Brizo, have you heard of the brand?...

The amazingly gracious people at Brizo have invited me and a select few to experience their amazing products, company philosophies and creative inspirations in the next few weeks, all while colliding with New York Fashion Week... Tell me this doesn't sound like the most incredible ride!  Yeah, well I'll be reporting back with all the fabulous news on what this ground breaking and innovative brand is bringing to the world of interiors...

Now the most intensive and stressful part of this event is, "What to wear!!!"

Siderna Faucet

Feathers, feathers, feathers!

So feathers have been an obvious trend in fashion for the last few seasons, and it looks amazing!  The craze even went so far as to feather hair extensions which are just super fun and playful...

So crossing over into the world of interiors, you can now find a multitude of applications for feather usage as well... Admittedly you gotta like the idea of the feather to rock it out, but it can be a wonderful way to add texture and color to things in the most organic of ways...

There are quite a few company's that offer varying species of feathers in trimming which is such a fun way to liven up a standard pillow.  It's not going to overtake your room or your surrounding, but it's such an unexpected way to dress a pillow... I highly recommend using only REAL feathers, or you'll stand the chance of it looking really cheap, really fast...  The last thing you want is for it to look like you took a boa off a stripper and attached it to your things... GROSS!

Along the same lines as the trimming is to use it in a tieback application, again dressing up simple fabric panels with a bit of texture.  It's the perfect way to heighten the look of those simple linen panels that everyone can get because they are so versatile and inexpensive.

 

Lastly and the most innovative and interesting application to feathers is to use them as wallcovering... I noticed a couple months back in the F. Schumacher showroom the most intriguing looking wall behind one of the representative's desk... Upon closer inspection I was blown away to discover the undulating wall surface was thousands of tiny feathers creating this amazing movement of iridescence and color... So so amazing... I think it's one of the chicest looks I've seen, but I know that there's quite a price tag that goes along with it... But like all really great things, using it sparingly can make it even more important in the right environment!

Everyone's asking, "What is Batik?"

Well, I've sparked many a conversation given the last challenge on Design Star when I made a last minute decision to try and give my pale green wall a different textural feel by doing a Batik technique on it...  I only had 2 colors to work with, the pale green and a greyish white, so the differences were very subtle.  I tried to accentuate the pattern by rubbing some brown and black pastel pigments into the lines...  Not necessarily the traditional technique or colors you'd use, but it was some quick thinking to try and differentiate ourselves from the other kitchens...

Photo from HGTV.com

So now you're still asking, "What is Batik?"  Well Wikipedia defines it as, 

"Batik (Javanese pronunciation: [ˈbateʔ]; Indonesian: [ˈbatɪʔ]; English: /ˈbætɪk/ or /bəˈtiːk/) is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.
Javanese traditional batik, especially from Yogyakarta and Surakarta, has notable meanings rooted to the Javanese conceptualization of the universe. Traditional colours include indigo, dark brown, and white, which represent the three major Hindu Gods (Brahmā, Visnu, and Śiva). This is related to the fact that natural dyes are most commonly available in indigo and brown. Certain patterns can only be worn by nobility; traditionally, wider stripes or wavy lines of greater width indicated higher rank. Consequently, during Javanese ceremonies, one could determine the royal lineage of a person by the cloth he or she was wearing."

Batik comes in an infinite number of colors and patterns nowadays, from as subtle as my wall, to quite loud and outlandish...  Here are just a few images of Batik patterns and the actual process used in Indonesia to create individual bits of heaven...

 

It is such an amazing artform that I thought would be such a compliment to our "Global" kitchen, instead I was told that it was "botched"...  I hope you give it a try on a wall you find just a bit too plain, but remember to use colors that read well on camera, just in case Vern pops in to see what's for dinner... :)