Special Report: Architectural Digest Home Design Show 2008
Spring is in!
The 2008 Architectural Digest Home Design Show breezed into town and ushered in spring with a wink and a smile. The exhibit held annually at New York's Pier 94 by Architectural Digest magazine showcased the latest furniture, lighting, and interior design trends on the market.
Light, airy and green are the motifs found throughout the room designs at the show. The Harlequin Lounge designed by Geoffrey Bradfield is a fantasy concoction meant for a very original client. Laser-cut harlequin mirrors holding fresh daffodils prance in the background of the eclectic room. Classical tables are interspersed with modern acrylic chairs to give it an updated look. The trellis-like wallpaper and carpet is designed by Stark.
Interior designer extraordinaire, Mario Buatta, created Dreaming Al Fresco. A garden-style romantic bedroom imagines itself in an English countryside, complete with Brunschwig et Fils floral canopy and upholstered seats. One can imagine Jane Austen writing her plots out in this bedroom and sipping tea.
Acrylic furniture is very versatile — it also popped up in the Paris Apartment, designed by Claudia Strasser. A fantasy boudoir in a Parisian-chic apartment has the requisite crystal chandelier and ornate wallpaper but the addition of acrylic chairs upholstered in a silver-silk gives it a fresh modern twist. This see-through furniture looks weightless and is especially fitting when you have tight spaces like a city apartment or a small boudoir.
Floral patterns show up in some very modern interpretations. Furniture-maker Roche Bobois exhibited a traditional-styled floral fabric on a sinuous crescent-shaped lounge chair called Nuage. Ligne Roset created a Japanese-style look with its blossom-covered ottomans, providing a pop of color in the stark modern leather seating, Pas Si Classique or Not-So-Classic.
Lighting designer, Dennis Collura, has fashioned sleek hanging light fixtures with floral-patterned fabrics also. Their bulbous glass shapes and pendulous quality are reminiscent of Moroccan lamps. Yet the sophisticated fabrics and brass fittings give the lights a modern feel.
Heron-shaped floor light fixtures called Paranoid from Ligne Roset light up the room with very flexible necks. Paranoid can be bent and reshaped into new dimensions. Its mesh-like black skin actually comes from protective cable covers used in supersonic aircraft. These lights are environmentally "green" as they use long-lasting LEDs or light-emitting diodes.
David Trubridge from New Zealand furniture dealer Essenze designed airy amorphous-shaped light fixtures. Made of a combination of polycarbonate, Australian hoop pine and American ash woods, they have fluid shapes such as the Swirl, the Twist, and Floral. With their natural-state wood finishes, they complement every decorating style.
For those who want to connect with their primal nature, furniture designer Tucker Robbins provides bold roughly-hewn furniture such as their kumbuk and acacia wood tables and seating balls. These exotic woods from Sri Lanka, Bolivia, and Peru are grown in sustainable forests or come from salvaged woods. While his furniture looks fitting in rustic settings or tropical homes, a few well chosen pieces of this line would complement any modern-designed loft and give it a personal well-traveled touch.
Who says you can't give your home design a spring refresher? Any of these acrylic furniture, floral patterned fabrics or exotic wood pieces will give your tired home a cosmetic lift and maybe your joie de vivre as well.
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