Utility exhibition stand by Studio Toogood for Tom Dixon

Kips Bay Decorator Show House Opens April 17

The Mets and Yankees are suiting up in new digs, the Tribeca Film Festival is gearing up downtown—sounds like a typical New York spring. But what’s needed to make the season complete is a much-coveted date on the design calendar, the April 17 opening of the 37th annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House.An annual rite of passage for A-list designers, and an eagerly awaited event for their devotees, this year’s edition will makeover the doublewide limestone mansion of real estate tycoon and art patron Aby Rosen, located at 22 East 71st Street on the city's Upper East Side. The official opening night gala is scheduled for April 16, but the festivities will kick-off two days earlier with a tribute to this year’s Design Icon, legendary designer Albert Hadley. The Interior Design Hall of Famer will be honored at the traditional black tie president's preview and benefit dinner on April 14.

In a nod to the honoree, the Show House will feature designers who studied with Hadley, the creative force behind the homes of Brooke Astor, Babe Paley, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The list of participants includes several design legends in their own right, from Gloria Vanderbilt and Amy Lau to a trio of Interior Design Hall of Famers: Jamie Drake, Juan Montoya and Bunny Williams.Lau's contribution will also recognize another luminary, Maya Romanoff, who is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his namesake wall covering company. Lau will collaborate with paper artist Jo Lynn Alcorn on an installation that will utilize Maya Romanoff products in a three-dimensional display that will transform the core of the mansion, a skylight-topped spiral staircase between the second and third floors.Running through May 17, the event raises over $1 million annually for the Kips Bay Boys & Girl Club, a non-profit organization that provides after-school and enrichment programs for over 14,000 youths between the ages of 6 and 18 from ten locations in the Bronx. The Show House sees as many as 20,000 visitors during its annual four-week run and has raised more than $16 million since its inception in 1973.

2009 ICFF Editors Awards Winners Announced

The results are in! An expert group of editors from the globe’s most esteemed design magazines voted Saturday for their favorite exhibitors and products at this year’s 21st annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York. Honored at the ICFF Exhibitors Reception, 16 lucky companies took home the 2009 ICFF Editors Awards.Finalists were hand picked by the Editors Committee, including Interior Design's market editor Karen D. Singh, as well as Anniina Koivu of Abitare, Rita Catinella Orrell of Architectural Record, Catherine Osborne of Azure, Stefano Casciani of Domus, Sam Grawe of Dwell, Gilda Bojardi of Interni, Chantal Hamaide of Intramuros, Susan S. Szenasy of Metropolis, Arlene Hirst of Metropolitan Home.

Congratulations to 2009 ICFF Editors Awards winners.

ICFF Delivers Despite Economic Toll

The Big Apple lights up each May as thousands of designers, architects, retailers, and enthusiasts flock annually to the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and the after-hours festivities each night following the tradeshow hustle. The four-day-long affair always manages to please, showcasing emerging innovators, hot new product finds, unmatched industry networking, and an endless supply of whistle-wetting cocktails. This year’s event delivered as promised, albeit noticeably scaled down and missing a few key manufacturers due, most likely, to a cautious economy.

Eliminating the expense of ICFF, a number of top European manufacturers chose to forgo exhibiting at the show and opted to stay close to home by launching new products in the financial comforts of their Manhattan showrooms. For example, American furniture company Desiron, avoided the foot-grinding Javits Center display and held an unforgettable party to debut their new Candy seating collection by David Rockwell on the show’s opening night. Complete with a luscious dessert spread and pop-song cover band, the new collection will surely stay top-of-mind in the design community.

Stand-outs of the 21st annual ICFF, however, were independent, emerging designers and academic exhibits from schools like the Rhode Island School of Design, Pratt, and Philadelphia University for Wilsonart. The young designers are always a show highlight, giving professionals a glimpse at a new generation of design. Seattle-based Graypants, for example, was an ICFF highlight exhibiting the Scrap Light series, a collection of cardboard lighting pendants.

Jumping on the ICFF bandwagon, we cannot exclude efforts by the Meatpacking District (MPD) to expand the reach of Design Week to the southwest end of Manhattan. With the completion of Andre Balazs’s latest hospitality venture, The Standard New York, the MPD’s event lineup was more refined than ever.

While there is no denying that the globe’s current financial state had an affect on this year’s design festivities, most designers and members of the trade walked away with inspiration, new ideas, and a hunger for some über cool products from the show. Check out a few of our favorites in the slideshow below.

Cosmic’s Compact: A Streamlined Bathroom

Bathrooms have become increasingly large over time and the scale of bathroom “furniture” has certainly taken to this trend. Large-scale, free-standing bathtubs necessitate large open areas, and “sculptural” bathroom pieces require similarly spacious settings. Although this is a the most desirable option when the space is available to you, there seem to be far fewer options when it’s not.
Compact, a bathroom furniture series by Industrias Cosmic, a European leader in top quality bathroom accessories and furniture, provides elegant solutions to the smallest of spaces, in various shapes and sizes. For locations where depth is an issue, Cosmic has developed narrow “Compact” configurations. By rotating the sink and reestablishing its dimensions, Cosmic created washbasins less than 8” in depth. Relocating the faucet to the side of the sink (rather than behind it) results in a long, linear form. Depending on your needs, Cosmic’s Compact is available as either a single or double wash-basin, and with either a lateral shelf beneath, remaining minimally intrusive within a space. More or less counter space, varying amounts of storage, a multitude of wash-basin dimensions and shapes: small comes in many shapes and varieties.

The Axor Urquiola Collection, Patricia Urquiola’s bath series for Hansgrohe, includes a washbasin with handles meant to serve as towel bars, adding another layer of functionality to a traditional piece. Cosmic seems to have been a step ahead. Compact has been available in a configuration with a built-in towel bar, directly beneath the sink rather than beside it and requiring far less space for installation and use. With either a shelf for storage or a built-in towel rack, the minimal pieces streamline the bathroom. The pedestal sink, previously the powder-room solution, is comparatively bulky and fails to address additional needs. Conversely, the Compact series brilliantly addresses function and storage in the most streamlined of forms. Built entirely of Bathstone, oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate, the crisp, white surfaces and clean lines of Compact provide a modern and unobtrusive aesthetic combined with durability and longevity. According to the company, “Cosmic´s bathroom culture instigates understanding the bathroom as additional reflection of each individual´s personality and their search for wellbeing through design.”

The flax project design by christien meindertsma

toothpick lamps 'stamen' by daisuke hiraiwa