How to Make Your Home a Castle: Add Some Medieval Chic

The Fortress Drum Table and Colossal Pendant Lamp add texture to this room.

Spoiler alert: this fall is going to be positively Medieval. Lazy Susan Creative Director Renee Wightman conjured up a  bold new hand-forged iron group called FORTRESS, a deliberately primitive collection, to speak to an emerging design trend: Medieval-Chic. Consider the pop-culture influences of series such as HBOʼs immensely popular, rough-hewn-yet-mystical “Game of Thrones,” which is getting another boost from its 13 Emmy Award nominations, last year's extravagant Starz Network miniseries of the Ken Follett bestseller "Pillars of the Earth" and last week's theatrical release of an updated “Conan the Barbarian” All share a certain brand of glam-irony. Says Renee, “Weʼre calling it the raw awakening in design. The idea is to create a look-twice effect by juxtaposing this hand-forged iron with sleek contemporary pieces, traditional cut-crystal and fine linens. It adds a whole new level of textural interest, and it just feels truly of-the-moment.”

The imposing throne from the set of HBO's "Game of Thrones," made of hundreds of forged iron swords. 

So Very Lucky: Surf Shack Chic in Venice Beach

Lazy Susan was featured editorially in a recent issue of LUCKY magazine.

Ok, luck might have had something to do with it, but really it's all about being in the right place at the right time. Specifically, our bone frame was in Ron Robinson/Fred Segal in Los Angeles, a wonderful retailer with a tremendous reputation for style and impeccable taste - and big-time celebrity haunt with clients such as Lenny Kravitz and Anne Hathaway.

Our little frame found its way from the shelves at Ron Robinson to some shelves in Venice Beach, in the upscale "surf shack" home of photographer Eileen Peters and denim designer Mark Wiesmayr.

Photo: the Selby

With its vintage surfboards and natural finishes, this place is a natural fit with our design. It's right at home in an eclectic mix of accessories: contemporary, funky, tribal, arty, denim-y, surfer-y and organic. The creators of this lala Shangri-la were recently featured on the style blog to end all style blogs, the Selby, so to us Eileen and Mark are just a perfect snapshot of the super-cool, international, design-minded types of people who love and live with Lazy Susan pieces. Kudos to Lucky magazine for profiling them and their "Lucky Life". Oh, and if you're in Los Angeles, do visit Ron Robinson/Fred Segal.

The page from Lucky's June 2011 issue

Sneak Peek: Trend Alert for Fall 2011

Dune Road Collection: Organic Textures are Trending for Fall 2011

Those first really hot days have just begun to settle in - we're thinking of beach weekends and crashing surf, of casual alfresco dinners where icy cocktail glasses come complete with a dreamy haze of condensation and and no one need worry about a coaster. We know breezy summer will give in to autumn's crisp call to action, and we'll want to start decorating and nesting and preparing fresh looks for holiday entertaining. But we're going kicking and screaming and taking a little taste of summer with us: we invite you to join us for a leisurely stroll along the DUNE ROAD.

Our Creative Director, Renee Wightman, says a major design theme for fall is the use of warm, organic textures, exhibited in her design team’s new DUNE ROAD collection, which we're launching along with two more exciting themed collections to the trade at gift shows nationwide all summer.  No passing fancy, these textures are timeless because they come from nature, or take inspiration from it. Here's a highlight, and be sure to check back for more as the garden tomatoes trade chartreuse for crimson and the cicada begin to hum. 

Gentle curves ahead: Lazy Susan's new Modern Relic table lamp.

MODERN RELIC LAMP: In the lighting category, Lazy Susan offers a few great surprises this season, including this ceramic table lamp. Its base a juxtaposition of fluid curves with a rich, warm earthy coloration and a funky-chunky crackle glaze, this lamp is tall (46.5”) and slender. The perfect shade? A camel-hued, woven, linen-y fabric drum that adds yet another of nature’s most enticing textures to the mix. Says Renee Wightman, “It’s that mix of coarse and fine materials, nature’s own rough or smooth surfaces combined with things touched, carved, sculpted or woven by human hands, that texture-play is what creates compelling objects with lasting value.”

Lazy Susan's Modern Relic lamp for Fall 2011

Driftwood Decorating: Trendy but Timeless

Our life-sized driftwood Marlin makes a statement of oceanic proportion.

Interior Designer/Blogger Patrick Hamilton definitely gets our drift. He understands what we mean when we talk about inspiration from nature, working nature's inimitable textures into one-of-a-kind handcrafts that enhance home designs and adding layers of nuance and soft/hard/smooth/rough beauty to room designs. This week he's blogging for a great shelter publication, New England Home, on the driftwood trend. Add any of our driftwood pieces to your design and see for yourself how this trend is one of those that may ebb and flow but is definitely in the vernacular for the long haul.

