08/13/09
I had dinner recently at Nightwood, a wonderful place from the Lula Café people (see our story about the fantastic artwork at Lula here that was designed by Kevin Heisner (Empire Liquors, Bar DeVille, Angels & Kings). While going to the bathroom was not the highlight of the evening, I was impressed by howstylin’ it was for a loo (don’t laugh—we take bathroom design seriously around here!). It felt like it belonged in a vintage apartment more than arestaurant, actually. Heisner and his team did all the moldings and painted them in Benjamin Moore’s Honey Oak to match the handmade Moroccan cement tiles on the floor (from the online dealer Mosaic House. I love the black sink, too, though it could use some nicer pipes sticking out underneath. If you want a vintage look that feels fresh, try this for inspiration.
—GINA BAZER
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08/12/09
Ever since Scout opened six years ago, it has been home to the unique conversation-starting lamps of Ted Harris. If you are a fan of these re-purposed beauties, made of everything from bases of desk chairs to old globes to bowling balls, then Scout is the place to be this Friday night at 6-ish, when the shop will be illuminated by dozens of them, made especially for this special Ted-fest. Of course they'll be there until they're sold out, but Scout throws a pretty good party.
-GINA BAZER
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07/07/09
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Over the July 4th weekend, I celebrated our country’s independence by doing some home improvement. I put up some DIY café-style curtains in our kitchen (shown above; please excuse the wilting bananas that will hopefully be made into bread shortly), using four oversized dinner napkins from Dwell Studio, and two tension rods and some clip rings from Bed Bath & Beyond. It was so easy to do and doesn’t look very professional, but my boss Jan loved it so much she insisted I blog it, so here it is! My husband and I also painted an accent wall in our home office in blackboard paint from Benjamin Moore. The idea was that we could leave notes on it and our son could draw on it, but the deep charcoal surface looks so beautiful untouched that it will be a shame to actually use it. What I’ve learned from this experience is that dark looks good, and not only at other people’s houses! Now I want to paint every room in the house this color. Did anyone see J. Crew creative director Jenna Lyons’ house in the late Domino (see above)? She has this bold hue in multiple rooms. But my husband thinks we better not overdo it at our house so I’m closing the paint can on this one—for now.
—Gina Bazer
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06/23/09
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Rain may have dampened the turnout at The Guerrilla Truck Show on Tuesday, but, luckily, design enthusiasts could seek shelter and satisfy their cravings at the corner of Huron and Franklin where an empty showroom was taken over for the night by Object Society, an ad-hoc consortium of Chicago-based furniture designers. It was hard not to caress Michael Dreeben’s midcentury-modern inspired chair covered in a creamy tan cowhide (see photo above). Dreeben’s curvy lines also showed up on a cocktail table and wood-veneered light fixtures (pictured above), which he did in collaboration with Ray Doeksen -- their simple elegance the result of countless hours of engineering, according to Ray. Michael Koehler never ceases to impress us with his gorgeous walnut creations, and the credenza he had on display made me consider whether all I might need to make me happy was one piece of furniture. (Did I dream it, or did the credenza really open up to reveal a hidden storage space for a rifle?) Other highlights included a great new floor lamp and fabulous teak outdoor lounge chair (pictured below) by Carson Maddox (Maddox’s pieces are on display for a limited time at Lee Weitzman’s showroom in the same building); Jason Lewis’s refined lounge chair (pictured below); metal nesting tables (pictured above) in a perfect color palette by metal+works; more inventive takes on recycled furniture by Roscoe Jackson -- I was particularly taken by his white recycled-plastic nightstand with one organically shaped wood drawer. The group plans to hold other events in the future -- follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates!
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—MEGAN DUFFY ROSTAN
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06/19/09
We attended a party at MaxAlto on Superior Street last week and loved the vignette in the window—a perfect example of how to use color punches in a neutral setting. Speaking of color, we’re looking for bold uses of color in a room—if you’ve got a publication-quality photo of a colorful room you think we’d like, send it along, to jparr@chicagomag.com. We’ll contact you if we want to discuss using it in our September/October issue.
—JAN PARR
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06/11/09
How does she do it? How does designer Kara Mann just keep finding more and more cool stuff for her showroom (above Hubbard Street in a huge, airy space with black-painted walls and floors)? I’m wowed every time I go there, never more so than last week, when she threw a party in celebration of her newest line, by Debra Weninger Design. Weninger, a Holly Hunt alum (you may remember we included Weninger in our feature about Holly Hunt grads who go on to do big stuff of their own in our May/June 2008 issue), has a couch, a sexy table, terrific mirrors, and these fab chairs, embroidered by Holland & Sherry, on display.
