'Tis the season for contests

Everybody's giving away something all of the sudden. Never one to be left out, the gang at Room and Board are running a contest of their own.

Room and Board asked Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, founder of the blog Apartment Therapy to pick four of his favorite Room and Board pieces for small spaces. Now Room and Board is giving away one of those four pieces for each of the four weeks in April. Check out the details here and enter, you may end up with a Jasper sofa for crying out loud.

Unfortunately, the Sawbuck chair I'm showing at the head of this post is by Hans Wegner and it's not one of the prizes. Pooh. I love Wegner chairs above all others.

Back to school

As of Wednesday I'm now a contributor to a blog called School. School is a brand of Igloo Studios, Inc., an LA-based digital media firm. Igloo Studios is an interesting, dynamic company who are heavily involved in the world of 3-D modeling. Under the umbrella of Igloo Studios, Inc. are four distinct brands.

The Blue Marble Project creates models for Google SketchUp and visualizations for Google Earth. Every wonder where all the stuff on Google Earth comes from or who makes many of the models in Google's 3-D warehouse? Well, now you know.

School is the brand closest to me. Igloo Studio's School is their Google SketchUp and Google Earth video training brand. School provides video podcasts, DVDs, live training and a web community for Google SketchUp and Google Earth users.

re:Source offers high-quality video and podcasts on topics surrounding sustainable design and building techniques. 

Igloo Designs is their architectural design services brand.

Igloo Studios is up to a lot of stuff and it's an honor to play a role in their new and improved website for School. You can read my column there, where it will appear regularly. My first installment is right here.

LED Light Reviews

Justin Thomas, the guy behind the blog MetaEfficient: The Guide To Highly Efficient Things just launched a sister site to the original MetaEfficient. The new site is LED Light Reviews and it's dedicated to LED lighting exclusively.

I read MetaEfficient pretty religiously, but then again I have a thing for efficiency. Want to win my undying devotion? Tell me that I'm efficient and I'm putty in your hands.

LED are not new, but they are getting a lot of attention as the technology behind them improves. LEDs are highly efficient; they use very little power, produce more light and have no moving parts. Make no mistake, LEDs are the future of lighting. The quality and color of light they produce can be rather hit or miss though. Justin's new site features no-nonsense product reviews for all things LED. Getting ready to replace some lighting? Think about making the switch to LEDs.

I can make a dress out of a feed bag and I can make a man outta you

Making pillows, ottomans and upholstery from vintage grain sacks is the medium of choice for fabric artist Kym Fraser. To celebrate the opening of her website and online store, 3 Fine Grains, Kym has teamed up with my pal Gina Milne to give away one of Kym's pillows through Gina's great blog, Willow Decor.

The rules are pretty simple. Go to Gina's post from 25 March and leave a comment. That's it. Gina will select and announce a winner on Thursday, 2 April.

These vintage fabrics are the real deal, some of them are 160 years old --talk about character! Some of these are really fascinating too.

This sack with the stork once carried lentils.

And as a pièce de résistance, this penguin sack once carried penguin guano. I need that penguin pillow for that reason alone. I've long been of the opinion that every object you own should have a story to tell. Man, that penguin sack could write an epic!

So go spend some time with Gina and Willow decor and leave her a comment. Even if you don't win anything, you'll see some great stuff and you'll learn a lot from Gina's research and design passions.

I love me some Kohler

I read a blog called The Consumerist every day. The Consumerist doles out great helpings of consumer advocacy and financial advice and it's delivered with a smart alecky sense of humor that I find irresistible. Usually, their consumer advocacy takes a decidedly negative spin and a lot of their content comes from Consumerist readers who detail their customer service nightmares. Had a lousy experience with an airline? Tell it to The Consumerist.

For all of the horror stories Consumerist runs, every once in a while a reader will tip them off to a really great customer service experience. This happened the other day when a guy wrote in to report his positive dealings with Kohler.

I specify Kohler fixtures for a reason and this guys' experience proves my point and further cements my loyalty. Check this out:

Enough negative news gets tossed at your site (which I love, btw) that I thought that everyone would appreciate a little positive story.

I have a leaky faucet in my kitchen. It's been leaking for a year and I have, for a year, planned on fixing it. Well, I am home on paternity leave and it had become that much more annoying being home 24 hours a day!

I, as most red blooded Americans would do, headed to Lowe's to find the replacement part. No such luck (mostly because I had no idea what I was looking for). Don't get me wrong, I've replaced leaking faucets before, but the bathroom style 2-handled sinks are a different bag.

Next, I did some research online, trying to find a DIY guide for this particular faucet. What I stumbled upon was a number and a mention that Kohler has a lifetime warranty . . . . interesting.

So I called Kohler and got a pleasant support lady named Ashley (I think). She was absurdly patient. I mean, so patient she let me go down to my basement and try to find the paperwork that came with this faucet a decade ago so we could verify the model number. Once we had done that, she actually walked me through taking apart the faucet over the phone so we could figure out what was wrong. Once we had done that she VOLUNTEERED shipping me the replacement part, free of charge. I didn't ask. She offered. She never once was accusatory or hesitant in providing the service and by the end of our conversation, which had to have been at least 30 minutes, I had a new thing-a-ma-bob on my way to my house to stop the leak. (which I will know how to install since I've already gone through the process!)

Bravo Kohler. I do believe I will buy your faucets in the future.

This guy's experience echos every experience I've had with Kohler. Kohler makes great fixtures and all of them carry a lifetime warranty. Odds are, you won't have a problem with a Kohler fixture. But it's good to know that they'll stand behind their products should the need arise.