July 2009

07/30/09 InBox | Baumeister’s Back We were shocked when we heard that Baumeister Electronic Architects, one of the city’s top integrators (the guys who automate your home’s lights, security, thermostats, music, movies, and video games) fell victim to the recession in January, leaving clients in a lurch as the firm was liquidated. But wait! There’s a happy ending. John Baumeister has been hired by Automated Lifestyles here as business development manager, and the firm bought Baumeister’s remaining assets from liquidators. Baumeister’s former service and maintenance manager is on board, too, to work with Baumeister’s previous clients. That must be music to their ears. —JAN PARR Posted at 12:35 PM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/29/09 Spotted | Coveted Closet Who hasn’t dreamed of a closet like this? This new luxe system, called Valet, is from Neff. The modular design offers tons of cool features, including wooden hangers with stitched leather; leather-faced toe kicks and ceiling scribes; chrome spiral hangers to hold up to 60 garments for corner storage; and roll-out, leather-trimmed shirt shelves with softly curved glass fronts (the better for viewing your bespoke creations). Are you worthy? Pat Borg of Neff promises to soon show us a Valet system he’s installing in an area home—it sounds incredible. In the meantime, ogle the model on display on the first floor of the Mart in LuxeHome, near the Neff showroom. —JAN PARR Posted at 09:58 AM in Spotted | Permalink | Comments (1)

07/28/09 Spotted | Brimfield, Meet Bleeker Street Bleeker Street (847 W. Grand Ave.), a fun, well-edited antique shop run by Denise Odell now has a 400-square-foot satellite shop in the back of Brimfield (a great antique shop owned by Julie Fernstrom located at 5219 N. Clark St. Find everything from big wooden planters and dough bowls to cows skulls and vintage furniture. —Gina Bazer Posted at 10:56 AM in Spotted | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/27/09 InBox | Just Add Sand York Wallcoverings claims to be the first American manufacturer to add sand to wallpaper, and we are inclined to believe them. The company describes the process as “a lot like a child’s glitter-and-glue project,” but as you can see, the results are grown-up indeed. The sand adds subtle texture. Shown here is lattice on charcoal non-woven with white sand from Candice Olson Dimensional Surfaces ($130 per roll). Buy it locally through Finishing Touches Interiors, 227 W. North Ave., 312-787-5404. —JAN PARR Posted at 09:54 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (2)

