Serendipity

Given that all of our products are custom made to order at the Quatrefoil Design store (allowing for an infinite amount of customization), it is rare that we have three of the same design in different frame colors at any given time. However, we have several orders that were completed this week, and in a happy coincidence all of the orders included our popular ‘Charlotte’ design in all three of our frame colors -

Gold

‘Gilver’ – silver base with a warm gold glaze

Silver

All three, in a quick picture before they were packed up and sent to their new homes! Do you have a favorite frame color? I love all three!

Designers, stores, and architects - we have brand new trade and store pricing; please email for more information. To visit the store, please visit www.quatrefoildesign.com. For more information, please email me at quatrefoildesign@gmail.com.

Come see our new framed architectural renderings!

www.quatrefoildesign.com

http://www.quatrefoildesign.com/

Giveaway winner!

Congratulations to 'Teacats' - Jan of the Rosemary Cottage, the winner of my 'Petite' framed intaglio giveaway. Thank you to all who entered!

Jan was comment #38, selected randomly through the random.org widget.

Jan says the Classic is her favorite. She even suggested a new design - "it would be tres cool to see a black intaglio on a white surface with a black casing or frame -- maybe high gloss black!" Great idea, Jan!

Don't forget, for a limited time we are offering a 10% discount on any order at Quatrefoil Design – just use discount code PETITE10 (no addition trade discount available on this special offer). This offer is good through 4/30/10. Visit www.quatrefoildesign.com for more information.

I am working on a post that I think you will like, but in the meantime check out my guest post on Odi et Amo's blog in the - 'Shop Like a Design Blogger' series. In this post a discuss all of my favorite places to shop for the home!

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A new design, and a Things That Inspire giveaway!

http://www.quatrefoildesign.com/

At Quatrefoil Design, we are constantly thinking of new and exciting design ideas. The newest addition to our product line is ‘La Petite’ – a charming small framed intaglio designed with a thick frame (2 inches deep). This enables it to either be used as an accessory, or hung on the wall as part of a grouping. It is so versatile!

Here is a selection of our new designs, in the different frame finishes that we offer – gold, ‘gilver’ (a silver base with translucent gold glaze), and silver.

Displayed on a bookshelf at a client’s house.

One of our clients displays the Petite on her end table, next to a lamp.

Another client, Jeanette from ‘A Passion for Home’ placed her Petite on a new bookshelf and entertainment center from Restoration hardware.

I have one on the bookshelf in my bedroom.

It is perfectly sized for a side table, as seen in my living room.

A beautiful grouping of our new designs, displayed on my mantle. Each one is custom made, so you can choose a big or small intaglio (we think it would look great with a very small intaglio as well), round, oval, or rectangular. The standard size is 7.5” x 7.5”, but we can custom make your order in a larger (an upcharge will apply).

So here is the ‘giveaway’ question: which of our new ‘Petite’ designs do you prefer? To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post!

Style 1: ‘Rough Luxe’ (seen above)– available in all of our finishes, but shown here in our ‘gilver’ finish (silver base with translucent gold glaze). The intaglio is mounted shadow box style. The outside of the frame is hand finished in either gold, silver, or gilver, but the inside remains unfinished for a casual contrast; there is no glass, which further emphasizes the casual feel. Click here for link to store item.

Style 2: Shadowbox (seen above) – available in all of our finishes, but shown here in our gold finish. The intaglio is mounted in shadowbox style; the inside is fully lined with off white mat to give a smooth and consistent look. Click here for link to store item.

Style 3: the Classic (shown above) – available in all of our finishes, but shown here in our silver frame with dark gray inner mat, light gray outer mat. This one is modeled after our classic offering of framed intaglios. Click here for link to store item.

One lucky person, selected at random from the comments, will win a new ‘Petite’ of their choice! This is a $150 item, and is redeemable from Quatrefoil Design (not redeemable in cash). Please vote by leaving a comment in this post – the winner will be selected at random from of the comments! This is our first ever Quatrefoil Design giveaway, and we hope you will participate. (Email subscribers, click here to comment). The voting will close on Tuesday, April 6th. Good luck!

To see our other selections, please visit the Quatrefoil Design store – we offer dozens of framed intaglio styles, and have a brand new product offering, custom monogrammed and embroidered pillows. To celebrate the introduction of our newest product offering, we are offering a 10% discount on any order – just use discount code PETITE10 (no addition trade discount available on this special offer). If you have any questions, please feel free to email – quatrefoildesign@gmail.com. Thank you, and good luck!

Update: I am guest posting on Odi et Amo's blog in the - 'Shop Like a Design Blogger' series. Come check it out after entering the giveaway!

For more information on new product information, come visit the Quatrefoil Design blog - http://quatrefoildesign.blogspot.com

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway! The winner is #38, my long time reader 'Teacats' (Jan at the Rosemary Cottage). Congratulations!

