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Bon Appetit Collection {Kitchen Tools and Appliances}

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:35:04 +0000

Last week I went to the Bon Appetit test kitchen at the Conde Nast building for lunch. They were introducing their new line of kitchen tools and appliances that will available through HSN. (As luck would have it I was extended an invitation! I am thrilled to be on whomever’s PR list I got added to. I asked my friend Jonathan from #DesignTV to join me. We had a fantastic experience!)
Now you all know I am not a huge ‘home shopping’ kind of gal – I like to touch and feel what it is that I purchase – but after taste testing all the great dishes that were prepared with the new Bon Appetit line, I could be convinced to snag myself a piece or two from the collection.
First off: the pressure cooker. It works like a slow cooker, only you can pre-sear meats directly in the cooker, as opposed to starting them off in a pan. You know I am a sucker for one pan dishes. Now that we’re deep into Winter I can see how the smell of savory food wafting through the house all day long could be completely cozy and appealing.
Second: the electric griddle. You see the center section? Not only does it flip over from griddle to grill, but it’s also removable. You can pop the part that gets messy directly into the dishwasher. This is a feature I don’t have on my electric fry pan, and I consistently find myself stressing about the fact that I either didn’t get the pan clean enough, or that I somehow got water into the electric plug element.
As a parting gift, Bon Appetit gave me a 12 inch fry pan to take home and try out. I know that in the past I have sworn by by SCAN pan, but I must admit that this one is a nice one. It reminds me of my All Clad pans in that it’s got a heavy, very flat metal bottom which allows for even heating of food across the bottom of the pan – i.e.: no burned parts or hot spots! It also has a nifty notch for your pointer finger to grip onto. Not to mention, all dishes started stovetop can be finished off in the oven because the handle is oven safe. All of these design elements are a huge plus in my kitchen tool check list!
The entire Bon Appetit line of kitchen tools and appliances goes live at HSN on January 31st. Each piece is available in a variety of fashionable colors. Do you recall during BlogTour when I told you about Mix Publications and the color palettes that are on trend for 2012/2013? Well, these kitchen new appliances are an incredible example of the bleep color palette moving into the general marketplace.
Full disclosure: I was not paid for this post, however I was gifted a fry pan and a usb cord with images of the line as a parting gift. As always, I wouldn’t have written about this product if I weren’t truly interested and impressed with the line.

Trend Spotting {Shopping: New York City}

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:16:08 +0000

Yesterday my friend, and DesignTV chat co-host Jonathan Legate joined me for an afternoon of trend spotting in and around lifestyle and furniture stores of New York City. There is nothing quite like going in a bunch of stores to get the ‘vibe’ that is happening in the marketplace.I tell you what, GREEN is everywhere. On walls, upholstery, in accessories. Brass too – it’s back. You might recall that I called this one a while ago both in this Notes for the Design File post as well as in this Crushing on Gold Accents and Matte Gold Flatware post. We’re still seeing stores with all their walls painted black – you know I am a fan of that too.We didn’t see anything necessarily new interior design-wise in C Wonder - yet it was an incredibly eye-catching place – it’s a familiar mix of Kate Spade, Jonathan Adler, and Tori Burch wrapped up in a Disney Land, over the top package. The shop is full of handsome color combinations, brass accents, lacquered walls and furniture pieces.Kelley green piano painted doors ushered us into the space. There were pops of kelley throughout the shop including a velvet sofa with brass nail heads, an oversized ottoman with teal color details and wide horizontal striped walls jewelry section. Speaking of jewelry, we’re seeing fashion accessories make an appearance on furniture.Today on #DesignTV we’ll be talking more about trend spotting for Spring and Summer months. What’s hot, what’s not and how you are freshening up the look of your home for Spring and Summer ’12! Join us by clicking here and signing in with your Twitter account at 5pm ET/2pm PT.
Images: C Wonder via Architectural Digest, Flair Home Collection, Ochre, The New Traditionalists

