Byootiful!

Excuse the extra exclamation points, but I'm very excited about this one: Design Within Reach is having their first warehouse sale since they pulled up stakes two years ago and moved their warehouse to Kentucky. Perhaps the residents of that state were not as appreciative of their modern aesthetic, or perhaps we Bay Areans just whined loudly enough, but this weekend, they'll throw the doors open in Union City and sell their lovely products for up to 75% off. Of course, many of the items on sale may have scratches or dings; however, I can speak from experience and say that many of the imperfections were not visible to me, and we've done very well shopping this sale in the past.

More information is available at Design Within Reach's website.

Posted by katherine at 09:47 AM | Permalink

The Northern California Bead Society is having a Bead Bazaar in downtown Oakland this weekend. Why should you care? You think beads are shiny and pretty. More than that, though, you want to see what this Precious Metal Clay thing is about... and some people from my class, including my friend Lesley whose lovely work is shown here, will be staffing a table there and demonstrating this magical stuff. (And if you only care about beads, well, you can make beads in PMC!)

April 1, 2006
10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Oakland Mariott City Center [map & directions from Google]

Posted by katherine at 02:46 PM | Permalink

I have a refrigerator. I guess it works just fine. It was in the house already when we moved in, so we didn't have to buy one. That's nice. But it's an unlovely beast, hulking in the corner, jutting far out from the wall and taking up a big chunk of my far-from-enormous kitchen. And it's just so... boxy and white.

And there's these cute little (well, not so little) retro numbers I've had my eye on. The one in the picture is a Northstar fridge, sold by Pastense.com, and it runs about $4,000. The last time I bought a refrigerator, it wasn't one-tenth as cute, but it was about one-tenth of the price.

Why does it have to be that way? With the advent of places like Ikea and Target selling style at a discount, why aren't appliance manufacturers getting into the act?

Well, there may be a reason. In this Wired article, the man behind Big Chill, another seller of retro iceboxes, gives some insight into the economics of the retro appliances biz:

Creamer buys a stock fridge for a little under $1,000, he said, and modifies them. Once they are retro cool, they sell for a base price of $2,500. Similar-size Whirlpool fridges on Sears' website sell for about $650.

Still, "we're definitely the least-expensive retro fridge on the market," Creamer said.

Creamer's fridges are moving because they remind buyers of a simpler era, he said. But Creamer knows his fridges and other retro-looking products are not destined for mainstream success.

"People ask us, 'Why doesn't Whirlpool just rip off your idea?' Big companies aren't interested in it because it is such a niche market. It wouldn't be worth their time when they can sell millions of white boxes or plain stereos," he said.

Despite that, Creamer thinks the market for such products is expanding. "Whether it's the Mini Cooper or the PT Cruiser or a product like ours, I think it's definitely a growing market," he said.

Well, hopefully the market will grow soon. I want my baby-blue curved-corner fridge, dammit! (In the meantime, maybe I can learn how to pimp my icebox?)

Posted by katherine at 11:05 AM | Permalink

Once upon a time, there was a fun, stylish shop in downtown Santa Cruz called Integrand Design. No, I have no idea what an "integrand" is, either. But the shop was filled with beautiful glassware, furniture, accessories and cookware. Then the owners apparently made a series of bad business decisions, they started running out of stock and they shut down. Today, the beautiful "ID Building" is now home to the Sockshop.

So I was very happy to walk into Rockridge Home and see many of the same kinds of things I used to find at ID. Cute striped pasta spoons? Check. Scented soaps? Check. Beautiful dishware? Check. Cool furniture? Check.

I just hope they don't get replaced by a sock shop.

Rockridge Home
5418 College Avenue
Oakland
510.420.1928
www.rockridgehome.com

Posted by katherine at 11:09 PM | Permalink