April 2008

I got a sneak peek at the Merchandise Mart's DreamRooms the other day. I was there to be interviewed for a video that will play on a loop at the Mart promoting the show. (Chicago Home + Garden is the media sponsor of the event.) Some of the Mart's biggest showrooms—Holly Hunt, Donghia, Henredon—had designers showcase their wares in lovely living spaces. DreamRooms doesn't feel as personal and eccentric as DreamHome (which features the work of individual designers who source from all over the Mart), but there's a lot to like here. The mood of the rooms is overwhelmingly glam and sexy: rich, touchable fabrics (love the unfinished drapes in the Green room), gold- and metallic-toned colors, curvy furniture. It's not ’til you get to the last room, an outdoor space designed by Holly Hunt, that straight, modern lines come into play. I really liked the luxe drapery fabric that gets carried over as wallcovering in the Donghia room. My favorite? The C.A.I. bedroom designed by Christopher Guy Harrison—really sexy. Check out this vanity and chair. See it April 25 through July 12.

—JAN PARR

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In all my excitement over new things at the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show, I nearly forgot to mention the new Walker Zanger tile I fell for. This is Sonja’s La Fluer.

—JAN PARR

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I was a bit nervous to go the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show at McCormick Place last weekend. A few years ago, I came home from the expo obsessed with a space-saving microwave/toaster by LG Electronics. I bought it, and it became a sticking point in a subsequent kitchen remodel (I wanted to save it and the designer had to jump through hoops to accommodate it). In the end, it went. I still miss it.
    This year’s show had more to love.
•I guess I have a thing for space savers. This one is a water saver, too: Caravelle’s Caroma toilet with a small sink built on top. I asked a contractor looking at it with me if he’d ever seen such a thing. “Only in prisons,” he said. (A representative for the company said only his and one other company makes them.) But the contractor loved the idea of it for a very small powder room. The water used to wash hands gets re-used to flush the toilet.
•American Range’s French door oven. With one hand both doors open, allowing the user to get up close and personal with her roast, instead of having to lean over an open door. Why didn’t someone think of this before?
•Smeg’s retrofabulous refrigerators in tons of fun colors.
•Element Design’s Eluma illuminated backsplash. It’s backsplash and undercabinet lighting in one; LED lights are hidden inside an aluminum-framed glass or acrylic backsplash.
•i.Formz by Design Studio which is made with Corian and bent, shaped, molded, and punched out any way you can imagine. The booth at K/BIS displayed some lacy cutout panels that were fantastic.

Things that scared me:
•Liquid stainless steel that you spray on an old appliance to make it look like stainless.
•The “Bloomin’ Bidet.” I refused even to get close enough to it to find out more.
•ProSun’s Sunshower, which allows you to tan as you bathe.

—JAN PARR

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It was a Willy Wonka moment at the New York International Gift Fair in February that got me going. Not just my usual craving for Kookaburra licorice (have you had?) and Swedish fish, but for the delicious candy-colored glass that spotted and dotted the football fields full of new products, gadgets, and gizmos launched there. The Urchin vases and lighting from Union Street Glass, available locally at Material Possessions, stopped me cold. The “nubs” resemble vintage milk glasses, clearly gone far down the lane from any grandmotherly roots—much more modern, almost edgy. Lemon yellow…yum.  Tangerine…wow. Raspberry red…pow. Always eager to see where trends land moments and months later, a spin around Barneys New York a few weeks ago, showed me that a craving for colored glass was not missed by its buyers. (Check out the floor to ceiling celebration of the stuff!)  Then I spotted the 1930s Argentine seltzer bottles ($150 each) at Jayson Home & Garden, and I’m sold again. Feels right now to add a splash.

-BARRI LEINER

Vase photo courtesy Union Street Glass

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