NOW A TABLE FOR YOUR FRAMES

For those of you who just can’t get enough of Swarovski crystals, here is a table to display all your Jay Strongwater frames. The Proust table is part of Strongwater’s new home couture collection–in a decidedly art nouveau style with his favorite motifs, such as jeweled butterflies, blossoms, peacocks, and paisley on his signature enamel tiles.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

If you’re lucky enough to be on Napa Home’s mailing list, then you received a mailer for 20 percent off your next purchase. Why? Because the Oak Lawn Avenue shop is celebrating its one-year anniversary in Dallas. And they love you. If you didn’t get one, Napa Home still loves you. Especially if you go in and buy some of their yummy home furnishing goodies like these blown glass Tache vases. See? Ain’t love grand.

FOLEYS & FIELDS FOREVER

Not the fanciest, but for good basic home wares, Foleys is selling a ton of stuff for next to nothing. I bought my son a canister set ($9.99, white ceramic), a colander for $8.99, and a quality stir-fry pan for less than $20. The sales clerk told me the secret: Foleys has to unload all of its merchandise to make way for Macy’s. Ugh, that just reminds me that Foleys is soon to become Macy’s, as is Marshall Fields in Chicago. Not for me. I refuse to call Foleys by that name, and as for Marshall Fields, I will flash my dark green charge card (it was my very first credit card) at that store till the day I die. In fact, I am sure that when the grim reaper grabs me it will be when I am in the process of handing over one of my many, many pieces of plastic. (Do you think my estate will have to pay the bill? Such morbid thoughts!) Macy’s, if you want my money, you will take my Foleys and Fields cards. Shame on you for wiping out the names of such great department stores.
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RITZY TIMING

Note that while the W opens this week, today the Ritz managed to snag a good chunk of ink with the announcement today of the new 23 story Regency-style tower and the 4 Regency Row homes. I got my press announcement kit in such a pretty cornflower blue envelope I almost did not want to open it. I’ll scan the rendition photo in for you later.

I ache for the Mavericks — what a bummer — but at least we have the Ritz in Dallas, finally after all these years. A championship next year is in the air… so they can stay at the Ritz! Or W. Or Palomar. Or Mandarin O. Dear Lord, we need a championship just to fill all those hotels!

CONSOLE YOURSELF WITH SOME COOKWARE

Still reeling from the Mavs’ loss last night? I say gather up all your credit cards, dip into the savings, cash the bonds, and go shopping. (The kids didn’t really need higher education, did they? Street smarts. Yeah — that’s what they need.) There are loads of sales going on right now at all your friendly big-box retailers. Linens n’ Things is having a big white sale. All the Knox Street brethren — Pottery Barn (loads of outdoor entertaining stuff), Restoration Hardware (great patio finds), and Crate & Barrel (dinnerware everywhere) — are practically giving stuff away. And Sur La Table is getting ready for its summer clearance. Their sale starts Friday, June 30. Wow. That should soothe your fractured soul and make you forget all about Dirk. At least until next season.

A GLOVE TO LOVE

I’m not one to pitch products in this space, but I’d feel remiss if I didn’t let my fellow gardeners know about a cool new glove I’m trying out. A lot of gardeners are familiar with the Bionic brand of gardening gloves, but the company recently sent me its new rose gloves to try out, and I’m enjoying them as much as I liked my original gardening pair.

The rose gloves are a lot like the original–great gripping action, soft leather and other breathable materials to keep your hands cool, extra padding in all the right places, and a tight fit to help with dexterity. The gloves also come with an extra long gauntlet to protect your forearm from pesky thorns. Nice.

At $44.95, they’re a bit pricey, but if you’re a serious gardener, you’ll find their comfort well worth it.

PHOTOS OF DOGS, I LIKE

The real thing at the moment…not so much. But every good puppy dog needs a loving home. Just make sure the adoption comes complete with a leash, okay?

BEAUTIFUL COLORS

Cheer up. If the Mavs‘ loss has you in a black funk, go to the Conduit Gallery opening on Hi Line Drive this Friday, June 23. If seeing Rex Ray’s exuberant collages don’t make you smile, nothing will. Says Ray, “Luckily, I’m not the only one who sees beauty as still relevant to the fine arts, and despite the countervailing tendency to embrace ugliness, being beautiful is again on the rise in art circles.” Smile.

BUNGALOWS GONE

I was walking along the 4400 block of Edmondson this morning, observing how the houses, mostly ’40s bungalows, (although some were newer), just seemed to grow on the lots with a certain rightness of scale. Then I saw it, the dreaded empty lot–the initial scaling of the wall. I saw the bungalows with (ravenous) builders’ eyes–small, out-of-date houses on valuable lots. Shame.

LOOKING BETTER IN SA?

I just couldn’t leave that icky photo of the kitchen “before” up. Here’s what things looked like right before I left more than a week ago…and my son is sending me some even better pics. And Todd, thanks for the encouraging photos. Glad to hear those angels — a wonderful breed — may find homes.

PUPPY LOVE (DON’T READ THIS POST, ROGER!!)

A shutterbug-loving D Home fanatic sent along this tale of hope. Great Pyrenees are big, lovable, sweet, fluffy white dogs. And the local and Houston chapters of SPIN (Saving Pyrs In Need) have a wonderful story to tell: the rescue of 29 Great Pyrenees — the largest rescue of this breed ever in Texas. I know this isn’t H&G related. But it does speak to home. Read the story here. And adopt your own GP here.

