The New Place

Greetings -- Welcome to our new home!
For those customers who have visited susangoldstick.com before, I just want to assure you that yes, your search has taken you to the right place. This is our new residence and I urge you come in and look around.

Launching a new web site is very similar to moving to a new home. Quite literally the process is the same. First you have to take a real hard look around the old place and assess what you want to keep and those treasures you want to take with you. Then you have to find the proper place to put everything, all the while mindful of  keeping things modern and uncluttered. Decorating the new space is a lot of work but it definitely has it's rewards. I love the new look for old favorites. Much like a fresh coat of paint, everything looks lively and more vibrant.

                                         Eel sunflower pull posed in a seashell on our old site.

Eel Sunflower pull is a  radiant beauty on our new site.

Search Box and Tags
I'm hoping my returning customers will appreciate some of the new features on our site, particularly the Search box and Tags - two ways to search that makes shopping easy. There's the search box where you  put in your words. And then there is the less familiar "find similar products by tag" which gives you our words to do your search. Either way if you can't find what you're looking for, you can always give us a ring or email us.  We have a new site and our goal is to provide the same conscientious service that our customers have always appreciated.

The times, they are a-changing

2014 is going to be a very interesting and exciting year for us. Before the end of January we'll be launching our new modern mobile friendly web site. Typical of on line stores you see today, products are brillant against white backgrounds with large images, multi-views and maginfier tools. 

You'll be able to jump right into the shopping mode with easy product quick peek and site search by tags and key words. Plus our new site is loaded with all kinds of enhancements that allow for easy sales promotions, gift certificates, wish lists, and more to be discovered.

Making our furniture available for on line purchase is a big leap for us. I can remember 10 years ago when it seemed ridiculous to me to put a $7500 bed in a shopping cart, but hey – not so unusual anymore. Yes all of our furniture will be shopping cart ready, complete with all the information that addresses FAQs, pictures from all angles and detailed descriptions.

Reflecting back on our old site for a moment I'm reminded that it was deliberately developed to mirror our catalogs that had an eclectic way of showcasing our decorative hardware. Designing the cover was my biggest challenge and I never knew which knob or finial would be the star. But honors go to the Merlin, my first knob design inspired from a Circque du Soleil costume. Now retired, Merlin made it onto just about every cover shot.



.

I'm always surprised at how often we get calls from people who have kept our catalogs over the years, particularly when we're told they've been saving it for just the right project or venue to pop up. I know printed material is becoming a dying breed and maybe that's why I'm hesitant to tell anyone to toss them. I can see a new catalog project on the horizon. But until there's a formal announcement, I encourage our customers to visit our new site.

Annual Holiday Sale 2013

This Sunday the San Francisco Chronicle will feature Sally Socolich's popular Bargain Hunter column that highlights all the year end sales events that are happening around the San Francisco bay area. She focuses on manufacturers in the home decor industry and we're alway happy to be among her picks. This year we will be holding our sale 2 weeks earlier than usual.

We will  have a fantastic selection of knobs and pulls in our sale inventory as well as switch covers and table lamp floor samples. It's a great opportunity for our local customers to stop by our studio and nab a bargain!

Here are the details:
Saturday October 19th 10am - 5pm
463 Coloma, Sausalito, California

Spotting Trends at the Las Vegas Furniture Market

I had a chance to visit the World Furniture market summer event in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago. Especially focused on the trends, I couldn't help but notice a few recurring themes that were also big at the Kitchen and Bath Industry (KBIS) show. Whether it be faucets, light pendants or furniture frames, metal surfaces are gleaming with sheen. Lots of high polished gold, platinum and chrome were an obvious hit in the most vibrant showrooms.

In terms of style, the mid century modern look still prevails. Some of the popular color combos of the time are the hot choices of today. I'm referring to orange with avocado and olive greens and the turquoise, aqua teal family. These colors schemes are everywhere in fabrics, wall coverings,  area rugs and table top accessories.

