After a soft launch in December, interior designer Cindy Bardes Galvin’s Winnetka home store, Maze, is now officially open for business at 735 Elm Street, in the posh suburb’s East Elm business district. Galvin moved to Winnetka in 1980 and started a design firm, Bardes Interiors, out of her own home... Read more
Baby, it’s cold outside, but that’s no reason to hibernate. How about a road trip? There’s big doings going on this week at Winterfest in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (about 75 miles from downtown Chicago), a popular vacation spot which has recently spawned a surprising number of home design stores and galleries. Philip Sassano, of Chicago’s Refined Rustic design studio, recently hung a shingle in the 262 area code, and is excited... Read more
Christine Noelle, who owns the sweetly chic Lincoln Park flower and gift shop Dilly Lily with her sister, Melissa, is not one to rest on her florals. The pair opened Dilly Lily in 1996, and it’s blossomed into a popular go-to florist for creative weddings and events, as well as a source for unusual candles, tableware, and stationery. I’ve gotten several gifts and arrangements from DL over the years, and the packaging and presentation is amazing. Christine has just opened... Read more
Artists and restaurants have always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship—free rotating interior embellishment for the establishment, free exposure, sales opportunities, and maybe an occasional slice of tiramisu for the creator—but it’s not all that often that diners have the chance to meet, greet, and eat with the artists in situ. The upscale, esteemed Blackbird is continuing its Salon Series dinners in the private upstairs dining room next Wednesday, January 27, with a showing... Read more
I was driving down North Avenue the other day and noticed the birth announcement of a West Elm home store, sprouting up at North and Sheffield, in the old Whole Foods space. The modern furniture chain has planted the seeds for its first Chicago branch, opening February 3, and creative director Alexandra Bates is pretty excited about it. “We are thrilled to be expanding into the Chicago market,” shae says, “especially with the success... Read more
The annual Pagoda Red warehouse sale is coming up this weekend, and owner Betsy Nathan says it’s going to be a whopper. “This year it will be gigantic,” Bets told me, “because we’re relocating our warehouse to be closer to the Bucktown showroom, and we really want to lighten our load before the move.” Expect discounts up to 80 percent on quality... Read more
Like many high-end hotels, every few years the Ritz-Carlton likes to shake things up and renovate its lobbies and promenade, changing out the furniture and accessories. Chicago’s own Ritz is in the process of doing just that, and it has shipped a shipload of elegant, quality goods over to Fort Pitt Furniture Liquidators to sell next weekend at its cavernous Bridgeport location, 1400 W. 37th Street. There are sure to be some great deals... Read more
If you were planning on checking out DreamHome at the Merchandise Mart, wake up and smell the coffee—organizers have put that inspirational, aspirational show to bed, and you’ve snoozed and loozed. (You can keep the dream alive and kill time before the next annual DreamHome opens in April 2010... Read more
This week’s issue of Domestica is coming to you from a very steamy Southern Florida, so grab some SPF-gazillion and a caipirinha, papi, and let me tell you about some happening art and design events that made SOBE the feverish epicenter of the artistic community for a week, and captured international media attention... Read more
Get to Johnathon, swift, if you want to take advantage of a storewide floor-sample sale. Everything in John Gray’s (a former Bravo TV Top Design contestant, don’t you know…) Lakeview home store is half-off, including this linear silver-leafed mirror which has been reduced to $600. The shop is at 3161 N. Halsted St.; the sale runs through Sunday. And remember when I told you about Zella Brown’s big clearance sale a couple of weeks ago? As it happens, Zella Brown’s owner, Trisha London... Read more