Technique

I don't usually blog about larger shops, but there are a few things that make Technique particularly noteworthy. First of all, they have both high quality furniture and prefabs PLUS the furniture coordinates easily with the prefab homes and businesses. Second, their stuff is unique.

You can get a prefab diner, piano bar, casino, skyscraper and more, all low cost and relatively low prim. Then, you can choose from a variety of well-made furniture which all come preloaded with a variety of cute and realistic poses. For example, the way cute IKEA-like bed up there that's coordinated with a super huge painting and fun rug? You actually toss and turn when you sleep in it! How cool is that? My favorite piece is the couch shaped like the back seat of a classic Cadillac, also pictured.

The furniture can be high in prims (up to about 40 prims for a couch), but you definitely get the most out of the prims and price. Check out that couch with the gazillion pillows and fun prints. The price is remarkable. Most of the furniture is 150L or less, and cute home accents can be had for less than 50L. I bought a vase with bamboo-like stuff that looked exactly like something I saw in IKEA in real life for 30L, for example.

TECHNIQUE, Isle of Tharen (118, 67, 23)

I moved!

I moved to a larger place in SL, but I'm crazy busy in RL, which is why I haven't updated this blog. I'm going to try to update it this weekend, but after that you may not here from me again until July or August. I will be back, though. This is just a nutty summer!

Freebie!

I bought some modeling stuff at Linden Lifestyles' Sabrina Doolittle's shop, Picture Perfect. I bought one of her copyable portfolios, and I filled it with purty pictures and turned it into a poor man's coffee table book. The theme is deconstructed beauty and a harsh commentary on body image - sort of an ironic use for a modeling portfolio.

Some of the pictures are nude, albeit tasteful, so be warned, but you're welcome to take a copy! It's located on the coffee table in my SL home. The landmark is below.



Picture Perfect: Modeling Studio, Calla (113, 81, 22)
Slade Estates, Miliaco (105, 110, 86)

Open House: Chardonnay Mathys

Chardonnay Mathys' home, or mansion is more like it, features contemporary style, high vault ceilings, warm neutral and earth tones, and surprises around every corner.

The first thing I noticed about Chardonnay's home was the home theater, pictured. She furnished her home theater meticulously, down to the little bucket of popcorn, and it's those details that really make a furnished home interesting. The lovely brown modular couch has a variety of poses, and you can hide or unhide the poseballs by touching anywhere on the couch. It's created by Dione Jacques along with the giant tv, which has animated speakers!

For purely adult entertainment, Chardonnay has thoughtfully placed a bar in front of a window. The trick with home decorating is placement; you can have the best furniture in Second Life, but still have a house that looks incomplete when you don't consider the arrangement of your pieces. So, big props for finding the perfect spot for the bar and placing it there. Also, check out how the carpet and wallpaper are coordinated; they don't match exactly, but they're coordinated quite nicely.

The candlelit bedroom is heaven, featuring furniture by Susan Ramos and a large self-portrait of Char. The tones are warm neutrals and browns - very relaxing. Char's kitchen is modern with steaming plates of hot food waiting for her lucky guests. Speaking of comfort, it sure was nice to cosy up by the fire in Char's colorful, Southwestern-style family room.

As I was leaving Char's home, I was greeted with yet another surprise - cold lemonade and a beautiful beachfront view. The patio furniture is from Del Sol, and appear to be part of a set. The lemonade, though, was the perfect touch of hospitality in a wonderfully inviting home.



Ramos Island (67, 137, 39)
DEL SOL PATIO SECTION, Del Luna (241, 61, 28)
Extraordinaire Isle (69, 143, 34)
Diones Designs (128, 120, 26)

Open bar

If you're in the market for a bar, I found a pretty good deal for you to check out. 22 prims, 249L and it comes with everything you need for a commercial or residential bar. All you need to provide are avatars to warm the seats.

Affo, Vsevolod (180, 104, 120)

Key West: Open House

For the first of Second Life Decor's "Open House" photo features, we take a virtual vacation in the sunny Key West, FL sim.

