Archive for the ‘Nursery’ Category
November 2nd, 2009 | Eco-friendly, Nursery, decorating, products | No Comments |
The first time I was introduced to a Kalon Studio product was during a visit to the store The Little Seed in Los Angeles. They just received the Bamboo IoLine Crib and I had to oooh and ahh at the beautiful piece of work. Not only was it friendly to the eye with its modern features and beautiful wood tones, it was made of sustainable bamboo and sealed with non-toxic oil. My favorite part of the crib was the partial flap on the side, thereby not making it a dangerous drop side crib, but offering flexibility for shorter people or making it changing table accessible. It retails for $1,400 and has the option of changing into a toddler bed.
I could not get my mind off of that piece of furnture and had to contact Kalon Studios to talk to them about their philosophy on their business. I was so excited when owners/founders/designers Michaele Simmering and Johannes Pauwen agreed to answer a few questions. Below are a few of their well thought out responses.
What motivated you to start this company?
“We started this company when I became pregnant with our daughter. We couldn’t find any cribs that met our criteria (design-oriented, modern, sustainable, people-friendly) and so we decided to make our own. While we were at it we made several pieces of furniture for ourselves and the response to them was so good that we decided to participate in a trade-show. Again, we got a great response. Next thing we knew, we had started a company.
At the same time, we were struggling with the basic economic and lifestyle choices that come with starting a family. Neither one of us wanted to miss out on being at home with our daughter. We decided we’d try to see if we could make a business work where we could both work from home – where we could share the responsibilities of both the business and the family. So far, we’ve succeeded.
When we started there just weren’t any companies out there doing what we were interested in: contemporary, modern, high-quality, sustainable design. I think maybe there were two that we could find. If we were going to go through the trouble of starting a company, we wanted to push ourselves to go beyond just making great design pieces but to create a company that was politically consistent with our ideals, one that we could be proud of. At the time, most people claimed that being ’sustainable’ didn’t mix with business and we wanted to see if that was true. I definitely agree that if we’d let go of certain criteria that we could have gotten on our feet stronger and faster but a lot of our struggles were the standard struggles that any start up would have gone through, and mostly they had to do with starting a company without capital or investment. In the end, so far, we’ve been able to do everything just how we wanted. Though there are a lot of new companies in our market now, I still haven’t seen any that meet all the criteria we do – basically, though we’re small and unknown to many, I still think we’re unique and respected. I’m proud of that.”
What is your mission statement?
“Design for a Sustainable Culture. This is actually our slogan, but it really comes to the heart of everything that we are trying to do. If there are different approaches to creating changes in how society runs its course, then the first, I believe, should start with yourself. For us, this means actively supporting those people, businesses, ideas and things that stimulate the type of culture we are interested in and not supporting those that we feel are detrimental to our vision of the world. I know that this is very loose, but it is our guiding principal and the starting point for every decision we make both privately and in business.”
What was your working background before manufacturing children/baby furniture?
“I studied Industrial design at the Rhode Island School of design and the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and worked as a freelance product designer until Michaele got pregnant. Over the years, Michaele had been urging me to venture out on my own to start a line. Only once we were expecting our first child did I begin thinking of doing it, partly because of the financial pressure and also because it was more condusive to our particular lifestyle choices.
I had never thought that I would design any children’s products. Over the years, though my background was in theory and writing, I’ve worked more and more with design. I worked for several years with the design community and design festivals in Berlin. Recently, I got my MFA in Los Angeles.”
What is your favorite product out of your line of products?
“Always the latest one – right now, that’s our Isometric Table.”
Where is the furniture manufactured?
“Until recently, we were making the pieces ourselves in our garage in Los Angeles. As our orders grew we hired on some of our friends who were highly skilled sculptors, fresh out of art school. At the middle of last year, we moved our production to New England to the former furniture manufacturing capital of America. We’ve temporarily moved East with the company and have been setting up all the various parts of the business in that area – everything from material sources, boxing and shipping, to label printers. It’s important to us that we’re investing back in domestic production. We know that its possible to get great quality craftsmanship for far lower prices in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world, however the price you pay is you sacrifice the craftsmen we have here in the United States. At its height the town where we now manufacture had over 5,000 highly skilled furniture makers and they were world renowned. Now there are less than 300. The last large furniture manufacturer in the town closed its doors in the summer of 2008. Recognizing and making use of the talent there, helping to sustain the craft and hopefully rebuild it, is enormously important to us.”
