ASID Interior Design Summit at the Merchandise Mart Design Center- Chicago

Today I attended an ASID Interior Design Summit which took place at the Merchandise Mart Chicago.
This conference occurs every year and is designed for interior design professionals and emerging interior designers. It' a fantastic place to network, touch base with design vendors and attend design seminars that are both educational and inspiring. It is also a great way to gain couple of credit units which are required for my professional ASID status.
The sessions comprised of many different topics ranging from design business, sustainability, color, marketing, universal design, aging and accessibility.
I love constantly learning and growing.
I hope you also seek inspirations and continually strive to learn and grow. I would also love to hear about the events you attend to fill that need.
My Best! ~Edyta

the Merchandise Mart- Design Center Chicago

My Beach house

Right about now I could use some major R&R. Unfortunately I think I am getting sick from the lack of sleep and a bit of stress so I have to step back and slow down a little.
The perfect medicine would be just making a perfect snack lay down and relax by the shore with my favorite glossy and my two pooches.
One day I will have that beach house that I can escape to or perhaps live year round in and maybe this medicine will cure everything from a twitching  eye to a flu :)
This is exactly what I'm looking for. Everything about these photos just speaks to me and calls my name. Perfect balance of modern, comfort, light, contrast, relaxation and the mood is just right on!! I will share more photos of this perfect home soon.
Enjoy!
xo Edyta

Happy Love Day

Happy Valentines day to all of you my lovelies! I hope you spend this day in happiness surrounded with warmth and lots of love!
This day calls for lots of pink! Make sure to celebrate and be festive. Add some pizazz to your outfit with a punch of whimsy pink, add a sexy pink bow to the box of chocolates or opt for the hot pink roses for your honey!
If you are on a time crunch and would love to give something meaningful to your lover who is also loves animals- you can always adopt an animal- what a fabulous gift would that be- to the animal and to you! Go and check it out, and no you don't have to take that piglet home with you, it will stay at the sanctuary and you can here about her or his progress :)
I would love to hear what you have planned for today?

You can adopt a farm animal HERE

My current reads...

As you may know I own a TON of design books. I love to read them, reference back to them and get inspired by them. I also have a design magazine library where I have catalogued a ton of issues of many many design magazines, including ones that are no longer in print.
Reading design books and magazines brings me true joy, it inspires and relaxes me.
 Besides design topic reads, I also read many self improvement books, health books, business books, inspirational books.
Some of my current reads are as following (and I say SOME because I have a tendency to buy a bunch of books at a time from many above listed genres and sometimes I even read a couple simultaneously- like right now) :

I just finished this one-
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
(phenomenal book, makes you think about life a bit differently)

Currently Reading-

The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone

I am excited about this one since I am actually considering going full Vegan (I am currently Vegetarian where I eat cheese milk etc) and I need to get pumped up!

This beautiful book is so pleasing to the eye and to read: I tend to open it when I am a bit too tired and don't want to miss a beat but the begining is already fabulous!

Mary Mcdonald Interiors

 

 

And this book is also another one that I am super excited to read. I read a few pages and I am super excited.

It's extremely important for me to live a meaningful life- it's a foundation to a fulfilling life -which is why I decided to read this book :)

The Power of Intention

 

 

I would love to know what interest you and what your reading interests are. I have many friends that read science fictions, novels or fictions. I for some reason gravitate to books that teach me something or inspire me.

Do tell :)  I'm of to finally read a bit after a busy day :)  ,, I have more books waiting to be read after these babies ...

Happy rest of the week!!
xoxo ~Edyta

Scandinavian textiles by Josef Frank

I am sure you all noticed that fabulous patterned sofa in the previous post. It's such a fantastic bright mix of colors in an organic motif. This leads me to today's post on Scandinavian textiles (fabrics, prints). When I think of Scandinavian fabric I automatically think of Josef Frank who is actually the designer behind the beautiful print on the sofa in the previous post. Just beautiful! Take a look at more of his fabulous bold, colorful and unique fabric patterns that capture so much color & movement! I could get lost in them for hours examining all intricate details.

this one was the upholsery on that sofa

Unpretentious Scandinavian Interior

It's cold and it keeps snowing here in Chicago. It looks quite magical outside with all this snow but wearing heals in this weather is definitely not practical or safe ;-)  ( I say this after my weekend episode where I wore stilettos to a client meeting...  high heals + mountains of snow and slush = not such good combination.. lol )

But enough about that.. today I am getting my sunshine by glancing at some fabulous Scandinavian interiors. How fantastic is this space! I love the feeling of the unpretentious beauty in this environment with the bright happy appeal, lots of natural light and so much architectural bones and character. I also love the juxtaposition of modern art, bright bold colors mixed in with some gold and other classical elements,, - so easy going yet elegant! It's not for everyone but it's definitely an unexpected yet original look.

