Ad Categories: Home and Garden

What’s your cutlery situation? Looking to upgrade or fill in some pieces? Christofle is holding a two-day sale on flatware purchases Friday and Saturday.

—JAN PARR

Jill Dryer has a background in architecture and design (she worked at Architectural Digest for seven years), so it’s a no-brainer that elements of those worlds show up in her current work as a fine artist and illustrator. The Chicagoan will be having a one-night showing tomorrow from 6 – 9 at a loft space in the building that houses Avec, easily one of my favorite restos in the city (get the chorizo-stuffed dates and the garlicky whipped brandade, when you stop in for a snack after the exhibition). “My friend owns the building, and currently doesn’t have a tenant so she offered me the space,” explains Dryer of the somewhat unorthodox venue. “It’s a nice open white loft with wood floors, high ceilings, big windows…perfect for a show, and ideal for my purposes!”  She’ll be showing paintings and prints from the series she calls “Design Meets Nature” and I call clever, colorful, and not a little silly. The lamps In “Flamingo” are Castore Suspension by Artemide, the cup in “Sandpiper” is Russell Wright, and, in one of my favorites, “Robinson Zanuso,” a bird perches on a Marco Zanuso chair in front of a Vernor Panton lamp. As a bonus, Jill’s design is well within reach—signed prints are $30, and original paintings under $1,000.  

—BRADLEY LINCOLN

One of our favorite shops, Willow, is closing its doors. So sad, but the silver lining is that it’s staying in business online—and there’s a blow-out sale at the store today through Monday, March 30.

—Gina Bazer

I walk past the Michigan Avenue Crate & Barrel all the time, and usually I do just that—walk past. But a couple of days ago I saw these gnarly (literally) driftwood end tables and went in to inspect. They are made of three or four hunks of unfinished wood from Java, stand about 25 inches high, and are topped with a circle of glass. I would have liked a thicker top—a designer once told me to go half-inch or go home, and that advice is stuck in my head—but these are nice accent tables nonetheless. They’re $399, and if you want one (or two?) I recommend that you go in and pick them out, don’t order by phone or cyberspace because they are all very different snowflakes. Some have a nice solid heft, like the one above, but some look like they were cobbled together by a clock-watching factory worker anxious to get home to see who got booted from Indonesia’s Next Top Model.   

—BRADLEY LINCOLN

Johnathon, the new-ish Lake View furniture showroom owned by Top Design alum John Gray, is holding a floor sample sale. A big selection of items will be 50 to 75 percent off starting today. Examples: Find sofas that were $4,128, now $1,295. Pillows reduced from $138 to $40. Coffee table from $740 to $375. Side tables from $400 to $200. Chaise longues from $1368 to $685. Low fireside ottoman from $1,386 to $555. A large mosaic Venetian-style mirror from $974 to $349. The items shown here are not necessarily included in the sale but give you an idea of Johnathon’s style. The sale runs ’til all is sold.

—JAN PARR

Steven Burgert, owner of I.D., just informed us of some new hot sellers at his shop: Blu Dot’s One Night Stand sofa bed, $1,799 (a sleeper sofa that actually looks good? sign us up!), and designer Tord Boontje’s latest ethereal light-fixture line, Future Flora, made from silver-plated steel, $97 (it comes with a 15-foot electrical cord). Burgert had orders for both of these items before they even arrived at his shop. Now the sofa and at least one of the Future Flora designs is on back-order, but you can still get your request in. Proof that even in a slow economy, the good stuff sells.

—Gina Bazer

We were sad when the showroom Casamonte closed up shop earlier this year, not the least because they were one of only two outfits in town to sell the fab EcoSmart ventless fireplaces (Green Home Chicago is the other). Now Vesta, which is adjacent to the shuttered Casamonte, is carrying the line. Vesta, which also represents Bentwood and Leicht kitchens, has several EcoSmart models on display. By the end of the week, they’ll have the crazy cool leather-wrapped, hand-stitched Zeta, pictured here, in their showroom. 

—JAN PARR

In our January issue we did a story about alternative venues for buying art. I just heard there’s a new source online called UGallery that features work by art students—including some from Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—ranging in prices from $20 to S5,000. The offerings are very well organized by categories such as price, size, and color, and aside from a painting of Angelina Jolie, which struck me as slightly odd, the selection is pretty good (a “curator panel” reviews applications and accepts about 25 percent of applicants). Shown above, “River Rocks,” a photograph, $70, by Jenn Bomar, Michigan State University.

—Gina Bazer