I’m a sucker for the words “Paris flea market” or “Paris café.” Use them in the description of your product and I’m like Pavlov’s dog with measuring tape. Yes, I’m very nostalgic about the several months I spent living in Paris after college (though I don’t miss stepping in Pavlov’s dog's poo every day as perfectIy dressed and irritatingly smug Parisian women looked on pityingly). Anyway, I love these chairs not only for how they look, but for their associations. The white one, described on the Willow website as “styled after a 1940's Paris flea market treasure,” caught my eye yesterday while I was checking out Willow’s new offerings online. The galvanized steel chair has been on my radar for a long time. It’s available at DWR and through the Sundance Catalog, where it is described as follows: “First manufactured in 1934, these ever-stylish steel chairs were designed to withstand the wear-and-tear of bistro and brasserie patrons while remaining ever-recherché.” They are still made in France today. Oh charming chairs, take me away!

—Gina Bazer

Photos courtesy of Willow and Sundance

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I’m a sucker for the words “Paris flea market” or “Paris café.” Use them in the description of your product and I’m like Pavlov’s dog with measuring tape. Yes, I’m very nostalgic about the several months I spent living in Paris after college (though I don’t miss stepping in Pavlov’s dog's poo every day as perfectIy dressed and irritatingly smug Parisian women looked on pityingly). Anyway, I love these chairs not only for how they look, but for their associations. The white one, described on the Willow website as “styled after a 1940's Paris flea market treasure,” caught my eye yesterday while I was checking out Willow’s new offerings online. The galvanized steel chair has been on my radar for a long time. It’s available at DWR and through the Sundance Catalog, where it is described as follows: “First manufactured in 1934, these ever-stylish steel chairs were designed to withstand the wear-and-tear of bistro and brasserie patrons while remaining ever-recherché.” They are still made in France today. Oh charming chairs, take me away!

—Gina Bazer

Photos courtesy of Willow and Sundance

" />

I’m a sucker for the words “Paris flea market” or “Paris café.” Use them in the description of your product and I’m like Pavlov’s dog with measuring tape. Yes, I’m very nostalgic about the several months I spent living in Paris after college (though I don’t miss stepping in Pavlov’s dog's poo every day as perfectIy dressed and irritatingly smug Parisian women looked on pityingly). Anyway, I love these chairs not only for how they look, but for their associations. The white one, described on the Willow website as “styled after a 1940's Paris flea market treasure,” caught my eye yesterday while I was checking out Willow’s new offerings online. The galvanized steel chair has been on my radar for a long time. It’s available at DWR and through the Sundance Catalog, where it is described as follows: “First manufactured in 1934, these ever-stylish steel chairs were designed to withstand the wear-and-tear of bistro and brasserie patrons while remaining ever-recherché.” They are still made in France today. Oh charming chairs, take me away!

—Gina Bazer

Photos courtesy of Willow and Sundance

" />
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Charming Chairs

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I’m a sucker for the words “Paris flea market” or “Paris café.” Use them in the description of your product and I’m like Pavlov’s dog with measuring tape. Yes, I’m very nostalgic about the several months I spent living in Paris after college (though I don’t miss stepping in Pavlov’s dog’s poo every day as perfectIy dressed and irritatingly smug Parisian women looked on pityingly). Anyway, I love these chairs not only for how they look, but for their associations. The white one, described on the Willow website as “styled after a 1940’s Paris flea market treasure,” caught my eye yesterday while I was checking out Willow’s new offerings online. The galvanized steel chair has been on my radar for a long time. It’s available at DWR and through the Sundance Catalog, where it is described as follows: “First manufactured in 1934, these ever-stylish steel chairs were designed to withstand the wear-and-tear of bistro and brasserie patrons while remaining ever-recherché.” They are still made in France today. Oh charming chairs, take me away!

—Gina Bazer

Photos courtesy of Willow and Sundance

Art for Junior

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Nothing is more fun than decorating a kid’s room… that is until that scary moment when the munchkin becomes aware of his own tastes and interests (carefully nurtured by the likes of Disney) and suddenly, his darling little nursery turns into a shrine to Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora the Explorer, and the movie Cars. But let’s focus on the sweet window of decorating opportunity that occurs before all that.
    Foursided, as I discovered recently, is not only a great place to buy gifts, cards, vintage educational maps and charts, and original collages by local artists (including shop owner Todd Mack) but also kid-appropriate art. Whether original, reproduction, or vintage, the options have a soft, nostalgic appeal (I was drawn to the vintage alphabet pictures shown above). A few doors north of Foursided’s Andersonville location (the other one is in Lakeview), the new eco-friendly kids’ clothing store Green Genes (opened by a former Red Ballon Co. staffer) also has some fun tot art. Both the owner and I agreed that if the kiddies don’t like the old-fashioned circus posters, we’ll take ’em!