So maybe there are quite a bit of good that can result by marrying of opposites.

source

Interior Designer Showhouses

After reading Lauren's post regarding being accepted to design a bedroom/sitting room in a designer show house (huge congrats to her!!! It's not easy to be accepted and many amazing designers do apply),,, Well it got me thinking about interior design show houses again. I love visiting show homes for many reasons. Of course I love to check out the art of interior ,design see beautiful bold textiles, stunning risky installations, gorgeous art and really the visions of each designer where they could fully express themselves and their abilities without needing to be censored.
I truly love being inside a space that speaks to me, weather it is designed by me or another designer with similar vision, therefore when I i love visiting these showcases and finding a room that has elements that I love, then I examine it and take it all in- ...it's fabulous. I would love to make a trip to as many of these show homes as possible, in order to immerse myself in all this fabulousity. It's also fantastic that each one of the show homes is done for some charity and in many of them, you can actually purchase some of the items that are in the rooms. I probably will not be able to visit them all every year but I can attempt to see some so I decided to do a roundup of top designer show houses plan to cross them of my list this year :). If you saw any beautiful show houses that you felt  is really worth checking out and taking a trip across the country for, do let me know and let me know your thoughts !
Also, at one point I would love to be part of a show house,, perhaps my local LakeForest show house or the Dream home at the Merchandise Mart. I will keep you posted when that happens. ;-)


Top showhouses on my list to check out:

The Lake Forest Showhouse

Kips Bay Decorators Showhouse
remember how I posted this year's showhouse HERE

Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts

Elle Decor San Francisco showhouse
This year was the first one ever

Atlanta Symphony Decorator Showhouse & Gardens

Wisconsin Breast Cancer Showhouse

Marine Designer Showcase

San Diego Historical Showcase

Minneapolis ASID Showcase Home

And here is a Video of the FIRST Elle Decor'S Showcase house!

Online design & shelter magazines

As I mentioned in the previous post the advancement of online capabilities allowed for so many ways to shop, read, do business etc. One fabulous addition to the internet are online design/ shelter magazines. I do love my real glossies and that is something that I will always cherish! Being able to curl up with a great design book or a great glossy magazine that I can hold in my hands is fabulous, yet I am deliberating if an Ipad could solve this little dilemma :). One newest magazine to grace the scenes of shelter magazines has premiered this Tuesday - High Gloss magazine who's founder and editor in chief is wonderful Paloma of La Dolce Vita  blog- love her!. Go over to the web page of this great new digital design magazine and check out it's rich content. Other online shelter publication include: Lonny, Rue, Adore Home, Nesting Newbies, Anthology, Sweet Paul, Matchbook & Ivy & Piper. Each one of them would be included in the Shelter category yet every one's content is original and based on different principals. There might be more fab magazines like these out there or soon to be part of the virtual arena, but these are ones that I have been checking out.
Go ahead, hop over to their sites and get inspired!

Snowed in, online design sources.

For those that haven't heard- Chicago has been hit hard yesterday by a massive snow blizzard. Yes, it was a historic event of its own. The snow started coming down around 2 pm with the addition of strong winds and late night thunder and lightning, this all continued till 3 pm today. Everyone in Chicago and the suburbs seemed to be snowed in, not being able to go far, since the wind kept shifting the snow around with very little visibility.
On days like this, I am thankful for for the internet. If the power and the internet connection is still going strong it's fantastic to be able to work and even search for design products right at my desk.
I can get quite a bit accomplished in reference to my design projects, by searching e-bay, 1st dibs, Decorati and many other sources that I am fond of.
With the power of the internet there is so much that could be done. A client can even contact me from across the globe for my Online Design services. In addition there are even some to the trade fabric & wallpaper sources which have a fantastic online platform and I can order my fabric and paper samples and even place orders straight from my computer- how great is that!
Obviously all these things take time, yet isn't it fabulous that on days like this you can utilize them all.
I hope the weather is nice where you are, and if you are also experiencing snow overload- stay safe and  warm! Have a fabulous rest of the day!

above photos via Chicago Tribune

Tunnels for our dogs ;-)

my Online Design services board

Fabric samples- Lee Jofa