Wear What When Blog

Sale: Repurposed Materials at NuBe Green

Picture saying this to guests, “Please, make yourself comfortable in what used to be cardboard box.”

Posted by: Katie Ormsby on May 19, 2011 at 02:00PM Speech Bubble 1 Comments

SLIDESHOW: NuBe Green is taking 30 percent off all recycled cardboard merchandise, which includes chairs, tables, toys, and home accessories.

View Slideshow »

Where: NuBe Green

What: In the market for some sustainable furniture and home decor? Check out Ruth True’s truly green shop as she highlights the creative ways that designers have repurposed recycled cardboard. Dining tables, chairs, candle votives, and, yes, a rocket ship (okay, a playhouse shaped like a rocket ship)—all of which used to be some sort of blah brown box—are 30 percent off.

Take a spin through the slideshow here to preview the possibilities.

When: Now through May 31

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Home Decor, Sustainable Such and Such, NuBe Green

In Person: Thom Filicia

Three opportunities to meet one of those Queer Eye for the Straight Guy guys.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on May 17, 2011 at 09:45AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Photo: Neil Craver

Need tips for creating rooms you’ll love? Thom Felicia wants to help. He also wants you to go to the Pio Square Masins on Thursday, May 19 and the W Hotel and the Masins in Belleuve on Friday, May 20.

Where: Downtown’s W Seattle; 1112 Fourth Ave, Seattle AND both locations of the home store Masins

What: The W Seattle can entice you with Grey Goose cocktails, they can lure you with bites from Earth and Ocean, but DIFFA’s best shot at getting local and area design industry folks to come hang out lies with celebrity designer and product developer Thom Felicia. The former Queer Eye for the Straight Guy star has a new book, Thom Felicia Style: Inspired Ideas for Creating Rooms You’ll Love. He’ll be signing the book at the fundraiser; live DJs and dancing? Yes, those are on the agenda, too.

You can also meet Felicia in what might be termed his natural environment. At the interiors shop Masins in Pioneer Square; the party involves cocktails, a wine bar, luxe silent auction, and a fashion and jewelry presentation from Barneys and Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler.

The Bellevue Masins location is hosting, along with Northwest Society of Interior Designers an even more low-key book signing and meet-and-greet.

When: May 19 from 6 to 9 at Masins Pioneer Square. Cost is $40 or $75 (are you a VIP? Pony up for the latter). Tickets can be purchased via DIFFA Seattle.

May 20 from 3 to 5 at Masins on Main Street in Bellevue. RSVP to Bellevue (@) masins.com. This event is FREE.

May 20 from 6 to 9 at the W Seattle. Cost is $30 and includes cocktails and appetizers. RSVP to Christina Madden at rsvpevents.wseattle (@) whotels.com or purchase tickets on dot429.com.

All proceeds from all events benefit DIFFA.

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Tags: Reality TV, Home Decor, Barneys, Celebrity Stalking

Wedding Wednesday

Vera Wang, Red Velvet Wedding Cake, Killer App(etizers)s, and More

A local author asks, “How will you build something beautiful together?” and that’s just the beginning.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Mar 16, 2011 at 07:00AM Speech Bubble 1 Comments

Perfect for someone else’s wedding — or your own? A LulaKate dress marked way down at Bella Bridesmaid.

Where: Bella Bridesmaid

What: For the first time since opening its doors in November of ‘09, the Belltown bridesmaid dress shop is hosting a sample sale. Party dresses from Amsale, Dessy, LulaKate, Queue, and Swoon are up to 50 percent off, and while you can’t necessarily outfit a whole party at the sale (in most cases, just one of each style is available, and the range of colors is limited), you might find just the thing for a pre-wedding party or someone else’s big day.

When: Now. The sale started yesterday—Tuesday, March 15—and continues as long as merchandise does. For the best selection and service, call the shop for an appointment.

