SketchUp Saturday

Anyone who's ever stumbled upon this blog before knows that I am a very loud proponent of Google's modeling software, SketchUp. I have been working in it for more than a year and I've become pretty proficient. I never took a class, I just jumped in and figured it out by trial and error. But that's just how I operate and I realize that that's not the approach for everybody.

At the same time, I believe very firmly that anyone can learn to use this software. It's not just for designers and architects. SketchUp is a go-to solution for every space planning and visualization problem out there. In the hands of an expert, SketchUp can generate a set of plans a builder would use to construct a house. In the hands of the eventual owner of that house; he or she can use it to preview furniture plans, figure out where to put a garden, or decide which sofa to buy.

With all that said, I realize that diving into new software can be a daunting prospect for some people. I never bothered to look when I was in the early stages of learning SketchUp, but YouTube is full of SketchUp training videos. Here are the first three lessons that Google came up with themselves.

So there are the first three official videos from Google. Google being Google and the Internet being the Internet, YouTube is also full of very informative, user-generated how-to videos. YouTube is well-organized and you can work your way from novice to pro in a matter of days with these videos.

My friend Eric started producing his own training videos that are specific to kitchen designers and he finished another one yesterday. His videos are particularly well-produced and he has many more coming. As he builds his library though, you can take a look at what he's already produced by going to SketchUp Training Blog. Here's a preview of Eric's lesson on designing a kitchen with the help of Google's 3-D Warehouse.

See? It's no so daunting. Download a copy of SketchUp and start playing around with it. At the risk of sounding like a total geek, it's fun.

Beautiful, modern lamps from Inhabit

These are the Builtby lamps from Inhabit and I think they're gorgeous and cool.

You can order these lamps in 19 preconfigured styles or you can design your own.

It's pretty ingenious, really. If you choose the Design My Own option, there's an interactive lamp builder with all of the parts and colors sitting there, waiting for you to make a one-of-a-kind modern lamp. Or several for that matter.

Inhabit offers free shipping on orders of $50 in the continental US, and the shipping's free on order of $100 or more in Canada, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska.

I know Inhabit from their show-stopping wall flats and these Builtby lamps are a pleasant surprise. More surprising and even more pleasant are their pillows, throws, art and bedding. Check them out.

Many thanks to the amazing Creede at Grassroots Modern for the heads up.

How would you like to win a Blomberg dishwasher?

[Please note that Metallo Arts is no longer in business. This prize was awarded but never delivered. Take from that what you will.]

[As of 2/21/10, there has still been no word from Blomberg regarding this dishwasher. Don't just take from that what you will, let's ratchet this up a little higher. NEVER buy a Blomberg anything.]


To help celebrate the fact that Blomberg Appliances is showing at this year's KBIS, Blomberg has joined with me to host another give away. That's right, you may end up the proud owner of a Blomberg DW361 Fully integrated dishwasher with five wash levels, six programs, five wash temperatures, a three-way filtration system, a delay start, and super quiet 50 db operation. This dishwasher has a typical retail price of around $900.

I told my friend Chris at Metallo Arts that I was giving away a dishwasher and wanted to get in on this too. So, as an option, the winner can select a Blomberg DW36100 instead of the DW361. The DW361 is a fully integrated model with a stainless steel front. The DW36100 is also fully integrated and has all of the features of the DW361, but it's what we call panel-ready. A panel-ready dishwasher needs a custom panel front instead of a stainless steel one. The want of a custom panel is where my friends at Metallo Arts come in. Should the lucky winner decide he or she wants a panel-ready dishwasher, Metallo Arts will provide that custom panel. Here's an example of what one looks like:

This is a big deal. The DW36100 retails for $950 and a Metallo Arts custom panel has a $1500 value.

Now the whole point of this is to tie into KBIS, the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show. KBIS is this industry's largest trade show and it has to be one of the largest ones period. It's being held in Atlanta this year and it's running from May 1st through the 3rd at the Georgia World Congress Center.

You can enter this drawing in one of two ways. First, you can stop by Blomberg's booth at the show, they will be in Hall C, booth C1918. You can place your entry with the great folks at Blomberg in person.

The second way you can enter is to leave a comment on this post. All you have to Write is I want a Blomberg Dishwasher! and you're in.

