Ad Categories: Home and Garden

Furniture designer/artist Randall Kramer sent us this photo of a new stair railing he made from an Asian antique window screen from

Amy Doehla of Willow just sent us a sneak peek of what’s coming to her store for spring. Willow is a great place for affordable home accessories that double as conversation starters. Doehla was one of the first in Chicago to embrace the whole stag-head-as-décor thing. I’ve always loved the idea of this look but I don’t think I could actually live with it–I imagine being perpetually startled by the presence of a large deceased animal in my home. The House and Home section in the New York Times recently declared the trend dead (does it get deader than being declared dead when you are already dead?), but despite the backlash, Doehla is not abandoning her old antlered friends, offering a cardboard version from Cardboard Safari. She’s also carrying the coolest trash receptacle ever: a simple clothespin contraption that celebrates rather than conceals the old Hefty! And, the best is the Frozen Smiles ice tray-it’s shaped like dentures, so when water freezes in it, the ice is in the shape of dentures. Throw that into fancy-pants’s drink! Girl has a sense of humor about design. That’s why we love Willow!

—GINA BAZER

I am obsessed with the local screen-printing company Binth, which mainly produces paper products (greeting cards, art prints, notecards) but has recently expanded into pillows. Many of the company’s designs have a sort of Edward Gorey quality to them (but, more upbeat, like if Gorey went to therapy), but they are also surprisingly kid-oriented, featuring birds and bears. The pillows are made in the USA out of organic linen and are great for adults and kiddies alike. Watch for new designs, with mice and bunnies, based on Binth’s “cameo card” collection, out this month. Available at Sprout Home and Grow.

—GINA BAZER

Photos from binth.com

Pauline Grace is displaying a new collection from Moserform, by furniture designer Thomas Moser. We’re not big Art-Nouveau fans, but these pieces caught our eye with their elegant restraint. They’re available through designers and architects.

—JAN PARR

Photography copyright MOSERform, from moserform.com

http://michael-associates.com/HInsdale%20IL_Res2.htm

If you love the whole Dale Chihuly-colored-glass thing, you’ll want to check out Prodigy Glassworks, a new studio I recently spotted on the happening Harrison Street strip in Oak Park, (on the way to yoga, natch). Matt Kwilas and Bob Johnson moved the studio from Westmont—both have experience in big-name studios like the Corning Museum of Glass. Let them make something for your home or garden, or take a class.

—JAN PARR

At Wright auction house one recent evening, we thought maybe we were in L.A, except for the foot of snow outside. The people-watching was great for the opening of interior designer Kathy Taslitz’s new sculptural furniture collection, called Pieces of Ourselves. The pieces are no longer on display at Wright, but she’s opening a showroom soon. In the meantime, see the collection on her Web site.

—JAN PARR

Photos from ktaslitz.com

My new husband and his son recently moved into my house, which meant some rearranging and merging of furnishings. So far, good. We decided that my coffee table, a gorgeous expandable, slatted walnut piece from my parents’ home in the 1960s, would look better as a bench against the wall in our entrance. So now we hunt a coffee table. There’s way too much wood in our home—a 1920s bungalow with quarter-sawn oak molding and oak shutters. So more wood is out of the question. Molded plastic is too modern. Glass-topped on thin legs would be fine. I love this Kagan one from Pegboard Modern, but it still might be too much wood. I had a wild idea that the Link sidetable from CB2 would look good. My husband is not convinced.

—JAN PARR