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Where: Marcella’s La Boutique

What: A Vera Wang trunk show; the iconic wedding gown designer’s current season frocks in a second story, storybook wedding boutique.

When: Thursday, March 17 through Saturday, March 19. Call 206-264-0700 to make an appointment; space is limited.

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Where: Simplicity Decor in Kirkland

What: Seattle author Dan Zander is a numbers guy. His first book, 5, asked readers to consider where they’ll be in five years. His next, 1, wondered how many people are necessary to make a change. His new book, 2 ought to appeal to those of you on your way down a certain kind of aisle. Says Zander, ‘Life is meant to be shared. If you have found love, you have been given one of life’s greatest gifts.’ He’ll be signing volumes — which you might consider giving as a gift to moms, maids, or mates, or keeping as a reminder of what all the planning and budgeting is for — at the lifestyle and decor shop in Kirkland.

When: Saturday, March 19 from noon to 2

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Where: Knows Perfume

What: Baked, a new special occasion custom cake-baking shop in West Seattle is celebrating its foray into Seattle weddings and events with a Marie Antoinette-inspired cake tasting inside the neighborhood’s sweetest smelling boutique. Sample lavishly decorated red velvet, lavender, dark chocolate, and more while sipping Champagne and contemplating your own dessert spread.

When: Saturday, April 2 from 6 to 9. RSVP by sending a note to baked.seattle@gmail.com or calling 206-307-4847

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Where: Herban Feast’s SoDo Park

What: Sample the food and meet the faces that make this one of the most celebrated celebration locations in Seattle. The new season’s menu offerings are on offer, and you’ll have a chance to see the brand new Herban Design Studio to boot.

When: Wednesday, April 6 from 5 to 8

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Tags: Home Decor, Seattle Real Weddings, Seattle Wedding Details, Seattle Reception Venues, Seattle Wedding Cake, Seattle Vera Wang

New! Butter Home at Melrose Market

Small in space, but big in nostalgic charm.

Posted by: Katie Ormsby on Mar 15, 2011 at 08:00AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Photo: Lucas Anderson

SLIDESHOW: Climb the stairs inside Melrose Market to find Butter Home.

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Just above the Calf and Kid there’s a new cozy little home decor shop in the Melrose Market — Butter Home. It’s tiny and feels like you’re walking around your grandma’s attic, which in this case is a good thing.

The 366-square-feet of this in-the-rafters boutique offer a surprising array of woodsy furniture, tasteful dishware, vintage-inspired glassware, and funky knickknacks like scrap-metal flowers and decorative twine balls made from recycled newspaper. Owner Claire Corley tries to stock as many sustainable, local, handmade, and vintage pieces as the space allows.

Her love for all things old started early; her grandparents owned the San Francisco auction house Butterfields (now known as Bonhams & Butterfields) when she was growing up. In fact, that’s part of what inspired the name Butter Home.

The other part? ‘Well butter’s the best food,’ Corley explains with a smile. Get a peak around the shop as you click through the slideshow here.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Home Decor, Melrose Market, Seattle Retail News, New Seattle Boutiques

Meet the Shopkeeper: Alchemy Collections

The angle on the modern furniture at this Belltown shop is wordly and zen-spirational.

Posted by: Malika Ritchie on Mar 07, 2011 at 08:00AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Don’t take Alchemy Collections’ shop manager Danielle Mount’s taste in dark ’80s pop too seriously.

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When you walk past Buddha at a reflection pond upon entering, take that as your first clue that there’s an East-meets-West vibe at this particular modern-angled furniture shop. Opened in 2004 at the base of the Cristalla condominiums in Belltown, Alchemy Collections presents sushi plates, sectional sofas, and contemporary floor coverings that would work in Craftsman homes and condos. Here, store manager Danielle Mount takes us inside.

