Awhile back I did a post of the kids’ dresser that I was building.  That project got put on the back burner for a while as I prepared for the Architectural Home Design Show.  Last month was spent following up from the show and finishing this project and some others.  So let me tell you a little about this dresser:

In recent years there have been many studies about the effects of off gassing formaldehyde from man made wood products such as MDF and Chip Board and other materials.  The effects can be harmful to most people.  What was really scary to me was the amount if these materials that was being used in Children’s furniture.  My older son and I sleep in regular beds, but my younger son was in a crib.  To think that he is laying there every afternoon for a nap and every evening to sleep while the MDF crib is off gassing made me sick.

So I have set out to design a line of children’s furniture that is Eco-friendly.  The first piece of this line is this kids’ dresser.  This dresser is made from FSC certified plywood, from a company that has changed it’s glue formulas to exclude all formaldehyde based glues and introduced a proprietary soy based glue.  This eliminates the off gassing problem from the plywood part of the furniture.

We didn’t stop there the paint used on the outside of the dresser is Old Fashioned Milk Paint. This is a paint that is made from Milk Proteins and natural pigments.  There are absolutely no VOC’s in this paint.  We are exploring a few other options out there for paint to be able to increase the choice of colors.  The Orange is chalkboard paint from Hudson Paints.  The chalkboard paint gives some great contrast as well as makes the piece fun for the kids.  They can actually drawer all over the dresser and not ruin the finish.

The handles are a piece of rope pulled through the drawers and tied into knots on the end.  Once again just a playful idea and cute design for a childs room.

Finally, I enlisted the help of good friend and painter Dalyn Montgomery to do something special.  I had Dalyn paint a sea turtle scene on the sides of the drawers.  I thought what a great little surprise for the children when they pull open the drawers to have something they like on the sides.

This dresser is completely customizable to your needs.  The sizes can be customized as can the paint colors, the drawer handles and the drawer theme.  All the drawers use what are called slow motion self close drawer slides.  What are these you might ask?  They are drawer slides that when pushed close, stop before the drawer is all the way shut and then slowly pull themselves closed.  Thus making it virtually impossible for a little one to slam their fingers in the drawers.

We are very proud of the first piece in this line of furniture.  Next few pieces we have planned are a toy chest, nightstand, bookcase and single and bunkbeds.

Summer is just around the corner and the lead time for this dresser is 4-6 weeks, if you want to place an order and have it before you child starts school in the fall, order soon.

so it looks like I am only good for a post a month lately.  I’m really sorry about that, but life and business is crazy.  So what’s been going on since the show:  let’s just say A LOT!

First there was the post show follow up.  This really meant, trying to find out if there were any write ups about us or other types of press.  Which there were a few write ups and a video.  Apartment Therapy gave us the title as “Best of The Architectural Digest Home Design Show”.  An honor that was shared with about 9 other vendors out of more than 300.  The only other furniture designer that received the honor was George Nakasihma and his booth.

Also we had a good friend show up and shoot a short video of the booth and the show for us:

We have started a monthly newsletter about the going ons in the studio.  You can subscribe to the newsletter by either sending us your email address, or becoming a fan of our facebook page and clicking on the “join our list” link.

One of the most important outcomes from the show was the trade day.  Meeting interior designers and architects and other trade professionals has proven to be well worth the investment.

But the most important thing that has come from the show is all the contacts that we made with all the great people.  We made some really good contacts with the public.  One of the most important things about doing shows like this for us, is that the public gets the chance to interact with the furniture.  Until we have a showroom, this is the only way for us to get people to feel and sit and touch our product.

Our biggest goal is to make cool things that people want to buy.  Things that are not only cool to look at, but cool to use and cool to our planet.

I know I have not been the best at updating the blog over the past few weeks.  But here is the reason why:I’ve spent the last 4 weeks building a few pieces of furniture, as well as doing a ton of marketing and PR related work.  I also designed and new business cards made my very first press kit and burn about 50 copies on lightscribed cd’s.  Of those 4 weeks the majority of shop time came only on Satuerdays and weeknights.  There was a ton of work to be done.