Do any standard crib sheets and crib mattresses fit the bamboo crib, changing table, toddler bed?
“Yes, our entire IoLine collection works with standard sized mattresses, changing pads, and sheets.”
What other woods are used other than bamboo? Are the woods FSC certified?
“Currently, only our dresser uses a wood other than bamboo. For this piece, we use FSC Certified Multi-Ply. We’re pretty strict, maybe too strict, about all of the materials we use. Johann’s an amazing researcher and is in touch with scientists and manufacturers from around the world who are on the cutting edge of the ‘green’ manufacturing movement. We’re always using the best of what’s currently out there – unless we still think it doesn’t make the cut, in which case we wait for something better. The drawback here is that this has definitely slowed the release of new products. For instance, there’s one product we’ve wanted to release for years now, but can’t find a people/eco friendly replacement for fiberglass. There are a lot of great new eco-friendly raw materials we wish we could already be using but for the size of our business or the size of theirs, we’re just not there yet. But there are amazing advancements being made and you can be sure that we’ll be integrating them as soon as they’re available.
We plan to introduce our table and several other products in a selection of FSC Certified woods. We are also trying to use only woods forested locally in the Northeast.”
What would you like the end customers to know about your company and your philosophy on the environment?
“Sustainability is really what we are about. Although we do care about the environment and our company is “green”, it is only one of many things under what we feel is necessary to think about when thinking about sustainability. We have always found that equitable business practices and fair trade are much more important than being green. Though, it hasn’t kept us from people and eco friendly.”
Any other comments you would like us to know about you personally and your company?
“We love what we do, love creating new products, and love seeing peoples and business’s practices change and evolve in a direction that we agree with.”
August 19th, 2009 | Eco-friendly, Giveaways, Nursery, products | 20 Comments |
It’s been a fun summer of giveaways for us and we are sad to see it end. But we are ending it with a BANG – with two products for two winners, generously provided by Serena and Lily! Their products are consistently well made and we are so pleased to give those of you, who have not had a chance to personally experience their products, a chance to win one of their eco-friendly items. As you may recall, we’ve blogged about these two organic and gorgeous items before – the Serena and Lily Market Sling and the Take-Me-Home Gift Set.
This time, we are giving away the color “punch” (aka pink) Take-Me-Home Set – perfect for any baby shower gift or gift for your own baby girl (or confident baby boy, LOL). Retails for $68.
And for another winner, we have the Market Sling in Cloud/Petal in size Medium. Retails for $129.
To win: comment on which item you would like to win and what you do to help the environment. If it’s as simple as not asking for a bag when you buy a book – so be it. We love great tips on saving mother earth! If you would like to win both, comment separately on each item. Good luck! Winner will be drawn and notified next Wednesday, August 26th.
UPDATE: Zmama and Scott are the winners via random drawing. Thank you all for participating and being excited about the finale! Look for future giveaways in the future – though they will not be as condensed as the summer giveaway.
July 15th, 2009 | Eco-friendly, Giveaways, Nursery, products | 12 Comments |
I have been using the Dapple Baby Safe Dish Liquid since it first rolled into Babies R’ Us earlier this year. I love the easy to squirt container, the way it gently washes the bottles and that it is safe for my baby. True, you can probably go more natural such as something water and vinegar based to wash out the bottles, but I feel a bit better using a soap because of the possibility of bacteria from the milk. The dish liquid rinses fast and their website boasts that their products are phthalate-free, paraben-free, SLES- & dye-free and not tested on animals. The toy cleaner wipes are awesome! They smell lightly of lavender, which comes from the essential lavender oil they use to scent the wipes. Lavender oil is also a natural anti-bacterial agent. They are very moisturized, so one wipe can easily clean more than two toys (depending on toy size) and then use a dry cloth to wipe the toys off or let them air dry.
I love that these products were created by two moms with entrepreneural spirits and a team of experts to create safer cleaning products for baby. Dapple gave us some samples of their products to give away at the New Mom Expo. We are pleased to be able to do a giveaway of the following full-sized Dapple Products 1) Baby Safe Dish Liquid 2) Toy Cleaner Wipes and 3) Toy and Surface Cleaner. The group of these three products retails at Babies R’ Us for $19.99.
All Dapple products are environmentally-safe, biodegradable, and free of parabens, SLES, and phthalates, as well as synthetic dyes or fragrances. Check out Dapple Baby for all their products and product information. Bliss Nine plans to use them in an upcoming seminar on toy cleaners too!