WWW: What song is playing on your store’s sound system right now?
Mount: New Order, “Leave Me Alone”

What was your first job in retail? What did you love or hate about it and how does it compare to what you do now?
My first real retail job was for a beauty store in the mall. It was a great place to start and something to get me through college, and it also showed me that working for a small and local company is where I should be. Alchemy Collections is just that: small and local, too. I can’t see myself working for anyone else.

What’s your favorite thing in the store right now?
I would be purchasing these Solis lamps we have on display if only I had a spot for them. They are simple yet striking and I haven’t seen anything else out there in the market like them.

Where do you shop when you’re not at your store?

Great Jones Home. They have a beautiful mix of vintage with a modern twist. Extremely different than what we have to offer, so I don’t feel like I am cheating.

What specific store or type of store do you feel is missing from Seattle’s shopping scene?
I feel that [there was a void] a few years back here in Seattle, but [we have filled it.] Prior to Alchemy opening, I feel that Seattle had only two types of furniture stores: one being well-made and expensive and two being cheap yet poorly crafted. I honestly think that Alchemy filled the void.

What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened in your store?
Not much out of the ordinary happens here at the store, but we do see quite an eclectic mix of customers which can prove quite interesting on a day to day basis. Seattle has a wide array of people and we seem to get them all.

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Tags: Belltown, Home Decor, Meet the Shopkeeper

Craft Classes at Marigold and Mint

Get smart about flower arrangements and felt bunnies at the Melrose Building on Capitol Hill.

Posted by: Sarah Hirsch on Feb 28, 2011 at 11:00AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Photo: Kata Golda

Your home-made felt bunny.

View the slideshow to check out the possibilities.

View Slideshow »

Marigold and Mint, that way-too-adorable, French-feeling home and garden shop inside Melrose Market on the Hill is hosting classes fit for dinner party hosts, wedding and baby shower throwers, and anyone who’s anxious for spring to come.

Local artist Kata Golda started making felt toys for her baby girl in 1999; she now owns her own business and sells to shops across the country. She’ll be stopping by to teach a felt class on Wednesday, March 16 from 6 to 9:30, after store hours. The class will focus on making stuffed bunnies; all of the materials and tools are included, and of course, you’ll take your new pet home. The class will be limited to six students; no experience is necessary.

Just a week later, on Wednesday, March 23, Marigold and Mint owner Katherine Anderson will teach a spring flower arranging class. Also from 6 to 9:30, this course can accommodate eight students. It’s the first in what Anderson, who runs what we’ve heard is a really amazing native flower farm east of the city, hopes will be a regular series of classes. If all goes as planned, she’ll do this at least once a season, with flowers harvested from her land and other materials found in the surrounding woods.

Here’s to year-round hands-on urban botanical immersion.

Each class costs $100; contact the store for more information, or to sign up. (Word to bunny lovers and would-be floral designers: Marigold and Mint has, like, a fan club. We don’t expect the 14 available seats to last too long.)

Check out the slideshow for a preview of what you can expect to make and take home with you.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Home Decor, Melrose Market, Marigold and Mint

Classic Gift X: Warmed Up

Nice blankets make nice gifts.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Dec 23, 2010 at 03:00PM Speech Bubble 1 Comments

Andrew Morgan Collection throws are available at McKinnon Furniture.

Fact: People like being warm.

Fact: People especially like being warm on early winter mornings when the mood is cozy and laid-back.

Fact: Andrew Morgan Collection blankets, available at McKinnon Furniture, consists of really nice blankets that keep people warm, cozy, and laid-back.

Fact: You don’t have a lot of shopping time left.

Fact: McKinnon Furniture is open from 10 to 3 on Christmas Eve.

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Tags: Home Decor, Classic Gifts 2010

Classic Gifts IX: Aromatherapy

Two local women and their pioneering home fragrance products.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Dec 22, 2010 at 11:00AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Photo: Nordstrom.com

Gee your house smells terrific: Antica Farmacista’s lemon, verbena, and cedar ambiance perfume.

