What I LOVED was the service. Very gracious and knowledgeable. I also really like the sunrise motif headboards. They are quirky, daring, and signature.

Hotel Modera is a new, affordable hotel with HIGH HIGH style quotient. The rooms are said to be quite small but the lobby and public spaces are really innovative, interesting, and beautiful. Here are some pics:

Apparently at night there are fire pits which you can sit around in this outdoor courtyard. Here is are the room interiors shown on their website:

Next are photos of Hotel Deluxe Portland. Like Modera, it has Hollywood inspired themes but has a lighter, brighter feeling. This is a Lobby shot:

Below is a photo of their restaurant which is pretty much my favorite image among all the pics in this post. This space looks just dreamy:

Hotel Deluxe Portland is on the Conde-Nast Traveller’s Gold List this year and has been written up in the New York Times. It is surprisingly affordable. This is where I was planning to stay until the rooms got all booked!

A good combination of serene and lively happening here.

The next place I considered was The Nines, the new Starwood 5 star boutique-style hotel. Here is the Lobby with a very Modern Art perspective:

And the rooms are very different from other Portland hotels. So elegant yet modern. There photos below are from the standard rooms! The colors actually feel very FURBISH too : ).

A photo from a high end suite at the Nines:

If you want to consider staying at any of these hotels, check out their reviews on tripadvisor.com. That is not a paid plug. I just love that website.

If you want to use one of these images as inspiration to design your own room, call us at FURBISH!

This post is the first of the in-store tasting recipes series!

These treats are great easy to make dessert bites that will have gourmet written all over them when you serve them to guests! I picked up all the ingredients at the Eden Gourmet in South Orange. This recipe makes eight dessert bites.

• 1 pkg of 8 Dobla Belgian Chocolate Dessert Cups
• 1 jar ready made vanilla custard filling
• 1 tsp cardamom powder
• 4 lychee fruits cut in half (fresh or canned)
• Ina Garten’s raspberry sauce (garnish)

Spoon about one tablespoon of vanilla custard into each of the chocolate dessert cups. Gently smooth out the custard into a flat top with the back of a spoon or a knife. Sprinkle a thin layer of finely ground cardamom powder over the top of the custard. Press half a lychee fruit, cut side down into the custards and then spoon a small amount of raspberry sauce to the side to add a spot of color.

Try in furbish over the next week or two to see if you like! So far they have been a HUGE hit!

Here are my favorite images appearing in design magazines last month:

This is a guest bedroom. I know a lot of the appeal for me here is the rustic architecture (I think the room was in a basement), and also the simplicity. This was featured in the April Elle Decor and is designed by Tristan Auer.

This image has been used a lot around furbish this month. I used it as an example of scale in design, and we have also been using it as an example of how people can use the starburst, which we have a reproduction of in the store currently. The image was in the April Metropolitan Home and decor was by Richard Mishaan.

The most inspiring thing about this image for me is actually the bedside tables. I LOVE them and they have become my dream side table : ). The graphic blooms are cool too, but very stimulating in comparison to how I usually approach bedrooms. This image was in the April Elle Decor and design is by Paolo Moschino.

Hi all. Last week we hosted a Girls Night Out for the Millburn Short Hills Newcomers Club at furbish. What a great group of women! Whole Foods generously provided some crudites and cheese. We brought some wine in from the Wine Library. And I gave a short talk entitled “10 Ways to Add Style, Personality, and Impact to your Interiors.” The talk sparked some lively Q and A and discussion.

In turn, I was inspired to think more carefully about how we can provide more value at furbish. It was enlightening to hear the perspectives of intelligent women outside of the design industry about what they want and need for their homes. You will hear more about the new directions I am thinking in coming out of this event in my upcoming April newsletter. Sign up here if you are not yet in the loop!

On apartment therapy there was a post on accessory storage. The photo reminded me of how I store my own baubles and bangles: on pretty venetian glass wall hooks, and in brass artisan bowls on a handed down chest from my mom.

I was feeling kind of uninspired by the end of last week. Is spring coming or isn’t it? (Today it seems it is!)  I would have loved to wallow around the house for the weekend. Michael would have loved it even more, but I insisted on a family outing, so we packed up snacks for Aadi and jaunted into Manhattan like we did in the pre-baby days. Destination: MOMA. I hadn’t been in years.

