Beauty's where you find it

What does this hair style,

Image from InStyle

have to do with this kitchen faucet?

Hint: it's all in the handle.

This is the Venuto by Brizo and it's another home run hit by the team from Indianapolis. The Venuto is a series kitchen faucets and accessories from the great minds at Brizo. The Venuto accomplishes the difficult task of being thoroughly modern without being cold. It's smart too, two of Brizo's newest advances are tucked inside neatly. The Venuto uses Brizo's SmartTouch^TM and MagneDock^® technologies so that it works as well as it looks. SmartTouch^TM allows a user to turn the faucet on and off with just a touch placed anywhere on the faucet or the handle. MagneDock^® holds and locks the sprayer firmly in place when it's not in use.

As a collection, the Venuto is available in both kitchen- and bar-sized faucets and a large number of coordinated acessories. There's even a bud vase.

The Venuto is available in Brizo's Chrome,

Brilliance Stainless,

and Black finishes.

 As with all of Brizo's finishes, the Venuto's carry a lifetime warranty.

The Venuto series for the kitchen, and the Virage series for the bath I profiled yesterday are further proof that Brizo's a brand to watch out for. I can't wait to see what's next.

Meet the Virage by Brizo

When Brizo faucets had me in New York last September, I was granted a rare glimpse into the world of the fixtures they have in development. I took a vow of silence of course and I've been dying to start talking about some of the stuff they are working on. One collection in particular left me giddy in anticipation. I know, I know, it's a faucet; but I'm serious about the giddiness.

The Virage is now in production and will start shipping in January, 2010. You saw it here first gang.

Rarely does a fixture series come along that's truly different, but the Virage is one such collection. They are stunning, elegantly simple but impossible to overlook. What I love about Virage too is that it's not tied to any one particular style. A Virage faucet would be as at home in a contemporary design as it would a traditional one. That is a rare attribute, and components that can pull off that balancing act tend to last and resist looking dated.

The Virage is a series, like everything Brizo offers. What that means is that there are lavatory faucets, shower fixtures, tub fillers, flush handles, accessories and more that all share the same overriding design. I'll get more photographs of the Virage as they become available, but in the meantime, what do you think? Is this a style you'd ever consider? Talk to me.

Have you met Thos. Moser?

All this talk of tables and chairs this week has left me more or less obsessed with wooden furniture again. That's certainly not a bad thing. As proof, just take a look at this dining room.

Wow. That's the Pasadena dining table and the Pasadena series of chairs from Thos. Moser. Those chairs are downright lyrical, don't you think?

Here they are again, notice how well coordinated they are. They share essential themes but they are each distinctly beautiful.

Those chairs were named Best of Year by Interior Design Magazine last year, and they certainly deserved it.

The Pasadena series has a companion rocker too and it was just named a finalist for Best of Year for 2009. The magazine will name the overall winners in a ceremony at the Guggenheim in early December.

It's all beautiful and it's further proof that real craftsmanship still exists.

Thos. Moser was founded by Tom Moser in 1972. Moser was a tenured professor with a deep love of woodworking who decided to follow his passion full time. I swear, you can see Moser's love of his craft in his furniture. Look around Moser's website. The Pasadena's my favorite, bar none. What's yours?

Hey, what is that?!

What do the historic Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg, FL,

The country of Portugal,

And this kitchen table have in common?

Here's a hint that's little more than a shameless plug. The Palladium Theater is home to the St. Petersburg Opera Company and the practice facility of the Florida Orchestra. It's also a starving arts organization that needs every scrap of support it can muster, as do all community arts organizations. Please help to keep the Palladium and whatever community arts groups are local to you alive during these troubled times.

OK, with that out of the way, the Palladium has its original, 70-year-old cork floors. After 70 years in a public facility, those cork floors still look fantastic.

Cork flooring comes from Portugal.

The design I mentioned the other day in post about kitchen tables is getting a cork floor.

This cork floor to be exact.

Cork flooring is not new, though it's currently experiencing a resurgence in popularity. It's resilient, kind of spongy, tough as nails and completely sustainable. It's also stunning. Look at some of this stuff.

Gorgeous yes and believe it or not, it doesn't have any special requirements for care or cleaning either. Here are a few more beauty shots.

All of these cork floors are available as planks or tiles from US Floors in Dalton, GA. If you need any more information, just ask me.

