Announcing the launch of Second Showroom

The idea started out with an epiphany.

Let us explain.

As an operator of an online store, we have our fair share of both pleasure and pain. The pleasure part is going to trade shows and buying all these wonderful things. The painful part is sometime we buy too much or when we have returns. What do we do with all these beautiful items that are brand new and absolutely too beautiful to sit in the warehouse?

So we are so excited to announce the launch of SecondShowroom.com.

This is the site where you can get overstock, showroom samples and excess inventory directly from the manufacturers, retailers and showrooms throughout the country at amazing prices, and we mean AMAZING prices. More often than not you can get new items at savings of up to 75% off. What's more, by buying directly from the retailers and the manufacturers, you'll get the added assurance of buying from a reputable source; and that the merchandise will be in good condition when you receive it.

Now, the site is fairly new and we only have a limited number of items up so far, but keep checking back as we add more dealers and more merchandise.

It'll be a great hunt! We guarantee it.

NOTE: RETAILERS, DESIGNERS, STORES AND MANUFACTURERS-WE'D LOVE TO HAVE YOU JOIN US. THE SITE IS ABSOLUTELY FREE. GO TO WWW.SECONDSHOWROOM.COM TO REGISTER.

From a totally personal point of view . . .

Can it get any better than this? I love modernism, and I love (the idea of) keeping chickens. Add one to the other and you get this:

"The minimalist pavilion was built in 2001. It may be the only art gallery in the world where one can see orchids growing in a room cantilevered over the main art gallery."

"The Eycks' gallery, Hedge House, shows the work of modern artists, like Erik Andriesse. A glass-walled chicken coop, with access to an outdoor run, is at one end."

Noted in today's New York Times story, "Harmonizing Art and Nature" about Jo and Marlies Eyck, owners of Wijlre Castle, a 17th-century Dutch castle near Maastricht in the Netherlands. – GF

Photos: Herman Wouters for The New York Times

Robert Damora – Photographer | Architect

If you don't know of him already, Robert Damora (1912 – 2009) was a Modernist architect in his own right, but he was also a photographic chronicler of Modern architecture whose precise eye and 8x10 view camera gave us so many terrific images – grand and intimate – over the course of his 70 year career.

Learn more here about this creative force who helped us see the buildings and the people behind them with elegance and honesty, and of whom Walter Gropius one commented, “I consider him the best photographer of architecture in this country.” – GF

Oh – to be a kid again (with wealthy, design conscious parents!)

Heard from swiss miss about Knoll's new furniture line: the Modern classics scaled to small children! Here. – GF

In Ati's words

Here's a nice remembrance from Ati Gropius Johansen about the process of designing their 1938 family home in Lincoln, MA.

If you haven't already, do visit the house:

June 1 through October 15: Wednesday through Sunday
October 16 through May 31: Saturday and Sunday
Tours at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Admission: $10, Historic New England members and Lincoln residents free
68 Baker Bridge Road
Lincoln, Mass. 01773
(781) 259-8098
http://tinyurl.com/lvnvqu

Heads Up!

Seen on a few sites like materialicious and Trendir a little while ago, I can't help myself and must post something about the Zufferey house by Nunatak Architectes here on Modern. The photo of the house with the backdrop of the mountain whose shape it mimics is staggering. And the green underside . . . Oh my! I love how it looks as if it dropped from the sky and just sort of stuck there in the vineyard and grew roots. – GF