STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I love branch coral too. I'm still obsessed with those Anthro handles. I might do what deadlyjane did and buy the twig style pulls and paint them.

Here's a cute ocean-themed Wendy Mink bracelet from Bluefly


And I love this necklace with white branch coral


Adorable things from Ballard Designs:






Glassware from Gumps:



Serving Set



And I don't mean to torture you but I had to post this chandelier, which is ON SALE! for $3,599 at Horchow.


-- Edited by cc at 11:45, 2005-09-21

bumblebee wrote:

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i've always been a big fan of coral, too (and seashells--they're kind of an obsession).  i love that santa!  he's so weird but cool.  and i like the bracelet cc posted also.  that chandelier is such a good sale price, i think i might get two so that i can have one in my bathroom and one in my dining room.  i will have to sell my car, though. 

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haha!  so true though, what a great price!

CC- thanks soooo much for posting!!  i am officially obsessed now with the glassware and well, all of it really!  I've never heard of this ballard designs, is it a good place?  I'm just trying to keep my coral purchases to a choice few or it'll look like a coral store in my home. 

Oh cc, those glasses are beautiful!!! Too bad they have to be handwashed...who has the time for that?

Lynnie - while searching for coral pieces I came across this article and thought you might be interested.


Designers are crazy for coral in the home

March 20, 2005

BY CHARLYNE VARKONYI SCHAUB
SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL


http://www.freep.com/features/living/coral20e_20050320.htm

Don't write the obit for the tropical trend yet. Palm trees and monkeys may be starting to seem a little ho-hum, but designers are tweaking the look with coral motifs plucked from the sea.



Versace borrowed a coral look from its own 1994 La Mer china pattern for a sexy, low-cut, body-hugging dress. Roberto Cavalli and Andrew Gn also have latched onto coral-decorated fabrics. Catalogs by the Source Perrier Collection and Ballard Designs were among the first to show coral in beaded throw pillows. Designers Mimi McMakin and Brooke Huttig introduced Louis XVI side chairs with a coral branch back for Laneventure in 2003.



The signs have been trickling in at the designer level, but it hasn't been until the past few months that the look has become easier to emulate. Coral lamps and chandeliers have crept into recent issues of O and Elle Decor. House Beautiful's current issue features red coral on the headboard in a child's room.



Anita Tiburzi, design director for the Source Perrier catalog, claims to have initiated the coral craze when she put the first beaded pearl coral pillow ($85) in the catalog in 1999.



"When our expert consultant saw that pillow, she said it was much too specialized and we would only sell a few of them," Tiburzi says. "It has become one of the biggest sellers in the catalog. We have sold thousands since that time and our initial order was only 25 pillows."



Since then, the catalog has added a variety of coral items -- from lamp shades ($30) to napkins (four for $110). In April, the catalog will introduce a five-piece place setting of coral-handled dinnerware, a set of coral pictures taken from an old engraving and bath towels decorated with shells and coral.



"It is something that people can live with," Tiburzi says. "Coral is our new red."



Laura Daily, vice president of merchandising for Ballard Designs, is also considering additions to the three sizes of coral pillows ($69, $79 and $99). A coral-base lamp will be included in the late spring catalog and other coral pieces will be added in the fall. She says trends often emerge in catalogs first because space is limited and decision makers are forced to be more focused.



"This is not your fish tank coral," she says. "I think more than anything the tree branch shape mixed with the red makes it so appealing."



McMakin says she and business partner Huttig are coral freaks. Their signature coral side chairs came about after Huttig found a photograph of a coral chair in an old magazine. They both loved it and resketched it, but it took several furniture markets to convince Laneventure to make the chair. (It is also featured in the Source Perrier catalog for $875.)



Michele Lamb, home furnishings trend guru and publisher of The Trend Curve, says coral, like toile, emerged first in home decor and then spread to apparel.



"For the next year I think coral, stripes and banana leaves are much more salable than palm trees, monkeys and maps. It is more colorful, too."

-- Edited by aclassicbeauty at 20:10, 2005-09-22