The Evanston location of fair-trade retailer Ten Thousand Villages is hosting an Oriental Rug Event from September 11-19, bringing in a selection of more than 300 heirloom quality hand-knotted Pakistani pieces in all sizes. The event kicks off with an educational seminar and reception on Friday…
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We spent the long weekend in Iowa City visiting friends, and then heading north to a Usonian-style Frank Lloyd Wright house, Cedar Rock, on a bluff overlooking the Wapsipinicon River. The Walters, a wealthy couple, had the house built for them in 1950 with the intention of leaving it to the state as a tourist attraction. The result is a time capsule from the 1950s: everything has been left as is. It is considered one of FLW’s most complete designs—he designed and dictated everything in the house, from the furniture to the dishes and flatware and accessories.
My friend Bob, a city planner, also took me to a great new design store in Iowa City run by architects, Akar, a cross between the Museum of Contemporary Art store and I.D. I bought some Marimekko potholders. Chilewich, Eva Solo, Blomus, Built NY, Iitala, and other iconic brands are represented here. Also in Iowa City is Design Ranch, a source for Artemide, Knoll, and other design greats.
Iowa City is four hours west of Chicago; the FLW house is another hour and a half north.
-JAN PARR
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Just because summer is over doesn’t mean your summer home doesn’t need you anymore. Sure it does—it needs you to buy it gifts and make it feel better about the fact that you won’t be coming to visit as often anymore. Seagrass is a wonderful spot for outfitting your beloved second home with an East Coast cottage vibe, and it’s having a big sale through October 15, including floor samples.
—GINA BAZER
Q: Do I want my ceiling painted white, or a more noticeable color?
Barnett’s dark-stained cerused rift-cut oak pedestal dining table, $6,800. Coffee tables with Italian ebony bases and hand-chiseled American walnut wavy tops, $6,500 for the pair Self-taught furniture designer John Barnett’s (jbdenison.com) stately yet easy-to-live-with furniture has the kind of bold presence that turns heads. Interior designer Michael Del Piero—whose interiors have a similar effect—has … Read more
At home with the up-for-anything owner of design shop George Lowell
Designer and welder Ross Fiersten was not impressed with the current state of nesting tables. Most were “functional, but not that exciting to look at when they’re nested,” he says. (Fiersten and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Hayes, owners of the South Side firm Metal+Works, design and create furniture and architectural pieces with metal, and count Holly … Read more
Wait a minute… that’s not the question. The question is, who decorated the Green Room for the Daytime Emmys? Of course you know from reading this blog that Chicagoans Christopher Michiels and Sheri Zeman did! They just sent this snap of Sheri (left) in the room with Bobby Ewing and an associate. They’re standing in front of Sheri’s textural art panels. Toto, we’re not in Southfork anymore!
—JAN PARR
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The eco-friendly Roscoe Village shop A Cooler Planet, part of our green shopping round-up is closing its doors at the end of the month and offering deep discounts on organic bedding, mattresses, bed frames, and more. It’s so sad to see a passionate independent shop with such good values say adieu. Stop in for healthy, earth-friendly good deals.
—GINA BAZER
PHOTO: ERIC HAUSMAN
Greg and Kasia Kay bring a little Vegas to Lake View with their poolside soirées
