February brings images of snowmen, red doily hearts, and cut-out portraits of presidents taped to the wall (can you tell I'm a parent?) It's also one of the best times of the year to redecorate your home…this period after the holidays and before spring presents some of the best opportunities to find the furniture of your dreams. Here at Carolina Rustica, we have lots of special offers from some of our greatest in-demand manufacturers….Five Star brand names like Lexington, Bernhardt, Century, Hickory White, and others. We've also got some great complimentary promotions on products you use every day, like mattresses from Serta or lighting from Murray Feiss. Also, remember our Clearance section just keeps getting better! We are deep-cleaning our warehouse, and some of the great items we find go on “extreme clearance” (it's like extreme couponing, but less work). This is also a great time to find some smaller items for gifts later in the year…or if your sweetheart is a cook, pick up a romantic chopping board for him or her (you'll get the culinary benefits later). The manufacturer specials featured in this edition of our newsletter are truly unique offers for a limited time, so don't tarry too long. Take a look at our newsletter and as always, give our design experts a call at 800-205-7819 for more information. Happy shopping! Richard Sexton President Carolina Rustica Inc.

A sampling of our Bernhardt casegoods. Click here to shop Bernhardt.

Uwharrie Chair President's Day Sale Save 5% on the gorgeous line of Uwharrie Chair outdoor furniture. This exlcusive President's Day sale will begin on February 17th and end on February 20th. The 5% discount applies to the complete line of Uwharrie Chair products with no minimum order. Uwharrie Chair's unique outdoor furniture collections combine classic American styling with extraordinary comfort and character. These heavy, generously scaled products are hand crafted from thick, kiln-dried pressure treated southern yellow pine, an American renewable resource

Was: $888 Now: $599 Was: $799 Now: $599 Was: $899 Now: $650 Was: $899 Now: $650 Was: $599 Now: $299 Was: $3297 Now: $1450 Was: $1800 Now: $599 Was: $1700 Now: $500 Was: $8250 Now: $2970 Was: $1224 Now: $899

Retro Chic, What's Old is Also New

"Retro" has always been a comeback king and the new millennium has not changed that. Today, with an already firm hold on the fashion runways, retro is segueing its way into every more territory, even influencing men’s newest hairstyles with vintage barber re-borns, like the undercut. Blame pop culture, or more specifically runaway hits like AMC's ‘Mad Men’ and HBOs ‘Boardwalk Empire.’

Whatever the case, however, when a look garners wide appeal in one area it often trickles over into another. Furniture designers, undoubtedly taking note of the retro trends in other areas are continuing to offer an array of retro-inspired pieces that borrow from the fifties, sixties and seventies.

Reinterpreting classic looks for today means borrowing key components from each decade’s original look. From the fifties to the seventies, a range of signature flavors appeared in American homes.

50s
When the baby-boomers set up housekeeping it was often done with carefully selected furniture sets in bland and unadorned materials. Clean, light and neutral ruled the day.

Tufted backs with rivets, sweet heart ‘ice cream parlor’ style chair backings, classic furniture ‘sets,’ especially if done in unadorned blond wood, are all looks that are available today that got their start in the 50s.

60s and 70s
The space age gained front and center attention in the early 60s, first in people’s living rooms and then beyond. Meanwhile furniture style caught the wave with an advent of synthetically constructed and abstract pieces.

Space age gave way to spacey behavior in the later 60s on into the 70s and the furniture trends rode the wave, with pieces that often seemed like something Andy Warhol might have envisioned in a fevered dream. Colors ran the gamut from autumnal tones such as wheat gold, avocado, and brown, to psychedelic purples and greens.

Bubble chairs, Eames chairs, whimsically shaped chairs that owe nothing to the ergonomic craze, modular shaped sectionals and colors like avocado, burnt orange, as well as other ‘bolds’ that would have spelled garish to many of the Moms of the space-age house outfitters, all of these styles and options remain available today. Yet, they owe their beginnings to the space-minded and spacey 60s and 70s.