Having to pick a winner of my last contest based on merit about did me in, so this one's going to be a random drawing. On Sunday May 3rd, the last day of KBIS, I'm going to put all the names from here and from Blomberg's KBIS booth in a bowl and I am going to reach in and pick a winner.

So, you have a little more than two weeks to come back to this post and leave your I want a Blomberg Dishwasher! comment and the rest is up to me.

Weeeee!

The Italian website designer|blog.it picked up one of my stories today. They re-wrote it in Italian while giving me full credit. How wild is this? An Italian website picked up an American blogger's review of an Italian product that's represented by a German PR firm. It's a small world after all.

Man, my life is now complete. It feels like Apollo himself reached down from Olympus and poked me in the forehead with his thumb. Questo è un grande giorno! Molte grazie ai miei nuovi amici italiani!*

* This is a great day! Thank you my new Italian friends!

Dishwashers and more from Blomberg

[Do NOT buy anything made under this brand name. Ignore every kind thing I've ever said about Blomberg. I apologize if I mislead anyone. Events and things I've learned since this post appeared originally have brought about a complete change of heart for me regarding Blomberg and their US distributor. --Paul 2/21/10]

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been made aware a dishwasher brand I know nothing about and that brand is Blomberg. I hate not knowing what something is, so I set out to find out.

Blomberg is new to the US, but they've been a German brand since 1883. Blomberg is owned by Arçelik, the Turkish conglomerate who sell appliances in over 100 countries around the world. What's being sold in North America as Blomberg also answers to the brand names Beko, Leisure, Flavel and Digifusion, depending on the country in question. Folks in the UK seem to be particularly loyal to Beko, and Beko appliances have been top-sellers there for a long time. While Blomberg may be new to the US, the company behind Blomberg has earned its stripes.

In the North American market, Blomberg has been introducing its full product line gradually. They started with their dishwashers, then their washing machines and now their refrigerators. Ultimately, they'll be bringing in their cooking appliances and ventilation products.

My quest for information about Blomberg dishwashers led me to a conversation with Bernie von der Lieth, a consultant responsible for Blomberg's introduction to the US market. Von der Lieth provided me with a wealth of information and I now know more about Blomberg dishwashers, refrigerators and washing machines than I ever thought I'd want to know. And here's what I learned.

Blomberg appliances are luxury appliances, comparable to Bosch and Liebherr. Like other luxury brands, Blomberg appliances are feature-packed and highly efficient. The similarities stop there though. A Blomberg dishwasher or refrigerator will cost half what a comparable Bosch or Liebherr appliance would. Go to a website like AJ Madison and do a price and feature comparison yourself.

All Blomberg dishwashers have stainless steel interiors and all of them feature an in-line water heating system. Unlike most American dishwashers which have heating elements inside of them. These elements waste energy, make the wash cycles take too long and prevent a dishwasher from attaining an optimal temperature. An in-line heating system has no heating element, instead the water is heated directly as it's piped into the machine. This maintains a water temperature of 165 degrees while using far less energy. No heating element also means that you can place plastic ware in the lower rack. 

Blomberg dishwashers are the quietest on the market due to their unique, three-layer insulation system. Their dishwashers have an on-board water filtration system and some models have a built in water softener. The racks inside are full adjustable and in a tip of the hat to appliance installers everywhere, a Blomberg dishwasher's rear leveling legs are adjustable from the front of the machine. If you've ever wrestled with a dishwasher installation, that's a very welcome feature.

Their refrigerators are similarly well-thought-out and equipped. All of their refrigerators' interior surfaces are treated with a process Blomberg calls HygION.  HygION uses silver nitrate (a potent, non-pharmaceutical, anti-microbial substance) to render the interior of a refrigerator an incredibly hostile environment for the wee-beasties that can make you sick. The glass shelves inside are all made from tempered, safety glass; all of their models have a suspended bottle holder, clear vegetable drawers and are highly efficient users of electricity.

My earlier reference to these appliances as feature-packed doesn't do them justice.

Blomberg's timing couldn't be better, they're introducing luxury appliances at a non-luxury price point. In a time of lowered expectations and slashed budgets, these things are a God send. I used to say Ich lieb Liebherr and think I was clever. But that was in a time when people wanted a $6,000 refrigerator "just because." Those days are gone obviously, so I'm changing my tune to Ich Lieb Blomberg. Or maybe I aşk Blomberg (that's Turkish), considering that they're made in Turkey.