The Color Purple

Jeffrey Bilhuber loves a splash of purple

It’s funny how a color that has never been on the top of your ab-fab list suddenly becomes a season must have... and then before you know you too are loving it too! I am not quite sure how that happens (if anyone knows, please feel free to chirp in). It is safe to say (out of the blue) I am having  a sudden thirst for the color PURPLE this season….For my LULU DK for Matouk bedding line this season, I had to forgo my beloved bright green shade of happy Spring for a lilac purple, which at first I raised a heavy eyebrow about, but I must say I have now taken to purple like a bee to honey…Here are a few examples of my new found friend that I am particularly crazy about.

“Purple has a special, almost sacred place in nature: lavender, orchid, lilac, and violet flowers are often delicate and considered precious. Because purple is derived from the mixing of a strong warm and strong cool color it has both warm and cool properties. A purple room can boost a child's imagination or an artist's creativity. Too much purple, like blue, could result in moodiness.
The color of mourning for widows in Thailand, purple was the favorite color of Egypt's Cleopatra. It has been traditionally associated with royalty in many cultures. Purple robes were worn by royalty and people of authority or high rank. The Purple Heart is a U.S. Military decoration given to soldiers wounded in battle.” –About.com

Katie Ridder-ElleDecor

Jose Solis Betancourt and Paul Sherrill-Southern Accents

Jeffrey Bilhuber-House Beautiful

A purple LULU DK Chant room. Custom purple color done by Daniel Romauldez.

Another painting by me that will be sold as prints at my upcoming Gilt Pop-up shop in April

Another painting by me that will be sold in my Gilt Pop-up shop

Another painting i did for a towel design for LULU DK for Matouk

A little sampling of our next LULU DK venture which i will keep you posted on in a few weeks!

A Big Collage Day on OKL

Mark your calenders! One Kings Lane is doing a huge sale/ event for my collages from my book LULU. Beautifully printed and framed reproductions of collage work i did for my book. If you are not yet familiar with this body of work, it is a collection of collages made up of photos, journals, sketches, and fabric renderings from the past 40 years of my life...cut, ripped, paisted and painted upon. The book and hence the collages span through my childhood memories, experiences, romances, travels and generally everything that makes me who I am today. About 50 of them will be for sale starting February 1st on One Kings Lane.

The new LULU Dk for Matouk bedding line

I always love working with Matouk, who I work with to make my LULU DK for Matouk bedding. It always turns out beautiful...Sometime when i create original artwork for a product, the final product doesn't always turn out to be what I imagine, but with the Matouk company...they always exceed my expectations, which is so fun (and often a huge relief) for anyone in this industry. This season we also created a children's collection which is shown below, and of course throw pillows which are all embroidered and shown below. There are many more styles and colors (blue, pink and purple seem to be the color story this season),....but you will either have to wait until they are in a store near you (or website) or you you can run down to the NY International Gift Fair at the Javitz center (booth 7804) from January 29th-February 2nd to pre-order.

A Cute Blog About Mom's

                                                   
Here is a fun blog started by my friend Karina Lepiner all about mom's that she finds Crushworthy, hence the name of the site! So if you are interested in my little interview with pictures, tips, thoughts etc...feel free to follow the Crushworthy link :-)

Loving Our Fabric in Nathan Turner's Beach House

Nathan Turner's Malibu beach House

COLORS-Apple Martini

COLORS-Rose

COLORS-Sangria

COLORS-Mint Julep

We love what Nathan Turner did with our LULU DK "Colors" fabric and our Tangerine Stella fabric! Nathan's Malibu beach house is yummy. This picture will be featured in his upcoming design book that he is about to bring out. Nathan also opened his new fabulous store on 8546 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles Phone: 310-275-1209. Definitly worth a visit.

A Happy New Year Toast To All!

Happy New Years to all my wonderful followers. Thank you. Wishing you and your family a happy, healthy, inspiring new years...A beautiful journey filled with love, sharing, giving, hugging, laughing, tranquility and joy. This year proves to be a very exciting one for LULU DK. We have a lot of great things in the mix. We are about to bring out  a very new and fresh "Garden Line" filled with butterflies, birds, organic shapes and delicious colors which will be available, as always, through Donghia.We are also about to bring out a GREAT line of children's fabrics with Schumacher, which will be launching this April. In January I will be doing a big sale with OKL of all the collages in my book LULU. In April we will have a fun pop-up shop with Gilt, selling a mix of everything; original interior prints, new items, collected items etc. And of course we will keep doing beautiful things with Matouk, including bedding, tabletop, towels, etc. I will of course keep you posted on everything. Check out Vogue.com's Travel Diaries of my Christmas Holidays...Along with Diane VonFurstenburg etc.

A Short Visual Story

I am a fan! My dear friend Gabriella Stollenwerck has started this great video making company to help promote brands. Quick, cool, snappy videos that share the face behind a brand through video. Photos and words will always be magical but video really brings the story to reality. Please feel free to contact her for further information. Here is my video. I think they did a great job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SKwWy2D8Y8&context=C3e583a4ADOEgsToPDskJ

If you would like your own snappy video, feel free to contact her at: 310-987-7646

Paint, Glitter, Pom-Poms and Fabulous!

