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.

On kitchen tables

I ran a post on Sunday about a kitchen with a table in it. Well, there was a reason for that. I'm working on a design right now that has a real dining table in the center of it instead of an island. There is plenty of space in the room to take care of all of my appliances and work zones on the perimeter. Ordinarily, I'd propose a large island for the center of the room just 'cause that's what I do. But really, there's no need for one and I like the idea of building a kitchen around a table.

My clients like the idea too and as I work on the design, I keep coming back to a table like this one from Room and Board.

This is Room and Board's Hancock dining table. I've long admired the shape and lines of this table and I've specified them in previous design jobs. I want to use it in the walnut I'm showing above. But it's also available in cherry:

Here it is in maple:

And here it is in a black stain over maple:

Room and Board has these tables made for them in West Virginia and they are customizable with a minimal lead time. The size I'm looking at is the 30" x 78" but it comes in a bunch of other sizes and is available in a drop-leaf too. The solid walnut table I want to use has a retail price of $1599 and that's a pretty remarkable price tag on a table that will last for a generation or two. While it's not exactly an heirloom, at $1600 it's a table that can take a beating from being in a kitchen and spending half its life being used as a prep counter.

What a great image I have in my mind for this kitchen. I see someone kneading bread dough on one end of the table while somebody else reads the paper at the other end. Later, a houseful of friends comes over for a home-cooked, casual dinner. Everybody sits around that table and laughs and tells stories and lets the dirty dishes pile up around the sink and it doesn't matter. Friends don't care about dirty dishes in the sink and kitchen tables don't leave a whole lot of room for pretense anyhow.

At least that's how I see it. In addition to that table, I want to use six of these Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs in black lacquered oak. The Wishbone chair has been around since 1950 and it looks as good today as when Hans Wegner rolled it out originally.

That Wishbone might be a little complicated for the room I have in mind, despite its status as a classic. I'm thinking that maybe Hans Wegner's Chair 36 from 1962 might work a little better. Here are a couple of shots of Chair 36.

I love Hans Wegner chairs and I've been looking to find a reason to use them in a design for years. Now all I need is a sign off...

So what do you think? Of this table and the chairs of course, but what do you think of the idea of using a table instead of an island in a kitchen design?

A kitchen that Henrybuilt

To say that New York and Seattle-based Henrybuilt builds kitchens would be to underestimate their mission. Henrybuilt builds cabinetry with a level of passion and commitment to craft that I don't think anyone else approaches. Henrybuilt kitchens, wardrobes, offices, baths, tables and seating are painstakingly engineered and manufactured to last a lifetime, several lifetimes in fact. Each Henrybuilt project is an original production and anything they produce is worth every penny that it costs.

Kitchen by Henrybuilt

Henrybuilt is not for everyone, including me by the way. Oh would that I could afford this kind of bespoke cabinetry. But alas, I spent too much time finding myself when I was younger instead of spending that time accumulating a net worth. Oh well, there's still time to build an empire...

Viola Park


Anyhow, Henrybuilt is as aware as anyone that their level of exquisite is beyond the reach of a lot of people, and they've come up with a solution in the form of a brand called Viola Park. Viola Park is a system of made-to-order cabinetry made with the same level of care and passion that's so lovingly heaped onto Henrybuilt-branded cabinetry. In fact, it's hand made in the same Seattle facility where all of Henrybuilt's offerings are made.

Viola Park

Viola Park is different in that it's only available directly from Viola Park, and it eliminates dealers form the equation entirely. Without a middleman and since Henrybuilt delivers everything they make directly, there are savings galore to be had with Viola Park. Even though Viola Park cabinetry is made by hand and to order, they limited some of the options and that brought the price down further.

Viola Park

There are a wide number of layout options available in Viola Park's website, but they are there to illustrate a point and to give some representative prices. In order to render a design and place an order, someone considering Viola Park will be assigned a designer in Seattle who will execute the design and supervise the final product. This is a very good thing. Designing cabinetry and placing cabinetry orders requires a lot of expertise and having someone capable on your side will save you a whole lot of heartache. Not to mention expensive mistakes.

Viola Park

I've been playing around with Viola Park's layouts and prices for the last couple of weeks and it almost hard to believe that the cabinetry prices on the designs I'm showing here can be had for less than $20,000; some times a lot less. It's amazing, really. These layouts are even more proof that a low budget doesn't have to mean a bad result.

Viola Park

Viola Park's website has a page dedicated to determining a reasonable budget, and on it holds some of the most sound advice on kitchen renovation budgeting I've ever come across. There's even an Excel spreadsheet that will help you work out a budget for yourself. What a service that is and it's definitely something that just found its way into my client first meeting agenda from now on. Seriously, if you're thinking about a renovation of your own, please use this spreadsheet. 

Viola Park

Even though the very idea of Viola Park cuts me out of the picture completely, I can't help thinking that Henrybuilt is on to something big with Viola Park. Business models have life cycles and I really believe that the model I depend on for a living is headed toward a significant shift. Who knows where it will end up? But I honestly believe that it's going to look a lot like Viola Park when it gets here.