Deb Reinhart Interior Design Group Inc.

Monthly Archives: July 2012

Athletic Abodes- A Sneak Peak Into Olympic Village

With Olympic fever sweeping the world, I got curious about what kind of housing the athletes had at the 2012 Olympics in London.   Here are some neat photographs of the Olympic Village.  Notice that while the dormitories are given very simple and somewhat utilitarian decor, the recreation and leisure areas are filled with fun kitsch and a mix of traditional and modern furnishings.  It was fun to see what kinds of details were included in the village, such as a spa, bar, performance space, lounges and more.  Check it out and don’t forget to cheer on our teams to the gold!

Olympic Village features modern "apartments" for the world athletes to use throughout the duration of the games. Large green spaces are available for lounging.

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Lovely Landscapes

My recent feature on Houzz.com got me thinking about landscape art and the impact it can have in a space.  Even the most indoorsy person can’t argue that the natural world offers some of the most beautiful imagery and magnificent colors around.

Landscapes can range from photorealistic paintings to abstract art using various mediums. In my French country estate, I used abstract landscapes to anchor the bedside tables. These used colors such as black and metallic leaf to create a landscape, but even when using an abstract approach, it is unmistakably a landscape.

These contemporary landscapes anchor the bedside tables and bring elegance and drama to the room.

Traditional landscape paintings are often seen in libraries and traditional settings, which may lead people to believe that they only belong in traditional rooms.  See the gallery below of landscapes used in many different settings, all to beautiful results!

This traditional library uses a landscape painting as a beautiful compliment to the wood tones.

This beautiful landscape was used in this eclectic living room by Nate Berkus Interiors

A lovely landscape painting was the perfect compliment to the fun floral prints in my Lakeforest Coach House

This is a very cool use of a huge landscape- sectioned and individually framed it creates much more drama and a more contemporary feel than hanging the art alone.

This large landscape above the sofa brings a serene beauty to this modern room. Design by Tjasa Owen.

Are you ready to bring nature into your home?

Funky Furnishings

The world of interior design is constantly stretching and crossing barriers to come up with the coolest, most innovative home furnishings.  Sometimes this is by means of using unique materials such as shagreen, bold colors or even taking us to great heights.

Los Angeles based HStudio, creates funky furnishings by incorporating all of the above!  Their unique furniture plays with scale, color and materials.

Founder Shlomi Haziza got his start in the art world at a young age by painting found rocks.  His painted rocks were so extraordinary that he began selling them and soon had a large following.  Over the years he has worked with many mediums, including recycled Levis jeans.  He is well known for his mastery of the difficult material acrylic.  Through his acrylic art, Haziza found the furniture world.

What makes his furnishings so unique is not just the shapes of the pieces, but also the scale.  By supersizing a cool lounge chair, he creates a special bench.  By raising the back of an arm chair, the simple becomes exciting.

Check out some of his amazing work below!

What appears to be just a cool lounge chair is actually a bench! The model really helps show the scale of this unique piece.

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Ikea Opens Pop Up Lounge in Paris Airport

Everyone knows that traveling, even under the best circumstances, involves a lot of waiting around.  Swedish design company, IKEA, has come up with a solution to help create a comfortable wait by opening a pop-up lounge in Paris’s Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport.

Located in terminal 3 from July 13- August 5, 2012, that 220 meter lounge is set up like a house with nine bedrooms, lounge areas and even a kids play zone.  There are sofas set up with tvs to provide comfortable entertainment during the wait.

Here are some pics of the cool lounge areas!  Here’s hoping they open one at O’Hare or Midway next!

The cool looking lounge creates a great area for passengers to unwind

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Gorgeous Shagreen!

Much like croc and snake skin to the fashion world, the interior design industry has its luxe materials like bone, goat parchment and shagreen.

Real shagreen, much like leather, is the skin of a pearl ray.  The rough, granular surface of the skin is often dyed to highlight its unique texture.  Shagreen can also refer to a leather that is imprinted to create a shagreen-like surface.  The rays are not large and therefore yield small amounts of skin, making shagreen one of the most expensive materials on earth.  Check out some shots of the beautiful bed created by BF Workshops.

Shagreen skins are quite small, making it hard to yield a large piece

This sleigh bed required 176 ray skins to cover it.

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Whirlpool Brings New Life to A Historic Building

In a time when many old buildings are being torn down to make room for newer, modern buildings, it is always great to see a historic space repurposed to give new life to an old space.

Whirlpool’s new space in the historic Reid Murdoch Center, is a beautiful example of this adaptive reuse, giving the penthouse of the Murdoch Center a gorgeous new identity.

The designers from Valerio Dewalt Train Associates chose to integrate the brands of Whirlpool, Jenn-Air, Maytag and KitchenAid by creating a series of vignettes connected by a white plaster cove that spans the entire width of the building.

The showroom

The designers of this space did a beautiful job of merging the old, beautiful space with new, modern designs.  Check out some great shots of the space!

The inside of the historic clock tower

Beautiful Kitchen

The beautiful new showroom shows the newest kitchen technology in beautiful kitchen settings

Check out the cool, angled range hood and the beautiful onyx slab backsplash!

The conference room is bright with sunlight streaming in through the large windows