We actually had fun while Aadi annoyed some of the other visitors by hooting in the photography galleries to hear himself echo while we reviewed the history of printing processes. The architecture and design exhibit looked great but we had to give Aadi a break so headed up to the 6th floor cafe where we feed him berries with cream, drank super dark columbian coffee and split a MOMA sundae made with sorbet, berries, and cheesecake. It was all REALLY tasty. 

And then we found ourselves face to face with a magnificent Picasso and several other masterpieces on the sixth floor. I wanted to cry. Modern art speaks to me in a very visceral way. I felt like our whirlwind dash through the painting and sculpture galleries gave me just what I needed, though I’m not sure just what that is yet. And since Aadi was SO ready to call it a day we had to stop only at those things which really stopped us in our tracks. Here is what really spoke to me:

This piece is “Mlle Pogany” by Constantin Brancusi. They actually had 6 or 7 pieces by Brancusi on display together, but this one I found entrancing. I swung back a second time to look at it again. The simplicity of it is so masterful. And yet there is complexity. Is she prayerful, mournful, enraptured? If you go, look at her from different angles and see what strikes. To me she was simply, sublimely thoughtful.

“Girl Before a Mirror” by Pablo Picasso, 1932. Public faces, private faces. Self-perception. Mortality. I suppose there is a reason why I was riveted by this piece.

This is “The Piano Lesson” by Henri Matisse, 1916. I so adore the work of Matisse. The vibrant and masterful use of color draws me to his painting. But I think the fact that he so often renders interiors is also very interesting to me. I know what I like! This piece is mesmerizing to look at in person.

I think I am seeing a theme as I write this. Each piece shows an introspective figure, perhaps navigating competing emotions and influences in the most internal ways. Hmm. Do I need more time to myself or what?!

What will strike you when you go? A particular color? A mood? A sense of movement or stillness? I do tend to look for themes as I experience life and I invite you to try this way of being on as well.

I have always been enamored by peacocks. The varying shades of green and turquoise are recurring colors in my store vignettes and design projects. When we took Aadi to the Turtleback Zoo last week I was psyched to see all the peacocks there. But I spied a NEW muse too. Check him out:

WOW! How does this translate to a room? I keep thinking modern, white walls with spots of bright color. Or a series of throw pillows in rouge, gold, and turquoise on neutral toned seating. Any other ideas? Post to my comments page!

The photo from Architectural Digest June 2005 which kicked off this discussion:

Hi all. This post is a follow up to my newsletter article on earthy sophistication. The assertion: earthy sophistication seems to be a serious thread running through modern interiors. The evidence: some images pulled from recent publications.

These great examples highlight some overall themes:

1. the presence of wood elements
2. white as a key color: I think white helps to denote an earthiness because it indicates purity, or a more natural “undecorated” state, even when the space is very intentional
3. earth tones as accent colors, of course, from deep browns to nutmegs
4. heavy doses of texture, in wall and floor coverings
5. interplay between cultivated and uncultivated

In this image from Elle Decor, textured walls and carpet, deep browns, wooly throw, and white spread make an earthy oasis. Glossy ceramic lamps and geometric print  on the drapes balance it.

I love this room from Domino Magazine. The inclusion of green is a fresh take on the earthy that I’ve been seeing, and so appropriate! The formalism in the arrangement here keeps it sophisticated.

Below, from Elle Decor, taupey white walls have a feeling of texture, dark wood on the floors, antler chair and other wood accents spell out earthy. The traditional table and floor to ceiling windows keep it cultivated.

This room from Country Living magazine definitely feels earthy, as one might expect. It is more elegant than sophisticated, with primarily traditional pieces. The skirted furniture, gilded mirror keeps it from going “lodge.”

This room is more formal than the others with tufted headboard and x-leg benches. But the texture in the carpeting, the appearance of texture in the wall covering, and the sculptural wood pieces are unexpected. Elle Decor again.

The house below, published in Elle Decor, is in the Bahamas, so earthy is perhaps a necessity with all that ocean. The living area has many woody elements from the beams down to the natural fiber rug. The dark floor in herringbone pattern with the all white in the dining area feels organic. In both these rooms clean lines in the architecture, furnishings and layouts are a counterpoint to the earthy elements.

Please feel free to post any thoughts you may have on earthy interiors to the message board!

A night-time peek into furbish, the day before we opened.

