07/24/08

Scoop | Black Walnut Plants New Roots


After three years on Division Street, Robert Wayner’s Black Walnut Gallery has moved to the West Loop gallery district. If you love rustic, rough-edged wood tables and benches with a modern sensibility, and contemporary art with a political slant, this is the place to get both. (Through the rest of July and all of August, check out Tolerance of Belief, a group art exhibit featuring 10 Arab and Jewish artists from around the world, “who are making a stand for peace and understanding in the Middle East by displaying their artwork side-by-side.”) Wayner, an artist and furniture maker, is a very friendly man who loves to share stories about the origins of the reclaimed wood he uses to make his furniture.

—GINA BAZER

 

Posted at 08:18 AM in Scoop | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/23/08

InBox | Treasure Trove


We just got word from Steven Burgert, owner of I.D., that the shop is now the exclusive Chicago retailer of Trove wallpaper. This gorgeous paper feels more like art than a wall treatment. I actually would like to buy some just to frame it. It costs about $13 to $16 a square foot.

—Gina Bazer


 

Posted at 08:33 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/22/08

Happy Hour | Florense

  

A stylish crowd of about 200 people came out last week for the opening party of Florense in River North, the Brazilian furniture and cabinetry company. If you didn’t know better, you might have thought you were in the Poliform showroom: the company’s sleek wares are very similar (the internal structure of the cabinets is indeed the same as Poliform’s; the wood veneers are made in Italy and then shipped to the factory in Brazil), at about half the price. The reason? This Brazilian company doesn’t have to deal with the strong Euro/weak dollar issue, and the cost of raw materials and production is lower in South America. This is Florense’s third North American showroom (the others are in New York and Miami). Bonus: the company’s goods have met rigorous ISO green certification standards both for its materials and manufacturing processes. Also find Pallucco Italia lighting and Miele appliances in this 5,000-square-foot showroom.

—JAN PARR


 

Posted at 06:42 AM in Happy Hour | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/21/08

Scoop | Alt Kids’ Portraits


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

Posted at 09:13 AM in Scoop | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/18/08

Scoop | Au Revoir, Le Magasin!


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


 

Posted at 11:33 AM in Scoop | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/17/08

Obsession | Fashionably Cool

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
 

Posted at 08:06 AM in Obsession | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/16/08

InBox | Green Kitchen


 

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
 

Posted at 07:26 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/15/08

InBox | Simes’ Tiles


 

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


 

Posted at 08:43 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/14/08

Spotted | Chill Grill


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
 

Posted at 08:31 AM in Spotted | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/11/08

Scoop | CB2 Represents for Chicago


When the new CB2 catalog arrives in your mailbox this month, you’ll probably find yourself either perfunctorily or obsessively (depending on your mood) perusing a bunch of sleek-looking sofas, beds, and tables set against backdrops of exposed-brick walls decorated with bold-colored prints featuring either Andy Warhol-esque urban scenes or tree branches. Sound about right? Well, this month, at least a few of those prints—one featuring the Sears Tower and others some local tree branches—will be by Chicago artist Matthew Lew. Somehow the fact that these are images of Chicago branches and Chicago buildings shot by a Chicagoan makes me like them all the more.

—Gina Bazer


Posted at 08:17 AM in Scoop | Permalink | Comments (0)
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About This Blog

Design Dose
Design Dose is the online extension of the inspiration, advice, and scoop that Chicago Home + Garden provides every other month, only in smaller doses. Editors Jan Parr and Gina Bazer—as well as special guest bloggers—share news and trends from their in-boxes, confess their latest design obsessions and dilemmas, and take you behind the scenes to exclusive design events and showrooms. Have a local design fave, scoop, or dilemma of your own? Share it with us here.

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Chicago Home + Garden’s trends and products editor Barri Leiner has her finger on the pulse of all things stylish in the world of home design
Contributing writer and copy editor Bradley Lincoln is our turn-to guy for everything from placing commas to tracing trends.

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