Robin Baron Design

The 2010 Architectural Digest Home Design Show at Pier 94 was a feast for the eyes!  My staff and I had a great time and left inspired!  Here are a few highlights:

I love these fabulous and interesting ceramic vases, especially grouped together!

An innovative exhibit from DIFFA’s Dining By Design, which was exhibited at the show’s end

A wonderful source for orchids…that’s all they do…from Orchids by Karen!

Two fabulous light fixtures from one of our very favorite vendors, Tanmatra!

These sculptural walnut chairs from Wren & Cooper are beautiful.  I love the “laced up” feeling of the chair!

Innovation from a new company…Mudwall!  Mud room on the wall designs that are both stylish and functional!  They come in many variations and can even be customized.  Perfect for any Manhattan apartment!

My staff and I went to a special Alpha Workshops presentation showcasing their new products and finishes for 2010.  Wow!  What a fantastic company!  Not only do they create incredibly beautiful hand-painted wallpapers…they also do decorative painting on walls, custom carvings, and now have a collection of lighting and furniture finishes.

To top it off, while my clients and I benefit from their talented painters and their finishes, Alpha Workshops benefits local artisans living with HIV/AIDs.  What a wonderful way for everyone to be giving back to each other!

Here are some of their special Japanese metallic paint colors

This finish, Negoro Nuri, a Japanese technique that uses multiple layers of different color paint, is one of Alpha Workshop’s specialties

Known for their custom hand-painted wallpaper, here is a selection from their latest collection

A wonderfully different faceted, metallic floor lamp…this unique finish is gold blending into silver

We just can’t get away from fashion (and who wants to?)!  As a recovering fashionista, I feel fashion helps us express who we are.  Living in New York, we are surrounded by inspiration!  Case in point: this weekend was the Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show at the Metropolitan Pavillion.

I took my 13 year-old daughter in the hopes that it would pique her curiosity and inspire her creative soul.  Alas, she may have been too young to fully appreciate the “newness” in the old!  I, on the other hand, got lost in it!  I love collecting antique jewelry and vintage clothes.  I’ll always find something different and unique and of course…I love the hunt!

How fabulous are these LBDs (Little Black Dresses)?  I’d love to wear any one of them.

I thought the black and white dresses in the front were fabulous.  Perfect for when you want to stand out in a crowd!

Finally, a Michaels in New York City!  I could barley contain my excitement when this great craft supply store opened in Manhattan.  So this past Saturday, all by myself, I went and got lost in the creative world of crafts at the new 97th and Columbus Avenue store.

The fun for me is never knowing what I’ll be inspired by.  This time, I left with a great mix of papers, tapes, ribbons, and flowers that I’ll use to decorate my Thanksgiving tables and make some fabulous place cards for my 29 guests.  I know…29!

I have a lot of work to do, but it’s going to be fun!!!  Spending the holidays with family and friends is what it’s all about.  Do you do anything special or homemade for the holidays?

What a beautiful day yesterday was!  My husband and I decided to go to the “Kiku in the Japanese Autumn Garden” exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden.  Wow!  The chrysanthemums were spectacular…floral sculptures in the tradition of ancient Kyoto landscape design.  Here are four different styles…all of which were breathtaking and unusual!

Shino-tsukuri, or “driving rain”, is grown in thirteen pots arranged in two rows with exactly 27 branches in each pot.  The three varieties of petals, each growing in a different direction, give a sense of falling rain.

Ozukuri, or “thousand bloom”, appears to be several plants when, in reality, all the blooms come from one single stem.  With over 200 blooms in each pot, each shoot is trained to grow completely straight.  It’s truly an art!

Ogiku, or “single-stem”, grow up to six feet tall with one, large bloom on the very top.  They are typically displayed in lavender, yellow, and white…colors that symbolize royalty in the Japanese court. [Not pictured]

Kengai, or “overhanging cliff”, features hundreds of tiny chrysanthemums designed to evoke the look of flowers growing on the side of a cliff/mountain.

Our visit was a lovely respite from city living.  It regenerated our spirits and our souls.  If you live in the NY area, take a trip up to these gorgeous gardens.  It’s inspirational.

Renters, rejoice!  Wallpaper is not just for homeowners.  Now you can make your rental feel like a home…

Here’s a fantastic alternative to paint…Tempaper, an adhesive-backed, temporary wallpaper!  For renters, or commitment phobes, these rolls of wallpaper are as easy to apply as they are to take off.  No glues, no residue…no major commitment.  Affordably priced, they even come in fabulous patterns and colors!

And like all wallpapers, it’s not just for walls…you can line a shelf or kitchen cabinets, dress up the inside of a closet, frame as artwork, or cover your ceiling (I dare you!).

Budapest, the last and final stop of our Eastern European trip, was my favorite!  It was urban, while still maintaining a sense of Old World European elegance and beauty.  The Danube River—the views, the architecture—was all visually beautiful and romantic.  Even the manhole covers were well-designed!

This being our third city, we decided to take it easy and take a leisurely cruise on the Danube.  This day tour and afternoon boat ride led us to Margaret Island where we took a horse-drawn carriage ride while enjoying the culture and scenery.

(Continue Reading..)

It’s been back to reality and let me tell you, reentry into real life and business is payback for being away for 2 weeks!  To fill you in on the rest of our trip, after Berlin, we headed to the beautiful, historic city of Prague which was completely untouched by the war; therefore, completely intact.  Students go to Prague just to study the architecture, everything from Romanesque to contemporary.

In the charming Old Town Square, we found magnificent buildings and the Prague Orloj, better known as the Prague Astromonical Clock.  It was stunning and dates all the way back to 1410.   (Continue Reading..)

At first, I was disappointed to find out that the Bauhaus Archives were closed for renovation until October 2009.   How could I, an interior designer, not go to see the ultimate Bauhaus exhibit in its birthplace?  I was relieved to find out, however, that they moved a large part of it to the Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum (appropriate because Martin Gropius was the great uncle of one of the pioneering masters of Bauhaus, Walter Gropius).

Bauhaus was all about bringing art to the masses by finding utility in architecture and craft.  It was about breaking down a piece to its essential components, finding what elements were necessary for function.  One school of thought stressed mass production of these “simplified” home furnishings, making them available to all people, not just the elite.  Even in the early part of the 20th century, they recognized that everyone should have a beautiful home!

On our hunt for the smaller, more contemporary art exhibits, we went to the Hamburger Bahnhof, a “museum of the present day”.  It is housed in an old train station like the d’Orsay in Paris, but not anywhere near as grand!  It shows modern paintings, installations and multi-media art from artists like Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Anselm Kiefer and Joseph Beuys.  I have no photos, alas!

(Continue Reading..)

Guten Tag from Berlin!  My husband and I have been so busy taking in the sites and the culture, scouring everything from flea markets to delicious restaurants surrounded by art galleries.

Like true die-hards, we hit two fleas back-to-back on Sunday, both unique in their own ways.  Straße des 17 Juni, an established “higher-end” flea was chock full of antique home furnishings, vintage clothing and even handmade crafts, while the second, Flohmarkt Mauerpark, was definitely younger, more hip and a bit cooler. (Continue Reading..)