Hats off to Larry Reid, SGO dealer from El Paso for sharing Tableaux® window project with us! Here is our all time favorite #039 Firenze design looking right at home in this Spanish Colonial setting. Southwest-styled interior design often features decorative wrought iron in a variety of ways. Here, a window grille harkens back to the days when wrought iron was used primarily for security purposes.  Decorative iron can be found on bed headboards, in niches, furniture and doors. Early settlers in our Southwest region knew to soften the visual effect of the iron with rich fabrics, textured walls, and colorful ceramics. Southwest never really goes out of style, it just enjoys re-discovery from time to time. It is a simple style, using the elements of the rocky, often stark environment but always pleasing. We’re glad to be part of updating this timeless interior design style with lightweight, versatile Tableaux® faux iron. You can find Larry on www.stainedglassoverlay.com.

We are sooo excited about introducing our new Snug Seal™ option for inside mount arch installations. Traditional Tableaux® faux wrought iron orders required the use of templates for all inside mounted windows and niches. Snug Seal™ eliminates this need with a bulb gasket that is pre-assembled around the Tableaux frame.

The Snug Seal™ gasket creates a uniform border around the piece and allows for dimensional variations up to ½”, thus eliminating light gaps.

Who wants to draw large, high arch templates and pay to send them in? While this option is still available, we think the time and money saved, even with the nominal cost of Snug Seal™, will make your ordering and installation experience with Tableaux® arches a breeze.

Click on the Snug Seal link here and learn more about this simply wonderful new offering from Faux Iron Solutions.

A big Thank You to Four Hands Home store for hosting New York interior designer Robin Wilson this week. She is justifiably proud of her newly published book, Kennedy Green House. This very practical book first tells the story of how environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his family restored their historic family home from the ravages of black mold. The book then offers ideas gleaned from this project that we can implement in our own homes.

Robin was a part of the architectural/design team that completely rebuilt the home with eco-friendly structural elements, lighting, appliances, flooring and environmental management systems.

Now that the SGO Europe Conference is past, it is the fleeting images of Marrakesh that remain in my mind. Everywhere I go, my eye catches wrought iron design and this city has ornamental iron on balustrades, window grilles, and doors along with its famous carved plaster and wood screens. Besides the culturally-inspired traditional motifs used in the iron work, it is the lavish use of color that first greets the visitor.

Sea greens, indigo blues and purples, and a full range of terra cotta tans to rose are a foundation to their palette. What I was immediately struck with, was the ease with which these colors are used together. Green iron and tile work are used freely as a neutral accents  throughout the city. Check out "Moroccan Style by Alexandra Bonfante-Warren available at Amazon.

Naturally, I thought about our own offering of Tableaux® green wrought iron finish colors. We offer Patina Bronze and Athens, two great organic green finishes.  Our organic iron art finishes are actually painted with a foundation color then brushed with a corrosive wash that then ‘rusts’ on the piece. Environmental factors such as heat and humidity influence how the piece turns out. So our green iron finishes can range from teal to soft algae green. Each order is unique.  For this reason we encourage you to order all the needed pieces in any organic finish at the same time.

Consider Tableaux’s luscious greens when ordering and bring the drama of Marrakesh into your personal space. Be delighted with the interplay of green-toned iron art on your windows and doors.