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What’s New at Quatrefoil Design

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It has been five months since my I launched my online store, Quatrefoil Design, and my team and I have already sold framed intaglios from coast to coast! (Click here to see our original intaglio post launching the store.) All of our customers have been thrilled with the quality and beauty of the framed intaglios; the prices are also amazing. During a recent visit to an antique store in town, I noticed that many of our competitors’ framed intaglios were priced at $500 and up. Ours are less than half that price.

In response to designer and customer requests, we quickly added a new frame finish to our line up. In addition to the gold finish and the silver finish, we have a new finish that we call ‘gilver’ – the perfect middle ground between silver and gold. To create the gilver finish, the frame is first hand gilded in silver, then a warm translucent gold wash is glazed over it. The intaglios are mounted on an off-white mat, and have a light glaze on the intaglios for subtle contrast (and to give the look of age). Although we love all of our finishes, the gilver is so versatile – it goes in just about any setting, any color scheme.

Here is an example of the ‘gilver’ finish. This is a large size (17 5/8" x 21 5/8" outer dimensions) in the Laura design; any of our designs seen in the store can be made in large or small (12 3/4"x 16" outer dimension) standard sizes, with either the gold, silver, or gilver frame. The the 'gilver' frame, the intaglios are mounted on off-white mat, and are very lightly glazed for an aged appearance.

Here is a close up of the "Ansley' design with our gold frame (all designs are available in any of the frame finishes). The intaglios are lightly glazed for an aged appearance.

A close up of our silver frame with the medium gray inner mat, light gray outer mat. The intaglios are white for maximum contrast. This is also available with white outer mat.

We carefully designed the frame width so that it can be hung in a hall, and the frame does not stick out too much; but it can also be hung in a position where it is being viewed straight on.

We have finish and mat samples available through our store (click here), as many customers like to see the specific color before ordering. From left to right – silver, gold, and gilver.

One of our first orders was from one of my all time favorite bloggers, Gina from Willow Decor.

She lives in a beautiful home in New England, and had been searching for the perfect thing to put above her antique Swedish settee. Gina’s order was custom all the way – we even developed a special frame finish for her that is gilver leaning towards gold (it is not one of our standard finishes, but can be made on request). Gina sent us a bolt of 100 year old Belgian linen to mount her intaglios on; the result was better than we could have imagined (mounting on customers own material is a 10% upcharge, and we request that a sample of the material is sent to us first to evaluate whether it is suitable for framing). Click here to read Gina’s blog post on the intaglios and her lovely conservatory.

This is a custom grouping that we developed, with a subtle neutral mat with a taupe tone that nicely contrasts with the intaglios. The mat color was selected specifically to harmonize with the ‘gilver’ frame, which was used in this grouping. The scale of this grouping was designed to be large and dramatic, perfect as a focal point over a piece of furniture. Also important to note is that there is a tremendous amount of variety that is possible in the intaglios themselves. For example, we had another client who ordered a similar configuration, but specifically requested no oval intaglios.

We can also do this arrangement on a slightly smaller scale.

Some of our best customers have been fellow bloggers. Joni of Cote de Texas recently ordered a wonderful grouping of framed intaglios for a client, as seen in this quick iphone shot from Joni’s client’s hallway. The frame is our gold finish. Since we custom make every order, Joni was able to specify the exact dimensions for the frames, and requested that the mat opening closely frame the intaglios themselves. She also wanted the center frames to contain two intaglios. The result was so beautiful that we are now including it as an offering in the store. The two larger frames in the center are now called ‘The Joni I’ and ‘The Joni II’. We have called the grouping (a set of 6) ‘The Cote de Texas’ (click here to see the item in our store).

We also have a new square size that has been very popular. Our standard square size is 15 3/4" wide x 16" high (slightly higher for perspective reasons), however we can make it larger or smaller according to customer requirements.

Another blogger who ordered from us recently is Jeannette; her blog (click here) is a wonderful read, full of inspiring photos and a testament to her passion for design and scrapbooking. Almost as soon as I put the new ‘Joni I’ and ‘Joni II’ in the Quatrefoil Design store, Jeannette put in an order! The picture above shows them in her upstairs hallway, and she created a wonderful blog post about it (click here).

Designers and customers, I would love to feature your order on my blog! For those of you who have ordered, I invite you to send me a picture of the intaglios in their new home. I am happy to link to any blogs or design firm websites from customers – given that my blog gets tens of thousands of visitors a month, this is a great way to feature either your firm or your blog or both!

To visit the Quatrefoil Design store, please visit http://www.quatrefoildesign.com/. We offer a courtesy to the trade, and volume discounts on certain items. We also have special stocking dealer pricing. Please feel free to email with any questions or inquiries – thingsthatinspire@gmail.com. I also have more detailed high resolution pictures of any of our designs.

