BUY IT: Homeowners who have been thinking about upholstering the sofa in the den, or creating new draperies for the dining room, can get out their tapes and start measuring right now. For the first time, The Merchandise Mart Designer Center is going to hold a Fabric Salon as part of its Treasure Hunt sample sale May 6 and 7.
Fine fabric fanciers will be able to shop from great names such as Kravet Fabrics, Robert Allen Fabrics and F. Schumacher. These showrooms will be offering fabrics at a 60 percent to 75 percent discount. A few showrooms also will offer unique tassels to tie back drapes. Most of the fabrics are for upholstering. If you don’t have a large project in mind, buy a smaller piece, have it framed and hang it as wall art.
The Mart’s sample sales provide an opportunity for the public to shop where normally only design professionals do. The Mart’s Designer Center is able to offer a wide-ranging collection of samples, originals and new merchandise at this sale.
Participants this year, says Jeanne Fisher, managing director of marketing, Design Center, at The Mart, include showrooms such as Holly Hunt, George Smith, Interior Crafts, Baker Knapp & Tubbs, F. Schumacher, Stark Carpet, Nancy Corzine, Henredon, Century, Lee Jofa and Beacon Hill.
But there will be thousands of treasures for the home beyond fabrics — including furniture, rugs, lighting, art and accessories. They will be discounted up to 75 percent .
In addition, , there will be free design seminars and 20 designers who will offer free design consultations. “Attendees should be encouraged to bring in their toughest design dilemmas, as well as floor plans, room photos or magazine pages of rooms they like so they can get the most out of the free 20-minute visit,” Fisher says. The Merchandise Mart Design Center, 7th floor, Kinzie and Wells Streets. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Cost: $10. 800-677-6278. www.merchandisemart.com/designcenter.
— Mary Daniels
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BUY IT — 2: Chicago Bungalow owners now have a palette of paints to call their own. Shades found in the bricks, clay tile roofs and limestone details that characterize the early 20th Century house style have inspired a Pittsburgh Paints historic palette.
Colors range from a warm white (Garlic Clove) to a vibrant red (Blaze) to a deep brown (Star Anise). The colors also complement Arts and Crafts-style homes.
Chicago has 80,000 architecturally significant historic bungalows, a style with Arts and Crafts details. The Historic Chicago Bungalow Association worked with the paint company in creating the line.
Prices range from about $15 to $30. To view the Bungalow colors, see www.voiceofcolor.com or ask for a historic color card from your local paint seller. For the nearest retailer, see www.ppg.com.
— Marjorie David
BUY IT — 3: Those who are mourning the end of the Marshall Field’s era (the name change to Macy’s is set for this fall) can now buy a memento of the Chicago retailer.
To mark its century-old partnership with Field’s, English ceramics-maker Wedgwood has introduced a limited-edition Jasper ware plate featuring a relief of the iconic Marshall Field’s clock on a Field’s-green background. The plate, which measures 6 3/4 inches in diameter, is $99 atField’s stores. There are only 500 of them, so eager collectors shouldn’t stall too long.
Also of interest: Wedgwood’s Chicago Architectural illustration series, four View ware plates featuring Water Tower, Marina City, the Daley Center Plaza Picasso and Tribune Tower. The series is meant to recognize the city’s “exciting and innovative architecture,” says Wedgwood spokesman Lord Wedgwood. Each measures 10 inches in diameter and is $45 at area Field’s stores; this series also is available only in limited edition.
Call 800-634-3537 or go to www.fields.com for store locations.
–Tran Ha
READ IT: There have been so many new “lifestyle” magazines in the last few years that you’re tempted to describe them in terms of the others. So, take Real Simple and cross it with domino and throw in a little InStyle and a bit more Martha Stewart Living and you have something that approximates Blueprint, the new (and much anticipated) “lifestyle” magazine from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. It hits newsstands Monday ($3.50) and is Martha’s attempt to reach out to the 20- and 30-something crowd of style-seekers. Thus the fresh-faced couple in a wholesome embrace on the cover — in front of a storybook house with cute pooch resting contently at their stoop. Inside, you get that kind of holistic style coverage — everything from decorating, cooking, entertaining, gardening and collecting to fashion, beauty, health, fitness, travel, you get the picture. Tying all these disparate elements together are Martha’s signature fortes: organization and really good how-to ideas. The magazine is organized around a house-tour theme. You move from the entryway to makeup drawer to shoe rack to back yard to wall(s), medicine cabinet, home office, living room and more. And in each chapter/space, you get quick and easy ideas and tips and sometimes charts (a la Real Simple) as well as a slew of products (with prices and info on how to buy, a la domino). Our favorite piece: White House Briefing, a nice feature story toward the back of the issue, about a young family who lives successfully and happily in an all-white house. Yes, with children. The homeowner shares secrets and budget-conscious decorating ideas.
— Karen Klages
VISIT IT: Rodgers and Hammerstein. Corbusier and Perriand. Eames and Eames. But Noguchi and Fuller? Among the world’s famous collaborators/friends, Isamu Noguchi and R. Buckminster Fuller don’t exactly roll off the tongue.
But Noguchi, one of the 20th Century’s most acclaimed sculptors and designers, and Fuller, the socially conscious engineer and inventor who played with things like geodesic domes, , were two wildly creative thinkers who met at a tavern in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1929 and who developed an enduring friendship in which they drew inspiration from each other professionally.
Those traveling to the Big Apple this spring/summer/fall can explore the two’s work and collaboration at The Noguchi Museum in Long Island City in Queens. Titled “Best of Friends: R. Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi,” the exhibit runs May 19 to Oct. 15 and explores Fuller’s “tensegrity” structural system and how Noguchi adapted it to his sculpture.
718-204-7088. www.noguchi.org
–K.K.
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