Leaf-shaped driftwood tray.

Driftwood tray, perfect for toting frosty summer beverages.

ELLE Decor Lights Up Summer

We're such fans of ELLE Decor magazine. Editor  in Chief Michael Boodro and the brilliant Anita Sarsidi have made it so chic. With crisp, clean art direction and smart journalistic style, no wonder it's been winning award after award. We recently had a chance to spend some time with Parker Bowie, who selects new products for the editorial pages, when she visited our New York showroom. What a treat! She told us about some upcoming trend stories for Fall - we won't tell, but we will say those upcoming issues are going to be fascinating. In the June issue, Parker included Lazy Susan's Crystal Hurricane in a roundup on great candle holders. See it on the very last page, which the editors call "etcetera".

Shop here for the Hurricane in two sizes.

Parker's pretty etcetera page in the June issue.

Red & White and Fun All Over

What would you do with $750,000? We can only imagine what miraculous things the Red Cross of Greenwich will be able to do with the impressive three quarters of a million dollars they raised last Saturday night at the Red & White Ball. In a private jet hangar in White Plains, a group of designers, floral artists and other creative-types had gathered earlier in the day to fashion festive red-and-white themed tablescapes of all descriptions. The event was aptly titled "Help is Here," and we are so very honored to have been a part of this fundraiser.

Just in time for summer, Creative Director Renee Wightman and her team created a lighthearted table-scape entitled Tropic of Glamour. It offered a sophisticated mix of faceted clear crystal, hand-blown glass, white bisque porcelain and metallic silver elements with shapes, forms and textures from nature – shells, pebbles and botanicals.

The table was chock-full of clever take-home ideas. Silver nautilus shells that served as napkin holders were a big hit with the design-minded crowd. White bisque porcelain trays in the shape of banana leaves replaced the standard charger plates, and chunky crystal candleholders of various heights were topped - not with the expected tapers - but rather with life-sized porcelain pineapples, an international symbol of welcome.

Red glass votives were the perfect vase for white tulips.

Silvered Nautilus Shells made great napkin holders.

We were very pleased to have gotten a prime spot right next to all the action on the dance floor and the live auction stage (those prizes!!!!). We were in the most esteemed company -- our neighboring tables were decorated by such design luminaries as Barclay Butera, Michael Tavano for MT Custom and across the room, Charles Pavarini III, who made sure to remind us that the always-marvelous Kips Bay Cruise is coming up in June!!

This is our first year at the annual Red & White Ball, and it has us all excited for decorating fun summer tables and entertaining beachside, poolside and if we must (gasp) inside! Click here to shop this look for your summer table.

And, by all means do let us know your best summer entertaining ideas using Lazy Susan USA products! Leave a comment, or post a photo or two on our wall.

How to Decorate Your Mansion

If you have a massive mansion (or even a small apartment) and need a designer to give it that certain je ne sais quoi, you're in luck. It's Spring showhouse season, when you can shop for a designer or just discover the latest fine furniture, fabrics, finishes and accessories. Even if you're not planning a major renovation, there are quick decorating ideas galore, and each visit comes with the added bonus of helping a worthy cause.

From Sunday May 8th through Sunday June 12th, in the storybook-sounding town of Bedford Corners, New York, LS decorative accessories will be on display at an elite Spring showcase, the Westchester Designer Showhouse to benefit Cerebral Palsy of Westchester.

We were thrilled when Lara Michelle Feinsod of Lara Michelle Beautiful Interiors in Rye Brook selected several Lazy Susan pieces for her room (above and below). The house itself (top) is quite stately, and we're sure with legendary showhouse organizer Tony Manning at the helm, the interiors will be equally impressive.


Lara is joined by other tip top design talents including Dan Barsanti and Pat Healing of HB Home, Catherine Cleare and Joseph Stabilito. Media sponsor Cottages & Gardens Publications is hosting the Gala Preview on Saturday evening May 7, so to see this house first and enjoy a lovely cocktail with the designers and the editors, do go and get your tickets.


Did you know you can now purchase LS Collections online? You can instantly get the look of Lara's room with Lazy Susan's mod-organic Perforated Porcelain Bud Vases and footed Vintage Root Bowls, Gold Mercury Glass Candleholders with their nostalgic hobnail details and our charming brass Scribble Birds. Have fun visiting Spring showhouses and adding a touch of Spring to your own home, and do send us pictures of the innovative ways you mix LS collections with your favorite things. Who knows, you may inspire our next design!