Check It Out: Walt Disney Signature collection

Our friends at Veneman are releasing a new line of outdoor furniture in collaboration with Disney Consumer Products as they announce their expansion of the Walt Disney Signature collection.

The line from Veneman incorporates memorable Disney moments in film, animation and more into four collections: Lumiere, Griffith, Imperial and Script Writer, and will debut at High Point Market at the International Home Furnishings Center, Suite M126 on April 23, 2009.

The Imperial collection, shown here, in inspired by The China Plate, one of Walt Disney’s early Silly Symphonies. The film brought the characters on a porcelain dish to life through groundbreaking animation and this collection features an Asian motif with strong, refined angles and structural symmetry that would please any modern-day emperor.

This Just In: New Garden

My friend Heather Lenkin, a Pasadena landscape architect, just sent me this shot of a project in her hometown, just above the Rose Bowl. A mid-century modern house with incredible views of downtown Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Mountains, the space was a great opportunity for adventurous design that includes sculpture from all over the world.

In Progress: Kips Bay 2009 Decorator Show House

Our Style Columnist Damaris Colhoun toured the almost-completed terrace and conservatory spaces at the Kips Bay Show House with Daniel Richards of Plant Specialists last week. Damaris, who is working on a story about Daniel's design, has this to say: "He toured me around his two spaces. On the terrace he's showing some furniture that's never been available before in the states (Qui est Paul). He's doing some cool stuff with materials to transform the terrace, too. In the conservatory, he's got a whimsical thing going on, with a wall of silk butterflies and living moss panels, and it is furnished with the Duval line by McKinnon and Harris."

Check It Out: New Showroom

It was great to hear from Los Angeles-based garden designer Judy Kameon of Elysian Landscapes today. Having just seen her in Los Angeles two weeks ago, I knew that she and her husband and partner, the photographer Eric Otsea, recently opened a new showroom for their line of modern outdoor furniture, Plain Air.

When a 10-ton dumptruck crashed into the offices of Elysian Landscapes last year, no one knew what a happy accident it would turn out to be. Formerly available only to garden clients and the trade, the Plain Air partners have now decided to open their doors to the public in their new space at 2340 West Third Street, Los Angeles, where the Elysian Landscapes offices are now also housed.

“Making a showroom for Plain Air might never have happened if that truck had not crashed into us. Now we’ll be offering our newly expanded line, custom pieces and built-ins, outdoor upholstery, garden accessories and full exterior design services to the public as well as the trade,” says Kameon.

The building at West Third has a great story, Judy tells me. It was designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris in 1950 for a graphic/industrial designer and his illustrator wife, Charles and Kay Cruz. Cruz and Harris were colleagues at Chouinard, an art school of renown that was founding in 1921, which was right around the corner from our building on Third Street. It was built as a live/work space, and so was truly modern in every sense
of the word.

Judy describes the building as the ideal place for Plain Air: “The building has tons of glass and is perfectly sited on a south/north axis, so there is never any direct sunlight coming into the space, all year long. We have a lovely courtyard entrance and will soon be starting on the garden in the back and our roofterrace, all which features Plain Air furniture.”

For more information, please contact Judy Kameon at jk@plainair.com or phone 213.380.3185.

Kids’ Stuff: Hamilton Children's Garden

Our senior editor Megan Padilla was at Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas, CA, in September for their annual Gala in the Gardens, chaired by Rene van Rems. The big push at the gala was to raise money for the Hamilton Children’s Garden, for which she saw the model (see photo at above).

One of the most anticipated areas of the new Children’s Garden, which opens in June, is “Toni’s Tree House”, a one-of-a-kind “climbable” tree designed by Deneen Powell Atelier, Inc., rising more than 20 feet high and blending manmade materials with living plants. Here children can crawl in the roots to unearth worms, snails and bugs, then take a rope ladder and walkways to a crow's nest where they discover nodes which illustrate the relationship between trees, plants and animals. Hamilton Children’s Garden will also include The Spell and Smell Garden, The Quiet Escape, A Mountain Stream and Meander, Birds and Butterflies and much more.

If you're in the area, check out the grand opening celebrations on June 13th.

In Progress: Kips Bay 2009 Decorator Show House

After a long trip to Australia where he checked in on gardens he designed there, Daniel Richards of Plant Specialists is back in New York and has sent me photos of this morning's visit to the Kips Bay Show House. Here you can see that the 5th floor terrace is coming together and is almost done. Our Style columnist Damaris Colhoun will be stopping by soon to see it all in person.

On The Road: Winston Flowers

Our art director Donna Reiss spent a few days in and around Boston last week. She was there for a photo shoot with David Winston of Winston Flowers. While at the atelier on Florence Street in Newton, MA, Donna kept admiring these enormous red containers, and finally climbed inside one. "Isn't it funny how they're planting blonds these days?" she said.