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Favorite Design Element: Framed Intaglios

For the best selection of framed intaglios, custom made to your specifications, please visit www.quatrefoildesign.com

Image via Quatrefoil Design

From the first time I saw a framed intaglio, I thought is was the perfect combination of sculpture and art.

An intaglio is a figure or design carved into stone or a hard material. "Intaglios, cameos, and medals were popular among collectors in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Skilled engravers copied such artefacts from the classical world, reproductions were made in paste and glass, and collectors bought them not only for display, but to study classical Greece and Rome. Additionally new medals and intaglios were as popular with collectors, who bought them to commemorate, and to show an affinity with the contemporary events and personalities depicted in them: battles, parliamentary acts, political campaigns, and philosophers, statesmen, soldiers, sailors, poets, writers."(from the UCL Bentham Project)

Framed intaglios are incredibly versatile, and can be used in just about every room of the house (a friend of mine even has some in her bathroom, and they are gorgeous in there). They look just as good hung in small groups as they do in large groups, but I am always a fan of a large, dramatic group!

In this streamlined design, designer Jim Hawes of Caldwell-Beebe uses large scale frames with a single intaglio to great effect (there are two frames over the chest). Love that lamp - it costs a small fortune, but it is truly like a little sculpture.

A lovely display of framed intaglios above twin beds at the Mrs. Howard store. (a quick snapshot with my iphone).

I am not sure where this photo comes from - (edit: a readers tells me it is the Shabby Slips store in Austin) - it was the framed intaglios above the beds that caught my eye.

A stunning arrangement of framed intaglios arranged around a Louis Phillipe mirror. I think that intaglios work so well to expand a scene - this room would not be as beautiful with just a mirror on the wall. It is the arrangement of the intaglios, with the cases and the mirror, that makes this vignette work. Design by Womack Interiors.

In the dining room of my old house, I used two sets of four framed intaglios (for a total of eight) to widen the scene. Adding the framed intaglios to my dining room really elevated the space to a new level; everyone who came to my house commented on them.

This living room, from a real estate listing, caught my eye because of the framed intaglios mounted on the horizontal over the sofa.

My neighbor hung four sets of framed intaglios above her bed.

I love everything about this room, but it was the arrangement of framed intaglios that made the biggest impression on me. Design by Amy Morris.

Another Suzanne Kasler vignette - she was one of the very first to use intaglios as a decorative accessory. The edges of these intaglios are painted black for maximum contrast.

In her new house, Kasler relocated the intaglios to a space in her bedroom, and grouped them for maximum impact.

Although no photography was allowed at a recent showhouse in Atlanta, I snuck a picture of the beautiful wall of intaglios in the room designed by Suzanne Kasler. What a dramatic statement!

Here is a clearer picture from Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles, where a glimpse of the framed intaglios can be seen.

Last year, I did a post on intaglios, and I still receive emails from readers asking where I found my intaglios. This inspired the creation of 'Quatrefoil Design' (click here to visit the store), an online store that I recently started. I have always dreamed of having a store, so this little virtual store has been a labor of love - and with the help of a great team of product consultants and designers, the store is up and running! Please stop by and see the beautiful framed intaglios that were designed especially for the store.

Examples of our work:
http://www.quatrefoildesign.com/examples.html

My team has been working with the one of the most talented framers in the Southeast, and have created 22 designs available in two sizes: small (11"x14" - outer dimension 12 3/4" x 16") and large (16"x20" - outer dimension 17 5/8" x 21 5/8"). A top Atlanta designer, Judy Long of Tillman Long Interiors, was consulted to create suggested groupings for sets of 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 16, or 20. I have found that they all work together quite well, and there is no right or wrong configuration, but sometimes it helps to have suggestions!

The designs can either be ordered in a hand rubbed gold frame with cream matt, or a hand rubbed silver frame with medium gray inner matt, and light gray outer matt. This silvery tone goes beautifully with the grays that are being seen more and more in interior design, and has a cool tone to it; the gold is a richer warmer option.

There are several single intaglio designs which work well with each other, or can mix with the other designs. If they are going to be used individually or in a small set, the matt can be sized smaller to frame the intaglio more closely. Although it is hard to see in this picture, the face of the intaglio on the left is facing center, and the face of the intaglio on the right is also facing center. Little details like this make all the difference!

Best of all, the price is wholesale, but available to everyone. For the small size (outer dimension 12 3/4" x 16") : $365 each. Volume and trade discounts are available too. For the large size (outer dimension 17 5/8" x 21 5/8") $450, with trade discounts available. 

I have seen framed intaglios around town that are not nearly as well done, priced at $595-$995 each -Quatrefoil Design framed intaglios are exceptionally beautiful, the framed are all custom crafted, sanded, and hand-rubbed in gold or silver; and less than half the price!

 Please visit the Quatrefoil Design store for more information (click here), and the companion Quatrefoil Design blog.

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