NYC Black Christmas Tree with MOMA ornaments

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:59:41 +0000

I purchased our MOMA Christmas Tree ornaments back when the Mr and I were engaged. He wanted to put a tree up in his apartment and didn’t have any sort of a collection to speak of. Since I was decking out my own place with my decorations, I purchased a few sets with the idea that I would add to our ornament collection once we were married. Each year the MOMA store changes the designs slightly, but they are always colorful and coordinate with the MOMA ornaments from years past. They look pretty wild on a black Christmas tree, don’t they?Why a black tinsel tree, you ask? It’s so infrequently that I am in the City on a regular basis that I wanted to only be responsible for watering the tree in one location. Since we’re spending our Christmas Holiday at The Country House, I wanted the fresh tree to be there. I figured if I was going to bring an artificial tree into The City Apartment, that I might as well embrace the fact that that it’s fake. What better way to do so than pick a color that doesn’t exist naturally? With the colorful ornaments in mind, I went for a black tinsel tree since every color truly pops on a dark background! Please help decide which lucky ABCD Design reader WINS Desk No. 211 for Christmas! Vote til noon on Thursday here.

{High Falls Mercantile} ABCD Designs a Holiday Tablescape

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:35:40 +0000

Earlier this week, I partnered with High Falls Mercantile for a Holiday event in New York City. The event was sponsored by Crest Toothpaste and put on by a group called Shecky’s. Larry Ruhl (You remember Larry, right?) and I had a lot of fun working together. I went to his shop this past Sunday to pick out the items that I would incorporate into the tabletop design. He also made selections from his store to set up a mini-HFM on the tabletop behind mine.The job came to me only Wednesday of last week, and due to the Thanksgiving holiday and the timing of the Monday departure of my house guests, there wasn’t going to be time for me on Friday or Saturday to get into the NYC flower market. You see, ideally one should purchase flowers for an event at least 2-3 days before an event so that the flowers have time to open.I would normally refuse to do this, but since the budget was literally nothing for the event, (zero! zilch! nada!) I decided to repurpose the flowers that I already had on-hand for our personal Thanksgiving celebration. I know, I know. It’s not my style or first choice to redesign flower arrangements – but there wasn’t any other solution. I simply wasn’t going to make it into the flower market and these flowers looked perfectly fabulous. They were blooming wide open on Tuesday and (to be honest) it would have been a shame not to use them.
As a matter of fact, there were hundreds of people at this event and more often than not the first question I was asked by those visiting the table was “Are the flowers real?” From what I understand, 1200 people RSVP’d for the party. It was raining, so I suspect something less than that showed up on the scene, but all in all it was a good turn-out. As part of the media tours earlier in the day, I met one of the market editors from Oprah.com. (Can y’all please cross your fingers that I might hear from her? Santa, are you listening in too?)As part of designing the tablescape, I carried on with the same trends that I spoke about at the Mom Trends Holiday Soiree as well as on my Daily Grommet holiday decor guest post. I stuck with a neutral palette on the core pieces that I used in the tabletop design. I mixed both silver and gold on the table. I also went along with the trend of mix and match place settings. I layered, layered and layered some more. Pretty, isn’t it?
If you take away the elf canapé plates, pinecones and change out the colors of the flowers you could easily transform this tablescape into the next season without much effort and at a relatively low cost. If you use different color flowers and small decorative items it would change the entire feel of the tabletop. How incredible would those greys and browns look with hits of purple and eggplant in the Fall, or peach and yellow, or pale pink in the Spring? This tabletop could easily transform into an Easter dinner tablescape…All of the photos in this post are my own, and as I mentioned before, all of the items I utilized in the tabletop design are from High Falls Mercantile: Cream Linen Tablecloth, Brown Linen Oversize Napkins, Vintage Mix and Match Silverware, I arranged flowers in Americana General Ovenproof Stoneware Butter Cups and Tumblers, Elf Plates, Smoke Champagne Stemware, Smoke Wine Glasses, Hampshire Grey 4 piece Dinnerware, Hampshire Cream 4 piece Dinnerware. Ribbons Noel/Merry Christmas, red votives, and gold pinecones are not on the website. Feel free to email info[at]highfallsmercantile[dot]com or call 845.687.4200 with inquiries.