Obviously home decorators today owe a great deal their predecessors. Whether your style is buttoned up and proper or tongue in cheek, a new, yet-retro inspired piece, with the signature stamp of your preferred decade, can only up the chic factor of your home. 

David is a blogger and contributing writer for Thrive Furniture, a company that offers a variety of options for home décor including computer desks for home offices and computer desks for in-office use.

5 Tips for Making your Dorm Room Feel Like Home

A dorm room can look austere and uninviting, but with some creativity and a few decorative touches it can be transformed into a cozy home away from home. While most of your college days are spent outside of the room, getting a good night’s rest is imperative for performing well in class. When you master the art of creating a peaceful sleeping and studying environment, you will find that your ability to concentrate will generally improve. Here are 5 tips for transforming your bland dorm room into a place of beauty and restfulness.

1) Bedding
College linens don’t have to be tag sale finds or borrowed from Grandma. New bedding can be very inexpensive if you shop at discount stores or look for sales online. Since dorm room walls are usually a neutral color and students usually are not allowed to paint them, bright, colorful bedding can make a dorm room cheery and homey without a lot of work or expense.

2) Throw rugs
A throw rug looks good on tile floors, wood floors or even layered over the unattractive, industrial style carpeting one may find in a dorm room. Throw rugs can add a punch of color, texture and design to a dorm room that can tie in with the styles and colors used in the bed linens.

3) Window treatments
Bare windows look cold and feel cold if the temperature outside is chilly. Bare windows also have no way to filter bright sunlight. Curtains, drapes or blinds will not only make a room look more like home, they will add another touch of color and style to the space. Long sheer curtains can give a hint of privacy or use a heavier fabric like denim, canvas or even cut up quilts for full coverage.

4) Art work
Whether you choose to decorate a dorm room’s walls with photos, posters or framed art, there are numerous products you can buy that will allow you to hang items without marking the walls or using nails. Art brings color, personality and design into a dorm room and brings home and family with the student while showcasing the student’s personality and interests.

5) Accessories
Throw pillows turn a dorm room bed into a lounging space for friends to sit when they visit. They also add coziness and comfort to the bed which makes a dorm room feel more like home. Baskets and colorful organizers not only keep personal belongings organized and easy to find, they add décor to a room too. A small houseplant adds beauty and life to a dorm room and is fun to watch grow.

By injecting some homey touches into a dorm room, it can go from blah and boring to a cozy space that feels comfortable and familiar.

David is a blogger and contributing writer who focuses on a large variety of home and family topics. He is also a contributing writer for Thrive Furniture, a site that offers a wide variety of options for the home or dorm including designer mid century couch and mid century sofa options.

10 Tips For Decorating Your Living Room

There are a lot of things you should take into consideration when decorating your living room. Budget plays a big part in determining what decisions you make. You also should think about the style of your home and what will suit the rest of your house. As well as the furniture you will need to decide on your flooring, lighting, as well as whether you have curtains or blinds on your windows. Once your living room redecoration is done you might want to look at hiring a commercial cleaning company to give the room a thorough going over.

Flooring

It can be a good idea to start from the ground and work your way up. Choosing your flooring can sometimes help determine other choices you make when it comes to decorating. The type of carpet your might pick will depend on whether your room is going to be more formal, and perhaps used less, or whether you will need a more hard wearing type of carpet because it will be somewhere that the family will spend a lot of time. You might choose to have floorboards, which you can dress up with a rug.

Paint

The colors you choose for your walls can greatly affect the mood of your room. Painting your home a lighter color can also make your room appear larger. A darker color, or more solid shade, will make your room appear smaller. If you want to have a more vibrant color, but feel it will be a bit much in your room, you can paint one wall and make it a feature.

Windows

You will need to consider whether you want curtains, blinds or perhaps even shutters on your windows. Curtains can be a more formal look, although they can be dressed up or down. Roller blinds are a cheaper option to curtains and can be easily installed yourself. Don't forget to consider the outside of your windows, where you could have shutters, or even a blind that drops down to block out the sun.

