Parenthesis Kitchen Walk
The annual Jean Stoffer, as well as the dramatic, mod tile behind the stove. In the kitchen designed by Rebekah Zaveloff of
Ad Categories: Home and Garden
The Climate-Friendly Gardener
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The Chicago-based Union of Concerned Scientists is out with a new guide to explain how to reduce your carbon footprint in your own back- and front-yard. Most of the tips you’ve heard before: ditch the gas-powered lawnmower, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers; plant trees and shrubs to remove CO2 and to shade your home, compost, limit lawns, and the like. But if you’re new to gardening, the green movement, or need a refresher, this nice concise guide will steer you straight. And for chemical-free fertilizer and electric mower recommendations, see Lou Manfredini’s latest column in Chicago Home + Garden’s May/June issue.
—JAN PARR
Julius Shulman
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Hot off the presses is a gorgeous coffee table book of photos of mostly Chicago-area midcentury modernist homes taken by the famed architectural photographer Julius Shulman, who died at 98 in 2009. Gary Gand, a founder of Chicago Bauhaus and Beyond (who himself lives in a Keck and Keck ranch house in Riverwoods), approached Shulman in 2006 about doing the book. Julius Shulman: Chicago Midcentury Modernism (Rizzoli; $60) features the Minsk House, designed by Keck & Keck in 1955; the 1960 Burton Frank House; architect Harry Weese’s inspired modernist home and studio of 1957; and other modern masterpieces.
—JAN PARR
Artropolis, Wow & Zen Closeout, Adler May Day Sale
Chicago will be hopping this weekend with three major art and antique fairs, consolidated for your convenience in the stately confines of the Merchandise Mart
Wood Tub by Maax
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This tub had to be the most unusual thing I saw at the Kitchen & Bath show earlier this month. The Viaggi wood tub by Maax is an egg-shaped freestander that comes on a wood base. Wonder how the finish holds up?
—JAN PARR
Kohler at KBIS
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Kohler always has something to bring to the table, or bathroom as it were. At the recent Kitchen and Bath Industry Show, two new products stood out for me: the Karbon lavatory faucets and the Katagami wading pool lavatory.
The faucets are cool because they bring the convenient articulating and spraying functions of many kitchen faucets into the bathroom, where they’re often needed just as much (men, think how nice it would be to adjust the faucet while you are shaving; women, think how nice it would be to spray those globs of your man’s blue toothpaste down the sink without any contact with the gooey stuff). As for the caste-bronze Katagami basin, it’s just a simple, lovely design that will patina over time and make for an elegant touch in a powder room.
—GINA BAZER
West Heads East
Simple 24-inch lacquer tray, $59, on 14-inch-high wood stand, $89 Its name used to be synonymous with a trek to Oak Brook. But now West Elm, the budget-and-trend-conscious sibling of Williams-Sonoma, has brought its pebble rugs, armless sofas, and capiz-shell pendant lamps into the city. The new 20,000-square-foot store is divided into loftlike vignettes, and … Read more
Sleek Street
The contemporary European furniture dealer Home Element has moved to a new location in River North and will now focus primarily on the Italian line Jesse, which specializes in entertainment units, closets, and shelving, but also manufactures sofas, beds, and dining furniture—all of a slick, minimalist persuasion. Called Jesse by Home Element, the 5,000-square-foot showroom … Read more
Eggs in More Baskets
Past Basket has a gorgeous display of kitchen vignettes at its showroom in west suburban Geneva, but the sample room there has always been the real hub of activity for designers and clients. So when the owners decided to open a 650-square-foot appointment-only River North outpost (due to open this spring), instead of kitchen vignettes … Read more
Nice Save
For his own home in Bucktown, an architect decides against a teardown and creates a bright, crisply contemporary family house