DESIGN OUT OF REACH
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When I was a kid, most summers were spent frolicking around the back woods of Michigan building deer blinds with my cousins, fishing, playing solitaire with my grandparents and cooking with my aunts and uncles. When it stormed outside we'd pour ourselves onto my grandmothers "davenport" and flip through the pages of the "wishbook," Sears take on the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue. Instead of offering private jets and bedazzled watches, the Sears wishbook (and it's glossy 1,200 pages) sold everything from screwdrivers to Barbie Campers, offering gems for just about anyone. Thumbing through the pages I'd fantasise about using the easy bake oven, decorating the Barbie camper and twisting Stretch Armstrong's arms into a pretzel. Today I have different wishbooks and often when meeting with clients I bring one of my favorites, the Design Within Reach catalog filled with simple, clean, beautiful designs (albeit often expensive) so I can get a better idea of the clients fantasy plan. While Design Within Reach offers beautiful products, many of them come at a cost, leaving the rest of us to merely dream about what it would be like to have that in our homes. Thanks to places like Ikea and West Elm, modern design is within reach of just about any budget. Take, for example, a client of mine who wants clean, modern, hip furnishings in his bachelor pad but doesn't want to spend a fortune. What is his fantasy? The sales floor of the Design Within Reach store in midtown Manhattan and the cool, interesting lights that shine down on it. Two of the lights above cost over $8,000 at DWR while two cost well under $80.00. Can you tell the difference? Neither could he, but his bank account sure did! (#'s 2 and 4 came from Ikea costing less than $60)
When I was a kid, most summers were spent frolicking around the back woods of Michigan building deer blinds with my cousins, fishing, playing solitaire with my grandparents and cooking with my aunts and uncles. When it stormed outside we'd pour ourselves onto my grandmothers "davenport" and flip through the pages of the "wishbook," Sears take on the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue. Instead of offering private jets and bedazzled watches, the Sears wishbook (and it's glossy 1,200 pages) sold everything from screwdrivers to Barbie Campers, offering gems for just about anyone. Thumbing through the pages I'd fantasise about using the easy bake oven, decorating the Barbie camper and twisting Stretch Armstrong's arms into a pretzel. Today I have different wishbooks and often when meeting with clients I bring one of my favorites, the Design Within Reach catalog filled with simple, clean, beautiful designs (albeit often expensive) so I can get a better idea of the clients fantasy plan. While Design Within Reach offers beautiful products, many of them come at a cost, leaving the rest of us to merely dream about what it would be like to have that in our homes. Thanks to places like Ikea and West Elm, modern design is within reach of just about any budget. Take, for example, a client of mine who wants clean, modern, hip furnishings in his bachelor pad but doesn't want to spend a fortune. What is his fantasy? The sales floor of the Design Within Reach store in midtown Manhattan and the cool, interesting lights that shine down on it. Two of the lights above cost over $8,000 at DWR while two cost well under $80.00. Can you tell the difference? Neither could he, but his bank account sure did! (#'s 2 and 4 came from Ikea costing less than $60)TIME TO COMPLETE TASK: DWR lights take up to 6 weeks for delivery, Ikea 2 weeks or in-store.
COST: Pendant lamp from Ikea(#2): $16.99, Pendant lamp from Design Within Reach (#1): $369, DWR's "Artichoke Pendant"(#3) $7,669, Ikea's Pendant (#4): $29.99 (visit http://www.designwithinreach.com/ or http://www.ikea.com/)
STRESS LEVEL: Creating a rich look with a low budget: LOW
