Company Picnic

Summer has finally arrived, and that can only mean one thing: It’s time for a company picnic. So we packed up our Frisbees and lawn chairs and headed up to Laurelhurst Park for some fun in the sun. Here, SRM’s employees and friends are enjoying the bounty of food and Michael holds our most junior partner, baby August. So cute!

Solution of the Week: Kid-Proof Pillows

Let’s face it: kids are messy. And they tend to get their mess all over the house--especially on our most delicate, stainable, and expensive possessions.

Many parents sacrifice having a stylish home while their children are young. But one of our clients refused to wait until her children outgrew their grubby-hands phase to design the living room of her dreams. She needed a room with a double life: in the daytime, a play area for her kids, and in the evening, a space for entertaining guests. So SRM came up with a solution.

We designed unique pillows for the living room couch, a place where both children and guests spend the majority of their time. One side of each pillow is fabric, and the reverse side is leather. When children are playing in the living room, the leather side faces out. Spills and dirt are easily wiped away, so she doesn’t have to worry. When guests arrive, she flips the pillows over to reveal the chic fabric pattern.

Stupid Paint Color Name of the Week

Helena's Going Away Party

All good things must come to an end, and last week, we had to say goodbye to our interior design intern, Helena. She’s been with us since January, but is now heading back to school in Kansas. She was an incredibly valuable member of the team and we miss her already! Best of luck Helena!

Solution of the Week: Highboy

This piece sits in the entry of the French Tudor house of one of our clients. While much of the home’s interior design is of a traditional French style, some of the rooms are more contemporary. As the centerpiece of the entryway, this highboy needed to fit with both design styles.
The space is small, which presented a bit of a puzzle for us. How could we design a tall cabinet that wouldn’t make the room feel crowded? One part of the solution is its metal legs, which make the highboy look like it’s almost floating, and creates more space in the small room.

Super Star Vendor: Amy Caplan

Amy Caplan is the owner of Caplan Art Designs, and she represents local Portland artists. We love working with Amy because not only does she have exceptional taste in art, but she always goes the extra mile for our clients. She regularly brings art to our clients’ homes so they can get a feel for how the pieces will look before they decide to purchase.

Amy recently opened a gorgeous new showroom in the Pearl. Check it out at 1035 NW Lovejoy.

Visit Caplan Art Designs at: www.caplanartdesigns.com

Molly’s Fund Butterfly Takes Flight

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… a plastic butterfly?

These large butterflies are for Serving Up Style, a benefit for Molly’s Fund Fighting Lupus, one of our favorite charities. These butterflies will serve as canvases for 10 of Portland’s most talented artists, who will transform the butterflies into unique works of art. The finished butterflies will be auctioned off at Serving Up Style, with proceeds going towards lupus research.

Our fabulous intern Helena designed these 3-dimensional plastic butterflies. She worked closely with Fullbore Innovations, Inc. to turn the concept into reality. Creating these butterflies was no easy task. This type of plastic usually does not lend easily to dimensionality, so they had to come up with a creative solution to achieve the bubbled look. Fullbore used a two piece injection mold, which created the dome of the butterfly wings and brought Helena’s design to life.

Stay tuned for more information, videos, and pictures of the Molly’s Fund butterflies.

For more information about Serving Up Style please visit: servingupstyle.org, mollysfund.org, fullboreinnovations.com.

Solution of the Week: Suzani Throw

Suzani is an embroidered tribal textile, native to Uzbekistan and other central Asian countries. Traditionally, brides in the region make Suzanis as part of their dowry, as a gift for grooms on their wedding day. The intricacy and beauty of Suzanis have universal appeal, and now Suzanis are being made sans wedding.

Here, SRM converted an authentic Suzani from Indigo Traders into a bed throw. We backed the textile with a reinforcing fabric to protect the integrity of the piece.

Visit our vendor: Indigo Traders

Culture Club: Portland's Iron Chef

Portland’s Iron Chef event was a huge success this year, drawing 480 supporters to the Hilton Ballroom, including half of our staff. The event raised over $290,000 for the Children’s Relief Nursery, an organization that works to prevent child abuse and neglect in Portland.

SRM is proud to call the Children’s Relief Nursery a client, and we take every opportunity we can to support their cause. Our graphics department designed the print materials for the event, and it was great to see their work in action!

