apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I want to raise my hand and propose that AT go worldwide. The number of apartment dwellers down here in Sydney is massive. You haveeverything from your modern to your kitsche and it seems like everyone is design and eco-savvy. I vote you open it up to us down here as well and even volunteer to do some editorial if need be. WE're all big fans.

Anyone have opinions on Urban Outfitters' new Found Furniture selection? Seems interesting, but I have no way of judging whether the prices are appropriate.

Er, okay, HTML didn't take. The URL for Found Furniture is http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/jump.jsp?itemID=1198&itemType=CATEGORY

grrr... urban outfitters. As if I didn't have enough problems with the way they trade on the mass availability of an apparently unique look. Now they give it some credibility with legitimately one-of-a-kind furniture, rather than just mass-producing a flea market look.

What really bugs me is how often I genuinely like their stuff. Fortunately, I seem to be growing out of that a little. Now I just want bits and pieces.

say, anyone else notice that by the time you can afford the whole UO look, you've probably grown out of it? Would this hold for any other chain aesthetics?

Stopped by the UO by my office (the Valley, SoCal) during lunch. While they didn't have any of the vintage Danish Modern pieces from the website, they did have two vintage dining chairs painted bright blue with new mod-ish, blue-green, floral upholstery. The workmanship looked pretty good, and the look was very fab contemporary (a la Jonathan Adler). Priced at $280 each, it seemed a little high for UO but a good deal nonetheless.

What really caught my eye were all the new exotic/ethnic-print items. Most of it was imported from India, but some of the the better-quality textiles looked to be Moroccan. Whoever is buying these pieces for the chain is choosing well. None of this stuff looked like the boring/safe Pier 1 or Cost Plus World Market merch to me.

Definitely worth a look as there are a handful of really good items in their housewares section. Not all of it should be destined for a dorm room.

I agree, Enrique, I find their housewares selection is often pretty interesting, aside from the standard dorm stuff. Their lamps in particular are usually quite nice, and recently I've seen some nice pillows and rugs as well. I'll have to pop into the Cambridge Mass store, see what they've got for furniture.

Not a big fan of their exotic pattern stuff, which they seem to come back to over and over again. The quality seems fine, it's just not my thing.

Even if you CAN afford one chain's whole look, don't shop that way.

Patrick--Agree with you--again! Mix it up, baby.

MattS--Even if you aren't a fan of the ethnic stuff, you should check out the new patterned merch. Surprisingly a cut above the standard "exotic" items they've carried in the past.

I've admired the Found Furniture at the 72nd Street store for quite a while and generally find it to be high quality construction but more worn than what you would find in a store specializing in antiques. Prices seem to reflect that difference.

Speaking from experience, yes, if you can afford an entire chain's aesthetic, that's almost a guarantee that you've evolved beyond it. There was a brief period when my husband had an employee discount at the Williams Sonoma-Pottery Barn-West Elm empire. I shook my head and wished he'd had it 10 years earlier, when I would have cared. Our entire loot on that discount amounted to a Nespresso machine, one of those floral bundt tins, and an immersion blender from the W-S outlet.

But the owner of the little store across the street from the big PB was thrilled that we bought a chair from him at full price instead of at PB.

Haven't been around for a while, so forgive if it's old news. But the new look is FAB!

How about the fact that the owner of Urban Outfitters donate scads of money to right wing "conservative" Republican causes and politicos (Rick Santorum), as he rightly should. That being said it negates the worth, value, esthetic, and look of any of their products. I would hope that people that are in opposition of the right wing view point would be loathe to support it though purchases of Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie products. Check out this article about the owner Richard Haye: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=5725

Glad you're onto tha Xopher. The guy started out as a liberal but now he's really righty wing with the buck he gets from Anthropologie and UO.
Oh well, Treehugger always has good sites for good products.

Glad you're onto that Xopher. The guy started out as a liberal but now he's really right wing with the bucks he gets from Anthropologie and UO.
Oh well, Treehugger always has good sites for good products.

Is anyone experiencing problems sending email to the AT lads? I've tried to contact MGR twice recently with no response (it was a nice polite enquiry, promise!) Perhaps there's some strange email filter on their end causing a glitch? Or did the Labor Day weekend and site redesign cause technical difficulties?

Anyone else get the new Wisteria catalog? I got mine tonight: catalog of antiques and decorative items for the house and garden. I like the quirky/dorky way they write the product details and a few of the items caught my eye: the "unforgettable Indian water bowl . . a splendid bowl with a lot of presence" and the Blown-glass fountain vases that let you arrange flowers "unfettered by the bounds of ordinary reality."

Addressing p(too)'s comments regarding regionalizing AT... While I agree that much of AT's coverage transcends regional tastes and interests, there are always a good number of topics that don't--today's Promise Academy post, the FreshDirect debate from several weeks back, nurseries in Brooklyn, etc. These are geared more to NY-based readers, yes?