Furniture

Choosing furniture is where your individual taste will really come to the fore. Your choices will be influenced by whether the room is going to be more formal or a casual space. The size of the room will affect how much furniture you put in the room, and also the style of your home. A more modern home often calls for a more minimalist look, with less furniture being displayed. Period homes work well with the cozy that having more furniture can bring.

Artwork

Don't forget your walls when you are decorating your living room. If you have a large budget you might want to get some special original pieces for your walls, such as oil paintings, pastels or water colors. You can still buy great art work on a budget, even if it is a reproduction print.

Traffic

Think about where the main traffic will be through your room and position your furniture so that it is not in the way.

Cleaning

Consider how easy your room is going to be to clean when you start decorating. If you are not an enthusiastic cleaner and can't afford to hire a professional cleaner to do the job for you, perhaps it is not a good idea to have lots of trinkets and other fussy items on display, which will require a lot of fairly constant dusting.

Entertaining

Before you start, think about whether you want a space that is good for entertaining. Do you need to incorporate an open area for large groups of guests to mingle, or should you even put aside an area for a bar? In fact, why not have the space versatile enough to do both? There are many bar options available today that take up very little space but can store most everything you need and even have tops that can expand to offer you a reasonable amount of surface space.

Practicality

How practical is your lounge room going to be for your lifestyle? If you will use the room a lot or you have children perhaps choose more hard wearing carpet, or choose a paint for your walls that will be easy to wipe mess off.

Casual or formal

The first thing you need to decide is whether your living room is going to be a casual or formal space. The rest of your decisions, such as the type of furniture you choose, the carpets and the curtains, will all depend on the style of room.

Don't forget to plan your decorating, so that you get it right the first time around.

Hooker Furniture Offers New Collections

Hooker Furniture is a third-generation company and one of the few furniture firms today that is still led by a member of the founding family. Opening in the heart of furniture country in Martinsville, Virginia in 1924, Hooker Furniture has been making stylish, beautiful, well-made furniture which has propelled the company to become one of the nation's premier importers and manufacturers of furniture. Today, Hooker Furniture is a complete home furnishings resource that offers one of the greatest selections of quality home entertainment, home office, accent, dining and bedroom furniture, as well as leather and custom seating.
Never content on resting on their laurels, Hooker Furniture is consistently offering new and exciting collections based on the latest design trends. From the contemporary to the eclectic, these two great new collections from Hooker Furniture offer you two very different styles and is offered to you at great prices at Carolina Rustica.

Felton Collection

 

The new Felton Collection by Hooker Furniture brings a softer, warmer life to the contemporary style by blending soft shapes with strong vertical design elements, concave case fronts, chrome hardware and a warm finish on walnut veneers.
These contrasting motifs come together harmoniously to create the unique design of the Felton collection of bedroom, dining, home office and entertainment furniture. Chrome hardware in a circle-within-a-square shape and concave cases are signature elements for Felton, which may be the most contemporary collection in Hooker Furniture's recent history. Chrome hardware in a circle-within-a-square shape and concave cases are signature design elements for Felton. Sophisticated but down-to-earth, Felton promises quality, comfort and style to welcome you home time and again.

Mélange Accents Inspire Owners to Be Creative

 

Transcend time and trends with one-of-a-kind furnishings. Unexpected pieces in unexpected places tell a personal story. Come closer to Mélange, and you will discover something unexpected, something far more than a 40-piece accent furniture collection. An eclectic blending of colors, textures and materials in a vibrant collection of one-of-a-kind artistic pieces, Mélange is meant to inspire you and fuel an experience of self-discovery. Mélange is a collection of artistic pieces, each with its own story. The product mix centers on three specific design themes:

• Modern/Classic - Refined, Sophisticated and Sleek
• Pretty/Feminine – Elegant, Graceful and Charming
• Eclectic/ Multicultural – Dramatic, Whimsical and Bold.

The themes provide a venue of expression meant to help the shopper identify and define their own individual style. While each piece stands on its own independently and clearly represents one of the distinct design themes, all the pieces have the capacity to mix seamlessly together for a shopping experience to delight the senses, intrigue the mind and touch the heart.