Urban myth or fact: Those room-scenting diffuser products were all but invented here in Seattle.

Urban myth — kind of.

Is it weird that I’ve heard, more than a couple of times, from people who want me to know that ambiance fragrance, via sticks in a fancy bottle of scented oil, is indeed a local thing? Probably not, considering the circles I run in.

According to a rep for Antica Farmacista, (say it five times quickly) the locally based home fragrance company of Shelley Callaghan, a former events director for the Seattle Supersonics (remember them?) and Susanne Pruitt, who worked in securities before launching into ‘ambiance’, ‘home ambiance diffusers have been around for hundreds of years.’ But Callaghan and Pruitt were … is pioneers too strong a word? … in bringing the product back into the modern vernacular.

So, invented, no? Reinvented? Kind of.

In terms of gifts with a narrative, or, more simply, gifts that might suit just about anyone with a room or two and a positive reaction to mandarin orange and/or sandlewood, you might think about (but not overthink) the classic notion of scented gifts.

Antica Farmacista is sold all over the world at Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel, Takashimaya, and Nordstrom. A phone call to a few Nordstrom shops concludes that the one in Bellevue has the goods in-store. Alternately, you could go to the Antica Farmacista page on nordstrom.com if you’re that kind of shopper. The site’s shipping page tells us that you’ll need to order by 3p today for two-day shipping; by 3p tomorrow for next-business day shipping.

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Tags: Home Decor, Locally Designed, Classic Gifts 2010

Wedding Wednesday

Video: Jonathan Adler Says…

“The wife is always right.”

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Nov 17, 2010 at 08:00AM Speech Bubble 1 Comments

It’s easy to get caught up in the wedding and forget all of the happily-ever-after stuff on the other side. For example: making a home together. I sat down with home decor guru Jonathan Adler when he was in Nordstrom’s home department last Friday promoting his new book Happy Chic Colors and asked him to give me some good new-couple-in-a-new-home-advice to pass along to you.

I started by asking what couples should do if merging lamps and side tables and paintings and other decor items isn’t quite as easy as one supposes it was when Adler married and set up living quarters with Simon Doonan of Barneys New York. I think the ladies in the house will like what he had to say.

A second video will be posted later in the today. Hint: There will be talk of cake toppers.

(Side note: Do you sometimes forget that Nordstrom has a home department? I do, too.)

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Tags: Home Decor, Seattle Wedding Details, Jonathan Adler, Nordstrom, Love and Marriage

Bright Ideas Behind the Scenes

Reproduction vintage bulbs: The hottest thing.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Oct 28, 2010 at 09:30AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Good thing I took this video. I’ve had more than a couple of inquiries regarding Bright Ideas, our holiday gift idea spread, and the artfully tangled, romantically dangling, and perfectly solo warm yellow light bulbs therein. So here we go.

We used reproduction vintage bulbs from Rejuvenation in SoDo. In creating the scene, Seattle Met art director Ben Purvis, photographer Ryan McVay, and I took inspiration from a lighting scheme at the John Varvatos store in New York, an even more intense set-up at the Gramercy Park Hotel, and a gorgeous mini-homage to the aforementioned by the supertalented Steve Moore of Steven Moore Designs.

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Tags: Home Decor, Gift Guide, Behind the Scenes

Sneak Peek: Black Ball Line

The most anticipated vintage and antique furnishings warehouse of the decade holds a one-night 15 percent off sale.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Oct 11, 2010 at 08:00AM Speech Bubble 1 Comments

Slideshow: A sneak peek at the sneak peek sale o the week

View Slideshow »

Where: 1400 Alaskan Way, Seattle 98101; down Four Seasons’ steps; not quite directly under the viaduct; across from the Aquarium; a few doors down from the Highway 99 Blues Club.

What: In certain circles, the words “Black,” “Ball,” and “Line” inspire a sort of rushed anxiety, a feverish can’t-wait.

