New at DesignPublic.com this week: Petunia Pickle Bottom – David Weeks – Harry Allen. Enjoy!

Update: We have a winner — Brieanne from San Francisco! Congrats!

Attention moms and moms-to-be. Okay, this pertains to some of you gents as well. Here’s a chance to win something fashionable, chic and practical: A Petunia Pickle Bottom Scout Walkabout Carrier! Have a look:

Yup, this thing is pretty neat. I could see myself donning this for a Sunday morning stroll through the West Village…Café Americano in one hand, NY Times (or something sophisticated like the Davinci Code) in the other, and my Mini-me out riding point man. Just like the picture…

Petunia Pickle Bottom Scout Giveaway

Now, considering the fact I don’t actually have a “baby”, a “girlfriend” (no prospects either ha ha –  laughter slowly giving way to tears here), I figured it best to give this to someone who could use it: You.

How to Enter:

Just take a gander at Petunia Pickle Bottom’s collection and leave us a comment below with your favorite. Or, tweet your favorite with #DPLUVSME and you’ll be entered as well. Feel free to change up the language on the tweet if you don’t want to clobber your followers with the promo, but make sure you tweet with #DPLUVSME so we can find you.

Good luck, we’ll draw a random winner this coming Wednesday, November 3rd 2010 at noon EST.

N.B. Winners will be chosen at random and contacted via email or DM (Read: make sure we can contact you at the email address provided. You only need to enter once, multiple comments and tweets will be discarded.)

Petunia Pickle Bottom co-founders DeNai and Braden share an incredible tour of their home and design style. Keep an eye out for the school map of the United States, the oversized Chinese ceremonial mask and the mushroom collection. Without question, I could live here and feel well traveled, educated and at peace. Beautiful job, guys! If you want to learn more about PPB, check out our designer interview. Enjoy!

Maybe it’s the fact that in my professional life vibrant color and pattern are my signature style at Petunia Pickle Bottom that make my personal life at home a monochromatic world.  My rule of thumb when putting together a room usually begins with one object.  I am a fan of flea markets or something with a little history.  So when I begin to style a room, it is usually a unique found object that sparks my imagination.

Our home was built in the 1920’s and still has a considerable amount of the original details.  Our family room is where we like to hang out by the fireplace, read books to the kids on our comfy couches, take a nap or set up train tracks to circumnavigate the room.  When I first saw this room, I was struck by the 8’ window and high exposed beam ceiling. It was light and bright so I chose colors that would naturally illuminate.

The focal point I designed around was the natural wood Roost buck head flanked by archival school charts (lobster and bird) that stem from my father’s days as a college biology professor. My recent obsession with mushrooms covers the fireplace mantle.

Friends joke our kids will have nightmares from the oversized Chinese ceremonial mask that hangs in our dining room. Found at an antique store in historic downtown Ventura, she’s become part of the family. We think it was used in the movies or carried in a Chinese parade.

The red lips of the mask were the perfect color to pair the walls, a vintage red wood telephone booth door filled with glass, and our custom table crafted by my husband.

My 3-year-old son Sutton’s room was recently converted to a “big boy” bedroom.  Years ago I found a stunning oversized school map of the United States (chalk printed so you can write on it) that I knew would be perfect for a child’s bedroom. We held onto over the years and it served as the perfect centerpiece for the “Traveler’s odyssey” theme for my son’s room.

Complete with a flying ship, globes, suitcase, guitar, army blanket, old books, and Read the rest of this entry »

It comes as no surprise (but we are thrilled!) that the Petunia Pickle Bottom Scout bag was selected for Fit Pregnancy’s 2009 Buyers Guide. This special issue is half normal Fit Pregnancy mag half baby gear guide so if you see one of the these two covers you know you have the right issue. Congrats, PPB and thanks, Fit Pregnancy!

This month Fit Pregnancy listed the Petunia Pickle Bottom Scout diaper bag in their “2009 Buyers Guide.” Yeehaw PPB! What better timing than now to get to know the creators of the heavily sought after bags. Meet the dynamic trio who started it all: DeNai (founder), her husband Braden, and close friend Korie. Their PPB bags are all over the place and coveted by celebrities, moms, dads and Ali.

This q&a has a lot to it so put the little tyke down for a nap, grab a drink of choice and enjoy the interview.

Right off the bat we have to explore the Petunia Pickle Bottom name. Where did it come from?

We can thank my dad for coming up with the silly, sentimental name. He’s a Biologist, but I half joke that he should have been a jingle-writer. When I was little he played the harmonica and made up little sing songs, one of which the phrase Petunia Pickle Bottom was born. There’s always a reaction of “Petunia huh?” but that’s why it works. People remember it. The best of course is when we get junk mail at the office addressed to Mrs. Petunia P. Bottom.

Speaking of names, the product names for many of your PPB bags certainly point to travel and the world. You don’t see many products with names like “Sightseeing in Sumatra” or “Moon Over Macau” lining store shelves. Tell me a bit more about the inspirations for these bags.

The bag naming is inspired by personal travel, favorite spots, or something I like to call “faux traveling.” Faux traveling is hopping on Google to check out far off places, research hidden gems to discover the perfect name that strikes the mood of a certain fabric I’ve created. There are 3 of us who do the naming in the office and you would be surprised just how much time and energy we dedicate to it—it’s often a scene of great debate.

Overall I’d say my silhouettes are inspired from various aspects of life. I spend a lot of time researching archival photos—I especially love it when I happen upon an antique store with a big bowl full of black and white photos. This picture into the past is a real treat and I find it very inspiring. Travel is also a common place I find inspiration—some of our best designs are fashioned from seeing the world with fresh eyes. The bag design could also be as literal as a vintage piece of luggage we’ve found or the function of the bag itself can help form the shape of the piece. The Cosmopolitan Carryall is definitely reminiscent of a vintage doctor’s bag. When the first sketch was complete it sort of reminded me of Doc’s bag on “Little House on the Prairie” (am I dating myself here)? It’s obviously made its own metamorphosis since those early stages but I think it lives up to what I call the vintage modern approach. A lot of our bags have also been designed to suit a specific part of “life with baby” in a fashionable way. Sometimes we will work backwards with a laundry list of “what” we would like the bag to achieve then move to the type of silhouette that might marry with that function.

I am always curious about work spaces. What is your office like?

As for our office and work culture, we’re pretty lucky. We have such a great team of people and feel like one big family. We occupy a space of a reclaimed 1900′s brick building that is Read the rest of this entry »