But this past week the show took place.  My good friend and artist Dalyn Montgomery (his paintings are on the wall) and I left on Tuesday from VA to go to Philly, then the next morning off to NYC for set up. The show started on Thursday, which was a day for the trade and press.  We met a ton of great people and a few bloggers and press.  We actually got a write up in Apartment Therapy.  They named us one of the best of the show 2010.

All in all the show was a great experience.  The booth was extremely well received and the furniture and paintings were a huge hit.  So here are a few pictures from the show:

with the Architectural Digest Home and Design Show a little more than 2 weeks away, life has been crazy.   I haven’t been in touch with the design world much over these last couple of weeks.  Only because I have had my head down and working like a dog.  With that said things are going well.  I delivered my sofa and my ottoman and my Phila chair with one other little surprise to the upholster last week.  That surprise is is a miniature version of my PHILA chair.  I thought I had a picture of it, but I don’t.  Needless to say though it is an eye turner.  People that have seen both chairs love the fact that I made a little kid’s version.  What do you all think:

it’s not the best picture in the world, but at the moment it is all that I have.

Check out these guys:  itamar burstein studio these guys have designed a series of furniture called Flex.

They call it an alternative bending process.  They remove a significant potion of the wood then replace it with a curved piece of contrasting wood.  Looks really sweet, but the woodworker in me scream, wood movement, two different species move at different rates.  But man is it a cool idea.

check out this awesome iPhone app and custom made housing/case.  It’s called BirdBox Alarm clock.
Check out this video:

for the last few weeks I have been working on some kid’s furniture.  I have been thinking about designing some kid’s furniture for some time now.  The push came from a chance meeting via email with Sheri Doyle at Franklin Goose.  She runs a website dedicated to all things kids and eco-friendly.  Ask if I would be interested in designing some piece for there website, I said yes of course.  So my first piece of kid’s furniture was a miniture version of my PHILA chair-I am getting ready to make another one of these, but an exact version for the Architectural Digest Home Show in NYC.  But for my next venture into kids furniture I made this 5 drawer dresser-First, please excuse the blue tape handles, I haven’t quite figured out what I want to do there yet.  But the whole dresser is made out of eco-friendly plywood, with white Milk Paint and safety orange chalkboard paint.  That’s right chalkboard paint, so the kids can draw all over this baby and not get into trouble.  As if the cool chalkboard on the sides and drawer front wasn’t enough cool for you yet, check this out.  KALA studios teamed up with artist Dalyn Montgomery to do this-That’s right, so when a kid opens his or her drawers there will be a painted scene on the side.  Of course they can choose what they would like to have, but for the first one ever we choose sea turtles.  So what do you think?

I can’t hear you sonny…  With the launch of the iPad only a few days ago, who would have thought we would see something this cool this fast.  Made by Matt Richmond

via design milk

Check out this ring from Kinekt Designs.  I lost my wedding ring in Tasmania, maybe it’s time for a replacement.  Check out there website for a sweet short video on the rings movement.

recently KALA studios received a fair bit of press from a few design blogs.  The thing about these types of blogs is that once they post something, other less known design blogs pick up the story and post it as well.  All in all after a post on one design blog, two other big blogs picked up the story and from there about 10-15 other smaller blogs picked it up as well.  So in the space of about 4 days, a fair number of blogs and people read about KALA studios.

Well from one of those blogs I received an email from a promoter of a pretty big home and design show.  He expressed interest in having us display at his upcoming show in NYC, which is The Architectural Digest Home Design Show.  As many of you know this is a big show 25,000 people went through it last year,  apparently that was a slow year.  So given the chance to have that many people come and see and touch and sit on our furniture, could not be passed up.

It was about this same time last year that I was preparing to be in the Fine Furnishing Show in Baltimore. So I have a bit of experience preparing for a show in a short amount of time.  With that said there is a huge difference between Baltimore and NYC.  For this show I plan on producing a few new pieces to go with my “PHILA” line of furniture.  A small sofa,  new coffee table, an exact replica of my “PHILA” Chair only kid’s size.  A couple of ottoman’s  and a crazy cool wall hung bookshelf design I have been thinking about for at least a year now.

It won’t be easy, but nothing worth it ever is, right?