A visit from the Moggit Girls

Some time last winter I followed a series of links back to a site called Moggit. Moggit is the home of the Mogg Blog, a design site with something extra. That extra is common sense and and unwillingness to parrot back the gushing and glad handing that all too often passes for a design press. And yee-haw! I knew I was home as soon as I landed on that site, let me tell you. I love 'em, they can be catty without being cruel and that's a fine line to walk. I know that first hand, I trip over it all the time.

The Mogg Blog is written by Joy and Janet and I'm not the only one who chanced upon them last winter. Theirs has been a meteoric rise to fame and I hope, fortune. These two are poised to take over the world. As proof, their latest coup has been landing a gig on HGTV.com, an outfit that needs these women even more than the blogosphere does. Three cheers for good-natured smart-alec-ry! You can see their Decorating Dos and Don'ts videos here and their Home Improvement videos here. If you're a Twitterer and really, who isn't? Follow them @moggitgirls.

I subscribe to their feed of course and engage in some witty repartee with them on Twitter. Last weekend I asked them if they'd answer a couple of questions for me. They agreed loudly and returned their responses within hours of my sending them off. Without further ado, I bring you Joy and Janet, the Moggit Girls. Oh! Pay close attention to their answer to question number five. Thanks girls!

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1. How did you arrive at the name the Mogg Blog?

Well, our original idea was to have an online magazine but we soon realized that was way too much work-- so we went to the blog format. We wanted a short kinda catchy name that nobody else had, but we couldn't think of one so we decided to make up a new word instead. We took the 'm' from magazine and the ‘og’ from blog and combined them. And voila-- the 'Mogg Blog' or 'moggit' (because we also wanted it to be a verb and it was our word and we could do what we wanted with it) was born...  

2. How long has the Mogg Blog been in existence and what prompted you to start it?

The blog has been around since oh, late last year... but we spent a few months planning before we actually launched. We started it because we were spending way too much time on the phone with each other anyway, and we thought we might as well put said time to good use.

3. What were each of you doing prior to achieving fame and fortune as the Moggit Girls?

Joy was a Rocket Scientist and Janet was a Quantum Physicist. And oh yeah, also housewives...

4. How did you end up getting involved with HGTV?

It was a very focused campaign that involved alot of whining and begging. (Just kidding!) What really happened was that HGTV found us and contacted us through twitter. Yup-- Twitter. Have we mentioned we love Twitter?

5. Who are your bloggery idols and role models?

Paul Anater.

6. What are a few of your favorite things?

Anything covered in chocolate. Great earrings. Great shoes. Great handbags. And also money. Lots and lots of money. Oh, you probably meant that in a designer-y way. Sorry...

7. If Jonathan Adler, Kelly Wearstler and Philippe Starck collaborated on a room design, what do you think it would look like?

A HOT MESS!

8. What, if anything will you not say?

As unbelievable as it may seem, there is actually alot that we will not say-- except, of course, to each other. We even have a few rules of conduct that have evolved since the inception of the blog that we adhere to quite religiously.

1. We don't call out designers (oh, except for every once in a rare-ish while those very filthy rich ones whose careers we couldn't ever possibly hurt.)
2. We only 'mogg' things that have been put out there for public consumption on a site, blog or magazine.
3. We try to ensure that our commentary is more tongue-in-cheek than outright nasty.

Basically, our aim is to poke fun at the pretentiousness that can often seem to dominate the design world. We just want to remind people that decorating their homes should be fun. We think your home should be a personal reflection of you, and that your decor should not be about keeping up with all the 'haute couture of design' that gets published in magazines every month. Really, all we're doing is posting our opinions-- and by so doing hopefully reminding people to not blindly follow the latest fad or trend just because everyone else is. If the latest thing suits you--great. We say go for it. If not, we say don't worry! Stay true to your personal style. (Except for taxidermy. If your personal style is taxidermy you should not stay true to that. 'Cuz taxidermy is gross.)

If you look at our posts, we'll actually only very rarely come out and say we think something is ugly. What most people don't realize is that we'll often 'mogg' things we actually like, but that still strike us as odd or have an aspect about them that we think is funny. We think people can (and should!) love things that are silly or flawed and totally covet them. We do. So we're just really writing about that.          

9. What message does the Mogg Blog bring to the world?

Hey, design world-- don't take yourself too seriously. And hey, Mr. or Ms. Average Person Out There-- don't sweat your decor too much. If you haven't got eels in your coffee table, or a house full of stuffed dead animals you're probably doing just fine...

10. What's next for the Moggit Girls?

Ah, a couple loads of laundry, world domination and some school lunches... in that order.