Candleholders add style and grace to your home

Among the most powerful mood enhancers in a room is the glow of candlelight. It beckons guests to its warmth, mesmerizes with its flickering and lends mystery. It casts a romantic spell on an interior
Candleholders can be ordinary or as captivating as the dancing lights. From simple candlesticks to elaborate candelabras, table centerpieces and even wall-mounted containers, candleholders are decorative accessories that hold their own even when the votives, tapers or pillars they cradle are not lighted.
Candleholders long have been collectibles and span a rich history of design styles. Tall hand-carved, painted or gilded wood candlesticks from Italy and delicate enameled 18th-century French holders are sold at auctions and in antique shops for hundreds to thousands of dollars apiece.
Today they are available in a variety of shapes, sizes and styles — from luxurious to rustic, from exotic to whimsical.

GMT: Friday, February 15, 2008

Known for their beautiful use of color and design that makes a home comfortable & inviting, IBB Design Furniture Showroom has been creating residential & commercial masterpieces for over 25 years. Based in Dallas, Texas the firm has a client list that spans the United States. Founded by interior designer, Beth Rafferty, this award-winning all inclusive design firm is always in high demand. IBB Design Furniture Showroom attends and buys from markets all over the world enabling them to offer the hottest trends in design. IBB's competitive advantage is that their facilities include an on-site showroom and design resource center giving their designers the tools to fulfill even the most discerning client's desires. Whatever your style Ð traditional, contemporary, classic or transitional the designers at IBB can make your design dreams a reality.

Dearborn firm shapes homeowners' dreams

These days, it's not enough to have two sinks or a separate tub in your bathroom.

To really impress the neighbors, you need stylish wall sconces, the cabinets need to look like freestanding furniture and the medicine cabinets must be big enough to hold a small pharmacy.

To capture that glamorous look, a homeowner could buy everything in the latest Pottery Barn catalog. For those with a more realistic budget, there's De Giulio Industries, one of Metro Detroit's oldest family-owned cabinet manufacturers and design studios.

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Jennifer Convertibles cuts losses

Furniture retailer Jennifer Convertibles Inc. said Tuesday it lost $505,000 in its fiscal first quarter, which ended November 24, but that the loss was less than the $637,000 deficit it report in the same period last year.

The Woodbury-based company, owner of the largest group of sofabed specialty stores in the country, said the decrease in the net loss was the result of a $146,000 gain in net income from its Ashley Furniture HomeStore, which it opened in 2007 in Carle Place.

On a per-share basis, Jennifer said it lost 7 cents, compared to a loss of 9 cents in the same period last year.

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At the seat of furniture-making

MANZANO, Italy - The big chair to end all big chairs looms on the flat horizon in northeast Italy, and it's enough to make a Bay Stater homesick. After all, Gardner, Mass., reputedly started the madness back in 1905 when the town erected a 12-foot Mission chair at the railroad depot as a symbol of its signature industry. Thus began the "Big Chair" wars, as other furniture towns such as Thomasville, N.C., and Morristown, Tenn., built their own big seats. Even Old Avon Village in Connecticut got into the act with a relatively diminutive 9-foot rocking chair. Gardner's current effort is a 20-foot, 7-inch Heywood-Wakefield model.

But the Italians get the last word when it comes to furniture. The Guinness world record for the tallest chair in the world belongs to a 20-meter (65 1/2-foot) wooden chair standing inside a traffic circle on the outskirts of Manzano, a village in the Friuli region near the Slovenian border.

Thrifty chic: Dig deep to find best buys

Good shoppers scour the ads, clip coupons and plan their shopping attacks to find furniture, appliances and accessories to complete their home. But at Rapid City’s thrift stores, shoppers can find bargains on a French-style lighting fixture, wingback chair or dresser — and support a worthy cause at the same time.

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Furniture adds touch of Frank Lloyd Wright

If doing an entire house or even a room in Frank Lloyd Wright's austere, yet ample style seems Mission impossible, then consider acquiring a few unique pieces. Copeland Furniture in Bradford, Vt., which is licensed to do reproductions of the architect's home furnishings, introduced the Boynton dining chairs at last fall's International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, N.C.

The chairs were designed in 1908 by Mr. Wright for the Boynton house in Rochester, N.Y., but the complicated compound curve of the back required skills and technology that did not exist at the time. The design, which has been in the archives for a century, will soon appear in retail showrooms.

Linder's Fine Furnishings on Yunker Street in McKees Rocks is the exclusive area outlet for Copeland's Frank Lloyd Wright series.

Dirty Harry gunning for Palliser Furniture

DIRTY Harry is playing dirty, according to the head of Palliser Furniture.

Art DeFehr, president and CEO of the Winnipeg-based furniture manufacturer, accused Academy Award winning actor Clint Eastwood and his lawyers of staging a publicity stunt in announcing a lawsuit against the company this week.

Documents filed in the United States District Court Central District of California accuse Palliser of using Eastwood's name without his permission on a line of home theatre chairs.

The documents said Palliser's actions are "knowingly and intentionally designed" to capitalize on Eastwood's goodwill, recognition and fame and are "likely to confuse, mislead or deceive the consuming public and trade by creating the false impression" that "The Eastwood" home theatre chair is in some way connected or affiliated with the actor.

Andy Thornton launch new hotel and restaurant furniture at Hotelympia ...

Hotelympia 2008 will be the perfect opportunity for Andy Thornton to launch their exciting NEW range of hotel and restaurant furniture. The comprehensive range offers the benefit of high quality upholstered furniture at extremely competitive prices. Ideally suited to hotels, restaurants and reception areas, samples from the new range will be displayed at Hotelympia on Thornton's stand, S2625.

All the items in the new range have contract quality beech frames, and are available in any fabric or leather, offering maximum flexibility to match all interiors. Shown in the rich, vivid colours so popular in fabric and wall coverings at the moment, the collection combines modern style with traditional warmth, at exceptional value.

Andy Thornton is a leading supplier of contract furniture, accessories, decorative lighting and outdoor furnishings for hotels, restaurants, bars and pubs.

Welcome

Welcome to this blog on furniture. We aim to examine all aspects of furniture from design to style to history. Please comment on any aspects you would like to see covered or expanded on