Home Alone house

Have you ever seen a movie where you just love the house or love the design?  I have several movies that have helped me to make a decision about something.  I will never forget sitting in a hotel with our kids (when they were little) and seeing Home Alone.  I laughed so hard at different times that my kids were laughing at me.  I remember that beautiful house with its black door.  I needed to think of a color for my door of the house we were building at the time and guess what?  It became black!!

Another movie that I love and adore the house and design is “Something’s Gotta Give”  with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton.  I love the colors, I love the floor plan, I love the kitchen, I love the house.  And I’m not the only one!  I found 20,700 hits on Google!  Here’s a link to one of the fun articles by another fan of the house.

This is the hope that I have for you is that you will love what we design for you.  If you don’t, we have not done a good job of listening to you.  It is important to us that you give us as much information as you can.  We love to sketch with you and find out about your room.  We want to know who uses it.  We want to know if you have a budget.  We want to know what your favorite colors are.  We can give you a beautiful room or a beautiful house—but you have to give us lots of information!!

Let us help you with a beautiful room!!!!

Somethings Gotta Give beach house

This “featured” column is all about new — new furniture styles, new fabric designs, new ideas.  New!  Well, we’ve feature the Tousley before — its one of our favorite new designs.  Now we have it in a brand new look on the floor.  This time we’re showing it in a single sofa rather than a two or three piece sectional.  The addition of the sofa means you can use the Tousley in spaces that wouldn’t accommodate the larger sectional, making it perfect for many Des Moines and Iowa rooms that are beautiful — but smaller than an Olympic pool.

Also, Marlene had dressed it in a wonderful leather and paired it with the beautiful Diva chair in a contemporary print fabric.  Notice the small lumbar pillows in a striped fabric she added to the Tousley.  Then she added a fabulous rug (Marlene is a wizard with rugs).  The fun glass table you see with the group is called the Daisy.  The glass table top is actually shaped in a floral design.  Cool.

Diva, Daisy & Tousley — weren’t they a folk group from the sixties?  Puff.

Daisy

We’ve just gotten the new Sammy condo sofa on our floor paired with the Basie chair and it looks terrific!  This is a great new addition from Candice Olson that grew out of frequent requests for contemporary furniture design with an emphasis on casual, comfortable living.

Candice responded with the Sammy, an uber-versatile collection of chairs, sofas and sectional furniture pieces.  Marlene picked the Basie chair (one of our favorites — and you can see why).  Then she lit the whole group up with a fabulous coral-colored contemporary floral fabric on the Basie.  Striped pillows and contrasting welts on the Sammy pull the Basie in.  Interior design, when done this way, is really fun!

When our rug arrives this group will really sing!  (Sing… get it?  Sammy… sing… c’mon, work with me here.)

Click on any of the gallery images below, then page through for a closer look!

From time to time some of our talented and valued designers and employees move on to other opportunities and other locations. We bid them farewell and best wishes!

by Design remained high and dry during the heavy rains and flooding the week of August 11. On Monday, the store was inaccessible during the morning as authorities closed 86th St. between Swanson and University. The creek behind the store was well out of it’s banks and flooded the street at the bridge over the creek. Here are some pictures and video of the area behind by Design. Everywhere you see water is normally dry.

Hi, I’m Victoria J. Nelson, a veteran interior designer with 35 yrs. experience in the interior design industry.  I am currently employed at by Design in Clive, Iowa.  I was born in Des Moines and have lived here my whole life.  My interior design degree is from Drake University.  My husband I and owned and operated a lighting store in Urbandale for many years.

I am mother of 8 (yes, eight!) children — 2 natural and 6 stepchildren.  And I have 11 grandchildren.  I enjoy a sisterhood with Mother Earth!!  So many and so much to care for!!  I take notice when I see vendors in my industry showing respect for the world in which we live.  I have a passion for the beauty and health of our families’ homes.

I hope to share my thoughts on these and other passions in this blog.  Thanks for reading!

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I was at a friend’s house the other day and we had so much fun.  We didn’t spend any money— we just changed her furniture around.  We moved a rug from one room in to the other.  We changed her shelves.  We put books, greenery and some interesting accessories on them.  What I have found over the years is that there usually is a BEST way for the room, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t change your room every now and then.  Maybe the traffic pattern isn’t the best—so in the summer, you walk in front of the fireplace—so what?  You don’t use the fireplace in the summer anyway.  Try putting furniture at an angle— angles add movement and drama.

