Technology: Tech-tastic Gadgetry for the Home
RENEW ZERO-GRAVITY MASSAGE CHAIR Start and end your day refreshed with this choice chair packed with features like eight automatic massage programs, “Dynamic Squeeze” air cell massage and built-in lumbar heat. Renew pivots, reclines and elevates legs to a zero-gravity position with just the press of a button, while optical pressure point detection technology scans your body to customize your massage. Priced at $2,999. www.brookstone.com LG STYLER This all-in-one-clothing care system is designed to refresh any wardrobe and special care items without the use of harmful detergents or chemicals, providing an ideal solution for any fashion-forward wardrobe. It features a sleek, modern design and elegant finish complementing the interior décor of any bedroom or laundry room—even premium walk-in closets. Priced at $1,999. www.lowes.com GROVE ECOSYSTEM This intelligent indoor garden helps grow fresh food year-round by utilizing an MIT-developed aquaponics system. The compact assembly creates a living ecosystem where plants and fish live in symbiosis to create healthy produce like leafy greens, herbs and fruiting crops like hot peppers and strawberries. Dually controlled by the Grove OS app providing full guidance. Priced at $3,399. www.grovelabs.io
Home: Lighting the Way to a Beautiful Home
Lighting a room is more than hanging a chandelier and buying a couple of table lamps. Today, designers are taking advantage of advances in lighting technology to create rooms redefined by multiple layers of lighting. Julian Exclusa, spokesperson in Florida for Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery, says planning a home’s lighting today is exciting because there are so many ways to use light exactly where it is needed, resulting in rooms where the space is not dominated by a single bulb but is instead illuminated by a collection of discrete, often hidden, fixtures. Lighting, in fact, has come so far Ferguson’s consultants undergo a six-month certification through the American Lighting Association, to fully understand dimmers, wattages, products, and architectural details that impact the type of light needed for a specific space, he says. Advances in LED lighting have led the charge towards this “layered lighting” phenomenon. Today’s LED lights last upwards of 50,000 hours, can be used with dimmer switches, and come in lighting “temperatures” to compliment any application. Quality control is so good, lighting companies now offer products that take full advantage of LED’s long lifespan. For example, PureEdge Lighting, sold through Ferguson, manufactures frames that sit inside drywall. These linear systems house single rows of customizable, commercial-grade white or color changing strips that project a line of bright clean light without excess heat. These striking designs turn a plain wall into an architectural statement while providing enough light to illuminate a room or can be cut to size to showcase a single piece of artwork. Recessed lighting, as well, has changed completely. Gone are the days of six-inch flush mounted lights with white plastic edging propped up against a ceiling. PureEdge’s Aurora Adjustable Accent lights are finished flush to the ceiling and are paintable. They come in sizes as small as 1.3-inches, are available in round and square shapes and offer LED lights in red, green, and blue. Choosy homeowners can create pockets of ambiance with two-inch lights that simultaneously compliment and support the primary lighting from the larger cans—all with the hardware hidden in the ceiling. For increased efficiency and ease of install TaskWork LED Tape Light by Kichler® offers fully customizable lighting for odd spaces inside and outside the house. Frequently, these intricately designed strands run along toe-kicks in kitchens, under cabinets, and even in bathrooms as nightlights, say Ferguson’s sales staff. The result is light where it is needed, as it is needed; from the beauty of a crystal chandelier in a foyer to task lighting at a workspace to illumination along an adjoining hallway and a spotlight on a single piece of artwork—each layer leading the way through a beautiful home. Tampa offers many options in lighting and for additional shopping choices consider visiting Lights & More in Tampa.
