Win Our New Rooms - Home Makeover Book Contest

It’s that time of the year to give your home that makeover you’ve been fantasizing about. And we’re giving away a book on how to do it!  Sally and Stewart Walton gives us practical decorating and makeover tips in their book: New Rooms – A Practical Home Makeover Guide. 

Learn how to:

• Refresh a kitchen on a low budget
• Create global styles
• Install mood lighting
• Make simple furniture for kids and teen rooms
• Dress up tired old floors
• Create floor cushions, window treatments, etc.
• Reupholster and restyle old chairs
• And more!

Win a Free Copy

To win the book, please leave a comment below describing a makeover project that you want to accomplish in your home and we’ll select a winner at the end of Monday, June 10^th.  We’ll contact the winner via email and announce the New Rooms book winner next week.

Spectacular Summer Birthday Fiesta

Three-year-olds don't have to have Party City, out-of-the-box birthday parties.

As our Wedding and Event Planning students know, a little party planning and theme coordination can go a long way towards creating a memorable event for adults and their children.

Case in point: Dotty's 3-Year Birthday Fiesta! Enjoy this video of her backyard extravaganza click here to see more photos of this special party.

Many thanks to 100 Cake-let, the best Family Blog on the planet, for allowing us to share this wonderful post with our readers! Also visit 100 Layer Cake, the best Wedding and Event Blog ever.

If you're interested in learning more about event planning and decor, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Our Crush of the Day: Contemporary Dutch Designers

Atelier NL: Fundamentals of Makkum clay dishes, bowls, cups

My design head is still humming over the contemporary wave of Dutch designers we discovered in a recent trip to Amsterdam. I wanted to showcase the works of several standouts, to give our interior design students inspiration and to also make consumers aware of the high level of creative quality working in the industry right now. My first props are to Atelier NL (Nadine Sterk and Lonny von Ryswyck); their products are savvy and cerebral - like a lamp that knits its own lampshade when turned on! Their clay ceramic work (above) plays with clays dug up at different locations and times of day in order to fire at different colors.

Maarten Baas is brilliant designer. We saw many of his works on display at the Stedelijk Museum, including his Real Time clock (below) - the face is a video that shows Baas from behind the clock face wiping off the hands that show the old time and using marker pen to draw new hands at the updated time. His work is groundbreaking and rule-breaking. 

Maarten Baas: clockface of his Real Time Clock

Maarten Baas: Plain Clay Floorlight

Piet Hein Eek combines a respectful use of waste and recycled materials with clean contemporary lines. His furniture is always sleek and well fabricated, like his Waste Cabinet (below), made of scrapwood that has been highly lacquered.

Piet Hein Eek: close-up of drawer details on his Waste Cabinet

Other Dutch designers you should know about include:

• Bertjan Pot
• Hella Jongerius
• Studio Job
• Chris Kable
• Ineke Hans

If you're interested in learning more about interior design, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Jewelry Inspiration: Collection with Roots in India

The Carrotbox is a site dedicated to all those wonderful rings made of glass, lucite, resin, plastic, jade, wood, bakelite, metal, and even stone. Today's featured jewelry draws from collections steeped with references to India.

Let's talk about the elephant in the (tea-)room. Haati Chai, Bengali for "elephant and tea" according to L.A. designer Stella Simona, offers a cool collection which draws on her Indian roots.

Bonus

This architectural "Srinagar" ring is from Amrapali, a well-known luxury jewelry brand based in India, with stores around the world.

Even more jewelry:

• Suman Mishra (India) - silver & cz
• Pernille Vinderskov (Denmark) - contemporary metal
• Hortense (California) - rosegold shapes

Are you interested in taking a great jewelry design course and learning more about how to make your own jewelry or get started professionally in this creative field? Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

 

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Backyard Escape: a Modern Tree House

Tower House. courtesy of Gluck+ Architect

Did you ever as a child dream of living in the trees among the birds and open sky? The Tower House by Gluck+ Architects is the ultimate grown-up version of that tree house. 

Built in the midst of the beautiful Catskills, the Tower House reflects the trees and the mountain range surrounding it. The architect deliberately created only a small footprint for the first three floors and placed most of the living quarters on the top floor.  To further the illusion of the house melting into its background, he used green enameled walls for the façade. 

Tower House, courtesy of Gluck + Architects

A minimal amount of furniture graced its interior so as not to compete with the outside scenery. Those chosen included mid-century classics with an emphasis on form and flowing lines. 

Interested in learning more about interior design? Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design.  At Sheffield, you will learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories.