Outdoor Kitchens
• October 15, 2012

The backyard has truly become an extension of the indoor living space. With the fall and winter months ahead, a leisurely experience can still be enjoyed within your backyard by creating a custom living and kitchen area. Whether you love to entertain family and friends, or just want a personal backyard retreat, check out these featured items.

1 A lounge area, perhaps centered near a fireplace, is a relaxing space for you and your guests. This set, “Lane Venture Southampton,” from Spring Valley Patio, located at 4300 Fordham Road N.W., has a variety of furniture and materials to choose from; wicker, teak, wrought iron, cast aluminum and stainless steel are among those collections. SpringValleyPatio.com

2 Making your own pizza is easy and fast with the Kalamazoo Artisan Fire Outdoor Pizza Oven, available on Williams-Sonoma.com. Mounted on the countertop, the oven bakes a crisp pizza in minutes; adjustable gas burners on top and bottom allow for higher temperatures than a regular oven.

3 Guests at your bar will need a place to sit; this Koko II Januswood barstool from Janus et Cie offers a comfortable option. The frame also comes in silver; visit the showroom at 3304 M Street N.W. for selections to match your bar. JanusEtCie.com

4 When it gets cooler, an infrared heater is a great option for heating up an area. Lynx offers several options for your heater, by making options available for a freestanding heater or a mounted heater. SurLaTable.com. [gallery ids="101006,134834,133596,133604" nav="thumbs"]

Light It Up With Tangerine
• August 29, 2012

Living room feeling a little drab? Try brightening things up with this fabulous summer color. Any room can pop with brightly colored accents. Check out these hot tangerine items below for ideas on how to add a little color into your life.
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Curtain CallJuly 9, 2012
• July 9, 2012

**Looking for a way to stay cool and up to date with the last fashions in home d?cor? Try these hot new trends, ranging from bold prints, bright colors, velvet material, wooden shades, and ?go-green? curtains.**

1. 2 Swing Stripe Curtains. $118.00-$178.00. Cheery pom poms dangle by the hundreds from handloom-woven draperies. www.Anthropologie.com

2. www.target.com

3. Crate & Barrel Harden Neutral Curtain Panel. $89.95- $109.00. www.CrateAndBarrel.com

4. Mushroom Silk Dupioni Grommet Window Panel from West Elm. $49.99. www.WestElm.com

5. Pottery Barn Velvet Drape. $109.00-$369.00. www.PotteryBarn.com

6. 1 Arcade shower curtain. Price: $98.00. Luxe shower curtains, vivid patterns printed on cotton duck canvas with corresponding grosgrain top and bottom borders. www.JonathanAdler.com

Gift Guide: His, Hers, and Ours
• May 3, 2012

One of the most glorious messes in the world,” Andy Rooney once said, “is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.” Andy Rooney, or course, said it better than we can. It’s time for holiday magic to begin! So get to shopping and making memories with your friends and family with this “His, Hers and Ours” gift guide.

Tea sets from Ching Ching Cha
A tea set serves more than its basic function as a method of brewing and serving tea; it is also a beautiful accent to your home décor. A beautiful tea set can tie a room together, make it feel more inviting and add a touch of personal style. At Ching Ching Cha, it’s easy to find a set that will match anyone’s personal style, from earthy to delicate, making it a great place to find a gift.
Prices vary
chingchingcha.com

Bicycle Wine Rack
Oopsmark, a company based in Montreal that makes “tools for urban living,” has plenty of innovative and cool products such as USB necklaces and bracelets that convert into smart phone stands. Our favorite Oopsmark invention, however, is the Bicycle Wine Rack, which makes it easy to navigate D.C. streets and arrive at all those holiday parties with your gift for the host unscathed. This is a great gift for any wine lover in your life.
$29
Oopsmark.ca

Vintage Monte Carlo Poker Set
Admit it. It’s pretty cool to know how to play poker. And it’s even cooler to whip out your own personal set of chips, especially if it’s this vintage-inspired dark-wood boxed set. This is the perfect gift for a hubby with a weekly poker night or for a woman with a rambunctious streak. You can thank Lady Luck for all the “thank yous” you get for this present.
On sale for $89
RestorationHardware.com