—JAN PARR
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06/03/09
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The girls from Kelly & Olive were at it again last week, making major improvements to our home in preparation for the South Oak Park house walk June 20. I wish we’d taken “before” shots, but suffice it to say our spaces did not look anything like this. Design lesson #1: group like objects for maximum effect. We had three sad little pieces of art hung randomly around the doorframe on our enclosed front porch; Lauren and Courtney gathered more (all from our home) and arranged it in a cute cottagey way. The final touch? An old hat they found in a closet. Three antique wood crates that were spread around the porch willy-nilly were stacked together to make a place for shoes and boots. In our front office, the decorators moved our desk against the window, closed the shutters, and placed art against them. (Lesson #2: think like a designer!) The room seems so much bigger now (we have room for a bookcase), and it’s a space I actually want to work in. House walk, we’re (almost) ready for you!
—JAN PARR
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05/27/09
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If you have not been to the Mart’s south lobby lately, do yourself a favor and check it out. There you’ll find an incredible installation of Buckminster Fuller’s “Fly’s Eye Dome,” which was built for the Mart’s recent Artropolis exhibit (and to promote the Buckminster Fuller exhibit at the MCA. Made of 50 fiberglass sections, it’s 24 feet high, and weighs 3,500 pounds. Fuller, an architect and all-around visionary had originally conceived of this design as pre-fab affordable housing (the holes were for windows). So it’s appropriate that the Mart incarnation is filled with—and surrounded by—futuristic-looking furniture from the Vitra showroom, including the cool Vegetal chairs (whose design is inspired by the shape of a mature tree) and the funky high-backed Alcove sofas, both by French brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, shown above. The amazing green mass that hangs around the chandelier inside the dome is also from Vitra—called Algues, it’s actually a puzzle-like plastic room divider comprised of branches that can be assembled and molded into any shape or size. The dome and furniture will be on display through mid-June, coming down after the Mart’s major commercial furnishings show, NeoCon.
—Gina Bazer
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05/26/09
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Some months ago I agreed to put our house on a tour in Oak Park on June 20, called South Oak Park Style: A Tour of Modest Homes. Our home is indeed modest (it’s a 1,700-square-foot Prairie-style bungalow). Worthy of a tour? Don’t ask me. I’m the editor of a design magazine, of all things, so as you might imagine, I’m exposed to tons of gorgeous interiors everyday in my job that I can’t afford and don’t have the time to execute in my own home (I believe you are familiar with the cobbler’s children….) .
One reason I agreed to the tour is: stagers. That is, People Who Take What You Have and Rearrange it to Look Nice for the Tour. And maybe bring a few accessories/flowers in. And get you to hide things in closets. My stagers, from the firm Kelly + Olive, introduced their low-cost, transparent decorating service to me via e-mail one day and the two seemed perfect for the task. Lauren and Courtney (Lauren is the brunette) are young, enthusiastic, and full of great ideas. On Monday they showed up and started moving everything around. Using what we already have, they rearranged and edited. I opened beers, and it became a party. When they demanded (OK, suggested) that I trim back an out-of-control hanging plant, I immediately complied. “Look at that! They squealed. You have a dining room!” OK, it’s true that the plant had taken over the space.
They suggested we move my most treasured painting, by local artist Traci Ostmann-Haschke (see above), to a place of prominence, where guests could see it immediately upon entering. Why didn’t I think of that? They rearranged the living room furniture. We love it. They arranged pottery and a Michael Aram candelabra on the fireplace where it can be seen, diplomatically rejected some items (what fun it is to evaluate all one’s objects objectively!), got tired, and left. They will return. And I’ll blog and post some more photos.
—Jan Parr
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05/22/09
 |  | Chicago artist Ben Brandt's work was featured in our Jan/Feb issue, is currently on display on the walls of the Smart Home, and will be coming soon to some guy's Bridgeport bedroom. Seriously. If you're chillin' in the city for Memorial Day, the show is kicking off with an opening reception on Friday, May 22, from 7–11 p.m. at the Second Bedroom Project Space, a seven-by-twelve-foot room with 10-foot ceilings and an intrusive flashing blue light courtesy of the neighboring CPD. (Gotta love a gallery mission statement that says it encourages risk-taking work as long as it doesn't result in losing the owner's security deposit or getting evicted.) Brandt is tackling the role of the interior designer in this installation, blurring the boundary of the body and architecture “with floral arrangements, flannel, site-specific paintings, and sculpture.” Huh. He also has work up in “Artists Run Chicago,” a group show celebrating the 70th year of the Hyde Park Art Center. Happy anniversary to HPAC, Happy Memorial Day to Design Dosers, and go to your room, Ben! -BRADLEY LINCOLN
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