There is a lot of confusion about the style which I would say lasted from about 1940-1970 and mixed and encompassed styles from deco to colonial revival to 18th century French and American in with midcentury modern. I place it in this extended period because I consider William Haines, Dorothy Draper, James Mont, Tommi Parzinger, Karl Springer, Michael Taylor and Tony Duquette all to have worked in this style, to some degree. Does anybody want to add any designers to the list of the originals? (I think Kelly Wearstler revived it and Jonathan Adler cashed in by copying individual pieces of their work verbatim, but I will really try to reference original period. I think as with other styles we have worked in, Hollywood Regency will pretty much be an application of the style to a kitchen since the typical HR house would have had a period kitchen of 1940-1970, and it would have likely been a pastel Saint Charles kitchen with a big Chambers or Tappan Fabulous 400. So I think we are going to be applying Hollywood Regency furniture styles to a current kitchen rather than recreating kitchen that would be in a Hollywood Regency era house--which goes back to a "period kitchen" design. So any designers to add to the list? Any comments on my thought process on this?

I remember reading that...but it's still just as funny.... I am completely surprised that I didn't find a post from me on there...My DH has done a few things during our 42 years that I tell on him every now and then. patti

I am not trying to say that Paul Evans in particular is an example of what is considered the taste, or good taste at the very top of the market. Just that it is something that's currently collected at the top of a market and a good example of something that will not trickle down into the middle. And, it not only won't trickle down now that the studio pieces are rare semi-antiques, it never trickled down much when he was custom making it for people 40 years ago because it was too taste-specific even then. I know Lane made some knock off brutalist style pieces, but I don't know that was ever particularly popular. To me, like cheap Spanish-Mediterranean, this smacks of porn movies shot in the San Fernando Valley in the late 70s and early 80s: yuck. Evans I think, has a particular appeal to those with an affection for une jolie laide, so to speak, or the beautifully ugly. But the knockoffs fail to capture whatever it is that is compelling about the ugliness of the original. But I think there is another high end that is not particularly driven by anything other than quality, and there is a high end that is also driven by discretion so we won't ever see what their houses look like to emulate in any fashion, anyway. I went to grad school with a woman who had two pieces of Nakashima furniture in her apartment, one of which was a long-arm chaise. The value of these is currently in the stratosphere, back then it wasn't. She also had a number of other pieces of good antique furniture (mostly Biedermeier). The Nakashima had been bought new by her parents at a time when it was comparable to any other hand made or studio made furniture (maybe like Thos. Moser today)--not the stuff of museums. The reason she had it at the time was that her parents were doing a major renovation and these pieces were safer in her apartment than they were either in the house being renovated or in storage somewhere. But anyway, I can remember people commenting at the time about her weird and ugly furniture. They had no idea what it was, they had no interest in what it was either. It was never going to have an effect on the middle. Now, there is a fair amount of furniture that is heavily influenced by Nakashima, for example and while you may see some influences in the organic modernism of stuff at WestElm which is "low" in terms of budget and maybe a little higher in terms of design-intellect, and you see a more direct influences of both Nakashima and Evans at the "high" budget end from firms like BDDW--we aren't ever going to see this in the middle.

I have an upright freezer in my kitchen. It has an opening in the oak cabinetry that my DH built when he did the rest of the kitchen cabinetry and looks like the refrig opening (match-matchy). Having it there makes so much more sense than one out in the pole barn (sorry annie1992). I also have a chest freezer in the bakery kitchen. To organize them, I put like things together on the shelves, some in baskets, some not. They are labeled on the outside (plain paper under a magnet) as to what is on each shelf of the upright, and what is in the left, middle, and right of the chest. They do get a lot of scritch-scratch on the papers, but I can finally keep track of all the "just stuff it in there" that may be labeled (like cloudy_christine) from too many years ago. The labels are: poultry, meat, seafood, fruit, veggies (including onions, sweet peppers, mashed potatoes), dairy (cheese/butter/eggs), finished stuff to reheat, and the additives (fat back, dried herbs, ginger, zest, bread &/or crumbs, vodka). All of the labels include dates - it only takes a minute - truthfully! The shelf for stuff to reheat is the wisest thing I've done since there's just the two of us and I cook for an army mostly, old habit having multiple children and/or relatives in the house. Pulling out a pile of waffles, bean soup, cooked rice, or ravioli is a god-send when it comes to lunch or dinner time. No stress. Do invest in a new gasket for whatever you buy new. The freezer will last a long time but the gaskets age and, like you discovered sleeven-dog, the manufactures stop offering them when you need them, years later. Extended warranty on most appliances are totally worthless. The unit is covered, usually by a 1-yr warranty, so what you are buying is just more money out the front door because it is not going to fail the first year. IMO Do buy a Food Saver or other air-sucker to preserve your frozen stuff. Even the lowly Mason pint or quart jars work exceptionally well in the freezer. IMO. Keep a thermometer in it. OF is OK but -10F is better. If you have a lot of open space in the freezer - stuff it heavily with newspaper or rice/flour/cornmeal/cereal/staples, or even ice cubes in a bag. The less air circulates in the open areas the better to maintain the freezing solid temperature in there. Nancy