Destination Portugal

MoMA's store is a much-beloved resource for objects that are both useful and beautiful, and their new product collection "Destination Portugal" contains some wonderful additions to the line-up. Made of traditional Portuguese materials earthenware ceramic and cork, the practical "Whistler" series designed by Raquel Castro includes a tea pot, a sugar and creamer, tea cups. They're all colorful and surprisingly budget-friendly:





The cork protects your hands and table while retaining the warmth of the tea. Brilliant! And nothing less than we'd expect from MoMA, right? (Check out the spice rack, too).

We Love Color!

Yesterday Tony said, "I'm going to design a print." I said, "Cool!" A few hours later, and we had this:



It's now available in our shop right here. We hope you enjoy!

Zooguu + Goobeetsa + Etsy = Ridonkulous

Our friends Jen of Zooguu and Brian of Goobeetsa were commissioned to makeover a few rooms at Etsy's headquarters in New York, and the results are what you might expect from those two: whimsical and genius-y.

The first two rooms are places for Etsy's employees to retreat when they need to make phone calls away from the hubub. Jen's telephone room is an office where everything has been plushed and supersized. If you need to do some quiet typing or rest your head on a giant, cushy Etsy mug, this is the place to do it:







Brian designed his telephone room as a villain's lair, where a bad guy can hang up his helmet and cape and keep his malicious affairs in order. A doomsday device helps with that, as does a bulletin board covered with villain invoices:









Go visit the Zooguu blog and the Goobeetsa blog for more pictures and their own descriptions of the projects. The top secret third commissioned room is now underway! So, on a scale of one to awesome, how awesome do you think this is?

Tick Tock, New Clocks!

We wanted to debut some new stuff at this summer's SoWA market, so I'm happy to introduce some new clock designs! Not only are there new designs, but we (okay, okay...it was all Tony) put up a storefront on our site so you can buy clocks directly from us. The clocks are still handmade and hand painted and/or screen printed by us in our studio.

Surprising no one, I am sure, my favorite is the new RGB clock. I totally have a rainbow addicition:



And speaking of rainbows, we've got a new Spectrum series with every hue for those who want a simple but boldly colorful clock:





We added a few colors to the Burst series:




...and the Circles series:




And YES! We heeded your calls and now have an "I Need Numbers!" series:




And because Tony is very, very cheeky:


We hope you like the new designs and come see them in person at the SoWA market this weekend! If you can't make it in person, you can always visit our site. Tony and I keep a running tally of favorite clocks and requested colors from friends and customers, so if you'd really dig one of these babies in another color, let us know. We might just put it on offer. Thanks for continuing to support us! :)

The Summer Season Is Here!

SoWA Open Market kicked off last week and we'll be joining everyone there next weekend for the first time this season! We're really looking forward to enjoying the warmer weather, seeing friends, and talking to customers.




At the market, we'll be debuting new clock designs and showing off more colorful versions of Chroma Lab clocks you already know and love. We're changing things up a little bit this year by bringing an improved, larger display for our clocks. In addition to our newly assembled, large format portfolio book, we're also bringing plenty of sample panels to show you what we can achieve on furniture, walls, and interiors. If you've got questions about what we can do for your home or business on the custom finishing front, bring them with you and enjoy the day with us!

SoWA Open Market
Sunday May 23rd, 10am-5pm

One block over from last year!
460 Harrison Ave.
Boston, MA 02116

Future SoWA dates:
June 20th
July 25th
August 29th
September 19th

Rainbow Birthday Party!

Everyone is going to show up to your birthday party head-to-toe in a single color. So what are you gonna wear? If you're the creative and colorful Jessi Arrington, you execute costume changes hourly, of course!


Check out Jessi's Rainbow Birthday to see her outfits in detail and those of some of her guests. If we ever decide to have a Chroma Lab anniversary party, I think we have our theme! (<--- sing song) Seen at the always spot-on Swiss Miss.

Pixel Happy

Spanish textile company Nanimarquina continues to produce fantastic rugs for people who like something a little bit different (perhaps you saw their Global Warming rug series awhile back). They've got some new collections on offer, and two of them are right up our alley: Digit, which is a colorful mix of tufted pixels, and Do-Lo-Rez, a slightly off-kilter, puzzle-like rug.












For more colors and styles, visit Nanimarquina's site.

Still Waiting on Spring

I thought we'd arrived at springtime in Boston because we conveniently hit above 80 degrees during the "don't drink the tap water" crisis last week. How naive.

Suddenly we're dealing with temperatures in the 30s at night again. I've already packed away the winter blankets and coats, but now I'm wishing for more warm textiles to pile on until we really break through to spring (whenever that will be). These throws and quilts would really help right now:

Multi Plaid Blanket



Avoca Circus Throw


Horncastle Patchwork Quilt




Patchwork Bedspread

Pendant Lights in Every Color

I've been looking around for pendant lights featuring (what else?) bright, saturated color, and here are three favorite styles I've come across.

The first, which comes in nine hues, is the Hang on Honey pendant light by Danish lighting company oioi. The shade is held onto the bulb with teeny silicone knobs in contrasting colors, a very nice detail!









Let's say you have a good sized lighting budget and you want to experiment with color mixing. We can dream, right? You might consider grouping a few FL/Y hanging lamps from Kartell:





The last style is the NUD Classic porcelain pendant light. It's shadeless but features a charmingly old-fashioned textile cord made modern with color and pattern:



You choose from 44 (44!) colors and patterns for the cord, a level of choice that is both awesome and paralyzing at the same time.







I'm being totally drawn in by the tiny black and white zig zags! Which would you choose? Got any good sources for pendant lights up your sleeve?

Emmanuelle Moureaux

Did you see this Shibafu table (Japanese for "lawn") by Emmanuelle Moureaux on Moco Loco? Just about any piece of furniture that includes all these great colors and helps me imagine a multicolored lawn that I would never, ever mow is good in my book:



Moureaux is a Tokyo-based designer and architect who includes lots of color in many of her projects, like the Puzzlebox below (based on a tiered Japanese lunch box):



Her use of color also extends to her architectural and interior projects. Here's an exterior shot of a bank Moureaux designed and branded with rainbow colored squares in Niiza, Japan:




And a showroom designed to display a full range of colored films produced by another Tokyo company:




Ahh, rainbow bliss. See these and other colorful projects on Moureaux's site.