Learn more about the Children's Relief Nursery and Portland's Iron Chef at www.crn4kids.org

Behind the Scenes: Pratt & Larson Tour
Recently, our neighbors Pratt & Larson, one of the country’s leading tile manufacturers, hosted a walk-through their studio. On the tour, we got to see how they make their beautiful, handcrafted tile, which we have ordered for many of our clients over the years.

Pratt & Larsen opened in 1980. It now distributes its tile all over the U.S. and Canada and has over 100 employees.

Check Out Pratt & Larson's beautiful tiles at www.prattandlarson.com

Hot and (Not) so Local: Moss Studios

We love our local talent and there is certainly plenty to choose from around here, but please forgive us this week as we give a shout out to Breck Armstrong of Moss Studios in Michigan. These mirrors pictured above are made using old tire molds. The pine frames were given a wax finish and both convex and standard mirrors were set inside to give these industrial pieces a more contemporary look and an interior application. They’re functional and lend dimension to the wall, not to mention, they’re really cool to look at, but all of that aside, we just love how unique they are.

Culture Club: Race For The Roses

Several of our staffers were among the 5,000 participants in this year’s Albertina Kerr Race for the Roses. SRM employees participated in all three events – the 5k, 10k, and even the half-marathon.

The annual race raises awareness for Albertina Kerr, an organization that works to create a community where all people with developmental disabilities can lead rich and fulfilling lives. Here, our team is photographed with our friend Jeanne Farr, Senior VP of Developmental Disabilities Services at Albertina Kerr. We met some incredible people at this event, and can’t wait to participate again next year!

Learn more about the race and the cause at www.albertinakerr.org and www.race4theroses.org

Stupid Paint Color Name of the Week

Superstar Vendor: Hexafoo

Hello Hexafoo! This great workroom is where we go to have fabrics of all sorts changed into pillows, duvet covers, and draperies to name a few. Corby and her team are incredibly talented and have created many a beautiful furnishing for our clients. Our most recent obsession is the knife-edged pillow. Consider our version a reinvention of the bolster.

Not quite as formal and traditional, this is a great way to create the same horizontal statement in a more casual and contemporary environment. Its clean shape and sharp stitching along with its impressive length make it something to drool over.

Solution of the Week: Creative Reuse

This week, we’re all about creative reuse. Instead of allowing this beautiful leftover granite from a different project just sit in a garage for years, Laura had a different idea. She designed a sofa table to proudly show it off. At six feet long, the frame had to be specially engineered to support the stone tiles which were just a tad on the heavy side. Well after a little talk with professional furniture designer, Gregory Miller and a bit of extra support, the carbon tube steel frame is both incredibly solid as well as sleek enough to display in the family room. Not too shabby Laura.

Stupid Paint Color Name of the Week

Visit to Steelcase

Recently, Michael was asked to join SmithCFI on a trip to visit Steelcase, a giant international company famous for their office furniture. Seven lucky architects and designers were hand selected and sent, mind you on a private jet (!!!) to Grand Rapids, MI, home of Steelcase. During the visit to the headquarters, Michael participated in strategy sessions to look at current furniture trends in the modern office. Above is Michael, along with one of our favorite people to work with at SmithCFI, Shannon Ferrigno.
Michael was also given a sneak peak at Steelcase's new residential furniture line that should be out next year. We heart these exterior patio chairs.

Behind the Scenes: The Mitchell Wine Group
If you've been to our office before, you may already know that we share the building with a few other companies. But did you know that one of these companies is a wine distributor that houses a large basement filled with European fine wines right below our desks! Last Friday, Mitchell Wine hosted a wonderful party with yummy food and spectacular wine. Valerie, Madeline, and Stacey had a particular taste for the cupcakes.

Stupid Paint Color Name of the Week

Hot and Local: Karen Friedman
Gorgeous! Absolutely stunning! That's the first thought that came to my mind when I saw this oil painting of a Peregrine Falcon by Karen Friedman. It looks so personal, like the falcon is trying to tell me something. Well, apparently, it is. This painting, which was commissioned for a client, is part of a series called "Animals in Controversy". This is a series of grouped paintings, each accompanied by a written narrative. The concept of controversy suggests not only endangerment but also issues of general welfare, human and animal interrelation, and questions of human and organizational responsibility.

For commissions, sales and more samples of her paintings, contact Caplan Art Designs: www.caplanartdesigns.com. For questions on "Animals in Controversy", contact Karen at karenfriedmanstudios
@comcast.net or visit www.karenfriedmanstudios.com.