1. GROWING FOR THE GREEN
Succulents are the new geraniums. They require less light and less watering than their houseplant peers, and their subtle, bluish-green color goes with everything. A terra-cotta potted echeveria is $22.50 at A New Leaf, Chicago.
2. GLORIOUS IN GOOSE
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With its palatial proportions that fan out to three feet wide and celestial skin made of fluffy goose feathers, it will be hard not to take a gander at the Pluma suspension lamp should you choose to use it in a room. But its dazzle doesn’t come cheap; it costs $3,990 at mossonline.com.
3. DANDY FOR CANDY
Thanks to its crisp clarity and seductive shape, the Ambassador crystal candy dish by the venerable Austrian glass maker Lobmeyr will certainly inspire takers to try its contents. Depending on what you put in its generously sized spherical bowl, this can be one dangerous dish. Available by special order for $275 at mossonline or through Manifesto, Chicago.
4. HOT POT
This gorgeous cookware by iittala’s Tools/Hackman blends features suggested by a team of world-class chefs with a fabrication technique devised by a team of materials specialists to provide the durability of stainless steel with the heat conductivity of aluminum. This two-quart casserole is $270; find the whole line at Luminaire, Chicago.
5. GRANNY’S CANDLESTICK MAKER
When staunch modernist designer Harry Allen’s grandmother bequeathed him her old-fashioned silver candlesticks, he had a Eureka! moment. Why not update their look by copying them in color-infused plastic? Gran’s Candlesticks are available in red, green, yellow, white, pink and blue. $45 at areaware.com.
6. WHIPPERSNAPPER
Don’t count on the Kuhn Rikon double balloon whisk to whip your skinny forearms into shape. The springiness of the head magnifies the power and cuts whisking time in half. 10-inch size is $13.95; 12-inch is $17.19. At amazon.com.
7. GHASTLY BUT GRAND
Douglas Little, whose D. L. & Co. sells opulent little items such as beautiful candles scented with poisonous plants, luxurious stationery imprinted with ghoulish skulls or candlesticks shaped like bird talons, calls himself a “modern alchemist and purveyor of curious goods.” We call him an unabashed romantic with a louche Victorian sensibility.
8. PRETTY IN PLYWOOD
Dutch designer Jeroen Verhoeven uses a high-tech robotic milling machine to give a prosaic material (birch plywood) the fairy-tale treatment. The result–his spectacular Cinderella table–takes 57 layers and is intended to make a statement about the uninspired nature of most mass-produced products. Only 20 are available; price at publication time is $40,000; at Mark McDonald in Hudson, N.Y. (markmcdonald.biz)
9. WE’VE GOT A CRUSH ON YOU
You know those crumpled paper cups scattered around the water cooler at the end of the day? This is not one of them. Dutch artist Rob Brandt’s tumbler is the paper cup’s ceramic doppelganger and it gets a smile every time. Small, $8; large, $10. At The Conran Shop, conran.com.
10. REED INSTRUMENTS
This season, bamboo isn’t just for pandas. Glamorous sterling-silver, bamboo-inspired place settings and less formal faux bamboo flatware are cropping up on chic dinner tables everywhere. Wood bamboo fork (pictured), $65 for a five-piece place setting, at Pottery Barn; Tiffany & Co. sterling-silver bamboo dinner knife (pictured), $135, at tiffany.com.
11. WHERE SLEEPING DOGS LIE
Bark Deco’s dazzling platform dog beds come in three variations and five sizes. Prices range from $1,000-$1,500 each for their standard-issue models featuring sleek frames with wenge or zebra wood veneers; the cushions of faux suede come in a range of stylish colors. At barkdeco.com.
12. NO, NOT THAT TWIGGY
You don’t have to be a tree-worshiping Druid to love Shannon Shapiro for Moth Design’s Twiggy lamp. The lamp comes in a variety of finishes with a silk or burlap shade (French plaster with an acrylic base is pictured). $1,525 at mothdesign.com.