The new location of furbish has opened very quietly on Millburn Avenue. It is a place of peace, and a very beautiful one too! It is airy and light-filled. The view of Taylor Park is amazing. Those of you who have been in have commented on the “good vibes.” Thank you, by the way, and I agree. I felt them before we even moved in and I worked to enhance them.

The view of Taylor Park.

It is peaceful now, but it has been a whirlwind three months! I haven’t had the chance to update you all during the renovation process so now is my chance to get you all caught up. Here is a bit of a blow by blow.

For a little while we had a boarded up storefront as we waited for new glass.

The space seemed cavernous before lighting, furnishings, and partition walls went in. But those tin ceilings!

We put in distressed black walnut floors, added track lighting, left the 14 foot height open with duct work exposed to give a glimpse of the original embossed tin ceilings above, and painted in my new favorite color, Benjamin Moore Vanilla Milkshake. The result is a gallery style space with some industrial touches left in. 

Track lighting is in. Duct work is in. So is all of our merchandise and furnishings piled up 10 feet high. We had such a mountain to dig ourselves out of.

It slowly started to shape up. Here is a glimpse of the new floors in need of a wash.

My design studio space in the back is not functional yet. The skylight is still on order. And I am going to need to fully furnish it over this coming year! Ah, “a little bit of patience.” Not just a Guns n Roses lyric, but also the key to extraordinary design outcomes.

The storefront, however, is ready for you! Here is a preview:

If you haven’t come to see us yet, please plan to come for our Grand Opening on January 15. Hope you love it as much as we do!

I know. I haven’t posted or emailed about our new store opening. It is coming along slowly but fabulously and I will soon be writing to invite you to the grand opening. But today I digress from the usual topics to record my feelings about our election. I will share something very personal, a letter I wrote to my son who is about to turn 1 year old, because it captures my feelings in the moment (before the politics of it all set in). There was a great editorial in the New York Times called “Tears to Remember” by Judith Warner today about the differences in how generations have responded to Obama’s winning the election. Aadi is, of course, too young to tell us where he stands. And I wrote this letter to him more for myself, all the while thinking, I hope he understands what I say, without ever really understanding the tears.

My dearest Aadi,

I write this letter to you at 2 am on Nov 5, 2008. I just witnessed history. Barack Obama was elected to the US Presidency 3 hours ago. There is so much I want you to know about yourself, so much I see in you. But tonight I want to record history for you. I have been in tears since the announcement of Obama’s win. I have been in tears for hours, but they are happy. I have really been crying these tears of happiness all year long as I look upon you my little one, and today they are tears of joy that the world is good, and that the future for you will be bright. Whatever may come of this, tonight there is evidence that people can change. Countries can change. Hope doesn’t die. And sometimes things just get really bad before they can get unbelievably good. Yes we can, Obama refrained in his speech tonight. Tonight, baba, there is evidence that we make our own destiny by our thoughts followed up by our actions. There are miracles, and there is light, and God is listening.

I just do not want to forget how I feel right now. At a personal level the pain of being different, of growing up painfully aware of that difference, is somehow being released in these tears that won’t end. I feel joy that my country has put hope and open-mindedness and expansiveness ahead of fear. I feel blessed to raise you in an environment different from what I grew up in. For you, with all your natural brilliance and charm, there are no limits, my dear one. The limits are sometimes greater in our minds than we imagine them in the world, and if we act with integrity despite what we perceive, then there is no telling what can happen.

I am so inspired by Obama, and this country’s choice to elect him as president. As I watched the votes come in and witnessed history, and thought of Obama’s personal history and background, and his person, his eloquence, his carriage, I could not help but feel that I should live differently than I do. I should expect more from myself. So much more is possible for me and from me and of this world. I want to give you an extraordinary childhood baba, and tonight I feel so certain that I can. Obama’s race, his name, the fact that his childhood was spent in another country, his early choice of career, none of those would have marked him for the US presidency. Perhaps he started his life an unlikely candidate, but now anyone can see his greatness in a few short moments. We do not have to be born superstars Aadi, though I can assure you that you have been born one. But as we grow we have to continuously transform ourselves into superstars, and that will be your task and mine. To see your brilliance and encourage it. And the world will be all the better for it. This is about fulfilling your promise as a human being because the world NEEDS you to. It is our obligation to strive for greatness and find the greatness in ourselves for the good of all. And tonight the world is wide open for such endeavors.

Here are blessings and love for a bright future. All my love,

Your mother