07/24/09 InBox | Robert Bergelin Closes It’s always sad to see a family-owned company shut its doors, but after 15 years of selling handcrafted traditional furniture, Robert Bergelin Company is going out of business. All remaining merchandise will be liquidated over the course of the next few Fridays and Saturdays, or until supplies last. See the Web site for details. —GINA BAZER Posted at 10:24 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/24/09 Spotted | A House Tour Tate Gunnerson, who also contributes to Chicago Home + Garden, has blogged about our Oak Park home on StrangeClosets. His photos are really lovely, and it makes me want to put the house on a tour all over again. Having the talented Lauren and Courtney of Kelly + Olive stage our house was a complete happy trip. They staged it for the tour, but ended up staging it for our life. We haven’t changed a thing since they spruced up the place (using all of our own stuff) for the South Oak Park Style tour. The hammock we strung between our two giant pines because we thought it would look good has become a favorite spot for reading. The living room arrangement is far more comfortable. I actually now want to hang out on the front porch, with its defined dining area, and the newly fab front study. I buy flowers just for us. The lessons: 1. Bring in a pro! Another set of eyes really helps, no matter who you are. (It really helps to like your pros. We had a blast with Courtney and Lauren, who really seemed to get our style and had an appreciation for both old and new, and a talent for both furniture placement and vignette styling). 2. Set a deadline! A big party is ideal. 3. Enjoy it! It’s not about staging your home for other people; it’s about loving it every day. —JAN PARR  Posted at 10:24 AM in Spotted | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/23/09 InBox | In the Bag Need a new custom look for your kitchen but can’t afford to shell out the money for a design consult? Not interested in spending hours going from showroom to showroom trying to figure out what tile goes with the countertops you like? A local kitchen design firm, KitchenLab, has come up with a solution they call Design in a Bag. Rebekah Zaveloff, the designer behind KitchenLab, created designinabag.com with her husband, John Nichols, to give homeowners a simple and inexpensive way to get professionally coordinated finishes for their kitchens. Chose your style (modern, classic, vintage), and then select from several different looks (shown here: the Highgate). Bags are priced between $99 and $199 and include samples of cabinetry, countertop, tile, glass, and four 8” x 10” paint samples. You also get four color 3D renderings showing your finishes with the different wall colors, plus info on how to buy and care for your finishes. Coming soon: Design in a Bag for the bath. —JAN PARR  Posted at 09:58 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/22/09 InBox | Green and Stylin’ Office HOK, a global architectural and design firm, just sent us some images of its new Chicago office space in the CNA Building. Besides being cool, it has received LEED Platinum certification, the highest level of green-ness offered by the U.S. Green Building Council. I’m green with envy. —JAN PARR Posted at 09:42 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/21/09 Spotted | Jammin' The new Ukrainian Village brunch spot Jam doesn’t only offer a yummy gourmet brunch at a reasonable price—it’s got some great design going on, too. An open kitchen keeps things casual, while chic, modern touches throughout the space give it an upscale flavor. The décor is simple: gray walls broken up with lots of white moldings and mirrors. Ligne Roset’s Plexi light fixtures (from the Josephine 5d collection) add some glamour on the walls, while CB2’s pressed vinyl Dot placemats by Chilewich in citrine lend some punch—and civility—atop charcoal-hued stone tables. If you’re in a decorating, um, jam, find some inspiration here. Jam, 937 North Damen Ave., 773-489-0302 —Gina Bazer Posted at 11:37 AM in Spotted | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/20/09 InBox | Dandy-lions! These fun chairs by Anna Hrecka, inspired by the dandelion, are newly available at IQMatics in Schaumburg, one of the suburbs’ hippest furniture stores. The Comfee, as it’s called, comes in black or white mesh ($699) or aniline leather ($2,299) in several colors and stitched patterns. —JAN PARR Posted at 11:47 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/17/09 InBox | Dispatch from Paris A friend of mine just went to Paris and, knowing that Design Dose readers would appreciate it, snapped this photo of Belgian fashion designer Dries Van Noten’s boutique there. My friend said it best: “It was the perfect blend of done and undone, luxe but not pretentious. And so original—just like Dries himself.” The New York Times covered its 2007 opening here. The space was formerly a bookstore and I love how Dries kept that feeling alive with the tall shelves, replacing books with clothing and using those tomato red boxes as accents. The use of color is fantastic.  —Gina Bazer Posted at 09:57 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/16/09 InBox | Kitchen Walk! If you haven’t seen the Chicago Home + Garden July/August Kitchen & Bath issue yet, we thought we’d get you in the right frame of mind by sharing notes from our colleague, Kristin Shea, after she attended the Parenthesis Kitchen Walk in Oak Park this spring. Here, five things she found very impressive. Porcelain tile floor that mimics the look of hardwood We came across a dark wood floor (above, top) that was actually porcelain tile! The designer of the kitchen was Pamela Polvere.   Stainless steel-like countertops Also in Polvere’s kitchen, we saw a very sleek, shiny silver countertop. I'm not sure if the material was chrome or stainless or if it was just the finish applied onto a stone, but we thought it was cool.     Barbara Barry for Ann Sacks backsplash I loved the diamond pattern of the Barbara Barry tile that designer Jean Stoffer used in her kitchen (above, center).   Lots of refrigerator and freezer drawers We toured a lot of smaller kitchens with limited space. While this isn't a new idea, we were still impressed by the use of space. We also liked the sink made from a solid block of granite (above, bottom) by Designs For Living.    -Kristin Shea Posted at 11:42 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/15/09 InBox | Toms-Price Sale Toms-Price’s annual furniture warehouse blowout is this weekend. Stickley, Baker, Henkel, Harris, and other manufacturers are sending truckloads of excess inventory to liquidate at 40 to 70 percent off retail. Find lots of rugs, Ephraim Pottery, and more. 279 Madsen Dr., Bloomingdale, 630-924-2070.  -Jan Parr Posted at 10:46 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (1)

