The scene: Chicago magazine conference room. The cast: a couple of WGN staffers, Shelterrific blogger Katie Donbavand, me, and some Tile Shop folks, fresh off the plane from HQ in Minnesota. (They brought beer! A local brew called Lakemaid.) Our task: to find the ugliest bathroom in the Chicago area. Some 300 Chicago-area homeowners submitted photos or video of their sorry bathrooms, and made a case for winning the prize from The Tile Shop: all new tile and fixtures for a new bathroom, valued up to $50,000. You may ask: what qualifies a person to judge an ugly bathroom contest? And I would answer that I’m not sure, but we knew ugly when we saw it, what was workable and what was atrocious. Mostly we agreed. A few entries we reviewed were deemed just not ugly enough. The stories were good, and so many people seemed truly deserving of a new bath. In the end, we chose the entry shown above, belonging to Suzanne and Matt Witt of Evergreen Park. The Witts bought the home seven months ago from an owner who had lived there 30 years. It shows: The bathroom floor is covered with pink linoleum square tiles, circa 1960s. The walls are covered in a combination of green and light yellow plastic tiles, some missing. The shower stall is built with a plastic surround with stubborn mold. The Witts, who are expecting a baby, will take on the project themselves, with design help from The Tile Shop. We spread the love around: Rich Richter of Rolling Meadows won all new tile to remodel his classic 1970s gold bathroom, and Jennifer Healy of Palatine won a $500 gift certificate from The Tile Shop to remodel her lime green bathroom. All in all, good clean fun!

—JAN PARR

Sub-Zero and Wolf announced the regional winners of their annual Kitchen Design Contest Thursday night at their showroom in Glendale Heights. Mick DeGiuilio of DeGuilio Kitchen Design won an award for this stunning white kitchen with its artful mix of style references. De Guilio, along with Patrick Landrosh of Landrosh Development and Carla Schultz of Carla 1 Design, (winning kitchen shown at right), and Denise Quade of Bella Domicile in Madison, Wisconsin, will be heading to Florida (all expenses paid) to participate in the national competition (winning prize: $15,000). Local winners, each of whom won a $3,000 credit toward their next Sub-Zero/Wolf purchase, were Cheryl Ryan of Kitchens By Design, Elm Grove, Wisconsin; Tina Muller of Drury Design, Glen Ellyn; and James Dase of Abruzzo Kitchens, Schaumburg. The real winners? City dwellers who found out that Sub-Zero/Wolf will open a huge demo/showroom in LuxeHome at the Mart at the end of the year. Why should suburbanites have all the fun?

—JAN PARR

Over the holidays I went to a party at my friend Jeanne’s home (she of Figaro Parisian Interiors) and met Janet Torelli, who makes handcrafted silver napkin rings (featuring semiprecious stones), serving pieces, ice tongs, martini pics, cocktail stirrers, and more. Her designs, some of which have a Michael Aram vibe to them, would dress up any table. Shown here: sterling/semiprecious gem napkin rings ($675 for eight) and a ginkgo bonbon server ($160).

—JAN PARR

Tradition doesn’t have to mean sweeping pine needles and straightening wobbly candles. Chicago-based architects and interior designers recently spread rather original holiday cheer at Steelcase’s Wreath and Menorah Design Competition and Charity Auction. A circlet of vodka bottles, a garland of back-lit feathers, and a giant metal cage of LEDs were some of the items auctioned off to benefit the Children’s Place Association. All inspired me to think beyond green rings and narrow vessels next year. Skidmore Owings and Merrill’s Colin Gorsuch designed the winning menorah. Made of a cast piece of 8x8 inch solid wax, its computer-generated surface represents the ancient consecrated oil of Jewish tradition. As each wick burns, it reveals some of the menorah's skeletal framework. The reshaping of rituals never looked so good.

—LAURA CASTELLANO

Through January 30, stop by Primitive’s showroom (like you need an excuse) and see the room vignette designed by designer Madeline Gelis. We attended the opening reception a few weeks ago and were wowed all over again by Primitive’s four floors of fabulousness.

—JAN PARR

I knew I never should have brought home the Dux Bed brochure. My husband started flipping through it, becoming more and more engrossed, and disparaging about our “inferior” bed. Thank God I hadn’t taken him to the opening party of Duxiana at Tree Studios! It’s truly hard not to get hooked on what they’re selling (Champagne helps, too): The secret is 4,980 springs in a Dux bed compared to about 1,000 in most mattresses, organic, all-natural materials, headboards that tilt down for reading (and which come with zip-off cover so you can change colors on a whim), zip-off mattress covers (since the bed will likely outlast its cover), and easily customizable support for each side of the bed. Not convinced? You’re welcome to take an up to four-hour nap in the lower-level “sleep room” (shown here). It’s basically a little hotel room outfitted with the silkiest Dux mattress and bed linens. It’s one of the company’s three sleep rooms in the U.S.—in New York, says area manager Mark Wilson, 70 percent of shoppers who take a nap on the bed emerge with credit card ready. (Actually, at between $5,000 and $12,000, it’s not much of a hit for a luxury bed that will likely be the last one you buy.) May my husband never learn of the sleep room.

—JAN PARR

It seems like a world away now, but just a few short weeks ago I was basking in the sun at a luncheon for the opening of the Tiffany & Co. Celebration Garden in Grant Park. With a $1.25 million gift from Tiffany, the local nonprofit Parkways Foundation hired Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects to renovate Grant Park’s south rose garden. With stunning views of Buckingham Fountain and the skyline, this two-thirds of an acre site is available for private events.

—JAN PARR

The American Association of Interior Designers (Illinois chapter) and i4Design magazine presented the annual Design Excellence Awards Thursday night. Two of my favorite winners: A sophisticated kitchen by Barbara Ince and Sarah Davis of Susan Fredman Design Group [susanfredman.com] (which won Best of Show) and John Robert Wiltgen’s lovely bathroom, inspired by his clients’ trip to Florence. Frank Ponterio also won awards for his room in the 2009 Lake Forest showhouse—it appears in the September/October issue of Chicago Home + Garden.

—JAN PARR 

Photos: Ince (kitchen):  Novelli Photodesign; Wiltgen (bath): Wolfe Photography

We spent the long weekend in Iowa City visiting friends, and then heading north to a Usonian-style Frank Lloyd Wright house, Cedar Rock, on a bluff overlooking the Wapsipinicon River. The Walters, a wealthy couple, had the house built for them in 1950 with the intention of leaving it to the state as a tourist attraction. The result is a time capsule from the 1950s: everything has been left as is. It is considered one of FLW's most complete designs—he designed and dictated everything in the house, from the furniture to the dishes and flatware and accessories.

My friend Bob, a city planner, also took me to a great new design store in Iowa City run by architects, Akar, a cross between the Museum of Contemporary Art store and I.D. I bought  some Marimekko potholders. Chilewich, Eva Solo, Blomus, Built NY, Iitala, and other iconic brands are represented here. Also in Iowa City is Design Ranch, a source for Artemide, Knoll, and other design greats.

Iowa City is four hours west of Chicago; the FLW house is another hour and a half north.

-JAN PARR