Need to spruce up your dining room and are stuck on where you are supposed to go to find the best furnishings? Look no further than Dovetail for great designs in all styles. Read today’s blog to see what Dovetail has to offer!

Dovetail is one of the largest importers and wholesale distributors of handcrafted furniture on the West coast. Their clients have come to appreciate the effort they put into developing collections that are always innovative but accessible. In addition to their product collections, their huge warehouses located near the ports of Los Angeles, display an eclectic assortment of unique, hand selected, one of a kind items. Furniture Retailers and Interior Designers are welcome to visit their beautifully appointed showroom at 14000 South Figueroa Street in Los Angeles, Ca 90061

Founded in 1992 by Charlie Shaw and Ted Einstein, Dovetail has developed an expertise in sourcing an eclectic range of handmade furniture, accessories and textiles from around the world. They distribute throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico from their 100,000 sq. foot facility, which also includes their showroom. The best part of Dovetail are their key staff member who all have furniture retail experience and a strong understanding of the products design, quality and price.

Dining rooms are a place where memories are made. Whether you are sitting down to a meal with your family or playing a rather intense game of hold-em with the guys, your dining room is the place you go to first. Your dining room should say something about you and your personal taste. Larger tables mean more people can play the game while smaller tables suggest that the home has a small but growing family residing with in it. When you choose your dining table you have to think about these things. Are you going to be entertaining? Should you maybe consider a table that has leafs for a more transitional piece? It all depends on what you will be using the table for.

Other important dining room furniture includes chairs, of course, side boards of buffets for storage, Display cabinets for the wedding china or crystal stemware and don’t forget to accessorize. When choosing seating for the dining room make sure you consider all options. Benches have become more and more popular over the years but prove to be a problem when guest need to leave the table and must interrupt fellow bench warmers. Traditional seating can either be solid wood chairs with seat cushions or upholstered seats. When purchasing upholstered chairs make sure you learn about the construction first, there is nothing worse than sitting down to eat and sinking an extra two or three inches.

When looking for a side board or buffet you have to take size and scale into consideration first. Then think about the style you are looking for. Are you more of a traditionalist or is sleek and modern in your future? Whatever you decide Dovetail will have what you are looking for.

Check out the video below for more on the Art and Craft of Furniture building

Looking for a modern dining room idea? Check out our friends at Trendir

The Sorrento Collection Armoire for A. P. Industries. This armoire has sleek lines and smooth surfaces. A two door design for easy access to either clothes storage or television. This piece has been designed for the bedroom and has a large lower drawer with two handles that offfers great storage for sweaters or shoes. Designed to represent 1940’s Art Deco modernism, this unit makes a statement in any location in the home.  This piece is also very affordable in comparison to other armoires with similar style. 44W x 21D x 69-3/4H in

Looking for High End Style with unique finishes and creative direction? Then check out today’s blog on CR Currin, a furniture designer and manufacture with style and quality.

CR Currin is the brainchild of owners Rebecca and Crawford Currin.  The Currins who own JALCO Manufacturing, the parent company of CR Currin, started in the industry by finishing high end furniture for other well known companies over 20 years ago.  During that time they became known for their quality bench made construction, sophisticated hand rubbed finishes, unique metallic leaf treatments, and use of various glass treatments.  They worked closely with many designers in developing product for customers and most of their clients, sold primarily to the trade. Many long hours of research, development and trial/error evolved into the look that is now CR Currin.

They gained alot from their behind the scenes work. They gained an innate intuition and ability to interpret a designer’s vision and bring it to reality, along with the ability to respond to deadlines and react quickly to their customers’ needs. In 2006, the Currins made the decision to introduce their own products to the trade. The CR Currin product line was debuted in early 2007.  Their intent is to utilize the many years of experience to take clean classic designs to the next level.

CR Currin has no production lines in their facility.  They operate in a factory environment with a studio mentality.  Each piece of furniture is bench made and created to be fine “Jewelry for the Home”.  Bench made means that each piece is assembled from beginning to end at the bench of a skilled craftsman. With nearly endless combinations of finishes and techniques, finely crafted furniture pieces become works of art. CR Currin products are produced exclusively in the USA.  They use sustainable raw materials, and employ rigorous recycling efforts to reduce their impact on Planet Earth.

Add a little glitz and glamour to your home! From the top clockwise: Buffet  80”W 20”D 34”H, Plasma TV Cabinet 56″W X 84″H X 19″D and Lamp Table 24.5″ Dia. 28″ H

Check out the video below for another great Bench Made Furniture Manufacturer

Find more great info on Bench Made Furniture at Surroundings

Miami Antelope w/ Curved Horns from Four Hands. This modern reincarnation is a great substitute to the classic stuffed animal head. With a vintage-inspired personality, the Marlow Collection features a fashion forward style. Designed for indoor or outdoor use, this collection is a bold and stately display of what modern furnishings are. 37 x 17 x 45

This week in the seating and eating challenge students began to research their pieces by looking at how the average American sits and enjoys their space. Students at Harrington College of Design were asked to take the following quiz to better understand the way people live and interact with their furniture. Please take a minuet yourself to take the quiz and help us figure out the best way to attack this challenge.

