Ad Categories: Home and Garden

The luxury kitchen cabinet retailer Poggenpohl has teamed up with Airoom Architects, Builders and Remodelers to make remodeling your kitchen easier. While it has always been possible to get basic kitchen elements (cabinets, appliances, and countertops) installed through Poggenpohl’s Merchandise Mart showroom, this partnership makes it easier for customers to undertake larger overhauls that require acquiring building permits, running new electrical, and opening up walls. A Poggenpohl kitchen will be on display at the Airoom showroom in mid-January.

—GINA BAZER

Lately, I’ve come across a bunch of art inspired by (or literally taken from) vintage children’s books. At the recent Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale, I, along with a pack of other people, was smitten by local artist Ashley Alexandar’s sweet-and-strange prints (top left); she knew we would be—her website is called imsmitten.com. Another Chicagoan whose paper goods possess a certain childhood nostalgia (some of the greeting cards and journals have illustrations taken directly from old children’s books) is Amy Rowan of Art School Girl; see her note cards and envelopes above. Finally, at Penelope’s in Wicker Park, I spotted Japanese artist Shinzi Katoh’s charming depictions of zoo animals, children, and woodland creatures.

—GINA BAZER

If you liked Loving Frank, then you’ll love Frank Lloyd Wright in Pop-Up! OK, maybe not. But if you love Frank or know someone who does, this new book from Thunder Bay Press will make a great gift. Check out some pretty impressive paper-engineered versions of famous projects like Robie House, Fallingwater, and even the Guggenheim Museum, and then put them back neatly on your bookshelf or coffee table. It’s the kind of book people can’t help but open. Available at major bookstores.

—GINA BAZER

Every now and then, I come across a “wow” piece that I have to have, budget and size constraints be damned. I can hear the conversations and jealousy that this one-of-a-kind piece will inevitably inspire—all before I even swipe my credit card. But ever since Agent Gallery Chicago opened in late October, my answer to “Where did you get that??!” has become 100-percent predictable. Owner Mariano Chavez, a graduate of the School of the Art Institute and former manager at Salvage One, fills his Wicker Park showroom with nothing but conversation pieces: vintage marquee letters, 1950s explosion-proof telephones, a cast-iron 1940s Killark lantern—even a 1969 moon globe. Chavez says he’s “usually on a chase” for one item and will find a bunch of other interesting pieces along the way. “I look for work that has very strong character and design,” he says. “A lot of the pieces are art in and of themselves.” Wow, indeed.

–LISA GARtnER

Interior decorator Anne Coyle has launched a new line of furniture that’s sure to give you a sweet tooth. Called the Candy Coated Collection, it features occasional tables and case goods lacquered in signature-Coyle colors like lavender, mint-green, lemon yellow, and coral. Yum.

—GINA BAZER

Tradition doesn’t have to mean sweeping pine needles and straightening wobbly candles. Chicago-based architects and interior designers recently spread rather original holiday cheer at Steelcase’s Wreath and Menorah Design Competition and Charity Auction. A circlet of vodka bottles, a garland of back-lit feathers, and a giant metal cage of LEDs were some of the items auctioned off to benefit the Children’s Place Association. All inspired me to think beyond green rings and narrow vessels next year. Skidmore Owings and Merrill’s Colin Gorsuch designed the winning menorah. Made of a cast piece of 8×8 inch solid wax, its computer-generated surface represents the ancient consecrated oil of Jewish tradition. As each wick burns, it reveals some of the menorah’s skeletal framework. The reshaping of rituals never looked so good.

—LAURA CASTELLANO