To Win: Comment on the blog about your favorite toy ever. Or if you’ve tried Dapple products before, comment about it for a chance to win this set of Dapple Baby products.
Winner will be selected at random on July 22nd and notified via e-mail.
UPDATE: The winner (again chosen at random by husband picking a number  ) is The Happy Runner, #5. Congratulations! Can’t wait to giveaway more stuff in the coming weeks – we have some great goodies!
July 3rd, 2009 | Nursery, Safety, recalls | 2 Comments |
About 400,000 Simplicity Drop Side Cribs are being recalled by retailers, reports the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Please stop using their products immediately. The CPSC is aware of an 8 month old child suffocating and dying from injuries sustained by this crib’s drop side feature. Apparently, the plastic hardware can involuntarily detach and cause the drop side to detach. When this occurs, a gap is created and the child can fall into the gap and suffocate. Please see the photos, obtained from the CPSC website (below).
Given the enormous amounts of recalled Simplicity products – including bassinets, cribs and playards, we would not recommend a Simplicity product. In 2007, there were at least a million Simplicity cribs recalled. At least 13 children have died from using their cribs and bassinets. Further, the company that purchased Simplicity, SFCA, is no longer answering phone calls or emails – a sure red warning to all consumers. CPSC is urging consumers to look through their homes for Simplicity recalled products. Check out this PAGE of recalled products and check the products in your home.
Please be aware that the Simplicity (or SFCA) products are often branded by larger companies, like Fisher Price and Graco. If you remember our earlier blog entry about the Fisher Price Rainforest Playard – that was a Simplicity product. So check the CPSC website for model numbers and name of your product.
Consumers are urged to continue to contact CPSC at 800-638-2772 or info@cpsc.gov to report any incident or injury with a Simplicity brand product.
June 28th, 2009 | Nursery, Photographers, Preferred Vendors, decorating | No Comments |
During these low economic times, we are all in need of a good discount or two. This is a reminder that Bliss Nine’s preferred vendors offer a 10% discount to Bliss Nine clients/customers. I am always meeting new vendors and contacts in the industry, who can best serve my clients. A handful of them have gone through the application process and generously provide discounts to Bliss Nine clients. Please click on the Preferred Vendor link on the right of this blog to see who is on our list of preferred vendors and why. These vendors are reliable, talented, responsive and know how to treat my clients with the best service and products their businesses offer. At various future events you will be able to meet some of these vendors face to face, along with Bliss Nine. Also, check back here for list of newly added vendors and updates on the existing ones.
The Modern Baby Company for modern bedding, baby clothing and design. Photographers: Sundin Photography, Jessica Davis Photograghy and Aquario Studio all provide maternity and family portraits sessions. Contact Bliss Nine for information on disounts with these talented businesses. Bliss Nine also has great connections to vendors such as prenatal massage therapists to doulas.
Bliss Nine baby planning can save you time and money by: weeding out the unnecessary items; planning a baby shower efficiently and effectively; finding the right product the first time so you don’t have to return and purchase or use it once and have to buy a different one; and doing anything you want or need to prepare for baby’s arrival.
Note: Don’t forget! Bliss Nine donates a portion of its profits to children’s charities.
June 21st, 2009 | Eco-friendly, Nursery, decorating, products | No Comments |
If you want to get a good FAQ on wool carpeting, check out their site. According to Natural Home Design Center, wool carpeting is naturally stain resistant and naturally flame resistant. They offer a host of choices in colors and textures. Wool carpets also do not emit VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which synthetic carpets can emit for months after installation in your home.
Natural Home Design Center provided some products for our New Mom Expo talk and we got to test some of the softest bedding and some colorful organic cotton baby blankets. You can also get eco-friendly home goods for the family, like queen size mattresses. Many children spend a good amount of time in the parent’s bed (if you co-sleep) and bedroom.
Our favorite – their information on the organic paint they sell by Aura. They list every ingredient in their paints and they ask, “Did you know “Low VOC” paints simply add a chemical dulling fragrance to regular paint to eliminate the strong fragrance of the other chemicals in it.” No, we didn’t know that. Organic paints and milk paints it is! We prefer no VOC anyway .