As you may know the winner of our seating category will have there piece produced by a manufacturer and this week we are proud to announce that the manufacturer is ……. TLS by Design!!! TLS by Design or Total Life Style by Design is a great company who offers unique views on whats going on in the furniture world. The Company has a fun and funky asthetic that allows for great design, Since 2004 TLS by Design has been a family owned and run business delivering original fashion-forward quality solid wood casegoods and USA made upholstery. We will be hearing more from TLS by design as the weeks continue.

We here at YourFurnitureLink are looking forward to seing the students progress. so please make sure you start sending sketches and inspirational imagery to YFL.Design.Contest@gmail.com in order to show your work on the website. Good Luck to all who are involved!

Photo courtesy of NYCPhotography.org’s photostream on Flickr

Bring a bit of nature into your home with Eco-Friendly Furniture from Urban Woods. Click Here to read today’s Blog.

Urban Woods is the leading designer of sustainable furniture from reclaimed wood, eco-friendly materials and environmentally conscious manufacturing processes. The distinct beauty of reclaimed wood, finished with rich water based, non-toxic stains, is preserved in handmade furniture and made in Los Angeles, California.

The Palisades Collection, seen above, was designed to accentuate the natural beauty of the vintage wood used to craft each element. The solid legs of the dining table are creatively exposed at the table top, showing the incredibly tight, clear grain of the wood. The naturally aged patina in the thick planks of the table top and bench are lightly sanded, preserving their history. The Palisades floor mirror opens up any room like a grand portal and makes a great front hall mirror.

Much of the reclaimed wood was originally harvested and milled 50 to 100 years ago, giving the wood unparalleled stability and resistance to future distortion. At Urban Woods they strive to make beautiful, eco-friendly furniture in the most sustainable way. They never use tropical hardwoods which harm the rain forest to harvest, MDF or toxic glues.

The Melrose Living Room Collection seen above offers a credenza that is fully equipped for all your media needs. It is pre-wired for cable and power, with three push sensitive drawers for organizing media and two cabinets for all electronic components. Wide and comfortable club chairs with organic cotton upholstery surround the coffee table, which has a low profile drawer for housing remote controls. The Melrose book case is open on all sides to exhibit personal mementos and maintain an airy living space.

Urban Woods exclusive use of vintage reclaimed wood has many advantages; the grain of the timber with its tight growth rings shows the superior density of the wood from ancient trees, and the natural, aged patina and color of the old-growth timber is preserved in the manufacturing process, giving the furniture a look and feel that can not be replicated in new wood.

Looking for sleek silhouettes and organic elegance in the bedroom? The Sunset bed and bench (above) are stately and inviting with solid wood frames and deeply tufted, organic cotton. The Sunset dresser and end table are striking complements to the room and offer ample storage space and full-extension drawers. The clean designs of the Sunset Collection fit seamlessly into the traditional, contemporary or modern room.

Learn more about Eco Friendly Interiors by watching this video below.

Looking for Eco-Friendly Lighting options? Check out this idea from Fresh MOCO

EV Smart 6 Office Chair from The Contract Chair Company. A London staple for great office furniture and other contract This ergonomically correct office chair has a polished metal base with casters, upholstered seat and back and is available without arms. The seat and arm heights are adjustable and there is a matching side chair. The piece is priced just right and offers the customer a quality product for a good value. Perfect for the home office or even the dorm room.

Starting September 18th Your Furniture Link and Harrington College of Design are teaming up to bring you the Eating and Seating Challenge!

Students are going to be able to work one on one with furniture company’s while designing two seating options; one for Eating, a dining set, a chair with a built in tray table, a lounge chair that lets you eat sitting up then has a vacum function built in to suck up the Crumbs when finished? The Students are tested to expand their creativity and design ideas to find the piece that will winn them first place. They will also be designing a Seating option for the living space. That means a sofa, a chair, clever ottomans that double as storage or fold out to become a gueat bed? The choices are endless.

Over the next Twenty Weeks be sure to come and Check out Harrington Fridays for the Students design Process and the Winners of both challenges. First place in both categories receives a $1,000 prize and the chance to have their piece built and sold at auction. Second recieves a check for $500 and third a prize of $300. This is going to be a great competition and we at Your Furniture Link are excited to see the results of the students hard work!

Check out last years contest winners in our Contest and Competitons Page to see more images check out klick_it’s Photostream on Flickr

Add a bit of zen to your enviroment with unique Water Features from Adagio. Follow the link below to read more!

