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Domestic Goddess Rebecca Teagarden

The Seattle housing market in a slump?

The Seattle housing market in a slump? No, no, dears. Turns out it was a mere winter's stall. Apparently the heavy engine that powers the prices of homes here is in full rev once again. Anything with a roof and less than $500,000 is getting multiple offers. Bidding wars. Ahh, springtime in Seattle; when tulips bloom and realtors run wild. It's dangerous out there in home-loan land. Sigh.

Just chalk it up to the woes of being a world-class city. Because we are not alone, darlings. New York. Hong Kong. And let us reflect on a home "the size of a closet" in London that actually had been a storage room at one time. It went on the market for $335,000 earlier this year and drew multiple offers. Just what would one do with all 77 square feet of space? It has been described as "slightly bigger than a prison cell and without electricity."

Ooh. Too depressing. But let's not pout. It's so unattractive (and encourages wrinkles). So what can those of us without so much as a measly million to our names do? We pick our poor chins up, is what we do, dust ourselves off, take a good look around and . . . redecorate! As one would say, if one ever found oneself on "Project Runway," we "make it work." That is the trick to decorating; we make what we've already got work. Be clever. Use your noodle. Reinvent yourself with bright pillows and new paint. Read some Dorothy Draper for inspiration. (Oh, for Pete's sake, Google her!) The Draper legend is all about extravagance and a lush life through color, graphics and grand gestures with strictly arranged accessories.

You don't have to be rich to live rich.

A new suit for an old friend

One might transform one's home merely by dressing up the old Ikea standbys. (Don't throw out that company-issued Allen wrench just yet.)

Swedish company Bemz sells covers for the most popular Ikea sofas and armchairs in a wider range of fabrics than does Ikea. These coats for couches come in soft natural fibers and hip designer colors and patterns. Fabric lines include Downtown, Modern Romantic, Modernist, Antiquity and Neutral. They cost $200 to $300 for sofa covers and $40 to about $140 for chairs. It's fun to play furniture dress-up on the Web site, too. Pick out your couch or chair, then click on the fabric of your choice. The plain white piece of furniture will be instantly dressed in the fabric you selected. Cool. www.bemz.com.

That is how the adventurous wallpaper and textile patterns of Timorous Beasties were once described. And that would be accurate. So would surreal and contemporary and provocative and daring, to say the least.

Take the Glasgow Toile, for instance: At first, you are led to believe it is one of the peaceful vistas portrayed on early-1800s toile de Jouy wallpaper. But a closer look exposes a nightmarish vision of contemporary Glasgow with crack addicts, prostitutes and the homeless depicted against a backdrop of dilapidated tower blocks and scavenging seagulls. You really must see this hard-edged bit of elegance with a sense of humor to believe it. The Entomology Collection is quite beautiful and scientific.

Last fall Timorous Beasties received Elle Decoration awards for best textiles and best carpet. The wallpapers, about $140 a roll, are 20.5 inches wide and come in a choice of colors. Custom colors are also available.

The design studio was founded in Glasgow in 1990 by Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons, who met while studying textile design at Glasgow School of Art. Great Scots, these two, the company name is taken from the Robert Burns poem "To a Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough," of which the opening lines are:

"Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!"

Timorous Beasties' fanciful wall coverings are available locally at Ornamo, 301 Occidental Ave. S., 206-859-6492 or www.ornamo.com. See the full Timorous Beasties line at www.timorousbeasties.com.

Would you like a sugar with your soak?

So, you've redone the old place and now you need a break. How about a hot soak that is both reinvigorating and cheerful? Get both in a wood-fired hot tub that looks like a teacup one might take a twirl in at Disney(land or world). It's what's new in bathing culture. They've been showing the thing all over Belgium, Holland and Switzerland, where bathing and socializing have long been a match made in the frosty night air.

Dutchtub is a plastic wood-fired hot tub "with modern flair in a simple, functional design," according to the dutchtub bigwigs. It was developed by Floris Schoonderbeek from Holland. After the tub is filled, fire built in a large side spiral (which looks like the handle on a really big cup) heats the water inside the coils. This sets up a natural circulation as cold water is drawn from the bottom of the tub and hot water is added to the top. The 200 gallons of water are ready in two hours at 100-plus degrees. There's also a nifty little built-in wine-chiller bucket on the lip.

In what dutchtub calls the "boundless bathing" experience, one may have a soak anywhere there is wood and water because the tub weighs a totable 165 pounds. Go to www.dutchtub.com to see dutchtub on many adventures: floating down a river, on a camping trip, being toted by the family mobile. It's portable, but at $6,000 plus delivery charges, it's not cheap. But if one finds oneself in Sweden, Switzerland or Amsterdam, there are tubs to be tried there amid rooftops and other funky sites.

Thermador is breaking up that frosty old gang in the refrigerator corner of the kitchen with its Freedom Collection Refrigeration. Modular refrigerators, pretty cool actually.

The collection is a system of Truly Flush Mounted (yes, the term is trademarked) refrigerators, freezers and now wine columns — the newest member of the line. Mix and match, lift and separate. Put a freezer column here and a fresh-food column there and a wine column way over there. Or bunch them all together. Oy, choices, choices.

All three columns come in varying widths. Stainless steel is the big finish, but there are also custom fronts. Thermador is very excited about the heavy-duty Freedom Hinge, which allows the columns to be flush-mounted to cabinetry without sacrificing accessibility. The Wine Preservation Column, at 18 or 24 inches wide and holding either 70 or 98 bottles, has two temperature zones, for red and white wines. Also offered is a three-door, bottom-freezer model at 36 inches. All are ENERGY STAR qualified. Prices run from about $3,000 to $7,000. See them at www.thermador.com and find them at wherever fine kitchen appliances are sold.

Totally tubular

The Goddess has been restraining herself all year, but she simply cannot stand it anymore and now must share with you her favorite funky chair: the HairyBertoia.

Is this cute or what? Every time she culls the best and the brightest for her readers, the Goddess comes across this little chair and it makes her smile. Every time. And that is worth something. So here it is: HairyBertoia from DouglasHomer in Lancaster, Pa. It is made of strands of extruded sponge cord hand-knotted to a freshly powder-coated, vintage diamond chair by designer and sculptor Harry Bertoia.

Harry Bertoia/HairyBertoia. (Smiling again.)

There's also a shaggy little ottoman, bench and kids chair. They come in the ever-cheerful colors of yellow, green and red, in addition to brown, black and white.

The little chair for kids that comes in yellow looks like a fuzzy baby chick. (Ohp, the Goddess is smiling again.)

The company also offers the Thumb Puzzle Table with moveable black and white panels that allow you to change the pattern of the table top, and TheBronxProject, used highboys painted in stylized and brightly colored graffiti. The description of the chest of drawers seems to sum up the company in general: "The blending of the old and the new creates furniture that is not only stylistically fresh, but also conceptually provocative. This pairing of conflicting and stylistic languages helps to resuscitate both the object and the image, giving them both new life."

These guys are nothing if not fun.

Find them all at www.DouglasHomer.com. Pieces are sold to the public by calling the company at 1-888-696-7304. The kids chair is $700. The diamond chair is $2,500.

The Domestic Goddess can be reached at pacificnw@seattletimes.com.

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