Vancouver Design Show
A couple weeks ago, I was in Vancouver to the Vancouver Design Show. This year it was really exciting. The organizers had certainly moved the quality and quality up several notches.
Lots and lots of brand new inspiring ideas to work with for our clients and to pass along to our working partners.
One that really stood out in these times of “eating fresh” was Urban Cultivator. www.urbancultivator.net. This concept of a stylish way to grow fresh flavorful food in any kitchen, is a very attractive, free standing or built in appliance that holds trays with your organic produce in a self regulated environment. There was certainly lots of interest in this novel approach to the ultimate farm-to-table solution. The inventor of the Urban Cultivator is Kelowna’s Tarren Wolfe. You may have seen him on Dragon’s Den. There was always big crowd at their presentation.
Very often, there are many suppliers of furniture for very small homes; especially in Vancouver. One that always amazes me is RESOURCE FURNITURE. They actually have transformable furniture. One of the pieces starts out as a wall unit, converts to a desk with a quick lever and then rolls out into a bed, with storage behind= one powerfully functional room. www.resourcefurniture.com.
As you may have noticed, reading design magazines, these days….wallpaper is back! And many people are getting in on the act. We have used wallpaper often in our clients homes recently; especially in powder rooms and bedrooms. Using it in a powder room is such a great idea because you can use a paper that is pretty much “out of the comfort zone”. Powder rooms should be little jewel boxes that surprise your guests and you…when entering. Sort of makes your guests think of you from a totally different angle. “Wow, Claire is way more adventuresome than I thought”. At the show there was a group that can digitally reproduce any piece of art, picture you love or images. Actually, right now, one of our very talented associates, Diane Nelson, is producing a wallpaper with no repeats of historical ships, compasses, passports and post cards all in sepia tones for one of our clients. Very exciting.
But…one of the most interesting and fun presentations was Dinner by Design. This a contest sponsored by GE and features 20 designers assembling a dream dining room, complete with décor of the room, the table and seating, as well as, the tablescape. I have included 3 of the presentations I thought were very well done and with hours of time, lots of budget and crazy guests, attainable. All 3, I am showing you had an organic theme.
The first one had hundreds of ferns from the ceiling, silk of course. Little terracotta pots with plants for each setting and lots of white. The next one, greenery again in the soup bowls and dried with greenery for the table center. The settings were on a horizontal long cloth, rather than individual placemats. No table clothes here! They all mixed up the dishes from very clean white to wooden pieces and lots of candles. Even the very crazy one with the table base of pallets and multicolored streamers from the chandelier was crisp and fresh. It just impresses upon us that almost any visionary tablescape adds to the fun of entertaining, as long as it showcases your cuisine. You know…maybe do the dining room and table up and just leave them…eat in the kitchen at the island. 
You will still have a super time with wonderful food and great conversation! You can look into the dining room, from time to time….
Until next time….
Jorin