Is it open yet? What’s going on down there anyway??

No, it — never have the terms ‘antique shop’ or ‘vintage store’ seemed so inadequate — isn’t open yet, but later this week you can get a pretty good idea of what Black Ball Line’s nine thousand square feet will be like when they’re finally official.

I can’t tell you too much just yet about how the immense space came to be, but I can tell you that I’ve seen the back rooms and they’re full of space age lighting fixtures, gothic revival camp, true tiki kitsch, ’60s studio craft, large scale art, and tropical taxidermy. And while I’m also holding my tongue — for now — about the man behind it all, and the man behind him, I can tell you that if you’ve ever been helped into a Jil Sander suit by a sweet, very pretty, vaguely cinematic (Snow White? Wednesday Addams?) late-twenties brunette at Barneys (my husband returned from a solo expedition one afternoon saying, “the nicest girl helped me figure it all out…” and he, ahem, has high standards), you may recognize the woman who’s helping to push all of this into the here and now.

You’ll hear more about Black Ball Line in the months to come. Some of it will be from me. For now: The sneak peek sale gets you in the door to marvel at the wonder of past decades and infinite cool. White vinyl couches, ancient homemade accents, funky throw blankets. More. Prices are very reasonable – there’s a lot of stuff at Black Ball Line, and they want it to move. Therefore, this one-night sale includes a collection-wide 15 percent off. Love it but can’t commit? Items are available for rental, too — to prop your photoshoot, your boutique, your art gallery, your dinner party.

When: Thursday October 14 from 6 to 9 — champagne will, of course, be served.

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Tags: Seattle Vintage, Home Decor, Barneys

Fall Fashion 2010 Behind the Scenes III

Inside our fall fashion editorial shoot location, the historic Bemis Building.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Sep 28, 2010 at 08:00AM Speech Bubble 0 Comments

Since 2002 my morning commute has involved passing the Bemis on the way into downtown. So I suppose it’s been about eight years now that I’ve had a crush on building to the east of the viaduct. You can’t not notice it, and when you do, you can’t not feel the history — even if you don’t have any idea what the history entails. Or who’s inside, and what they’re doing there.

I was psyched then, when the super-talented local photographers collectively known as Studio Lucile announced that they had set up shop there. Perfect: I was in. And once I was in, I knew I wanted to shoot a fashion spread there. On the roof. So we did it.

But what’s not captured in our fall fashion editorial is the sense of art and community at the Bemis, which comes directly from its inhabitants. To rent one of the spaces in the building, you have to be endeavoring to create art or craft in some manner or another. Put that together with the structure’s past, and you have a pretty singular place. To stay up to date on the lives of Bemisites and their seasonal open-house art walks and individual shows, you can read the Bemis Art Community blog

Most but not all of the artisans both live and work in their loft. One set of occupants with zero commute is Amanda and Brian of Modern Conscience. The pair of architects started as Eames fiberglass specialists, and now build, restore, and replicate vintage modern chair designs from Arne Jacobsen to Robin Day. They also craft truly handsome kayaks that hang from their studio like art. Their work is gorgeous, their space is too. And they were kind enough to let us in.

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Tags: Locally Made, Home Decor, Locally Designed, Fall Fashion 2010, Behind the Scenes

Wear What When

Sale: Repurposed Materials at NuBe Green

In Person: Thom Filicia

Vera Wang, Red Velvet Wedding Cake, Killer App(etizers)s, and More

New! Butter Home at Melrose Market

Meet the Shopkeeper: Alchemy Collections

Craft Classes at Marigold and Mint

Classic Gift X: Warmed Up

Classic Gifts IX: Aromatherapy

Video: Jonathan Adler Says…

Bright Ideas Behind the Scenes

Sneak Peek: Black Ball Line

Fall Fashion 2010 Behind the Scenes III

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