OUR SUB-COUNTER SURPRISE

(Note this is the continuation of a Real Estate/Redo blog entry from 5/08/06.)This was the ONLY counter in the kitchen when I walked into our little stone cottage, as you can see I was ready for battle with all the Clorox and cleaners. (My son says I put Clorox in his DNA.) Problem: One counter, old cabinets, icky Formica top, but that tile backsplash was original to the 1939 house. What to do?
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RE: DEMISE OF McMANSIONS

Actually, you’d be surprised how glutted the M Streets and Vickery Place are with oversized houses on teeny, tiny lots. My peeps and I went to lunch last week at Blue Goose on Greenville Avenue. (The best sour cream and chicken enchiladas in Dallas thankyouverymuch.) We were shocked at the state of things in Vickery Place (which is south of the M Streets and just north of Henderson Avenue). Big, cookie-cutter houses towering over cute little bungelows. Vickery Place is a modest neighborhood with modest homes. At least, it used to be. And the homogenizing of East Dallas continues…

AND ANOTHER GOLD BEAUTY

Now this one I have dibs on. Actually, on two. (But I can share.) They were just unwrapped at Ceylon et Cie last week from NYC… and my name is all over them so you’d better get there fast.
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LIGHT MY WAY

If you are looking for lamps, which I think are very difficult to find, check out these gold beauties at Ceylon et Cie down on Dragon Street in the Design District. The drum shades are totally metal, and they are heavy, man, but you will not believe the price.

THE BUBBLE/ADIOS McMANSIONS?

Correction folks: The 31 percent drop in sales was in zip code 75205, the 23 percent increase in sales was in 75206. (Sorry I wasn’t able to “cut and paste.”) According to The Wall Street Journal, homes in 75206 are selling better because they are cheaper and half as big–whereas in 75205, they are 6,000-square-foot-plus McMansions. I have placed my calls to the local sources. What I suspect: 75206 is an area where young, first-time home buyers are closing on homes. Another thing to consider: Are the McMansion owners ditching their homes for condos and high-rises? Do stay tuned!

THE BUBBLE CONTINUES TO POP

The Arizona Republic had an interesting article in the paper on Sunday (it was picked up by the Dallas Morning News–view it here) about, what else, falling home prices.

The details after the jump.
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DEMISE OF THE McMANSION?

Candy, did you really mean 75206–roughly bounded by Central Expressway on the west; Northwest Highway to the north; Skillman, east; and Henderson, south? I’ll grant you M streets, yes. McMansions, not so much.

DEMISE OF THE McMANSION?

Two faithful readers have alerted me to recent stories on gluttonous homes and the possible demise of the McMansion. One, in today’s Wall Street Journal, talks about a 31 percent drop in home sales in zip code 75206. You bet I will be on the phone tomorrow getting to the bottom of this… and another reader from Tulsa alerted me to this month’s Vanity Fair, which, aside from the usual “Bush bashing” from its Canadian-born editor, Graydon Carter, I adore. The piece is on the homes–no, I cannot call them homes–the monuments being built in Greenwich, Conn.
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SAD, SAD NEWS

Tom Robertson, of the Tom and Agness Robertson society reporting team, passed away Friday evening, surrounded by family, peacefully in his sleep. He was 91 years old. Agness and Tom were married for 65 years and lived on Royalton Drive in Dallas.

Many of you know Tom and Agness from their heyday as society reporter (Agness) and society photographer (Tom) for People Newspapers for many, many years. I can’t even think of how many–they have certainly been at it ever since we moved to Dallas in 1979. I recall that Agness told me one time how she saved PR folders to give to underprivileged children to use for school work folders–it pained her to toss those nice, glossy folders away. Sweet, honest, and good-hearted people, and my heart goes out to Agness…Tom will be missed by many, loved by hundreds.

WHAT TO DO WITH GREEN?

What do you do with comet green walls that look as if they came out of a 1950s hospital ward…for the insane?
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MY SAN ANTONIO REDO I

I have to admit it; this is a really cute cottage. 1,534 square feet, a little more than a quarter of an acre, built in 1939 by an oilman/home builder named Thorman who developed Olmos Park and Olmos Park Terrace in San Antonio.

(Note this is the continuation of a Real Estate/Redo blog entry from 5/08/06.)
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105 DAYS AND COUNTING

Barneys New York is slated to open in Dallas on September 29. I feel a bit like a trader, rooting for the visiting team. Neiman Marcus’ home decor “area,” if you can even call it that, is too dismal for words and frankly a disgrace for Dallas. Barneys, bring it on!

HEY! LOOK WHAT I BOUGHT LAST NIGHT!

Finally, I own not only the home furnishing of my dreams, but also what I consider to be one of the most perfect designs ever (since it’s culled from nature, how could it not be?). It’s architect/designer George Nelson’s sunflower clock. Overexposed? A bit of a design cliché, much like the Barcelona chair? Perhaps. But you can’t deny its perfect marriage of style and substance, form and function. It’s fluid, graphic, and looks smashing on my dining room wall. Yes, today I’m a happy man. You can get one here and learn more about Mr. Nelson here. And if you want to know what time it is, ring me.

STEVE BROWN WAKES UP, SMELLS COFFEE

I had lunch with the lovely Lynda Adleta today–Adleta Fine Properties–and the fabulous Jane Peterson, also of AFP. Wish I could tell you what real estate tidbits we discussed, but my lips are sealed–for a while, at least. We did drink a toast to Steve Brown, real estate editor of the Dallas Morning News. Brown finally has recognized that there is no “bubble” in the Dallas real estate market–as every agent has been telling me for months. Bottom line: Dallas is listed as one of five UNDERVALUED cities in the nation when it comes to real estate.
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