Home: What's Trending – Get the Latest in High-End Bathroom Designs
A home’s style is a reflection of its owner, and that’s true of your bathroom space as well. If your master bathroom or even one of your spares doesn’t speak to your favorite design, it might be time to consider a fresh face to those spaces. We’ve talked to some of the Bay area’s most in-the-know bath experts to give you four aspirational ideas for your next project. From spa inspiration and free-floating storage to additional seating options and natural stone, there are solutions for all tastes and styles. TREND #1: GO SPA-LIKE Who doesn’t love the spa? Well, now, you can incorporate some of those same luxuries into your own home bath. Add push, touch and feel into your new timeless modern bath-room design. For instance, the Hansgrohe allows you to push the user-friendly and easy-to-clean select trim to create your ultimate shower experience. Nancy Braamse of Olde World Cabinetry has several ex-amples, saying, “Therma Touch by Thermasol gives you a com-plete spa experience. One touch gives you light, sound, steam and music, all for you to relax by. Linear drains add elegance to your shower floor. No longer do you need a center drain that is pitched in four directions for you to stand on. Linear drains by Watermark can be placed on any wall or the en-trance of the shower, which allows for a clean curbless look.” Olde World Cabinetry, Plumbing & Hardware, 3751 62nd Av-enue North, Pinellas Park. 727-530-9779 or oldeworldcabi-netry.com. TREND #2: TAKE A SEAT Adding seating to your bathroom takes it from a functional room to a place to enjoy and escape to. The LC7 chair, designed in 1927 by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand is included in the Design Collection of the Museum of Modern Art and makes an excellent statement piece in your bathroom space. Eric Cross of Home Resource elaborates, “It is also available for outdoor use and would make a great vanity seat. There is also the LC9 bath stool designed in 1927 by the same three designers, a symbol of personal hygiene, a matter of great concern for the Modernist Movement of the 1920s. Two chrome-plated steel tubes act as support from which two cross-bars can be removed, making it easy to replace the toweling seat.” Home Resource, 741 Central Avenue, Sarasota. 941-366-6690 or homeresource.com. TREND #3: BE FREE Free-floating bathroom vanities along with free-standing tubs are very popular. They open up small spaces, and also allow for easy cleaning. Marc Hammar of Ferguson Bath, Kitchen and Lighting Gallery says, “Free-standing tubs are the rage; almost 80 percent of our tub sales are free-standing. These are available as soaking tubs, as well as air baths. Again, they open up thespace, allowing smaller areas to look larger, and they come in traditional, transitional and contemporary styles.” Additional trends include integrated countertops made from ceramic, solid surface or glass as well as more modern and contemporary bathroom faucetry with older-looking finishes like antique golds, satin golds, mink and platinum. Ferguson Bath, Kitchen and Lighting Gallery, 302 N Willow Avenue, Tampa. 813-251-1690 or www.ferguson.com/showrooms. TREND #4: STAY NATURAL Top designers and homeowners are taking full advantage of the limitless possibilities of natural stone, incorporating Travertine and Marble throughout their bathrooms. Using natural stone throughout the home is definitely the trend once again, but how it is being used is new and unique. Past trends often focused aesthetically on uniformity, with sizing and finishes of the stone being the dominant contrast throughout the build, but that’s changed. Stone-Mart’s Omer Ozer explains the new trend in more detail, saying “Current trends are accentuating the depth of the color tone layers in natural stone, which cannot be replicated in a man-made products, providing the opportunity to use natural stone in multiple color-contrasting selections and finishes throughout their designs to create a one-of-kind signature build for your bath.” Stone-Mart, 6005 Anderson Road, Tampa. 813-855-6900 or www.stone-mart.com
Garden: Landscape Designs
