A Detailed Guide to Whet Your Appetite for Decorating
With their recently published “Room Recipes, Ingredients for Great Looking Rooms” (Rockport, $35), Cheryl and Jeffrey Katz take the mystery out of decorating. The authors, design columnists for the Boston Globe Magazine, explain with beautiful show-and-tell photos all the angles of the process, including graphics, colors, textures.
Each time a style or angle is explored, whether aiming for a “cottage look” or picking out particular wood furniture, the authors offer a helpful list of matching “ingredients.” Nothing is left to chance when it comes to achieving a desired look--not even the oilcloth for the kitchen table in the chapter on the cottage look.
Reading or just thumbing through the 144-page hardback makes you feel as though you’ve got a couple of pros right at hand. Not a bad deal.
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An Internet resource listing for customers interested in hooking up with artisans is in the works. Craftspeople who design studio-made furniture and decorative accessories for the home, garden and office can be included in the list a couple of ways.
Those participating in the Art Furnishings Show, March 3-4, at the Pasadena Convention Center, are automatically on the national resource list for one year. Otherwise, artisans may be included with a yearly fee of $125. Customers can view photos of the work and go directly to respective Web sites.
So far, about 100 artisans have signed up for the Online Artisan Directory at https://www.artfurnishings.com, according to Peck, MacDonald & Associates, the Westlake Village firm overseeing the directory and producing the show in March. For details, call (805) 778-1584.
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“Against Design” will be presented at the La Jolla location of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (700 Prospect St.), from Jan. 21 through May 20. The works will range from paintings that are floor plans of a make-believe house to overhauled, mass-produced furniture.
By the way, the “against” in the title means “alongside,” not “opposed to.” For more information on the traveling exhibit, which originated from the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, call (858) 454-3541 or go to https://www.mcasandiego.org.
Candace Wedlan can be reached at candace.wedlan@latimes.com.