My hope with the LA site is to explore more "only in LA" phenomena--the abundance Mid-C architecture (i.e. an entire, mostly restored Eichler tract in the north Valley), landscape architects like Jay Griffith, local artisans like Alison Berger, the L.A. Conservancy's Modern Committee, beach culture, the ever-evolving Palm Springs scene, the influence of Hollywood set designers on commercial and residential interior design, etc. Yes, many of these topics have been discussed on the original AT site, but never from a specifically LA context. Addressing topics like this is how I would hope AT-LA will develop its own distinctive voice.

And, yes, bring back the email links! I have had so many great off-site discussions with folks because of this accessibility.

While I agree there are bound to be some (weird) only-in-NY tangents (and now, weird only-in-LA ones, like "which home stores 'validate'"), I'm still very much interested in related topics happening anywhere... I'm okay with an East Coast/West Coast thing, but how much more segmented need it be?

I think sometimes, yes, segmentation addresses differenc in need and potentially broadens an audience. But sometimes it just dilutes the original intent.

Design is universal. I'm drawn to the idea of both sites... perhaps because I'm mired between the two coasts!

And bring back email links, please! I too have had some marvelous exchanges with people I met through this site. (Curtis, P(too), Terry, Mary, Ruth...)

Happy weekend, all!

S.O.S: Can anyone recommend other than a Sub_Zero fridge for one of the cabinet-depth (24" x 84")types? What is known about the Thermador and Liebherr versions????

Hey, does anyone have any recommendation for not-hopelessly-futuristic television stands for plasma TVs?

Bernie, Pottery Barn has some decent consoles. Most free stands, though, are pretty 2001 A Space Odyssey.

Hmm, Dee--
I'm not sure I fully understand the need to over-regionalize Apartment Therapy. I'm even a little torn on the dual-coast approach now. I mean, with the web providing access, how regionalized do we need to remain? Isn't most of the stuff here fairly universal even if sometimes the sourcing isn't?

Even if a store is located only in SoCal, it can hold inspiration. And if I see something there I really lust after, I will find a way to get it. I understand things like regional Scavenger, but even the Round Ups of the respective House & Home newspaper sections (to me) has broader-than-local appeal.

ps- Love the redesign, but miss the ability to roll over poster's names to see their email addresses... I've "met" some great people that way. It also helps sort things out when various posters share the same name. For example, was that Wisteria post (LOVE Wisteria-- jealous you got your catalog already) by "go chris go"?

Where do we now find the links to all the "Items" that used to be in a list on the side?

P(too): Doesn't it just depend on whether someone enters their e-mail address? (This is a test, as well as a question.)

Okay, you're right. It's only people's websites that show as active links. What's up?

Diane -
Go to the archive section to find the item topics.

Oh, wow, there was a thread about FreshDirect and I missed it? Let's hear it for the FreshDirect delivery guy who fished one of the survivors from that helicopter crash out of the East River, got back into his truck soaking wet, and said,"I gotta make my deliveries, man!"

Diane,

I can't believe you missed the whole Fresh Direct debate (er, dialogue)! It was a doozy.

Went on for days.

Check the Archives.

Has anyone purchased furniture from overstock.com? I am curious about purchasing a chair-
http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?page=proframe&prod_id=1498084

Any thoughts are appreciated
Thank you.

Gigi- Check out the Conserve brand of refrigerators. Mine is 23 inches wide, 78 inches tall. You can check it out in our AT contest entry back in April. Plug "Sugar Shack" into the archives. I call it my "tall, sexy 'fridge." We love it. Wine rack in top of the refrigerator section. Drawers in the freezer below. Only drawback is no defrost, but I heard they were working on that. Much cheaper than sub-zero.

Can someone help me?

I have a nice old wooden poster bed with metal bed rails, and recently one of the rails broke - snapped clean away near a rivet.

So, I need to get a replacement rail. I think it's a very standard kind, with hooks that go into slots in the head and footboards. I'd rather not deal with Sleepy's or 1800mattress if I can avoid them (go figure). Is there anyplace in the city where I can just go in, plunk down some cash (a reasonable amout), and walk out with a bed rail for a full-size bed?

Or, failing that, someplace on the Internet I can order one? Preferably without having to buy an entire set?

Your help is greatly appreciated. I've looked through the forums and haven't found anything about this.

Yeah, bring back the links. I've enjoyed those folks that I've "met" on here, which brings me to the whole regional thing. Until there was a second Anne on here, and she clarified which one she was, I was blissfully unaware where she was. And although it's fine to know, it's kind of nice not to necessarily have to filter what one hears on here through a regional awareness, unless the topic sort of lends itself to it.

That's really just a casual observation; I don't really vehemently object to the East/West thing.

What about IKEA? They've got some edgy furniture that fits in small spaces. Not a big fafn of Potter Basrn myself, just to girly for my taste.....

"When failure is not an option, success can get expensive." - world war II helicopter veteran