Michael Kors Silver Bracelet Watch with Glitz
A stylish watch is always a classy gift for a man, but that doesn’t mean that this sleek watch isn’t a perfect gift for the ladies, too. The same watch that looks classic and handsome on a man makes a chunky, funky fashion statement on the wrist of any woman.
$195
MichaelKors.com

Concord Nickel Badger 3 Piece Shaving Kit
Bring all of the charm, quality and nostalgia of an old-fashioned barber shop into your home with this shaving. Crafted for a perfectly smooth shave, this is the perfect gift for any man in your life, from father to husband.
$180
GTTobacco.com

Molcajete and Pestle
Whip up some guacamole in an authentic-style molcajete from Rosa Mexicano Kitchen. This is a great gift for anyone who loves this delicious dip, but it’s also a great gift to keep for yourself! Use it to make some great guac for all your parties this holiday season.
$40
RosaMexicano.com

Warhol: Headlines Notecards
The Andy Warhol print notecards lend a taste of the iconic to everyday life. With 12 notecards and envelopes featuring details of Daily News, you can send out some not-so-ordinary thank you cards to everyone on your list this holiday season. Available at the National Gallery of Art.
$10.95
shop.nga.gov

Burberry Cashmere Touchscreen Fingertip Gloves
It’s not very classy (or convenient) to fumble around with a pair of gloves while trying to answer a text message on a windy winter day . And while cutoff gloves save you from the aforementioned scenario, they leave your fingertips out in the cold. Burberry has come up with a solution: Touchscreen Fingertip Gloves. These soft, knit cashmere gloves have textured thumb and pointer fingertips which are registered by touchscreen technology. No more fumbling and blustering! Keep it classy, ladies and gents.
$215
Us.Burberry.com

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Corporate Gift Guide
•

It’s one of the most nerve-wracking parts of the holiday season: that awkward moment when you hand your coworker another gift card, set of bath salts, “You’re #1” mug, or some other generic gift. While it’s fun and exciting to exchange small gifts around the office – it’s part of the holiday spirit to give to those you spend your time with, after all – sometimes it’s impossible to think of thoughtful gifts that aren’t too personal. Luckily, Georgetown stores are chock full of perfect gifts that will make you the Secret Santa everyone wanted to get. [gallery ids="100399,113185,113167,113193,113157,113201,113147,113209,113137,113177" nav="thumbs"]

Reiter Comes Home With Muléh
•

Following four years in Southeast Asia after quitting his job as a fund manager in San Francisco, owner Christopher Reiter created Muléh (“to come home” in Japanese) in 1999 in D.C. to reflect the harmonious subtleties of Asian modern interiors. Muleh caters to the home, selling furniture, men’s and women’s clothing and artwork at locations in Bethesda and on 14th Street, N.W. He focuses on aesthetic, looking to clean lines with rich texture and rapidly renewable organic materials.

In 2004, women’s fashion was introduced to complement Muléh’s lifestyle concept, which weaves style and design throughout the home and into the wardrobe. “D.C. had a very international demographic, but a conservative image. I wanted to do something different in a city that wasn’t used to it,” Reiter said in a Washington Life interview.

In addition to carrying well known labels like 3.1 Philip Lim and Mulberry, Muléh’s design selections of out-of-the-mainstream brands attempt to expand the availability to obtain such critically acclaimed but hard-to-find designers, such as Vivienne Westwood’s Anglomania and Red Label, Jean Paul Gautier, Smythe, MM6, Ter et Bantine, Sea, Hache, By Malene Birger, Faliero Sarti, LD Tuttle, Chie Mihara, Lizzie Fortunato, Paula Mendoza, Coclico and foundation-building knit lines Majestic and Autumn Cashmere.