—Gina Bazer
 

Nymphenburg Sale

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Nymphenburg fine porcelain is rarely found on sale.
But the Nymphenburg showroom here is moving from its current home at 470 N. Milwaukee Ave., and to get ready, everything will be reduced 20 to 30 percent one day only, August 8, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Owner Mary Jeanne Kneen is accepting pre-sale orders at 312-421-3500. The new showroom will be at 400 W. Erie St. and is slated to open after Labor Day.

—JAN PARR

Danish Modern on the Move

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Andrew Hollingsworth, Chicago’s go-to guy for Nordic niceties, is relocating his gallery from River North to the up-and-coming Kinzie Corridor neighborhood as of August 1, and going appointment only. He’s still got the best selection of furniture and accessories from great Danes like Ole Wanscher, Hans Wegner, and Finn Juhl (the chairs shown above are Juul-Moller and the sofa is Frits Henningsen), but now you’ll just have to call ahead. Hollingsworth cites an increasingly Web-based business, steep River North rents, and a desire to be part of a hip new area (Modern Times, Nate Berkus , Wright, Post 27 , and the MCA Warehouse will be new neighbors) as motivation for the move. Oh and he’s also publishing a coffee-table tome on Danish Modern design next month that I’m psyched to add to my library.

–BRADLEY LINCOLN

Small World

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I just ran into an old… um, friend? What do you call a person who mercifully pulled over and offered you a ride home when, four years ago, you were walking along North Avenue in the dark, in the about-to-start-pouring rain, holding two overflowing bags from Whole Foods while trying to balance an umbrella under your armpit, because the bus was JUST driving off as you approached the gosh-darn stop?! I think that person is called a friend. (Normally, I don’t hitchhike, but this woman had “good person” written all over her face—and let’s face it, I was desperate.) I ran into Evelyn Daitchman at the studio of artist Michael Thompson (whose super-cool and interesting space will be featured in our November/December issue). She is a massage therapist and has all sorts of celebrity clients, but she’s also a collector of vintage clothing, fabric, and dishes. She sells her wares (the home stuff has a fun Anthropologie feel) out of Thompson’s loft space and at the Randolph Street Flea Market. Look for the name Jackie Ono. Here’s to the kindness of strangers!

—Gina Bazer
 

C’est Moi

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C’est Moi, a delightful shop in Vintage Pine, is closing. The owner says no reasonable offer will be refused on rugs, bedding, candles, oilcloth bags, David Fussenegger throws (shown here) and lots more. 904 W. Blackhawk St., 312-944-2116.

—JAN PARR

 

Soft Stuff

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Pillows are the T-shirts of the home design world.  (Funny—in our last issue, I recall writing that “pillows are the shoes of the home design world”… OK, so the fashion and design worlds have some crossover, and I like to point that out… repeatedly! No big deal.) Anyway, I say this because pillows (like shoes and T-shirts) provide a relatively inexpensive way to express yourself. You can easily tone down a formal room by tossing in a vibrant or, in the case of Jonathan Adler, cheeky pillow. Enter Adler’s latest line of needlepoint pillows, shown above. They may be too precious for some, but I think if you don’t overdo it (like throw the “drugs” AND the “hugs” pillow on your sofa), the look is kind of fun.

—GINA BAZER 
 

House Painting

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How much do you love your house? Enough to have a portrait of it painted by a professional artist? If you like the idea of having your casa immortalized in watercolor, you’ll be happy to know it doesn’t cost all that much. Send Jim Pinto a photo of your precious and he will deliver a 12-by-18-inch rendering for $350. It’s a little kitschy, maybe even sappy, but sort of sweet, too. Pinto sells gift certificates as well, so you could get your parents a portrait of the home you grew up in before they sell the empty nest and head to Arizona. Most of the photos in his gallery are of traditional homes, but I think it would be fun to shake it up and have him do your ranch. Or an interior shot? What do you think? I think it would be even better if you could get a paint-by-numbers kit of your house. Business idea, anyone?

—Gina Bazer