Are you a Crate and Barrel shopper? Loyal customers will love their new 3D Room Designer, which will be available in all Crate and Barrel home store locations across the US on Wednesday, June 27.
The new 3D Room Designer -- developed in partnership with NedSense -- was the winner of the Moxie Award for Best Corporate Digital Innovation. It allows customers to convert a digital photo of a room into a 3D room model. Customers can then populate the room model with Crate and Barrel merchandise, swapping products and colors to find the perfect combination.
A consumer web application and iPad version are on the way.
Customers can either email their room photos to the store or bring them in by hand. All that's needed beyond that is a height measurement for the room and the width of an object on the wall in the photo. From there the 3D Room Designer will do the rest.
Sounds like a cool and fun tool for customers. Even if you don't walk away with C and B products for the room in question, you can at least get some inspiration and ideas from seeing the space virtually furnished and decorated.
Treehugger.com recently reported on a new furniture from Swedish designer Ola Giertz that uses hair from a hair salon in Helsingborg and recycled PET bottles to create two poufs. The plastic bottles were used to create the shells, and the hair was used as filling.
The transparency of the plastic poufs underlines the uniqueness of each piece, what with the randomness of the hair filling color, length and body.
No question that the product itself is unique. It's likely that the majority of would-be users might find the visibility of the filling to be a little off-putting, but there's bound to be a small number of homeowners who might enjoy owning such quirky furniture.
Would you want a pair of see-through, hair-filling, plastic poufs?
It's not much of a surprise to hear that men only make up 35% of the scented candle users in that market space. Don't believe it? Poke your head inside a candle store and count the chaps. We're betting they're always going to be outnumbered.
Yankee Candle is looking to change all that with the launch of their new Man Candles. A first-ever, limited edition line of candles, the Man Candle is created uniquely for men with scents inspired by hard work, fun and games.
Man Cave-worthy? We'll let the men out there decide.
The four scents are Man Town, First Down, Riding Mower and 2 x 4. With scents ranging from woods and musks to fresh cut grass and sawdust, Yankee Candle certainly put a bit of thought into the new line.
And apparently that thought is paying off. The company claims that one of the scents is currently the number one selling product out of their 4,000 items available and website visitors have increased by 167%.
Didn't know this was an actual day of celebration? Well now you know!
And to honor and express gratitude for the maritime industry and all that it does for the country, consider adopting a nautical theme with your home decor.
What does that mean? You can go with pillows and rugs with decorative anchors or nautical stripes on them. Or set the dining room table tonight with glasses, plates and place mates that feature sailing or ocean motifs, like lighthouse, boats and the like.
The best place to dress up the home with that maritime feel is the bathroom, that designated aquatic area. A new set of striped towels or a shower curtain that screams of the sea will accomplish this goal.
Have fun with bringing out this new look in your home. It give even the most landlocked of dwellings an ocean cottage air.
Indoor air quality should be the concern of every homeowner. Carpets, furniture, paints -- all can emit toxic gasses into the home environment, causing a host of respiratory issues and other health concerns.
Many consumers will be familiar with certification programs like Greenguard, which performs testing on products and affixes its label to those who meet or exceed standards for indoor air quality.
Europe, too, has standards for emissions in products. Created by the European Union in Brussels, the "E-1" standard is claimed by some to be the most stringent rating system for furniture in the world.
Or so says furniture manufacturer Haiku Designs, whose recently released eco-friendly bedroom furniture line meets the E-1 standard.
According to the company, their line of furniture is one of the only available in the United States with the E-1 rating.
Impressive, although one might argue with the statement made by a Haiku Designs representative that suggested "there are currently no standards for toxic gas emissions from furniture in the U.S."
There are standards, they are just not yet government imposed.
La-Z-Boy, that paragon of comfortable living, just released its XZipit accessory, which allows die hard fans to wear their heart on their sleeve and their team logo on their recliner.
The XZipit is a team logo panel that zips in and out of the recliner seat back, featuring a patented hidden zipper design that keeps the logo attached seamlessly to your sports nut's favorite place to be on a Sunday.
A nice, small touch from La-Z-Boy. It sounds like it's easy enough to swap logos in and out, so you can go from watching the Pats lose to the Bills to the Red Sox losing to anyone they are playing at the time and never feel like your support for your teams has wavered an ounce.
Would you grace your La-Z-Boy with an XZipit? If so, which logo?
If you're anything like me, picking a paint color for a room is like buying a car or choosing a college. It's a decision that speaks to who I am and who I want to be. Sure, it's reversible, but it doesn't feel that way, probably because of the work involved in the reversal process.
For those indecisive would-be room painters, I give you the Voice of Color. The brain child of Pittsburgh Paints and Porter Paints -- two premium architectural paint brands -- the Voice of Color provides homeowners with an innovative color selection program that gets to the heart of who you are and which colors will best suit your lifestyle.
A key component of the Voice of Color program is the Color Sense Game, which asks not "what color do you like?" but "what color do you feel?" Deep stuff.
The Color Sense Game is about much more than color and paint. You're asked to select your favorite from among a dozen different decors, decorating pieces, and even inspirational words. (I chose "optimistic.) It's a refreshing new method to discovering tastes I didn't even know I had. Definitely worth the time, although I have to question if my personal color palette REALLY is "Pop Art."
Having just watched Dan Gilbert's TED talk on synthesizing happiness, I cannot help but wonder if my own satisfaction with any color selected would be enhanced if I was told there was no going back.
