Marketplace: Shopping for Smart Design

For more reports on new products, shopping scoops and sales alerts, check out our daily blog postings at latimes.com/home.

EXTRA: SHOPPING FOR....Folding Tables

EXTRA: SHOPPING FOR....folding chairs to seat party guests in style

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Outdoor furniture

Chairs, loungers, tables, candle lanterns and more: Click to see our PHOTO GALLERY.

TRENDSPOTTING

Put on a happy face with yellow décor

Happy-face yellow -- not midcentury mustard or the soft shade of an Easter chick -- is the color of choice for home furnishings this spring. Click for the full PHOTO GALLERY.

OPENINGS

Sneak Peek: Bauer Pottery showroom expands

Every year, collectors of Bauer Pottery eagerly await the Atwater Village studio's December sale of factory seconds. Beginning today, fans won't have to wait until the holidays, as the newly remodeled showroom will open to the public the first weekend of every month. A variety of seconds -- dinnerware, candlesticks, pitchers and other brightly colored trademark designs with minor defects or uneven glazing -- will be marked down as much as 60%. Purists interested only in first-quality pieces can place orders too. The sale runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Sunday at 3051 Rosslyn St., Los Angeles; (888) 213-0800; www.bauerpottery.com.

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Home office chairs

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Folding-chair alternatives

Lots of guests headed your way? Folding chairs are fine, but savvy hosts have alternatives. Whether you're throwing an Oscar party in January or gathering family in December, new designs need not be banished to the garage or a hall closet when visitors depart. For a range of options, including budget-minded buys, click to our PHOTO GALLERY.

EXTRA: SHOPPING FOR ...

Modern fireplace screens

Modern fireplaces may forgo old-fashioned logs in favor of alcohol reservoirs with wicks set in sand, or gas flames that rise from lava rock. But for many of us, traditions die hard. If you're not ready to give up the romantic crackle and flicker of a wood-burning fire, designers are fashioning artful screens encased in stainless, brushed and powder-coated steel, or made of wrought iron and colorful stained glass. Even if you'd rather not light up a carbon-emitting log, these fire screens offer something beautifully sculptural to gaze at. Click for a FULL GALLERY of the latest designs.

OPENINGS

Sneak Peek: Heath Ceramics opens L.A. showroom

Just like the handcrafted tile that made the firm famous, Heath Ceramics' new 5,000-square-foot Los Angeles showroom officially opened imbued with simple, humble beauty. Plywood shelves, a concrete floor and the open floor plan give the 60-year-old firm's designs plenty of room to breathe. "We wanted to make it easy for people to shop," co-owner Catherine Bailey says. Classic ceramic dinnerware -- formerly available only in small quantities at a few local stores -- is stocked in abundance. Though tile still must be ordered through Heath's factory in Sausalito, Calif., the new store offers custom tables made from recycled ceramic kiln shelves that are glazed and fired, bright new plates and bowls for kids and a gift registry. L.A. potter and Heath studio director Adam Silverman, right, will produce works on-site. 7525 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (323) 965-0800; www.heathceramics.com. For a PHOTO GALLERY of the new store, click here.

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