Martha Steward might cringe at the sight of our hand painted (by both children and parent alike)Christmas ornaments, but there is nothing better then a day of holiday creation and cheer. What a great day...Everyone had a blast making their beautiful Christmas ornaments. I have always been a fan of the handmade item and they always make the most thoughtful amusing gifts. An ornament painting afternoon is so easy to organize and not expensive at all! Really all it took was a trip to Rite aid or Target. Colorful pom-poms, paint, glitter, glue, ribbons, feathers and plastic Christmas balls and viola...some snacks for the children and cheer for the grown-ups and you have a great great day!

My Favorite Time of Year!

I love Christmas time. My most fond memories are the moments when my mother had me and my 5 siblings create things for Christmas. Everything during Christmas time with 6 children becomes an event. We would all make Christmas cookies, each with our own bowl of dough to create what we could imagine up with green and red sprinkles, Santa cutouts, etc. We would create garland made from nic-nacs around the house, gingerbread houses etc, all useful ware as gifts for the extended family members. Decorating the tree was the best event of all, with 1000 of beautiful ornaments that we had to carefully place on the tree, careful not to break any. It was all magic to me.

Last year my husband came home with the ultimate no-no...plastic Christmas ball ornaments for the tree. With a grimace I thought "where on Earth will I hide those for the rest of our lives"...

 However, as it turned out, it turned into the best thing ever! One day as I was chatting with my sister, i happened to have paint lying around and started half-hazardly doodling on one cheesy fake gold plastic little bobble and noticed it was becoming quite fantastic....Hence a new event was created! Painting Christmas ornaments. Since I have twin 3 year old boys (who you can see on my studio wall) who love to dabble with the brush, i decided we would have a little party inviting a handful of my nearest and dearest from LA and their children to come participate in some ornament decorating. So, thanks to my husband, off i went to get a barrel of plastic ornaments at Target and Rite aid...a little glitter, some pom-poms, Elmer's glue, some Tempura paints. If you wanted to do this yourself, you probably could decorate right onto the gold or silver or red or whatever plastic color you get...I chose to paint some of mine white (with white Primer water based paint that you can get at any hardware store)....So our party is tomorrow and I promise to document it.

The Art of Color Coordinating

Here is a little something from Vogue this morning....My old NYC apartment where I happened to color coordinate my library. Color Coordinating books can totally change a room. I did mine one day when waiting to leave on a trip to India. I was totally packed and ready to go, but I had 2 hours until it was time to catch my flight. Being that my main book shelf was smack in the middle of my living room meant it needed to have a little pizazz (it certainly could not afford to be a mess). So i took EVERYTHING off the shelf and started from scratch. I threw a way a ton of old magazines and catalogs and started dividing all the books by color. At first it was a total accident and then I noticed what a world of difference it made. It actually made visitors giggle when they saw it...as to say "that's kind of cool.... with a touch of UCD!)

LULU DK for Elson and Co. Rugs

Diane Elson and Co make beautiful rugs and I am lucky enough to design a bunch for her...along with Oscar de La Renta, Kathrine Ireland, Carleton Varney to name a few. Well today they are One Kings Lane so Yabadabadoo, you can check them all out together (and even buy a few). If you can not get enough of the rigs then go on over to the Elson website at http://www.elsoncompany.com/ . Above are a sample of the LULU DK rugs for Elson and Co. on sale today at OKL. These are all of course hand painted designs that Diane transferred to rugs...or in the case of ripped paper, they mimic the torn painted paper designs I always make. We have a fabric like this called Colors, all which you can see and read about if you scroll to old LULU posts. It is on our main http://www.luludk.com/ page right now or you can go right to the fabric here.

A Little Story About China

If you can't wait to here more about LULU DK china then tap your way to a video description I did in unison with a House Beautiful photo shoot that is about to come out. I am also working on a new Melamine collection of china for Neiman Marcus. To purchase the collection above, you can go to Neiman Marcus website. Or Hildreth's if you happen to be in Long Island. Or you can always call LULU DK at 212-223-4234

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Come Join Us!

We at LULU DK are looking for an intern! This is what we need:


Applicant must be organized, efficient, independent, pleasant and detail-oriented. Interest and experience in textiles is helpful but not necessary. The position is part time and will involve 2-3 days of work weekly (10am- 5pm)
This exciting position provides hands on experience in a small business environment.


• Maintaining and organizing memo sample library

• Sending out memo sample requests daily
• Sending CFAs
• Helping maintain client database
• Organizing and sending out collateral for various marketing projects
• And other as-needed administrative tasks to aid in helping the company run smoothly

Please send resume and contact information for immediate consideration to pia@luludk.com
FYI: We are based out of NYC :-)

Interior Drawings

After selling these interior drawings on OKL the other day, I got a lot of request to do custom ones. I actually love doing these little drawings, so the answer is yes, I would. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to sell them at the discounted OKL price, but feel free to email me if you are interested. lulu@luludk.com

Cheers!