His collection at Muleh also has something a little unexpected: Lights! Many of the light fixtures feature innovative designs and the bedding options are no different. The feature sharp lines that are definitely Asia-inspired. He says his shopping is primarily done in Denmark, London, Italy and Turkey, where he looks to what the product looks like first, and the label second. He says his favorite piece of furniture is his bed, which is one of the first pieces of furniture he bought in Indonesia (a hand-carved canopy bed of recycled teak).

In addition to his professional life running his boutique, he recently welcomed his first child in August with Juleanna Glover, a former Dick Cheney spokeswoman and a high-profile GOP lobbyist.

Want to visit?
1831 14th St., N.W. Washington
Hours: Monday through Saturday (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.); Sunday (noon – 5 p.m.)
202 667 3440
Muleh.com

Picture Perfect
•

A picture is worth a thousand words, but you can change the tone with a frame. A poster in a gold leaf frame will give an image refinement that you wouldn’t necessarily achieve with sticky tape and wall tacks. The streets of Georgetown present you with a variety of framing possibilities — from sleek black contours, to ornate, neon frames.

If you want custom framing done by professionals, stores such as Galerie Lareuse, Georgetown Frame Shoppe and L’Eclat De Verre Versailles offer all types of frames, from gold leaf — priced from $2,500 to $3,500 — to simple, contemporary styles. Although many people tend toward more decorative framing options, Kreg Kelley, curator at Galerie Larause, says, “Simple, contemporary and minimalist frames” are a favorite to many of his customers at the moment.

Georgetown holds great opportunities for custom framing, but it is also the home to retail stores like CB2 and West Elm. Here you can both find simple and elegant traditional frames, or playful and colorful frames.

Here is a sampling of framing options to get you thinking about where and how to frame your heart out: [gallery ids="100308,107962,107970,107967" nav="thumbs"]

Le Decor
•

A rug can make or break a room – even the fanciest furniture looks shabby when it’s sitting on a ratty rug. But the right rug can transform a room from cold to cozy, from stark to luxurious, or from drab to colorful. Whether you keep it neutral or make a statement with your floor coverings, a rug can tie your space together and give it a new look in one simple step. Check out some of these chic choices!
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Gift Guide: Off the Beaten Path
• December 8, 2011

“One of the most glorious messes in the world,” Andy Rooney once said, “is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly.”

Andy Rooney, or course, said it better than I can. The pillowy, warm spirit of the holidays stays in our hearts, like that sweet nip of a mimosa, sipped fireside, which tastes like the sun dawning on Christmas morning. We are in the season of crinkly wrapping paper and sugared gingerbread cookies, floating in the transition between fall and winter, where a hush descends upon the skies and our workloads bow with the weight of a thousand last-minute details to tie up before the holidays arrive.

But, above all, we are in the season of giving. And there is no equal to the feeling you get when your loved one lights up at the sight of that perfect something you found just for them.

But finding that perfect something is no small task. With an increasing array of options in our ever-eclectic city, shopping has become a downright treasure hunt that would test even the prowess of Captain Jack Sparrow. But we’ve been decoding the holiday shopping treasure map here at The Downtowner, weeding out the decoys and misleading detours and pinpointing exactly where the “X-mas” marks the spot.

Here are some of the hottest hidden gems in the retail world, from gadgets and unique cooking accoutrements, to a disguise for your MacBook Pro and – believe it – a fire you’ll actually want in your house:

HAUSFIRE
Is it a portal? An R2D2-style android? Does it predict the future? None of the above. But it can simultaneously warm your home and make any space chic at warp speed. This indoor-outdoor Hausfire fireplace by Modfire combines the warmth and coziness of a hearth with the sleek, sophisticated design of modern sculpture. The eco-smart burner is safe for use inside and runs on clean-burning ethanol. Each Hausfire is unique and comes in a variety of colors, but all can efficiently heat and light a room.
Price: $2,250
Modfire.com

