March 2008

We just got a note from the ladies at Stockholm Objects in Hinsdale that they have moved into a larger space and expanded their selection of home design (they also carry clothes). This means if you are willing to make the trek out to Hinsdale you will be rewarded with a fab selection of Scandinavian home goods. (Live in Hinsdale? Go now!) You’ll find accessories like the cool Block lamp, $125, and Tablo tray table, $159, (both by the Swedish company Design House Stockholm) and lots of clean-lined dinnerware and kitchen utensils. 39 S. Washington St., 630-655-0966. 

—GINA BAZER

Photo credit: Photos from stockholmobjects.com

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My husband and I have been shopping for a new house for months and if we ever find a home that we both agree upon and that we can actually afford, it will be a miracle. Here’s one issue. While we both want a vintage place, we are divided on our preferences for original wood trim (husband likes; I don’t). All the real estate ads make a big deal about “original woodwork,” and I when I arrive at these places I feel the weight of history pressing on me the second I walk through the door. If I buy this place, am I morally obligated to carry on this torch of originality? In wanting to paint the woodwork white, am I as evil as all those developers who destroy old buildings to put up hideous new construction?

I turned to two interior designers, Laura Soskin and Jessica Lagrange, to get their two cents. Both were adamant: Paint it white! “Just because that’s how they used to do it doesn’t mean that’s how it should stay,” said Soskin. “White is modern—your house doesn’t have to look like grandma’s!” Lagrange added, “Many times, the wood itself is nothing special—just stained pine.” That made me feel better. Now I just have to find the house.

—GINA BAZER

Living room photo from Jameson Realty.
Soskin’s home photographed by Nathan Kirkman.

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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

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