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Now is the Time for a Little Judicious Flag Waving
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As we approach Memorial Day weekend mailboxes, physical and virtual, will be stuffed with flyers, postcards and emails proclaiming “Memorial Day Sale.” What has surprised me this year is the number of Memorial Day ads that have appeared sans the traditional red, white and blue. I will be the first one to tell you that as a consumer, I can’t stand glib, bombastic, hyperbolic...

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Perfectly Imperfect: Ethnic Designs in Modern Interiors
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Over the past couple of years two kinds of traditional textiles from non-western cultures have been imitated by fabric designers for upholstery and home decor markets: Suzanis and Ikats. Both of these ethnic influences appear very fresh in modern interiors. Suzanis are ornately embroidered textiles made in several Central Asian countries. These elaborately decorated cloths were presented as part of a bride’s dowry on...

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High Art and Home Accessories
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Last April I was walking through the temporary exhibits in the design wing of the IHFC during the High Point Market when something caught my eye: a horse head assembled from driftwood. This is one of the major, semi-annual markets of the furniture industry and what was remarkable about the site was that it seemed that the furniture industry was catching up on breakthrough...

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Should interior designers be licensed?
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Right now the Pennsylvania state legislature is debating about whether or not licenses should be required for interior designers. This has generated a lot of negative reactions from the public, primarily because the news of the deliberations broke before the budget had been passed by for the fiscal year.  Twenty-six states require interior designers to be licensed and lobbies in several other  states are...

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Steam Punk & Pseudo Industrialism
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The stand-out style in the furniture showrooms this April in High Point looked like they were found in a French flea market. While a few manufacturers kicked-off this style last year, the look was in full force with many imitators in many different showrooms. In general, the aesthetic includes raw,  scrubbed wood finishes combined with metal in dull gun metal tones or with an...

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