Architectural Digest Interior Design Show Highlights

Last week I attended AD's Interior Design Show in New York City and the highlight for me was the DIFFA (Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS) fundraiser "Dining by Design". There had to be at least 20 dining room settings designed by members of the design industry that were absolutely spectacular. Imaginative, creative, original, some truly mind-boggling. Over the next week, I'll showcase the most interesting roomscapes for you to see for yourselves.

The first dining room used visual effects - a continuous video of underwater ocean scenes on the walls - that created a sensation of being in a dining room in the sunken city of Atlantis.

The underwater scene was completed by the "algae" chandelier and water-like table and chairs with blue table accents.

The most interesting component in the next dining room was the chandelier - made of wine bottles! It brought back memories of candles lit in Mateus wine bottles (you Boomers know what I'm talking about!) but with a modern edge.

Imagine a dinner held on an outdoor terrace with the New York skyline as a backdrop. Well, this room did have murals of the city skyline on each wall and, dropping from the umbrella lights, a cascade of giant glass bubbles filled with foliage. Fabulous!


Thinking about how to put the "Wow" in your dining room? The various elements of walls, light fixture and table top settings can be easily transformed as shown by these examples. More to come.

Coffered Ceilings

In the new custom houses that we've worked on in the past year, I've noticed that high-end builders are installing coffered ceilings in one or more of the rooms. The effect is dramatic and visually stunning. Most of us consider this luxury detail to be luxury-priced. However, there are many ready-made coffered ceilings products on the market today which can add an extra architectural element to your own home. For the do-it-yourselfer, check out Home Depot's step by step instructions. For those considering a home renovation, ask your contractor to price out a coffered ceiling. You may consider the enhanced value to be well worth the price.

Create a Picture Gallery

Do you have family photos or travel photos that you'd like to display? I have developed great-looking, yet practical, picture galleries for my clients using ready-made picture shelves.

In this example, the 3.5" deep shelves have been painted the same colour as the walls. They disappear from view, allowing for the frames to make a statement. The shelves and frames are uniform to create a specific look.

However, the shelves and frames can be varied in size (length and height) and colour in any configuration, depending on the wall space available, the size of pictures to be included and the other colours and finishes in the room.

Save the expense of custom framing and re-framing. These photos can be easily updated and rearranged to reflect what's happening in your life - family additions, your latest trip ... anything you feel you'd like to display.

Another Interior Design Show 2012 Find

So often it's the chandelier over a dining room table that provides the "WOW" in the room. For contemporary residential design, the custom light fixtures that are made by AM Studio, are absolutely exquisite. These designs can be customized by size, colour and shapes so that each one is unique. Here are a few of my favourites:

Interior Design Show 2012

This past weekend, IDS12 was in town and I scoured each aisle on Trade Day to source new and exciting finds. My clients with renovated kitchens and bathrooms know that I love backsplash tiles - they're the easiest and most economical way to add "wow" to your space. Here are a few that are worth noting:

Each if these tiles from Saltillo Tiles is actually rounded, giving a very cool look. For those of you who don't like patterned kitchen backsplashes and prefer a single colour effect, these tiles still provide a "wow". The smooth texture makes them easy to clean, another consideration when selecting tile for the kitchen.

For those of you who like pattern, these tiles from Orro Mosaics would look amazing in a bathroom!

A combination of ceramic, steel and glass in a dazzling contemporary pattern:

For a more traditional bathroom, imagine this backsplash on the wall behind the mirror. Beautiful!

Stay tuned for my other finds.......

Create your own virtual pin board

Before meeting with my long-time client, Amanda, to discuss a new project, she told me she would email me a link to her "pin board" to give me an idea of what she liked. This "pin board" displayed pictures of furniture, rugs and accessories that she had found on various websites. Thus was my first introduction to Pin Interest, a fabulous website for finding inspiration and great ideas. Not only is it a quick and easy way to copy images into my own pin boards, but it shows what everyone else has put on their pin boards. Here's what my "Products I Love " board looks like that I just started.

I can have as many different boards as I like: "Design Inspiration", "Photography and Art" - the possibilities are endless. And no need to cut out from magazines. As I surf the internet checking out websites, I click on the "Pin It" button on my bookmark toolbar and the image is saved directly to my pin board. So start pinning and follow my pin boards!

Insights into 2012

Happy New Year! Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.

Here's my prognosis for the coming year:

• Whether Canada will continue to avoid the recession that's affected the US and Europe or not, Canadians will redecorate, renovate and improve their homes. This should include an emphasis on planning, budgeting and smart purchases (quality + price = value).
• Social media will be bigger than ever. We'll be spending even more time trying to keep up with friends and relatives' Facebook messages.
• The IPad and apps created to make our lives simpler (4 new design app's in the last couple of months!) will cause information overload to a degree never experienced before.

Here's my 2012 mandate for this blog:

To distill through all that information, to sort out what's worthwhile and to provide you with the most relevant and useful tidbits on a regular and timely basis.

And to start off the year, here's a new product brought to my attention by my client Christine:

Magic Sliders, easy-to-apply cushions for the bottom of furniture that work on hardwood and carpet. There's nothing more aggravating than putting on a felt-type cushion on dining room chairs for the hardwood and then having to move them on a carpet. Problem solved.