Wood Furniture Construction Basics by Stanley Furniture

Every once in awhile, we find some great advice or nugget of information from our suppliers that we like to share.  Here is some great basic information from our friends at Stanley Furniture, regarding wood furniture construction.   We have found that, while these terms are thrown around a lot by salespeople, there is an assumption that we all understand what the terms actually mean.   Stanley explains it all with some helpful diagrams, and of course, you can find all of this information on their website From Stanley Furniture: Construction: Since wood is sensitive to heat and humidity, floating joints must allow for expansion and contraction. For the same reason, all joints are not only glued but are held by glue and nail. Joinery Floating joint systems allow wood to expand and contract with humidity. All joints are glued and nailed. Mortise and Tenon Two pieces of wood are joined at right angles. One is a rail and another is a post, or solid end panel. Rail ends are prepared on a tenoner, or cut to fit a socket, usually square, that has been cut into the post or panel. The joint is glued. Dovetail Dovetail joints tightly interlock, creating a sturdy connection. Woods with minimal expansion characteristics generally are used for dovetail joints. Miter Used frequently on bonded case and tabletops, miter joints connect pieces of wood with glue, reinforced by hidden wood or metal wedges, or by wood dowels. Dowel This joint performs a function similar to the mortise and tenon. It uses a wood or composition peg that fits into borings to join the two pieces of wood. Tongue and Groove The joint is so deftly constructed that it is barely noticed by the untrained eye. These are generally used as corner blocks for chair seat frames. Solid versus Veneer The term “solid” as used in the furniture industry may be confusing because both types of processes - solid and veneered - are of solid wood construction. Solid Wood Furniture describes furniture with drawer fronts, tops, panels and other like surfaces made of whole wood, or of one piece, without plies of veneer. Composed of narrow solid wood planks, bonded permanently together, side by side. These planks serve to prevent splitting and warping when temperatures change and when the wood naturally expands and contracts. They also provide decorative variation. Veneered Wood Furniture layers of woods are permanently bonded to a center core on a solid wood frame. Veneering permits matching and repeating grain patterns that are impossible in solid lumber. Veneering is used in about 80 percent of wood furniture, from the least to the most expensive, because of its strength and added versatility. Stanley Furniture Craftsmanship Here are some of the hallmarks of Stanley Furniture craftsmanship: Mortise and tenon joints Heavy-duty center drawer guides Drawers dovetailed front and back Durable dust panels between drawers Durable drawer bottoms held rigidly in grooves Strong case backs recessed into end Well mounted top and sides We are excited about carrying Stanley Furniture!  Give us a call at 704-788-3952 or visit our two showrooms here in Concord and we will be happy to show you the diverse collections and styles from this outstanding manufacturer.

Home Essentials for Keeping Order in Child-Filled Chaos

You've lived your life in a state of child-free cleanliness for much of your life. You knew the day would eventually come when a miniature, DNA-mixed version of yourself, and your significant other, would enter this world and set your life into disorder. It may seem like a home strewn with toys, clothes, partially ingested food and mud is the inevitable outcome of life as a parent - but it doesn't have to be that way. Here are a few home essentials for any modern parent looking to keep their home from descending into child-filled chaos - while still keeping the child(ren).

1) Toy chest. A plastic, rectangular savior for any home with a plethora of toys and not much space to keep them all. Place a toy chest in the designated play area (you've got one of those, right?) and sternly encourage your little monsters to return their used toys to the bin when finished. The beauty of the toy chest, beyond keeping your home organized and strewn-toy free, is that these simple boxes come in a variety of shapes and sizes, not just florescent blues and reds with princesses and mutated turtles on the side. Plenty of toy chests don't look like toy chests, which is perfect for those looking to maintain a certain decor. A perfect example of this is like the full width pull out drawer incorporated into the bunk bed at the right. That's a lot of storage!