13. WORLDLY EARTHENWARE
These seemingly proper ceramics from the renowned Dutch manufacturer Royal Tichelaar Makkum, in business since the 16th Century, are anything but; look closely at those frothy patterns and you’ll see out-of-the-box motifs such as squat Sumo wrestlers, swimming sperm cells, rangy skeletons and poofy French poodles. They’re from a line of fired but unglazed and unpainted pieces designed for the firm by Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel of Studio Job. Prices range from about $100 for plates to $800 for vases at tichelaar.nl
14. PRESSED INTO IT
Now that gardens are on their last legs, it’s a great time to press and preserve summer’s final few blooms. The Hiker’s plant press from The Complete Naturalist looks as good in the field as it does on the fireplace mantel. $34.95 at completenaturalist.com.
15. Get the fever: Scarlet, the flaming hue between red and orange, is now the hottest way to add sizzle to your home. Use it to accent cream, taupe or gray. Pay homage to “Fever” a la Peggy Lee and paint a whole room the hot-blooded hue. . . .”what a lovely way to burn.”
16. WORTH THE SPLURGE
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Santa Maria Novella, an Italian pharmacy founded in the 16th Century by Dominican friars, makes soaps the old-fashioned way: each bar is triple-milled, hand-molded individually using 19th Century equipment, then hand-wrapped. Each bar lasts about three times longer than regular soap, which makes the 7-ounce Sapone al Melograno bar (which is also infused with the scent of pomegranate oil for a gentle, moisturizing lather) worth the $20 price tag. At Merz Apothecary, Chicago.
17. YOU CAN TAKE IT WITH YOU
Splurge on a kitchen you can always relocate. Closed, the cooking center is a large-scale sculpture that glows, which makes it useful as a light at night; open, it sports a cooktop, a sink, a working space, bottle chillers, a pull-out table and a retractable hood with an extractor fan. A second unit that looks like a sleek bookshelf can contain significant others (an oven, a refrigerator, a dishwasher and pantry-like storage). Prices start at $60,000 for the island and range to $100,000 plus for an entire setup. At Imoderni in Miami Beach, Fla. (imoderni.com).
18. HOLD THE TONIC
Vodka, vodka everywhere. New flavors take it beyond the cocktail hour. Actually before it. Modern Spirits suggests serving its celery peppercorn vodka with steak and its chocolate orange vodka with vanilla semifreddo. Could be lethal. From $22.98 for a 375-ml. bottle at modernspiritsvodka.com.
19. OUR GANG
“I can’t wait to stand beneath it and look up,” says architect Jeanne Gang, of her much-touted, soon-to-be-built Aqua Tower near Millennium Park. As founder of the award-winning Chicago-based Studio Gang, she designed the tower’s irregular, rippling balconies as reminiscent of Great Lakes rock outcroppings. Gang believes projects like Aqua Tower and her Starlight Theatre in Rockford–where the roof opens to the sky like the petals of a flower–are possible because Chicagoans appreciate the power of modern design. To view Gang’s projects, go to studiogang.net.
20. MAXIMUM MINIMAL
The Museum of Contemporary Art will present “The Art of Richard Tuttle” Nov. 11-Feb. 4. More than 300 works spanning four decades of this renowned American artist’s pieces will be on view. Tuttle uses simple objects–wire, paper, plywood, rope–to create his detailed yet powerful works. Shown here is his “Drift III,” 1965, acrylic on plywood. Admission free on Tuesdays; mcachicago.org.
21. CONSUMMATE CLINKS
We’ve never found crystal stems that have it all–namely just the right shape, heft and size–until Eva Zeisel designed this new collection for Nambe. Like her other tabletop pieces, these smack of balance; they’re sleek and sensuous enough to use with good china but also sturdy and nonchalant enough for everyday. Aptly named the Eva Collection, the wine, water and champagne flute are $40 each at nambe.com.