APOSTROPHE ORANGE PEELER
Oranges are a great food to eat during the winter – their high Vitamin C content keeps you healthy and their sunny citrus flavor keeps you happy and in a summery state of mind. What’s not so happy is those sticky little orange pieces that are impossible to get out from under your nails. The Apostrophe Orange Peeler from Alessi is a sleek, palm-sized device that can easily fit in your lunch box.
Price: $27
Alessi-Shop.com

BOOKBOOK BY TWELVE SOUTH
The BookBook, which transforms your MacBook Pro into an antique novel, is the perfect gift for literature fanatics who also happen to be technology junkies. The ridged leather case and stiff spine of the BookBook provide shock absorption and the distressing on the cover ensures that no two are exactly the same. Twelve South also makes BookBooks for iPhones, iPads and MacBook Airs.
Price: $79.99 – $99.99
TwelveSouth.com

TEA INFUSER SPOON
There’s no question about it: tea is in vogue. And since tea is in vogue, so is the ancient ritual of brewing, steeping and pouring this delightfully warming and healthy beverage. Bring your tea into the 21st century with this Tea Infuser Spoon, which eliminates those annoying little bags, turning brewing a cup of tea into an elegant, simple process.
Price: $3
Pier 1 in D.C.,

MICROVISION – SHOWWX PICO WVGA LASER PROJECTOR
Is that a projector in your pocket? Why, yes, it is! This Pico Projector (so called because they are the smallest projectors to date, roughly the size of an iPhone) can hook up to any Apple device, including iPhones and iPods, to project an image up to 200 inches wide on any surface. And because it’s a laser projector, that means no wasted time fiddling with the focus. Weighing just 4.3 ounces, it can easily fit in a pocket or purse and is a dream machine for movie buffs and techies on the go.
Price: Currently on sale for $124.99
(from $299.99)
BestBuy.com [gallery ids="100422,113597,113620,113613,113606" nav="thumbs"]

Reviving Dead Space
• November 3, 2011

The owners had lived in Europe and loved old buildings, their secrets and surprises. They decided that Georgetown was the perfect place to find the right convergence of a period architecture, space with good “bones” and character that would be a suitable canvas for their creation. Together with their architect, Christian Zapatka, a champion of and expert in period Georgetown buildings, they pursued their quarry.

Their hunt took them through myriad clapboard row houses and brick Georgians until they happened upon their “crumbly cottage,” the dark, dowdy little 1810 Federal that they knew would unfurl into a spacious, light-filled beauty.

The potential lay, in great part, in its semi-detached orientation, with three exposures. Zapatka, an expert in keeping the period aspects of a house intact while giving it a fresh 21st-century makeover, gutted the entire house and then carefully put it back together, weaving together traditional crown molding and woodwork and reclaimed hardwood flooring, with updated lighting and modern space planning.

His greatest challenge was to create another entire level of livable space. Typically attics yield a treasure trove of reclaimable space, but in this case, it needed to be squeezed out from a four-foot earthen, windowless crawl space. His team dug deep, moving another five feet of earth, much of it by hand. Changing an earthen dungeon into a inviting living area is a challenge, and not every basement is a good candidate for finishing. Key considerations for conversion include controlling moisture, adding ventilation and light, and finding a way around hanging drain lines, ductwork and wiring. Added challenges stem from digging around what was once the original kitchen, judging from the huge masonry fireplace, of a 200-year-old building.

Although many finished basements in old houses are musty, dinghy affairs, proper planning, new products and architectural expertise yielded an additional 600 square feet of living space that includes a gourmet kitchen/family room, an office/guest room, a new full bath and a landscaped yard.

Walls of creamy curly maple cabinets hide a flat screen television and stereo equipment and provide plenty of storage. An open floor plan, a sparkling stainless steel mosaic backsplash, skylights, limestone floors and countertops and abundant high-efficiency windows make one forget that this was once a subterranean space.

Michelle Galler is a realtor with TTR/Sotheby’s International Realty, an interior designer and antiques dealer who resides in Georgetown’s West Village. If you have resolved a George¬town design challenge that would be of inter¬est to our readers, contact Ms. Galler in care of The Georgetowner.

Photographs by Amy Snyder Photography