Whether you have a passion for plants and an eye for good design like Harry Teasley, Jr., or you leave it to the experts at Argentine Landscaping, a landscape plan that complements your home adds considerably to its aesthetic appeal. Scale, color, balance, size and placement are a few of the elements to consider. “Plants can serve many functions in the landscape, from providing shade, privacy screening, wind and noise abatement, to way-finding and security,” say Joe Argentine, owner of Argentine Landscap-ing, and head designer Bart Beck. Elements, such as lighting, walkways and irrigations are also im-portant considerations and “can provide the framework or bones that the rest of the plan can build upon,” says Argentine. Lighting makes the space more functional for both day and evening, provides safe passage and adds a level of security. Irrigation sustains the plants’ health, making sure adequate water is delivered with minimal waste. Drainage goes hand in hand with irrigation, pre-venting problems that could later cause extensive property damage. HARMONY INSIDE AND OUT Argentine also points out that the best landscape plans make it pos-sible for a seamless flow between the interior and exterior of the home. He says this is accomplished by schematically designing indoor and outdoor “rooms.” Harry Teasley, Jr., would agree with that idea. His beautiful 2.6-acre property in South Tampa, has a half-dozen outdoor spaces, each with a different eco-system. Florida Cypress stands guard at one end of a large lily pad and koi pond, which serves as a reservoir for the sprinkler system. It’s fun to watch the occasional heron land next to realistic looking statues along the banks of the pond, which is lined with Water Oak, Jacaranda, Royal Poinciana, Hong Kong Orchid, cycads and much more. So much lush foliage fills the yard that it provides a nice barrier both visually and for sound. Standing inside, you would never know the property fronts busy Bayshore Boulevard. Around the side of the house, you’ll find fruit trees, including mango, star fruit, pink grapefruit, bananas, Surinam cherries, macadamia and oranges. By the pool, there are huge gardenia and croton bushes shaped like giant balls. A LABOR OF LOVE “I’ve probably tripled the biomass of this place in the last 25 years,” says Teasley, who has a gardening crew of three to help him with the grounds. Near the house, bougainvillea leans against the wall in the French knot garden. A conservatory is filled with bonsai and orchids. And next to a walkway, African lily, calla lilies, hibiscus and birds of paradise are lined up in a row“my Florida version of an English perennial gar-den,” says Teasley. His gardening secret? He prefers a natural look and he has an ap-preciation for texture, color and water elements. “I simply bought plants and figured out what I could do with them one at a time,” he says. “I like the idea of looking around 360 degrees and always seeing something beautiful and different in every season. It’s a lot of work, but I love it.”
Arts: Dazzling Floral Design Blooms
Tailored Twig | 3212 N 40th Street, Suite 102 | Tampa | 813-304-2080 | www.tailoredtwig.com Want a decorative conversation piece? The Tailored Twig’s jaw-drop-ping one-of-a kind arrangements mix uniquely sourced blooms with cloth, metal and wood to create exquisite natural sculptures. Anything goes. You might see a fuzzy iconic Kangaroo Paw stem in a pristine white vase or a bedazzled bride woven in twigs and flowers, even a flower terrarium. Tailored Twig provides installations for restaurants, hotels, businesses, weddings, meetings and parties and even jazzed up the tables at an annual wedding planners’ luncheon. From customized dinner parties to hand-constructed welcome packages for houseguests sets The Tailored Twig apart. Clients include weddings on an exclusive estate in Maroma Beach, Mexico, to an elegant union in the French Alps. Moving to the Tampa Bay area six and a half years ago after a decade as a sales/event marketing director, Tailored Twig owner Darin Bahl first opened an event design business. In 2011, he morphed that enterprise into The Tailored Twig. Now, he and his internationally-in-spired team whip up elegant, whimsical centerpieces and bouquets for any occasion, any theme. A Midwest transplant, Bahl worked in the hospitality industry and traveled the globe where he honed his art of “honoring the guest. “We are customer-centric, infusing the client’s personality and preferences into our arrangements. We go way beyond their favorite colors,” says Bahl. “We start with a personalized consultation. For us, it’s all about the relationship and art that emerges from all of our ideas.” Travel inspires his organic design. “ Our arrangements are not the traditional ball or five-colored roses symmetrically placed,” says Bahl. “Think about wondering through the forest and stumbling into an amazing, magical natural space.” Dahl sources unique blooms globally even on his annual Hawaii vacation. He and his staff even like to forage in local woodlands. “This past holiday, we used a lot of pink pepper berries which ripen to red, a kind of Florida mistletoe,” says Bahl. Says Bahl: “We choose the people we want to invite into our lives, and should they accept our invitation, I believe it is my responsibility to cherish them. To show them our love and gratitude, we honor them with special details and subtle nuances which reveal our mindfulness and appreciation for their presence.”