2) Bunk beds. You've successfully raised your children to the age where they can finally manage to sleep in a room, and bed, of their own. The downside? You've only got one room for them. What may look like a design and space nightmare, has a quite simple solution. Today's modern bunk doesn't carry the same sort of "awww, mom" stigma that they one did. There are fun, modern, and most important of all, space saving, bunk beds for all room sizes and budgets. It will buy you some time to figure out a solution for when they are teenagers, knocking down your door for their own room.

3) White board organizer. This is a popular trend for modern parents today - and for good reason. Teaching your children the importance of staying organized with not just their possessions, but with their time, can't be stressed early enough. A white board where the day's activities, meals, etc. are spelled out in a way that children can understand will go a long way toward minimizing surprises (and surprise tantrums). Let the children have some input in areas you feel they are ready, slowly giving them experience in planning out their own lives. Size and location of the white board is up to you, but a central location is key, making the board an important part of the home.

Color Your Home

If you have just moved into a new home that's in dire need of some TLC, why not redecorate?
Ok, let's wait until you have unpacked all of the boxes from the removalist shall we? That way you will have a clean canvas to work on. But this doesn't mean that you shouldn't start thinking about how you want to redecorate.

For those who don't have a designer's bone in their body, redecorating might seem like a difficult task, but it really isn't. Why not start by injecting a little bit of color into your home? It's a great way to get your creative juices flowing.

Having a good color scheme throughout the house which reflects your personal style and taste is extremely important. Don't limit yourself to colorful cushions, artworks and other accessories, pick up a paintbrush and be brave. Feature walls are a great way to add a little pop to an otherwise dull room. But be careful, just because you like the color on the swab at the hardware store, doesn't mean it is the best color for the room. Keep in mind that dark colours usually work better in large rooms which attract natural light; while, light colours will create the illusion of space and bring light to a dark room.

Let's take a look at how to decorate with some of the more popular color schemes.

Yellow
Despite being extremely popular, yellow can be quite difficult to use. It is easily influenced by light and can easily appear brighter or less intense depending on the amount and intensity of light entering the room. The best way to test out this color in your room is to buy a sample tin of paint in the yellow shade you intend to decorate with. Regardless of if you plan to paint the walls yellow or just opt for yellow accessories like pillows, lamps or even a chest like this oval Pulaski Accent Chest, this will give you a good idea of whether this color will suit your room.

Pink
Pink is an extremely versatile color. Yes that's right, it's not just reserved for girly girls. There are so many variations of pink, with shades ranging from blush to coral or raspberry to fuchsia. No matter what shade you decide on, this color will have a powerful calming and relaxing quality on your home.

Orange
Believe it or not, orange is a popular choice because it succeeds in adding vibrancy to tired or dark rooms. Having said that, decorating with orange isn't always easy. Because it is a bold and sunny color you should use it sparingly. A couple of ways to do this is to;

• Use orange accessories throughout your room – think lamps, pillows, vases and picture frames.
• Incorporate it into your fabrics – a single side chair, window treatment or small upholstered piece in orange can look extremely effective.
• If you are brave enough to paint your walls a shade of orange, make sure you temper the room with simple and calming accessories and furniture.

Redecorating can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want it to be. Introducing a few key pieces of furniture and some well placed accessories in a groovy new color might be all you need to revitalize your home. However you decide to go about redecorating, make sure that you take out contents insurance to cover your new purchases. If you already have contents insurance, you are in luck – all you need to do is update your policy.

New Designs & New Finishes From Our Favorite Manufacturer!

Any of our customers familiar with Carolina Rustica know we have a deep affinity for Charleston Forge, our premier supplier of hand-forged wrought iron furniture.   Crafted just 2 hours up the road from us in Boone, North Carolina, Charleston Forge has a storied history of crafstmanship that is now rare in the country.  Started by Art and Susan Barber a few short decades ago, Charleston Forge has become the industry lead as far as fashion-forward designs crafted from iron and wood.   We are proud to represent them in our gallery and on our website.   We pick up at their facility once a week for both our store and our online customers, and deliver direct via white-glove delivery nationwide.

This information is direct from Charleston Forge's own website, www.CharlestonForge.com: 

Charleston Forge is excited to be introducing Driftwood, a new finish recently added to our already extensive line of wood finishes.

