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Ad Categories: Home and Garden

Wood Tub by Maax

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This tub had to be the most unusual thing I saw at the Kitchen & Bath show earlier this month. The Viaggi wood tub by Maax is an egg-shaped freestander that comes on a wood base. Wonder how the finish holds up?

—JAN PARR  

Kohler at KBIS

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Kohler always has something to bring to the table, or bathroom as it were. At the recent Kitchen and Bath Industry Show, two new products stood out for me: the Karbon lavatory faucets and the Katagami wading pool lavatory.
The faucets are cool because they bring the convenient articulating and spraying functions of many kitchen faucets into the bathroom, where they’re often needed just as much (men, think how nice it would be to adjust the faucet while you are shaving; women, think how nice it would be to spray those globs of your man’s blue toothpaste down the sink without any contact with the gooey stuff). As for the caste-bronze Katagami basin, it’s just a simple, lovely design that will patina over time and make for an elegant touch in a powder room.

—GINA BAZER

West Heads East

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Simple 24-inch lacquer tray, $59, on 14-inch-high wood stand, $89  Its name used to be synonymous with a trek to Oak Brook. But now West Elm, the budget-and-trend-conscious sibling of Williams-Sonoma, has brought its pebble rugs, armless sofas, and capiz-shell pendant lamps into the city. The new 20,000-square-foot store is divided into loftlike vignettes, and … Read more

Sleek Street

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The contemporary European furniture dealer Home Element has moved to a new location in River North and will now focus primarily on the Italian line Jesse, which specializes in entertainment units, closets, and shelving, but also manufactures sofas, beds, and dining furniture—all of a slick, minimalist persuasion. Called Jesse by Home Element, the 5,000-square-foot showroom … Read more

Eggs in More Baskets

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Past Basket has a gorgeous display of kitchen vignettes at its showroom in west suburban Geneva, but the sample room there has always been the real hub of activity for designers and clients. So when the owners decided to open a 650-square-foot appointment-only River North outpost (due to open this spring), instead of kitchen vignettes … Read more

Nice Save

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For his own home in Bucktown, an architect decides against a teardown and creates a bright, crisply contemporary family house

SIMON SAYS

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Recently I met with Simon Doonan, all-around groovy guy and creative director of Barneys New York. You may know him as the genius behind the store’s traffic-stopping holiday installations or perhaps as Jonathan Adler’s witty Brit of a husband. I caught him sailing through town for a gig at Barneys. Want to know more of what’s on Doonan’s mind? See Barney’s Babble.

What was your most recent home design purchase?
Johnny and I just installed a ping-pong table in our Palm Beach home. It is a ridiculously important part of our lives. We covered it in vintage paisley wallpaper and play right over the accessories. I am a big believer in games and staying in for game night. I love Scrabble and Monopoly too.

Who wears the decorating pants in your family?
I am more of a prankster [he’s fond of putting kitschy books on his shelves]. I defer to Johnny. I see things as displays. I might see a great Pirelli calendar and frame it up. As far as tabletop, forget it. Stemware freaks me out.

What color combinations are you feeling?
I am happy to see orange about. Also with pink—in a sort of St. Laurent combination. In Victorian times, pink symbolized power and courage. You saw it used in hunting. It’s really much more poppy and bold, than girly. I am fascinated by the meaning of color. Like black—it is sexy, satanic, and seen on both widows and floozies. Some colors really have a complicated and complex association, don’t you think?

What’s new at Chelsea Passage at Barneys?
We are excited about new DL & Co.’s Essence of Green Home Fragrance collection—candles and diffusers. Kim Seybert bar accessories and placemats in great brown-and-white graphic prints. Celestina, a refined, glamorous home accessories collection that uses exotic materials and techniques in lacquer, shells, and shagreen. Resin home accessories from Tina Frey—very cool and Zen shapes in vases and bowls. Anything Fornasetti, from pillows and boxes to wall plates and trays. Sydney Albertini hand-painted abstract dinnerware. She will paint any custom design or color, don’t you love that?

—Barri Leiner Grant

Plant a Tree in Your Living Room

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If a tree fell on the Museum of Science and Industry’s campus, would anybody hear it? Yes, indeed they would—and did. Last year, an almost-120-year-old white oak tree originally planted for the World’s Fair went thud, and now it’s been reincarnated as a coffee table by Chicago sculptor and furniture maker Terrence Karpowicz. This lovely piece has just been installed at the museum’s Smart Home exhibit, replacing the prototype that was there before (the prototype shown above is now available for purchase through Karpowicz). Smart Home is open through January 9, 2011.

—GINA BAZER