Yet another defense of the residential urinal

Check out the Drop urinal from Hidra.

Hidra developed the Drop specifically for the residential market, they didn't adapt a commercial one for home use. That's how most residential urinals come to be by the way. A manufacturer takes something that's meant for heavy use and scales it back a little bit.

Hidra took another tack though, and the Drop never had an incarnation as a commercial product. To make it easier to fir into existing baths, the Drop has been made slimmer and taller. It's also a pretty attractive piece of porcelain.

For the life of me, I will never understand the widespread rejection of urinals for home use. Having half the population flush 1.6 gallons of fresh, potable water down the drain every time they need to dispose of about a pint of liquid is one of the more absurd practices of modern life. It's a terrible misuse of resources and people continue to do it because of a strange unease around urinals.

Sometimes that unease is warranted but not for the reasons you may think. I was in Spain with my great friend Bob Borson earlier this year and he had encounter with a urinal in Valencia that has to be read to be appreciated.

Anyhow, back to the business of urinals. Think of it this way, if there's a man or men in the house and there's a urinal present, toilet seats can be kept down. That alone would make the divorce rate plummet.

If you're contemplating a bathroom remodel and there are men who will be affected by the renovation, consider installing a urinal in your new bath. The men involved will be thrilled and you'll cut down your water use significantly. At this stage of the game, who wouldn't welcome a lower utility bill?

You can find the Drop and more cool bath stuff on Lazio-based Hidra's website.

I don't get the skull thing

Skull motifs, which were once the sole province of biker bars and pirate costumes, have gone mainstream. Never mind that they should have stayed in the biker bars.

I can't open a catalog or a magazine without seeing them. It's one thing to see an Ofrenda on the Day of the Dead but the mainstreaming of skull decor has taken on an American-ized scrubbing and the result is a complete break with the actual significance of a skull.

They're a warning sometimes and historically, they were a kick-you-in-the teeth reminder of everyone's  mortality.

The whole thing mystifies me. However, the French design studio Pool is going to release the following plastic chair at the Milan Furniture Fair this month.

At first, I chalked it up to a de-contextualized skull to be used by the unthinking around their barbecues but then I learned its name. The name of this chair is Souviens Toi Que Tu Vas Mourir.

Extra points to whoever translates that name. I want one of these for the name alone!

In praise of HBO's Mildred Pierce

HBO is about midway through their broadcast of their incredible mini-series, Mildred Pierce. Without a doubt, it's one of the best period pieces I've ever seen.






Since this is rumored to be a kitchen design blog. I'll start off with a photo of the set for Mildred's kitchen.

Like I said, the production best period piece I've ever seen. Add to the lavish, painstaking authenticity of the set a story line that won't quit and you have a recipe for true greatness.

Three episodes in, HBO's Mildred Pierce is approaching true greatness. Again, because this is supposed to be a kitchen blog, check out Mildred's gas range.

Amazing! I love this series for how different it is from the film noir movie. You see, I have a thing for Warner Brother's 1945 version of Mildred Pierce.

Joan Crawford and Butterfly McQueen chew the scenery in 1945 

In fact, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. Like most people, I saw the original Warner Brothers movie long before I read the novel upon which it's based, James M. Cain's 1941 Mildred Pierce. In the hands of  Warner Brothers and in response to a whole lot of pressure from the Hays Commission, James M. Cain's novel of  eroticism, self-reliance and the Great Depression was turned into a film noir murder mystery. In 1945, murder was preferable to bed-hopping I suppose but the original wasn't a murder mystery. No one dies in the novel (except for little Rae) though I'm sure most of the characters wish they would at one point or another.

As great as that film is (Crawford won her only Oscar for her leading role), it's a very different piece of work from the novel.


James M. Cain's novel from four years earlier is a masterpiece in its own right and I'm thrilled to see it getting the attention it deserves care of HBO. Their mini-series is a painstaking retelling of the original novel as much as it's a nearly perfect period piece.

The last time the US experienced an economic upheaval similar to the one we're enduring now was in the the 1930s. That Mildred Piece's reversal of fortune came at the bust of a real estate bubble makes the story all the more easy to relate to.