Lebechai Vesta, who owns the sim, showed off her old fashioned Southern hospitality and gave me a quick tour of her home. I know I've mentioned this a few times before, but I'm on my laptop, so my pictures just can't do the sim justice; you'll have to check it out yourself for the full effect: sandy white beaches, blue water - just like the real Key West!

Lebechai's Second Life home is fun, bright and eclectic. From the purple exterior siding to the tropical artwork, Lebechai left no detail unrezzed. The house itself is a replica of a real bed and breakfast in Key West. In fact, the entire sim is populated with homes that exist in RL - including the dazzling Hemingway House, the crowning jewel of the island.

The living room is adorable, with the mismatch of South Beach sorbet colors and patterns that distinguishes Floridian decor. Yet, the pieces are carefully selected so that the colors are in harmony - not an easy feat since Floridian decor occupies the line between tropical dream vacation and neon tacky nightmare. The furniture is also arranged so that it's open and inviting instead of blocked-in as is the default arrangement for a living room set.

The bedroom is a whole lot of fun and even has an animated wardrobe. You can see a pic of the wardrobe with one door open and one door closed above. The bed has a delightful yellow bedspread with a fun floral print. I could swear that I've slept in that same bedspread during one of many hotel stays in Florida. To top it all off, the wallpaper features painted wall reliefs and other surprises throughout the house.

If you like the Key West style, you're in luck because Lebechai is renting out units at the sim. She bought her furniture at Del Sol Open Market and the outdoor furniture from Pondlife.

New Key West: New Conch Republic 116, 166, 22
Del Sol Open Market: Del Sol 126, 147, 29
Pondlife: PondLife 100, 199, 22

Back this weekend!

Due to real life constraints, I won't be online too much this week. Thanks to everybody who IM'ed me in Second Life about blogging your home. I'll get back to everybody this weekend!

Just as a reminder, I'm seeking people who have nicely furnished homes so that I can feature you in this blog, "Better Homes and Gardens" style! Comment here or contact me in SL if you're interested!

Great IDEA

IDEA Home Center is having its grand opening today, and you know what that means: freebies, and freebies means Raychel is so there.

IDEA features a variety of furniture, art and decor that is reasonably priced and low in prims. The furniture is informed by the modern, simple lines from IKEA, as are the reasonable prices. They have some nifty little items, like the alarm clock pictured above that's packaged with a cute modern nightstand. That wall of colorful chairs actually represents their collection of four-piece living room sets, priced at 777L each. The couches, chairs and other furniture pieces are under 20 prims each as far as what I inspected. You can get a lovely sofa for 350L or 250L and 15 prims. End tables are generally under 100L, and coffee tables are about 130L.

Once more, I apologize for the low resolution, but I'm on the road in RL and stuck with a laptop through August.

Kankovan (179, 238, 86)

Trompe Le Monde

Le Monde has some neat low-prim furniture that's influenced by traditional East Asian and West Asian decor. I'm stuck with my laptop for the summer, which doesn't have the best resolution, so please excuse the blurry pictures.

The Persian-style fountains pictured above are under 10 prims; one is six and the other is 9. Le Monde also has special deals on bedrooms and living rooms, or you can buy furniture by the piece.

Le Monde, Anilis (29, 160, 112)

Style Disorder

Style Disorder gave Second Life Decor a really nice shout out. Style Disorder is a super fun blog about SL fashion. I read it often and definitely recommend that you check it out!

Announcement! Seeking homeonwers!

Do you have a beautifully furnished home in Second Life that you'd like to show off? Have you done something unique with your 512? Do you have the best lawn in your sim? Does your living room belong on the cover of a magazine? Let me know! I'd like to feature some of the most interesting and well-designed homes in Second Life Decor. Comment here or message me in-world so I can interview you and take snapshots of your home. Think of this as "Better Homes and Gardens," but for Second Life. :-)

Studio Le Modern

When I walked into Studio Le Modern, my jaw dropped. I wanted to buy everything in the shop. Then, I looked at the prim count and I couldn't believe that such nice stuff was so low in prims. The nifty desk pictured above? 7 prims. The animated boss chair is 15 prims, but there are other matching chairs available for 5 prims each. The computer and keyboard are 5 prims. The lamp is 8 prims. So, you can have the whole set for a well-spent 40 prims, or you can pare down it down to as low as 20 prims. Not too shabby. The whole set is 700L and includes everything shown in the picture above plus a few desk accessories (post its!), a modular shelf and a small file cabinet.

