Ad Categories: Home and Garden

I saw some of these silhouettes, sort of the modern equivalent of a portrait, in a family home designed by Julia Edelmann. Local photographer Maggie Meiners does them.

—JAN PARR

I really hate starting a post with an expression of farewell, in any language. Another of my favorite shops, River North’s Le Magasin, is closing July 31. The impossibly charming owner, Didier Milleriot, is moving back to his native France to be near his partner, who is off to Germany for a fellowship. The good news is that many of Milleriot’s lines—including Point à la Ligne vegetable-shaped candles, glassware, and linens from Garnier Thibaut (shown here) and Alexandre Turpault—will now be carried at Oak Park’s year-old Botanica. Milleriot reports that there’s not much left in his shop, but what is there is all 50 percent off. Milleriot will make a special appearance at Botanica on October 16. Details to come.

—JAN PARR

For more than 40 years, these incredible fashion photos by Mark Shaw (best known for his work documenting the family life of the Kennedys at the White House) went unviewed. In the past few years, Andrew Wilder of Svenska Mobler worked with Shaw’s only heir, David (a childhood friend), and his wife, Juliet Cuming, to make the photos available to the public. Svenksa Mobler in River North, the fantastic showroom filled with Swedish Modernist and Argentine Functionalist furniture, has about 15 of the photos, which Shaw shot in the 1950s and early 1960s for LIFE’s coverage of the European fashion collections, on display. They range from about $800 to $2,000.

—JAN PARR
 

Architect Lisa Elkins of 2 Point Perspective, a firm that specializes in eco-friendly design, just sent over a snapshot of her kitchen. Look at the LED-underlit bamboo panel on the ceiling—I love how this sustainable material continues from the cabinets and draws the eye upward (making for a cool lighting fixture to boot!). Also notice the slate-colored walls and how they play off the recycled-glass countertops, which are sort of blue-ish gray in color. The look is sleek, warm, and unified.

—GINA BAZER
 

I’m crazy about Simes Studio’s new “eglomise,” or back-painted glass tiles, inspired by textiles. They can be used for backsplashes, cabinet door inserts, niches—you could think of other things. 

—JAN PARR

It’s summertime, and the grilling is both easy and stylish when you take this Laptop portable charcoal grill from Design Within Reach on a walk to the park. It folds up to be a little more than a single inch thick, weighs 9 lbs., and has a handle that makes for easy transport. With a spaceage portable cooktop like this, everybody’s going to want to get ALL up in your grill.

—BRADLEY LINCOLN