July 2009

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

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

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

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