June 20th, 2009 | Eco-friendly, Gifts, Nursery | No Comments |
We were pleased to learn about EcoChoices EcoByDesign Natural Living Store in preparing for our talk at the New Mom Expo. They provided some wool carpet samples that were soft and beautifully textured. Despite what many think, wool carpet is not itchy or coarse, like some sweaters people may have worn. As for eco-friendly home design choices, the carpet is made of chemical free wool with hemp/cotton backing and is made of all 100% natural raw materials. The best part is that it is 100% biodegradable. Most green experts don’t recommend wall-to-wall carpeting because people tend to remove hundreds of yards of fabric at a time, which all ends up at the landfill. And given the relatively short lifespan of synthetic carpets (5-10 years depending on quality and care of carpet), old carpets fill our landfills quite frequently and in large portions. If you can’t afford wall to wall wool carpeting, and it is pricey, go for an area rug. Your baby will spend a lot of time on the floor and you want her/him safe from chemicals and toxins that synthetic rugs and carpets emit.
From natural scrub hemp cloths to a bamboo diaper bag, you can find various eco-friendly options for your baby and your home at EcoChoices. We personally love the beautiful rattles they have made from woods such as beechwood and applewood.
May 1st, 2009 | Nursery, Safety, products, recalls | No Comments |
About 96,000 Jardine Cribs have been recalled due to the wooden slats breaking and creating a gap that can strangle infants and toddlers. These cribs are sold at Babies R’ Us and Toys R’ Us. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has received reports of slats breaking and minor injuries relating to same. The recall includes eight models of the wooden cribs. This is the third recall of the cribs and has been expanded from 2008 and early 2009 recalls. You can visit the Jardine Crib website or CPSC.
Crib Styles involved:
- Americana
- Berkley
- Capri
- Hilton
- Olympia
- Positano
- Spindle
- Windsor
Only the Following Crib Model Numbers are Included:
BC-23, BC-36B, BC-36G, BC-36P, BC-007, BC-010, BC-010C, BC-010HP, BC-010W, BC-017, BC-107C, BC-107CR, BC-110C, BC-110HP BC-110W, DA617BC, DA620BC, DA715BC, DA770BC, DV730N, DV730W, DV830-N, DV830-W, 0108L00, 0113B00, 0113K00, 0303C00, 0303G00, 0303B00, 0308C00, 0309K00, 0108C00, 0312D00, 0102B00, 0102E00, 0308L00, 0302P00, 0302C00
March 24th, 2009 | Gifts, Nursery, Preferred Vendors, decorating, products | 1 Comment |
Want gorgeous and modern bedding for your home? The Modern Baby Company’s great graphic prints and decor accessories make you want to decorate around their products! Once your baby grows into toddlerhood, you’ll be happy to know that The Modern Baby Co. also makes toddler bedding.
Bliss Nine loves the coverage the round bibs get and the mobiles provide a modern and artistic dimension to your nursery. And on the other side of the fun prints of the blankets and bibs are soft white cotton terry cloth. They make great baby shower gifts or gifts in general. No offense to those who like the standard baby cartoon prints and colors, but The Modern Baby Company offers enough fun color and style to keep both parents and babies happy.
The Modern Baby Company is a Bliss Nine preferred vendor and has contributed their products to the San Diego USO silent auction gift basket. Contact Bliss Nine for a discount.
March 14th, 2009 | Eco-friendly, Gifts, Nursery, decorating | No Comments |
Don’t we all want something personal and special dedicated to our little ones? Putting artwork, created for your baby, in your baby’s nursery is as personal and as unique as you can get. All parents want their new baby’s nursery to be a sanctuary, but many find it a daunting task when faced with all of the different decorating choices out there. Spotted Moon murals are the perfect place to start!
Spotted Moon is an eco-friendly art company owned by artist and San Diegan Christine Bryant. She has created ingenious and beautiful Movable Murals and Milk Murals, specializing in children’s rooms and nurseries. These pieces of art are all lovingly painted by hand and can be customized to incorporate room decor, fabric patterns, name meaning and family history. Her goal is to create a meaning behind the art, such as reflecting the feelings new parents have toward their new child via a painting in a nursery. The murals are framed in fabric, which can be used as a focal point for coordinating bedding and decorative accessories. Also of note: Christine’s husband, Jason is a painter and can paint your nursery and/or your home with VOC-free paints or milk paints as well as provide his personal knowledge regarding a creating a toxic free environment for your baby. Visit their website for more information!
A mural from Spotted Moon would also make a lovely and personal gift for a family member or special friend.
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