But I was definitely drawn to the new color on the block that had a major presence at the show. A new shade of yellow is having it's heyday. It's not a sunshine variety but the more earthy raw umber or dijon mustard hue. I like the way it mixes with it's complement, a purplish plum that speaks old European charm or a combat green that gives it a modern twist.

When I got back to my studio I immediately rifled through our product lines and spotted some excellent examples that fit the 2013 color ways.

Cherry Wood

It's probably the most popular wood choice for kitchen cabinetry and also the most diverse when it comes to color tones. I'm never quite sure if I'm interpreting the term cherry correctly so I googled "what is cherry wood, and found this explanation in finishwiz.com.

Cherry wood natural finish

"Cherry is a beautiful wood! It has an impressive look of depth where the subtle shades and hues of color seem to originate from deep within. Although the heartwood is a "salmon" pink with streaks of multiple colors running in it when freshly planed, cherry ages to dark color with reddish brown tones and strong orange/yellow undertones. The sapwood is almost white when fresh and ages to a "toasted" brown color."

Cherry wood stains

Whoa - pink, red, brown, orange, yellow, toast -there's a lot of color territory covered here!  I guess this is where I get stumped when asked which knobs and pulls go best with cherry wood. That's of course, assuming that there is a clear lacquer varnish that accentuates the natural color. There's a whole other world of cherry wood stains that opens up another completely different conversation.

Knobs and pulls and cherry...
The first thing to address beside the cabinetry are the other large blocks or fields of color that are in the room.  Starting with the floor, then the walls, the back splash and finally the appliances. It's always interesting to see how people are quick to add their comments on their favorite hue in their design scheme and will be just as quick to mention the colors that they do or do not want to accentuate.  It's all part of the design process that eventually narrows down the choices.

The Lure of Gray

The big annual KBIS kitchen and bath event took place in New Orleans last week. Growing in popularity, the color trend to watch encompasses all shades of gray. It's made it's way into the hearts of both kitchen and bath designers and it's easy to understand why gray has mass appeal. Nature serves it up in all varieties of stone, glass and clay, an earthiness that's comfortable in all styles of decorating from traditional to contemporary to modern. Peaceful as a morning mist or dramatic as a stormy sky, gray dishes out all kinds of mood and and lots freedom for self expression.

Charisma Sink Cabinet

Silver, moonstone, deep opal, metal details, and faceted crystals – these are the special versions of "gray, the key components that characterize Susan Goldstick designs. Knobs, pulls, switch plates, bathroom vanities, drapery hardware, you name it – these touches of gray are used generously throughout our line of products. Our silver offers the paleness of white with a metalic twist while moonstone has the depth of gunmetal. Deep opal is not really like the gem but best described as slate with bluish or greenish tints depending upon how it behaves in the light. Then of course our satin plated silver metals add a quiet gray detail while crystal offers hints of lead and brilliance in the reflections of it's facets.

Metamorphosis of a Jitterbug Dresser

I'm amazed at how many transformations our jitterbug dresser has undergone over the years. Even a desk has blossomed from the original form. One of our advantages of working with a cabinet maker is that we have the flexibility to change a furniture piece by tweaking it's architecture.  This is how many new designs are born of course.  Altering the height, width. drawer sizes, or even the number of drawers will dramatically affect the look and even style of the piece. And that's just the structure! Details such as color schemes and cabinet hardware also play a hugh role in the design scheme as well.

Jitterbug makeup station

As I was looking through my picture files the other day, I came across some custom projects that we've done for our customers.  A classic case of "out of sight out of mind",  I was happy to discover some projects that I had almost forgotten. Here I've selected two extreme modifcations of our fabulous Jtterbug. The first is for a commercial space where we stretched the height of the cabinet from 29" – 36" to serve as a makeup station. We also straightened out the back legs so the piece could rest flush against a wall.

Jitterbug small dresser

In the second example we squeezed the overall width from 42" to 26" to allow for a night table's tight space. To give it a little wonderland feel we embellished the small drawers with 2. 5" diameter knobs.