07/14/09 InBox | Go Cubs, Go! Despite my Texas roots—born and bred—I’m acutely aware of Chicago’s love for the Cubbies. I’m reminded of this romance each time my train glides past Wrigley field to and from work, or when I bump into a fan on game day. So when I came across Valspar’s new line of Cubs paint I thought, “Now that is love.” Valspar recently provided Wrigley Field with the paint to restore its marquee and scoreboard, and to commemorate the occassion, Valspar came out with three limited-edition colors—Pinstripe Blue, Ivy Green, and Marquee Red. The colors are perfect for a kids’ room or game room, although I’m already picturing husbands across Chicago trying to pull fast ones on their wives. “But you said you wanted a blue bedroom, Sweetie!” Available at all Chicagoland Lowe’s stores through December. A gallon is $25. — Elizabeth Riley Posted at 10:14 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/13/09 InBox | Raw Deal Union Eighteen’s funky Raw rugs, creatively assembled from rug manufacturers’ scraps, are now available through At Work Design in Forest Park. This is how it works: Come to the shop with paint or fabric swatches in the color family you want, order the size you need through At Work ($25 per square foot), and Union Eighteen will create a neutral-toned rug with color accents matching your specs as closely as possible. Your rug will be ready in about four weeks. At Work will host a meet-and-greet with the founders of Union Eighteen at 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 17. Starting then, for two weeks, the rugs will be ten percent off. —Gina Bazer Posted at 09:59 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/10/09 InBox | New at Palacepapers Local wallpaper and fabric designer Casey Gunschel of Palacepapers just sent us a photo of her latest wallpaper pattern—Heroine, shown above—and, not surprisingly, it’s subtle, nature-inspired, and beautiful. A 27-inch-wide by 5-yard-long roll is $220. All of Gunschel’s designs are hand-drawn and silk-screened on high-quality paper. Her newest cotton-linen fabric, Herringbone (shown above; pattern also available in wallpaper), is also a delight. It goes for $96 per yard. —Gina Bazer Posted at 08:32 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/09/09 Spotted | Cool Cucina A kitchen made entirely of glass and aluminum—no wood framing—seems implausible, but Valcucine has come out with just such a cucina, called the Invitrium, and not only does it look beautiful and completely withstand water, but it’s also about as eco-friendly as you can get. For one thing, glass is made of sand—of which our world has no shortage. And for another, the entire kitchen can be recycled after it has run its course by being disassembled and returned to Valcucine as boxed glass sheets (which is also how it arrives from Italy; it’s assembled for customers on-site). Worried that it will break? It won’t. The glass is windshield-strength. Worried that people will see all your mess in the glass cabinets? They won’t. Exterior glass panels are back-painted, in a variety of colors. —Gina Bazer Posted at 10:01 AM in Spotted | Permalink | Comments (1)

07/08/09 Spotted | Ethan Allen’s New Look As soon as you walk through the doors of the newly revamped Ethan Allen at 1900 N. Halsted St. in Lincoln Park and see the glamorous vignette pictured above, you sense the company has updated its look. It’s still traditional but feels more of-the-moment; some collections are downright modern. There is also a user-friendly component: The store’s first level is divided into rooms decorated in distinct styles—Global, Metro, Villa, etc.—with descriptive commentary printed on the walls for each one. (I find that sometimes it helps to have a definition of—or at least some words to describe—what I like.) If you go to the company’s Web site, you can also take a quiz to help you figure out your aesthetic. Take their assessment with a grain of salt—my style was deemed Loft and I just moved to a house in the ’burbs! But I found the words that Ethan Allen uses to define Loft to be pretty darn consistent with what I like: “Energetic. Fashion-driven. Practical. Materials borrowed from industry, architecture, and nature. Clean shapes. Punches of color. Spontaneous and fresh. Kids and pets? Bring them on.” Not bad at all, Ethan Allen. —Gina Bazer Posted at 09:48 AM in Spotted | Permalink | Comments (2)

07/07/09 Happy Hour | Weekend Warrior 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 Posted at 09:57 AM in Happy Hour | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/06/09 Spotted | On the Dot Calling all fans of Blu Dot. Urban Outfitters is carrying some pretty cool items from this hip furniture manufacturer.  The Bendzo three-seater is a nice-looking and reasonably priced ($648) option for a hide-a-bed. Also shown above, the Slider console ($548) and Easy Rider side table ($148). Very fresh, fun pieces that could work for a teenager’s room or perhaps a home office. And for yet more good prices on Blu Dot, hit I.D., where the line is on sale until the end of the month. —Gina Bazer Posted at 10:57 AM in Spotted | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/02/09 InBox | Orren’s New Cabinets Orren Pickell Designers & Builders has introduced a line of custom cabinetry it’s calling The Signature Collection. Here are a couple of gorgeous examples of what they can do. —JAN PARR Posted at 08:12 AM in InBox | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/01/09 Scoop | Floored! In the past 75 years, Rode Bros., a firm that installs fine hardwood flooring, has created floors in The White House, the Getty Museum, Christies in Beverly Hills, and the Ronald Reagan Library, among other places. Now Rode, which has showrooms in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Honolulu, has a showroom here, at 300 W. Grand Ave. (by appointment only; call 773-398-8758). —JAN PARR Posted at 09:46 AM in Scoop | Permalink | Comments (1)

About This Blog

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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