Vintage Wood vs. Reclaimed Wood

September 23rd, 2009 by jennifermyers
Vintage Wood's products in use

Vintage Wood's products in use

It’s been all about Colorado for Kari Seydewitz, LRM Interior Design’s in-house designer. Last week it was the beautiful copper screens for the outdoors, and this week she’s found aged wood from Vintage Woods. This Vail Valley, Colorado company takes beetle-kill wood and ages it to create amazing and unique wood products.

What is “beetle-kill wood,” you ask? We didn’t know either. It seems that all over Colorado, pine beetles are burrowing into the trees to lay their eggs. Most of the time, healthy trees expel most of the beetles with their sap, and the tree lives. If a tree has been weakened by drought or if the trees are overcrowded, they aren’t able to repel the beetle, and the tree dies. This always happens in cycles every few years, but recently it has been particularly bad in Colorado due to forests weakened from drought and 100 years of wildfire supression. Sometimes the beetles leave behind a fungus, and as the tree dies, the fungus stains the wood all sorts of colors, from shades of gray, blue, purple, brown and black. (read the rest of this post…)

Bring the Indoors Outside

August 14th, 2009 by jennifermyers
Susan Bradley's Outdoor Wallpaper

Susan Bradley's Outdoor Wallpaper

Usually designers are known for “bringing the outdoors inside,” such as Billy Baldwin, mentioned in our last blog. But now the trend is to bring the inside outdoors.

Southern California is famous for its beautiful, year-round weather, and as much as we hate to brag, we have to deal with it as designers. With outdoor kitchens and areas for entertaining, interior design no longer stops at the door’s threshold. LRM Interior Design’s Kari Seydewitz saw Susan Bradley‘s innovative idea for “outdoor wallpaper,” and thought it would be a great addition to a Southern California designer’s repetoire.

Think of a backyard area with a cluster of seating, tucked up against the home’s exterior wall. Painting the wall a color to complement the furniture is a great idea, but what else can be done? A mural is not always the answer. Using this outdoor wallpaper can add something special, as it can be used as a trellis or just as an interesting form of decoration to draw the eye.

Susan Bradley offers several damask-style designs, a beautiful design based on the Japanese cherry blossom, a very modern vine pattern and a large paisley print—all available in different colors and finishes. The company is in the United Kingdom, so be warned: the prices are in U.K. Sterling, but they are happy to ship overseas to the U.S.