Studio Le Modern also features a beautiful 8-prim fireplace for 100L and my favorite part of the house, the bathroom. The shower, bath and sink are all animated, rounding out a really nifty bathroom set.

Incidentally, the shop is located on creator Le Leinhardt's Rodeo Drive themed build, which is minimalist, classy and filled with neat goodies to spend your Lindens on.

Le's Rodeo Drive Beverly Hills, Howlin Wolf (27, 58, 22)

Hidden Victorian Treasures

Buried deep in the Linden classified ads is a little Victorian furniture shop that packs a big punch. Almost everything is animated - the rolltop desk featured above has drawers and cabinets that open and close along with the rolltop feature. The face of the grandfather clock opens and closes as does the compartment below. There's a need little end table also pictured that has animated drawers and a folding leaf.

Most of the furniture is under 20 prims; the desk is only 14 prims, which is surprising. The prices are in the 175L-400L range.

There are also a bunch of neat little accents such as an umbrella stand and vintage wallpaper textures. The shop is still under construction, but definitely worth a look-see. I promise I'll be keeping tabs on this one!

Yongnam (67, 242, 32)

Free diner!

I'll take the special and a chocolate egg cream.

There are poseballs for customers and diner employees, lots of space, a ton of furniture included, a working vintage jukebox, and steaming hot pancakes on the griddle.

There's not much more to say about this except it's a free diner, no strings attached. There's a freebie box inside the diner - you can't miss it. How cool is that? The designer only requests that folks give her feedback on her creations so that she can improve her art since she's new.

Kitty's All-Nite Diner, SINNIQ SIM 01 (23, 15, 24)

Thanks!

Thanks to everybody who came out to my launch party this weekend (all three of you :-)). Here I am dancing like an idiot, very much like the way I dance in real life.

Irreversible

Finding the perfect prefab is the quest for the holy grail in Second Life. If it looks good, it's probably too high in prims. If it's low in prims, it probable doesn't look good. Once in a while a designer really "gets it," but those designers are hard to find (believe me, I've looked).

Iva Geesink's Irreversible Designer Houses is one of the few prefab shops in Second Life that's creating quality, original prefab homes. The shop is still rather new, so the selection is limited to five designs, but all the homes are copyable and modifiable, so the range of options is nearly limitless with each home. Iva designs her prefabs to be easily customizable, so even the most discerning landowner can tweak her designs to his or her liking.

Among some of the features that come standard are tintable windows, lockable doors, and spacious rooms. The smallest home has a footprint of 20x20, so these aren't first land homes, but if you've invested in a larger plot of land you might as invest in a high-quality prefab. Other features include balconies, high ceilings, and real stairs! Homes start at 2999L and 115 prims.

By the way, I think these homes will also make great commercial and office spaces. The designs are sleek, detailed, professional and unique. As a bonus, the location of the shop has very little lag.

The design featured in the photos is "Magnolia." It's 263 prims with a 31x30 footprint.

Irreversible Designer Houses, Zarathud (66, 30, 22)

Native American Art and Decor

There is a deficit of ethnic furnishings on Second Life, so I'm always excited when I find items that are as diverse as the folks behind the avatars on SL. If you're looking for hand painted Native American pottery, there's a pretty good selection in Shelby Gregg's shop. The framed artwork will knock your socks off; I wouldn't mind hanging some of it in my RL home. Avery Habsburg also created a nifty tipi complete with traditional baskets and an open flame for outdoor cooking.

African, Native American & Nomad, Plush Alpha (67, 234, 26)