My beloved Etsy is now featuring their perfectly simple, easy-to-navigate holiday gift guide - and nestled in this cornucopia is a special sub-category of holiday decor items. As always with Etsy collections, one must be careful about getting sucked in for hours and hours of delightful, craft-filled clicking. That said, it is too much fun to pass up - so fill up your tea mug, kick off your shoes, and get shopping.

I was particularly enamored of these flocked deer figurines from TheThinVeil. They are so cute, and beautifully photographed. No wonder they are almost sold out!

In our inaugural Design Challenge on the Sheffield Forum, we asked for a perfect autumnal color palette to inspire the decor of a room or an event space. We had some great submissions, but ultimately the most intriguing and well-conceived idea came from our winner Marinella Berthoud.

Marinella is a student in the Interior Design program. She created a wonderful palette that evolves from the lighter shades of summer to the richer colors of fall, and she chose an impressive set of furniture and accessories to illustrate how she would use the palette to inform a room design.

We are so pleased to have Marinella in our community, and were really impressed with her submission and positive attitude.  You can check out her design, along with all of the other submissions, right here.

Is all this color inspiring you? You ought to throw your own hat in the ring - we are taking entries for our November Design Challenge now!

Over on the forum, the Sheffield School just announced a new design contest.  Following up October’s “Fall Color” contest, which ended this past weekend, is the new contest for November.

This time around, in celebration of the upcoming holiday season, we decided to make the them of the contest “Holiday Party Decor”.

The task: Imagine a space, any space.  It can be your home or event, any place you would want to host a holiday celebration.  Then let us know how you plan to decorate the place.  Be as creative as you want and feel free to choose the holiday that most inspires you.

To submit your decor theme, post a description of your party decoration on the forum - in the November Design Contest thread.  A simple description will do, though we encourage the use of any photos or sketches that help explain your ideas.

The contest will run until December 1st, at which time the winner will receive a Sheffield School t-shirt, as well as the Williams-Sonoma Holiday Entertaining Book.  Read more about the contest on the Forum.  Good luck to all.

The Vipp Collection at Design Within Reach

Ever since first laying eyes on a Vipp refuse can, I was in love. The Danish company’s cans are unmatched in their combination of aesthetic appeal with functionality - sharp lines and neutral colors with an easy-to-clean finish and a wide rubber foot pedal. It helps that they have been hand-constructed from quality materials since the company’s inception in 1939.

This month, Vipp is once again teaming up with DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS) and Design Within Reach for CAN IT!!!, an effort to raise awareness and funds. They have asked a group of significant artists, designers, entertainers, and celebrities to transform Vipp bins into art objects, with amazing, and amazingly varied, results.

The final bins are on display at the DWR Tools for Living Store at 142 Wooster Street in Manhattan until October 28th, and are available for advance bidding. On the 28th, the celebration gala and final auction hosted by DWR, Vipp, and DIFFA will take place at the DWR flagship store at 110 Greene Street, with proceeds going to DIFFA’s important work. Bidders will be invited to this otherwise private event.

I had a chance to visit the DWR Tools for Living store last night, and was truly impressed with the bins and the store (which I learned from delightful salesman Steve has only been open a little over a year). If you are in the area, I recommend a visit!

Here are some of my (somewhat biased) favorites:

Jes Gordon

Avi Adler and John Baldessari

David Rockwell

Cole Garett and Yves Behar

All images ©Vipp via If Its Hip, Its Here. More information and images are available there.

One of the companies to fall under the wheels of the economic collapse last year was Shabby Chic, the company that pioneered the look of homey femininity with an elegant touch that reached its popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

But the company has sprung back to life, thanks to a new investor, and possibly thanks to the very economic blow-out that forced it to shut down. The look—infinitely comforting without sacrificing sophistication—was most popular when the economy of the 1980s was in serious trouble. So it may be perfect timing to bring out those distressed white dressers and faux-crystal chandeliers.

As it happens, the Room of the Month on Designer Monthly takes a look at a room done in this style; you can see photos and read about it here:
http://www.sheffield.edu/designermonthly/rooms/room-of-the-month1009.html

We found the article on the New York Times today—the photo below is from the article, and is taken by Art Streiber of Shabby Chic. You can read the article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/garden/15shabby.html

Time Out New York’s latest issue features an Interior Design theme.  The basic idea is that people are looking to either decorate their new apartments or redecorate their existing shelters, but most of them are on a budget.

Design on the Cheap features various articles about real New Yorkers who have managed to put together a few design ideas on a limited budget.  To view some of their ideas, and even steal them for your own home or apartment, check out the Time Out website.

Image from Time Out New York

In addition, the magazine is featuring 5 up and coming designers who are willing to gain real world experience by working for free.  Flip through the various designers as well as their concepts.  If you see anything you like, the email addresses to contact them and set up an appointment.  To check out the student designers, click here.

This Interior Design series is a great source of information for anyone, whether you live in New York or not.

You’re just about to drop off to sleep in your darkened bedroom, when you’re stuck by a sudden need for just one more sip of delicious tap-water. And, no longer a six-year-old, you can’t just call for Mommy. You reach for the cup on your night stand, knocking it over into the lamp, setting the bed on fire… well, okay, maybe it’s not that disastrous.

But wouldn’t it be really, really cool if you had a cup that was also a night light?

Now you can.  Just by taking a look here:

http://www.litecup.com

The premier design center in New York, the D&D, has just started today their own blog called Go Design Go. The D&D building is 18 floors full of furniture, lighting, and accessories showrooms.

Their blog will reflect the latest product offerings as well as trends, events, and designer information.  Take a peek at Go Design Go.

We like wood furniture. And we like being good to the environment. And we really like the furniture from Environment Furniture.

They use reclaimed wood from southern Brazil, then fashion it into furniture with plank inlays and mosaic effects, using, as they say in a press release, “the wood’s natural character to create a collection that’s minimal, rustic, and, of course, environmentally responsible.”

Not to mention really cool.

They have a store just off Union Square in New York City, and you can see more of their stuff here: www.environmentfurniture.com

Keith Johnson, buyer-at-large for Anthropologie, in Argentina in the Sundance Channel original series MAN SHOPS GLOBE

I have been a longtime fan of Anthropologie - though I can’t say I have actually purchased much there that wasn’t on sale, I can say that I have spent more than a few hours at a time browsing the store in a kind of retail reverie. Like ABC Carpet & Home, Anthropologie captures an artfully disheveled, precious, pretty aesthetic - and the store design and displays are as beautiful as the products they present.  Even mere passersby are enticed inwards by the famous window installations, which are at once decor and art.

As a fan, of course I am anticipating the premiere of “Man Shops Globe” on the Sundance Channel, a documentary-style show that follows Anthropologie buyer-at-large (what a job!) Keith Johnson as he travels the world in search of unique pieces and talented artisans. The show’s premiere party looked like good fun too - filled with beautiful objects and famous faces.

You can watch lots of clips and webisodes at the Sundance show website, and enjoy the charming promo below. Season premiere is October 7th.