Judging by what we’ve seen in our New York friends’ apartments, the city isn’t generally known for big kitchens, or even medium-size ones. Maybe that’s why House Beautiful turned to a Chicago designer, Mick De Giulio, to create its 2012 Kitchen of the Year. His 1,000-square-foot space, on display in New York’s Rockefeller Center through July 20, includes two fully functional kitchens (one indoor, one outdoor), a dining area, a butler’s pantry, and a cozy seating area with a fireplace. While we’re smitten with the blue ceiling in the butler’s pantry and the navy-blue sink in the kitchen proper, we’re not so sure about the full-length mirror leaning against one wall. Wouldn’t that, you know, kind of spoil a person’s appetite? But the rest is pretty fantastic. De Giulio said he focused on the “idea of livability” when cooking up his design. We’re thinking we could happily live in his lovely kitchen.

Metal smith Christopher Gentner earned his reputation over the last 20 years fabricating high-end furniture and architectural pieces for the likes of Holly Hunt, Donghia, and Caste at a facility on South Albany Avenue. But now, in addition to that work, he’s offering his own designs at a showroom in River North—and they’re pretty great. His desks, stools, coffee tables, and other furniture often incorporate leather, wood, and glass as well as metal. He even does a bit of jewelry, small tabletop pieces, and decorative hardware. We are especially drawn to this sleek steel-and-glass bar cart, but we also were taken with Gentner’s clever stainless steel wall hooks. And we spotted another great new piece at NeoCon: this bronze and walnut Bent Desk.

Boffi is spreading its glamorously minimalist wings a bit in River North. The Italian design company recently relocated from its digs in Luminaire to a 2,000-square-foot space in Maxalto, next door, and it’s a great place to check out Boffi’s sleek kitchen, bath, and wardrobe systems. “We look forward to being a part of the dynamic design community in Chicago and feel that Boffi’s products offer broad appeal to design-minded homeowners in the area,” CEO Roberto Gavazzi said about the move. The new showroom, at 309 W. Superior St., is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, Saturday by appointment.

Lincoln Park Cooperative Nursery School in Old Town recently upgraded its 500-square-foot backyard to an “outdoor classroom” with help from the Arbor Day Foundation’s Nature Explore program and Christy Webber Landscapes. The space, filled with planters, rain barrels, wood “tree cookie” stepping stones, and natural woodchips and brick pavers with which children can dig and build, doesn’t exactly resemble a typical preschool playground. School director Shannon Nagy said teachers wanted to create an outdoor extension of the classroom—a space for children to garden, dig, build, make art, engage in dramatic play, and enjoy water activities—a space often difficult to come across in urban environments.

We wondered what we could learn about creating outdoor spaces that benefit children and also please the adult eye. Nagy gave us these tips.

• Use nice-looking indoor-outdoor fabric to create a little stage area for children's dramatic play (the school built multilevel wooden platforms for this purpose).

• Natural materials like wood, brick, and stone are preferable to plastic and other synthetic materials. 

• Consider leaving a space for digging and manipulating soil, sand, and/or water (the school has a designated messy area)—and be okay with the fact that this area is going to be less aesthetically pleasing than the rest of your garden. The benefits for children outweigh the distress of the mess!

• Designate space for an outdoor art studio where kids can draw, collage, sculpt, build mobiles from natural materials, paint with watercolors, or observe the movements of insects and document them on clipboards.

We love a good redo as much, or more, than anyone. So we were happy to receive photos of a great project from Designstorms’ Amy Storm, who worked on a River North penthouse created by combining two units. As you can see, “makeover” doesn’t even begin to describe this transformation. Before starting on it, Storm met only twice with the client, who then went out of town. Over the next ten days, everything was cleared from the apartments except a chandelier in the dining room, and Storm had the millwork contractor, carpet installer, electrician, painter, and drapery installer work around the clock. The furniture arrived on day ten, and the homeowner returned to Chicago two hours later. This is the stuff of HGTV, people! Check out the fresh new look and beautifully updated furnishings. Who wouldn’t love to go out of town and return to such a new-and-improved abode?

Last week, we gave you the scoop on the Vintage Bazaar, and now we’ve got more Uptown goodness to share. The first Vintage Garage Chicago took place June 17, and retro-hungry shoppers lined up to browse vintage bicycles, housewares, clothing, jewelry, appliances, and all kinds of decorative pieces from more than 100 dealers. Lucky us: The event will be held again July 15 and on the third Sunday of every month thereafter, through October. It runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in a parking garage at 5051 Broadway (between Argyle and Foster); entry is $3.

Lake Forest’s own Architectural Gardens, a landscape design firm, recently won a nice prize—a gold award in the residential landscape construction category of the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association’s Excellence in Landscape competition. For the winning project, The Modern Garden (created for a Lake Bluff home), all lawn was removed and new shrubs, trees, and ground covers were added, along with bluestone paths, masonry seat walls, and several patios. Designer Margaret Morrissette divided the yard into distinct outdoor rooms that include a grilling and dining area, a spot for an herb garden, a teen lounge, and a cozy seating area around the fireplace for entertaining. The before-and-after photos are jaw-dropping – talk about a transformation! You can view more photos here.

When we received these photos, we immediately got on board with homeowner and designer Beata Malinowski’s taste for baroque elements with a contemporary edge. After moving from Oak Park to Chicago with their teenage daughter, Malinowski and her husband decided to take on a remodeling project, adding an atrium between the garage and the house. They now enjoy summer evenings on these crisp white couches and look forward to fireplace action when the weather cools. Speaking of cool, we’re liking the glamorous Hollywood vibe of Malinowski’s kitchen. For more information, Malinowski can be reached at stawcia64@comcast.net.

We’re a big fan of bathroom renovations, so these photos of a master-bath makeover in a fourth floor walk-up near the Merchandise Mart caught our attention. The room has a curbed wall and skylights, so Inspired Interiors designer Emily Mackie turned the space into an open-air wet room. The cool-hued tile is Turkish in honor of the owner’s heritage, and her personality shines even more in this bathroom, as the young River North–dweller painted the abstract artwork herself. The MTI Antigua free-standing tub certainly doesn’t look like a shabby place to bathe, and that glass of champagne looks pretty relaxing, too.

We recently received photos of some wonderful woodwork pieces out of Skokie’s New Breed Furniture. Last spring, we wrote about the duo behind the store, carpenter-designer John Lindsay and architect Alessandro Paradiso and the buzz surrounding New Breed as the two made fans out of Scout owner Larry Vodak and actor Mark Ruffalo. We’re loving this custom millwork entertainment center that looks like it could hold just about everything you own, as well as this cubby desk, which gives a modern spin to an old-school piece. Mr. Ruffalo was right about these two, and you can see more of their designs, including desks, chairs, dining tables, coffee and side tables and consoles online.