The New Traditionalists {a holiday present: Desk no. 211}

Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:36:18 +0000

Remember last week when I challenged you to dream decorate your home office? Tell me, what would your office design look like with Desk no. 211 in it? Pretty remarkable, I suspect. Why Desk 211, you ask? Because it is the one I would dream decorate the ABCD Design studio with, of course!I have made it no secret here on ABCD Design that The New Traditionalists is one of my favorite furniture lines. I’ve written about them on many occasions. I first fell in love with The New Traditionalists over a TV cabinet (in their infancy, when they were known as Mason Gray) and then I named them one of my top three favorites at the Architectural Digest Home Show in 2010. Late last Fall, I wanted to know more about their line so I made a visit to their handsome Soho showroom.Six week lead time? Check. Fully customizable? Check. Eco-friendly paints and finishes? Check. Made in the USA? You BET! Hand-built, honest quality AND designs that play nicely with both traditional and modern decor? No need to carry on. Sign me up. I am a fan.During that meeting, Philip shared with me that they like throwing parties in their space. “Ooooo…I like throwing parties too!” We took that conversation from the seed of an idea, to The Living with What you Love Event. We arranged the fabulous party guests, amazing cocktails and Fall inspired flower designs in less than two weeks time. What a magnificent night it was!Since then, we’ve had many wonderful conversations inspired by The New Traditionalists on our weekly DesignTV chat that were facilitated by the behind-the-scenes social media work of Leslie Carothers. The most memorable chat was with Interior Designer Campion Platt where we discussed Quality, Value and Timeless Design. Most recently, we had a lively chat about how fashion and interior design influence one another.The New Traditionalists make a handsome line of hand-built, ultra-fine heirloom furniture that is fit to hand down from one generation to the next. The New Traditionalists style, aesthetic and slow home mentality is a perfect fit for ABCD Design. And that is why they’ve offered to give one of my readers a Christmas present!
Enter to win The New Traditionalists Holiday Giveaway on ABCD Design: this is an incredibly generous giveaway worth $5,000.00, so we’re narrowing down the winner in two rounds of entries. You’re going to have to follow these steps in round one to be eligible…

1) Like The New Traditionalists on facebook and follow @CEO_TheNewTrad on Twitter.
2) Visit the TNT website to design your dream Desk no. 211. Pick the wood finish and fabric or leather for the drawer faces.
3) Click on the share button to create your entry submission.
5) Follow the instructions on the pop up page: copy URL and e-mail submission to WinDesk211[at]thenewtraditionalists[dot]com and click the share on Facebook link.
6) Comment on this blog post telling me about the design that you entered to win. You can feel free to Tweet @ABCDdesigns -or- let me know on the ABCD Design Facebook -or- on my ABCD google+ page. I’ll be happy to re-tweet you or spread the word about your entry in any way I can.
You have until November 30th to design your dream desk and submit your entry to win. At that point, we’ll post the submissions here on ABCD Design and everyone -including The New Traditionalists- will vote for the top three entries. TNT will do renderings of the top three designs and we’ll have a second round of voting here on ABCD Design, based 100% on the comments you all leave on the second round post. The winner of Desk no. 211 will be announced here in a post on December 15th during the 5 o’clock hour on the holiday edition of #DesignTV.
Technical note – The Safari browser on Mac Computers is giving us some trouble…if you have any issues entering try giving Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome a shot. Feel free to also send any questions to windesk211[at]thenewtraditionalists[dot]com