James M. Cain was an important novelist and journalist in the early 20th Century. He wrote in what's called the roman noir style, he was all about the hardboiled crime novel. Mildred Pierce stands out in early work in that it's not a crime novel. Rather, it's a novel about perseverance and triumph over adversity. Further, it's the story of a woman and it's told from the point of view of a woman in a time where women's voices and opinions were not heard very often. Add to it that the Great Depression is practically a character in and of itself and you end up with a book that's a Must Read. So go read it. Please!

James M. Cain is one of the great writers of the last century no one's ever heard of but he wrote some important stuff. Three of his greatest works are included the collection I linked to in the last paragraph. The movies made from his novels endure and are some really great films.











As great as the movies are, his novels deserve to be read even more.

In the meantime though, watch the HBO mini-series. The story keeps getting better with each installment (even though I know where the story's headed). If you don't get HBO or live in a part of the world where it's not available, take heart. They spent so much money on this production that it's bound to be released on DVD in a matter of weeks.

Mixed signals as a child leads to furniture design madness

Here's a cautionary tale. As a tale, it's completely made up and bears to resemblance to the life of furniture designer Maximo Reira, whose creations illustrate this story.

Once upon a time, a young boy was born to a set of loving, if confused, parents. The child's parents decided early on that they were going to be thoroughly new school when it came to parenting style. Their son would be able to eat what he wanted and if he ended up a finicky eater who subsisted on chicken nuggets so be it. They decided that when their son had an opinion on any subject under the sun, he could voice that opinion. They decided that when their little darling committed an anti-social act they would refrain from administering the beatings he so richly deserved. No, instead they would banish him to a time out.

So that their son wouldn't feel bad during these times out, they decided that he would take his time outs on a purpose-built bench covered with friendly animals.

After all, just because he made a bad choice didn't mean he had to suffer.

Well, sure enough, their son grew up a finicky eater who interrupted adult conversations and developed an unnatural attachment to furniture shaped like a variety of animals. That he was alone in his attachment never occurred to him because he was raised to believe he was the center of the universe. So, deprived of a degree of self-knowledge and self-restraint necessary to cut it in the world, he started producing these furniture designs.

Parents: Please send your kids clear signals and set real boundaries to avoid a future where all furniture will look like this.

Unleash your inner animal or just get stoned with Cifre

One of the best and most innovative tile manufacturers I saw at Cevisama in Valencia and Coverings in Las Vegas was the Spanish company Cifre. Cifre is one of the member manufacturers of ASCER, the Spanish Ceramics Manufacturers Association that's branded in North America as Tile of Spain. ASCER and Tile of Spain is who paid my way to Cevisama, in the interest of full-disclosure.

With that out of the way, it's great to see a Spanish manufacturer come to the marketplace with a swagger and savvy that heretofore belonged to the Italians exclusively. Those days have passed and the great innovations these days are coming out of Spain.

The big news in North America is the vast improvements in porcelain tile that looks like wood planks and Cifre does a great job with them as shown here in their Bergen collection.

Porcelain tile absorbs almost no water and it can be used outside as things like pool and patio decking, even in temperate climates. Imagine a deck that never fades, never ages, lasts for 40 years and looks as good then as it did when it was installed.

The other big break through that's showing up on this side of the Atlantic is ceramic and porcelain tile that mimics the appearance of stone. Cifre handles that trend beautifully too. I left these images as better-resolution photos. Ignore the slow loads this morning and click on these photos to see them in better detail.

Again, imagine a slate or travertine bathroom that never needs to be sealed and can't stain.

But where Cifre breaks into new ground is their development of ceramic and porcelain tile that looks like hide. Yes, hide. Whether it's cowskin, pony, zebra, tiger or what have you, these tiles have the grain, texture and color of real hide. Again, click on the images to see them in greater detail.

Amazing stuff, all of it. Tile wants to come out of the bathroom and out of the kitchen and into the rest of your home. This hide series that Cifre calls Cavallino is leading the way. Some of these patterns would give a whole new meaning to the term "pony wall."

Remember what I was saying about sophisticated marketing? Check out their video for their Cautive series.

Cautive by Cifre ing from Cifre Group on Vimeo.

Three cheers for Cifre. Look for their products anywhere Spanish Tile is sold.