The finish replicates the almost colorless, sun- and salt-bleached look of wood found washed up on the seashore. It was specifically developed to be used on distressed oak tabletops in order to further capture the nature of driftwood. In fact, unlike most of the company’s other finishes, Driftwood is only available on oak because the density, texture and grain of the wood works best with the finish’s very subtle coloring.

“When we come up with a new stain or finish we start off with an idea of what we want to get to in the end,” says Art Barber, CEO and co-founder of the company. “And then we figure out what we need to do to get there.”

The wood top itself is carefully prepared in order to further the feel of an actual piece of driftwood. Pockmarked, hand-planed and showing various irregularities, the tops embody a sense of age and weathering.

“Imagine a piece of driftwood down on the shore,” says Barber. “It’s bleached, it’s not perfect, it’s been banged around, it’s got holes in it.”


Shown at right is the new Heritage Table, which is a modification of the popular Charleston Forge Legacy Dining Table,  The opposing curved legs add a dramatic element to the piece, and the Heritage Table is new with pull drawers and hand-forged hardware.   This is part of the 2011 new introduction collection, which we will be posting to our website this week (October 10).   We love the direction Charleston Forge is going, concentrating on the high-end design-oriented market, and making these outstanding products available in finishes that are so in demand.   This Driftwood finish is a great example...although it is seen at many high-end furniture lines, only Charleston Forge has really interpreted it with forged iron, providing a compelling contrast to the gentle finish.   Please call us at 800-205-7819 if you have any questions about ordering this product.

Simple but Fun Ways to Decorate Your Home

Wouldn’t it be great if, among your friends, your home was the one everyone loved to visit the most? Everybody has that one friend whose home is always pristine and beautiful, and we visit and we ooh and ahhh and wonder how on earth we can make our boring, uninspired home into something more welcoming and creative. Here are some tips to do this that won’t break the bank or require you to do some major redecorating.

1.      Provide inspiration in the kitchen with word magnets.

We all have fridges, and they aren’t typically the most exciting looking feature in the home. One way to remedy this is with magnetic poetry: you’ve probably seen these kits around, or you have friends who already have these on their fridge. They can be a lot of fun, especially if there has been some drinking involved. Take it to the next step though: make creative use of printing services and get your own personalized poetry or phrases made up. Favorite quotes you like, friends and family’s names, and funny anecdotes can all be immortalized and add a cute, personal touch that visitors will remember your home for.

2.      Wacky plants. 

Shake things up and create a great conversation starter by getting a wacky plant. Everyone goes for roses and lilies and, beautiful as they are and a nice touch they may be, your place will be the one remembered for the venus fly trap (functional as well!) or that crazy cactus. As an added bonus, observing your plant before and after watering is a great way to relax the mind. If you don’t have a green thumb, artificial plants have come a long way over the years and now look just like the real thing.

3.      Go visit your local arts and craft markets.

There are heaps of vendors and creative individuals out there who are making quality and original handmade goods. Not only will you get to have hours of fun looking at and buying unique gifts and decor for a decent price, you will most like also be the only one you know who has it! Maybe it’s something as simple as a cushion with a mustache sewn on the front. Maybe it’s a nice wooden chopping board with an unexpected image engraved into it, or it’s a super cute clock that doesn’t look like a clock at all.

4.      Surf the internet for cool, stylish prints.

You don’t need to spend $300 a piece on paintings or artworks to liven up those bare lounge walls. There are so many websites and blogs out there now that have a large selection of nice photography, inspirational quotes or interesting illustrations. It usually doesn’t take too much detective work to find out where to purchase it. You can always try and contact the author of the blog or page if you get really stuck, or look into printing something similar yourself.

5.      Visit your nearest secondhand store.

You never know what you might find: pick up some vintage plates and teacups to add character to your next dinner party or Sunday brunch. Maybe you’ll find an old dress you can cut up and use to cover your chairs or cushions. Make a day of it and go with your friends on a “Secondhand store only” shopping trip: it can be a really amusing, surprising and fun way to spend a free afternoon.