A must for any environment with aspirations toward tranquility, water features from Adagio do the trick! Made from natural slates and rain forest marbles and trimmed in premium metals these water features offer the gentle sound of a running river. They also house a halogen light in the upper and lower registers which give off a warm glow. These are unique pieces that vary in size and shape. No two are exactly alike because they are derived from nature.

A nice idea for any business interior; you can have your Logo added to the water features. This will add an additional sense of “signage with style.” Adagio Water Features has assisted numerous customers add their logo to the water features they are purchasing for their dental or medical offices, accounting or law firms, restaurants and real estate offices, and even family crests, images, and names for use in home environments.

All of the water features represented by Adagio Water Features can have logos added to the feature itself. This however costs an extra fee but the company is having a sale right now so make sure to check out the site for more details.

These represent only some of the styles available. For more info please check out Adagio and check out the video below for a walking tour through the Adagio Rain Forest.

for more great Idea’s on achieving a Zen like Interior check out this post from Apartment Therapy

The Shanghai Bookcase from Red Egg. This unique and original three shelf bookcase offers a great option for the Zen inspired home. It’s height and depth are perfect for any space. The two drawer and two door design is great for hiding all of those odds and ends you don’t want the company to see. Perfect for any home office or living space. Buy a pair and start a library in that spare room you’ve been wondering what to do with. 40w 79h 14d

Your Furniture Link and Harrington College of Design bring you The Seating and Eating Challenge

photo courtesy of ooh_food’s photostream on Flickr

A Furniture Design Competition open to all Harrington College of Design Students, who over the next 16 weeks will be given the opportunity to create new cutting edge furniture designs in Chicago. We at Your Furniture Link in association with Retailers Mig and Tig, Chicago and Mortise and Tenon of Los Angeles, are looking for new trends and ideas and asking you to take a closer look at the  living/family and dining room spaces.

photo courtesy of Apartment Therapy Chicago

We will be posting competitors design progress on our Blog every Friday from now until the contest ends in January of next year. There is a required list of project components including the design images rendered in an interior view, a cataloged list of hardware, finishes, and materials used to create the piece of furniture design. We also require the detailed drawings of each piece designed including dimensions and sections. All information should be attractively compiled and sent to the competition e-mail address which is yfl.design.contest@gmail.com. This is where you will be sending your weekly progress updates. These updates should include one image reflecting the stage you are at in the process of designing the piece. This includes but not limited to, hand sketches, material selections, renderings, wire frame models, pictures of 3-D models built to scale.

Photo Courtesy of Design Right Now

This is a two part competition with the first section geared toward seating and the second toward eating. There will be a First place prize of $1,000 a second place prize of $300 and a third place prize of $200 for each section of the competition. Those who place 4th to 10th place in the competition will also be recognized on the website with honorable mention.

Take a minuet to think, what are the trends: more eating in the living room area or more lounge seating in the dining area? Are we all already eating in our sofas and watching TV? Are you eating in your bed? Is the end of the dining room near or will the dining room be upgraded with more comfortable chairs? What are the other functions we are doing while we are eating? Are we eating alone, or each one of the family different time? Re we sitting down while we are eating?  Do you have communication with family members or guests? Watching TV? Reading Newspaper?  Are you online while you are eating: doing emails, Face book, twitter, YouTube, news or other? What are we eating; fast food from the microwave, take away from the Restaurant, Pizza delivery or a homemade sit down dinner? How often are you using a table cloth, fabric tissue and candle lights? Incorporate the research into you final product.

Great Images and more info from Klick it’s photostream on Flickr

Check back next week for more details and great inspirational images and ideas!

Photo from Christelle’s Interior design Blog

Discover great french antiques without rumaging through miles and miles at your local flea market. Follow the link below to READ MORE BLOGS!

Though French Heritage is only twenty years old, the roots of the company began years before, as part of a family passion for antiques. When co-founder Jacques Wayser was a child in France, he and his siblings would follow their parents on their weekly visits to the Paris antique market. There, the Wayser family learned how to shop for and collect antiques.

The first collection introduced by the company was Richelieu, in 1984. Richelieu was a breakthrough in the furniture industry. Not only were the pieces elegantly crafted using mortise and tenon joints, dovetailed drawers and pegs instead of nails; for the first time the furniture was distressed to look like genuine antiques. It was an innovation that changed the way antique reproductions looked forever.

In the 1990’s French Heritage saw great expansion. In 1993, the company debuted the popular Maison Provence collection, a grouping of antique French country designs. The next year, they introduced their high-end collection, De Bournais, beautifully handcrafted pieces with beeswax finishes. The furniture seen on this page are all from the De Bournais collection. This collection offers the most unique pieces which feature traditional lines while incorporating modern trends like zebra print, stripes and rich color painted wood finishes.

Furniture from the top: Soumur Bombe Chest in Zebra, Napoleon III Bar Cabinet and Charles X Chairs in Zebra

Check out this video for more inspiration from France.

Get inspired by the gardens of Versailles seen on Patricia Gray