Design Wrap Up: What I Saw at ICFF

There was a lot to take in at this year's International Contemporary Furniture Fair. (I posted quite a bit about the show for Metropolis magazine over the weekend and a list of those posts is included at the end.) Here are some of my favorites...



The amazing Vegetal Chair from Vitra. I absolutely love it. So do other designers—it won an award at the show.


One of my favorites: a powder-coated steel rain collection system from HERO Design Lab. No more plastic rain barrels!


The Oslo Collection by Moe


New radio collection from Tivoli.


Chairs from Itoki.


The new branching light fixture from Lindsey Adelman (pictured above).


Ceramics with advice (above and below) from Areaware.




More ceramics from Areaware.


Not so much of a favorite as an oddity. I call this "When cotton balls attack."


Ferm Living! I got to covet all the wallpaper.


Hutch from Iannone.


I love the legs on these chairs.


The MICA booth. Hometown Baltimore represented beautifully with this well-conceived student booth. MICA was one of only four schools invited to participated. Martin Pedersen, the Executive Editor at Metropolis, picked it as one of his favorites.


Inna Alesina demonstrating product designs in the MICA booth.


A close-up on one of the MICA Panels: food being delivered to urban neighborhoods via a Light Rail system.


I was surprised how much I liked the brushed gold fixtures from Kohler. They look amazing with the new "Honed" collection of sinks.



The British designers had a strong showing this year. I love the wall art and textiles from Catherine Hammerton, above and below.





Adjustable white shelving units from Blu Dot. I want this for my living room.


Fold out sleeper sofa in red from Blu Dot.


New line of lighting from Blu Dot includes a red fabric-wrapped cord. There was lots of that at the show this year: making the cord a part of the design rather than something to hide.


So many gorgeous wooden chairs. Here are two samples - above and below.



More wood: a cantilevered chair in the Virginia Tech booth.


The pressed glass pendant from Tom Dixon, above and below. It will retail for $290 and will be available in October.



The Ribbon lamp with adjustable head.


Hands coming out of walls seemed to be another trend...






Lots of parties throughout the weekend. Here's the crowd at Blu Dot in SoHo.


I've always loved this red desk from Blu Dot, even when littered with the remnants of cocktails.

More of my ICFF Coverage:

The Elephant in the (Show)Room
Live @ICFF: Coming Clean
Live @ ICFF: Ceramic Tiles of Italy
Live @ ICFF: Pattern Book
Live @ ICFF: Pendants Galore
Live @ ICFF: New from Blu Dot

Live at ICFF

I'm blogging live today from the show floor of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Check out all the coverage at Metropolis magazine.

Blog posts up already this morning include:

New from Blu Dot
Pendants Galore

Tonight!

Tonight is Baltimore's monthly Design Convo at the Wind Up Space. Yours truly will be giving a short presentation on the topic of supermarket floorplans and conspiracy theories. Be sure to pop by.

BALTIMORE DESIGN CONVERSATION #8
"FOOD"
An open forum for presentations & discussion on food shopping in Baltimore.

@ the Windup Space
12 W North Ave (corner of Charles St and North Ave)
Wednesday, May 13
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

House File: Finishing the Bathroom

"Bindweed" wallpaper by Ferm.

I've been working on my 1840's house for four years now and those who know me have been privy to too many stories of plumbing nightmares, contractor debacles, and surprise demolitions. Like the time I discovered I had to pull up the entire kitchen floor only to find that the someone had poured several feet of concrete under there that had to be jackhammered out.

I love reading about renovations on other blogs—and I notice that people leave helpful comments and advice to the writers—so I decided to start an occasional "column" here on Urban Palimpsest called House File. And perhaps writing about it on the blog will give me an outlet so that I won't talk about it so much with my friends and family. They thank you in advance.

Entry #1: The new bathroom.

When I initially renovated the home in 2005, I had plumbing roughed in for another full bath on my third floor. I'm doing this renovation on a really tight budget as funds become available, so everything is taking time. I only recently framed out the room, drywalled it, installed a shower, and put down a new marble floor. And by "me" I mean the incredibly capable team composed of a carpenter, a drywaller, and a tile guy.



Installing the Kohler Archer series shower pan. I bought it at Home Depot for less than the retail price at bath stores.



The bathroom before it had walls.

So now that the physical space is structured, it's time for the details. It's a bright little bath with a casement window and lots of light (though my amateur photography doesn't quite capture that). I pictured an apothecary kind of feel.

Looking into the bathroom. The toilet will go where that white pipe is sticking out. The sink to the right of that. The shower stall sits on the wall opposite the toilet and the sink. You can see a small sample of wallpaper above the window.


The toilet goes on the left, the sink on the right. There are outlets to install sconces above the sink.

The new shower stall created with a Kohler shower pan as the base and outfitted with inexpensive sliding glass doors. Subway tiles run from the floor to the ceiling.



We had some extra space, so we framed in a little bench that you can sit on.


The marble floor is threaded with gray and because of all the light in the room, my husband and I agreed to keep the color palette simple: white, gray, black, and finishes of tile, chrome, and glass. We plan on painting the walls a white with a gray undertone to offset the white trim. I had the idea of putting wallpaper on the one wall with the window and I love the Bindweed pattern from Ferm, but Matt thinks it looks too '70s. Could someone please convince him otherwise? (I'm looking to you, Yalda). Thanks...

Here's an example of it being used above the chair rail in another bathroom with a similar kind of feel. Nice, don't you think?



My husband,Matt, and I went searching for sinks and toilets and we made a stop at Housewerks in Baltimore. We found this great vintage ceramic sink. I love the shape.



Only problem is the height: Matt's over 6' tall and this sink is too short. Bummer. I wonder if I can find a new version that's taller? And doesn't cost too much?

Matt and I have also thought about building our own base and installing a sink on top. We have no storage in this bath, so will need to generate some either with under-sink shelves or over-the-toilet storage. We found this Kohler sink at another salvage place for $3.25.



We also thought about this new one from IKEA:





I also found this nice wall mounted soap dish and cup holder at Housewerks, but decided not to buy it until I figure out the other pieces that will go into the room. I kinda wish I'd just bought it...

Photocartographies Artwork

Los Angeles Fashion District Quilt by Nikolas Schiller. This piece is a photocollage of highly detailed tesselations of USGS imagery.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I contributed an essay to a new book titled Tattered Fragments of the Map. The book (on sale now for $15) is part of a curatorial project that includes an exhibition in L.A. and a series of public programs. You can also purchase artwork included in the book and the show. Participating artists have donated editioned work to help raise money for the Photocartograpaphies project. Prices vary, but are all under $300.

If I can scrape together $250, I will buy this digital composite of Brooklyn by Adam Ryder.

I also like the below print by Noah Beil from his Berms and Drumlins series. He says: "By examining mankind's reshaping of the earth, I explore how we assign positive and negative values to anthropogenic landscape modifications. As human inhabitants of the earth, we are bound to affect the environment. How do we determine whether our modifications have a positive or negative impact on the landscape?"

Metropolis Blog: Preserving the Preakness

I couldn't help tying in the news that Kentucky Derby winner Mine that Bird will be running the Preakness to the fact that Pimlico Race track may become a shopping mall. Check out my latest post on Metropolis magazine.