Future Flora lights by Studio Toord Boontje

This Spring's edition of the New York Times Style magazine featured a light fixture that grabbed onto me and wouldn't let go. I followed their links back to the source and found out that there are three lights in this Future Flora collection. Hung together, Future Flora can turn any room into an installation.

The Future Flora series is the product of Studio Toorn Boontje for Artecnica. Artecnica is an LA-based design company that commissions pieces from industrial designers the world over. The Future Flora series consists of three models; the Laure, the Nadine and the Rugiada. All three are made from precision-etched metal sheets. I love seeing light and airy forms in metal and these babies are that in spades.

Well-designed originals needn't break the bank either. The Future Flora pendants are available from Unica Home for $99. Why not do something original and distinctive when it comes time to buy lighting?

I have to confess that I have a fondness for Toorn Boontje, they are the studio who brought the world the Icarus pendant shown here. I can't think of another light fixture that has ever fired me up with the kind of passionate admiration the Icarus did when I fist saw it. Amazing.

Mother of pearl wall tile

I've had a run on interest in mother of pearl wall tile in the last week and I have to say that the stuff's stunning, really stunning. Check out this wall tile installation from the great folks at Maya Romanoff.

I have some samples of it and even have a back splash done in it in the showroom. I swear, it can stop traffic it's so distinctive. But that's in a kitchen showroom, not in a real house. So I'm wondering if anyone out there has any first-hand experience with mother of pearl as a tile?

Mother of pearl is made from a material called nacre, and nacre is secreted in the shell linings of certain mollusks. Nacre is also the substance pearls are made from and like a pearl, mother of pearl has a colorful iridescence and a depth to it. Nacre has captivated human imaginations since the dawn of time.

Beautiful stuff but I wonder how it holds up as a building material. Nacre is an organic and inorganic compound. It's made from alternating layers of calcium carbonate and any one of a number of biopolymers. The precise biopolymer is a function of the organism secreting it. Still with me? Now this microscopic layering is where nacre gets its depth, iridescence and strength. The combination of calcium carbonate and a biopolymer serve an organism well while it's alive. However, calcium carbonate and biopolymers break down after the secreting organism dies. In a protected environment, nacre will remain beautiful for generations. What happens though ,when it's exposed to the wear and tear of daily life?

So, anyone? Anyone? Anyone have some first hand experience to share?

More Sunday funnies

This is hands down, the funniest Shamwow mash-up to date. I wonder if Vince Shlomi, the Shamwow guy, had any idea he'd become a phenomenon when he started his infomercial gig. I wonder if he's very happy about it now? Happy or not, this video's hilarious.

Thank you Florida Legislature, now it's your turn Charlie

photo by Chris Zuppa, the St. Petersburg Times

In a surprise move from an organization better known for its pandering and grandstanding, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 2080 and it now sits on our mannequin of a Governor's desk, awaiting his signature.

Senate Bill 2080 empowers any homeowner in Florida to install what's called a Florida Friendly yard, despite what their homeowners association has to say. If you're a Floridian, call the Governor's office and insist that he sign this rare breath of common sense.

Now for some background, since most of you reading this aren't Floridians. Florida is home to a vicious form of governance called a Homeowners Association. States all over the country have HOAs enshrined in law, but Florida's HOAs are particularly empowered. What this means is that if you buy into a neighborhood with an HOA, that HOA writes and enforces the covenants and restrictions placed on a homeowner. Restrictions like banning yard signs or wash lines, forbidding certain paint colors, limiting the number of guests a homeowner can entertain, etc. All of this is Gladys Kravitzism is passed and decided upon in the name of preserving property values. This stuff would be an irritant and little more except for the other side to these deed restrictions and covenants. Florida law grants these HOAs enforcement power and most of them don't hesitate to use it.

Last October, a 66-year-old man was jailed without bail over his brown lawn. He'd run afoul of his HOA and they had him arrested and jailed because his lawn had died. Here's the story from the St. Pete Times.

Anyhow, most if not all of the HOAs in Florida require that all lawns be sodded with lush, green St. Augustine grass. St. Augustine is the only real lawn grass suited for our climate. Sort of. It can handle our sun and heat without any trouble. However, what it can't handle is that it doesn't rain here in the winter. From October to May, it's as dry as a bone and St. Augustine grass will turn brown and die within a matter of weeks. Enter the sprinkler system. St. Augustine needs to be irrigated at least once a week in order for it to eek by. In order for it to look its best, it needs to be irrigated a lot more than that and it needs that irrigation year-round, even during our rainy season.

Public enemy #1

Senate Bill 2080 will allow anyone to tear out his St. Augustine lawn and replace it with a landscape that doesn't need to be irrigated. How revolutionary. Predictably, HOAs are having shivering fits while the water authorities can barely contain their glee.

So omnipresent has St. Augustine grass become that 62% of the potable water used in the great state of Florida gets sprinkled on lawns. I was barking like a mad man about it last March. Sixty-two per cent. That is an unconscionable amount of water wasted in the name of preserving property values.

It gets worse. Florida is in an extreme water crisis. We're three years into a serious drought and municipal water supplies are dwindling all across the state. Until someone finds a solution, we're headed for a world of hurt. This crisis could have been avoided to begin with and could be mitigated now if we do something about that 62% number.

Water is a limited, public resource. How other people use it is a concern all members of a community hold in common. The water people waste on their lawns really is going to start affecting everyone and it will happen a lot sooner than people think it will. Charlie, please sign Senate Bill 2080.

It's a sink revolution

Many thanks to my pal Laurie Burke from Kitchen Design Notes for this one.

Ordinary sinks have a seam where the plumber's ring meets the bottom of the sink. Since virtually all sinks look like this, no one really notices the seams.

That was until now. Check out these seamless, stainless steel sinks from Affluence. Somebody looked down into his or her sink and said "There has to be a better way." And sure enough, there is. Wow. What a difference!