Come on!  Don’t be held hostage to your floor plan.  Change it up!

The Alice Cocktail – Glass in Motion

There are all sorts of reasons that I can list as to why the Alice glass cocktail table is very practical.  Engineering reasons.  Functional use reasons.  Space reasons.  Reasonable reasons!  But heck… its really fun!  We love it.

Move that glass

Vanessa Cocktail Table

click on any image to enlarge and page through the gallery

Elegantly curved glass.  Castors.  You move me.

Daisy Cocktail Table

click on any image to enlarge and page through the gallery

I’m gonna come clean right away.  Every time I look at the Daisy glass cocktail table  on our floor, I envision it full of M&Ms.  Milk chocolate.  Peanut.  Full.  Mmmmm.  (Then I see myself diving into the M&Ms like Scrooge McDuck diving into his money, but I think our time is up and we’ll have to cover that in the next session).

Gloria Console

click on any image to expand an page through the gallery

The is a really cool idea.  Of course you could leave the “fold” in the Gloria glass console table empty.  Or you could put the great bottle of wine for the evening in it.  Or champagne!  This will hold one of those really big bottles of champagne.  I’m sure there are non-alcoholic uses too.  Just can’t think of any at the moment.

Lucy End Tables

image, gallery, yadayada

Functional.  Beautiful.  Black or clear glass.  Simple.  Elegant.

It that all we’ve got?  Well, picture yourself on the train in the station…

We’re extending this July event through August 15th and I’ve been trying to think of a way to elegantly phrase this.  You know, without sounding like a radio announcer talking about the Saturday drag races.  July 46th – what do you think?

We’re very excited to announce a special factory-authorized sale event in July! (oops) through early August!  We try to offer the best values possible every day at by Design.  But, when our top vendor helps out by throwing an extra discount into the pot it really helps.  This means that now is a great time to begin the conversation with one of our talented designers.  Or, maybe you’ve been working on your room for some time — this is an opportunity to take the next step in your design plan — and save a buck while you’re at it!

Special savings include these categories:

all fabric sofas, sectionals, chairs, recliners, ottomans, etc.

Tousley sectional in fabric

all leather sofas sectionals, chairs, recliners, ottomans, etc.

Beckett chair & ottoman in leather

dining tables and chairs

Glass top Criss Cross dining table & contemporary chairs

contemporary, transitional and traditional designs

The design styles available run the gamut from contemporary through transitional all the way to traditional.  Of course, they style of the fabric that we tailor your custom-made furniture in makes all of the difference in the world.  One of our favorite design techniques is to use a contemporary fabric on a traditional frame (or vice-versa!) creating a sense of surprise and a touch of unpredictability.  The styles available for this event are nearly limitless.

Sofas, sectionals, chairs, dining tables and chairs… these pieces are the functional, foundational elements of your room.  Beginning with these pieces then adding in the finishing elements makes so much sense.  Especially when you can do it right now and save money!  Our design process is a dialog, a conversation.  We need a bit of time to get to know you and understand what makes a perfect room for you.  So, the sooner you can come in, the sooner we canget to know each other.

Do you want more information from one of our designers?  Click here to send an email.

Ready to begin a conversation about your perfect room? Click here to request an appointment.

Would you like to receive our email newsletters, trend reports and pre-event notifications?  Click here to sign up.

Tripod Leg Table

We’ve brought a stunning new dining table and chair group to our floor at by Design.  The table is called (aptly enough) the Tripod leg table.  See how the designer has used three fitted pieces of wood to make each leg?  The result is visually light yet structurally strong and handsome as all get out.   We’ve chosen to show this group in a matte bleached finish, highlighting its contemporary lines.  The tripod leg would look equally stunning in one of the other finish choices.  As always, what is important is how it looks in your room.

The Woo (not a typo.  really.) dining chair is a statement of classic contemporary design.  The seat and back are upholstered in your choice of fabric.  This chairs is wonderfully executed.  We’re certain that you’ll be proud to own this design for years.

We’ve complemented the Wood with the Alta chair for this group.  We love showing a mix of designs.  Occasionally we’ll even suggest this idea for a customer’s room.  The Alta combines simplicity and flair.

Click on any image to see larger pics of these items

The Tripod Leg table, the Woo chair and the Alta chair are just three examples of the wonderful new Gardner Contemporary Collection.  Please contact us if you think they would look good in your home!