For our second day in New York, the BlogTour gang was fortunate enough to attend the 11th annual Architectural Digest Home Design Show, which took place at Pier 94, 55th Street at Twelfth Avenue. With over 400 brands exhibiting there was plenty for us to take in, explore and discover. We even got to meet some of the BlogTourNYC sponsors who were exhibiting at the show.
We all split up into groups and I spent the day with Katie from Confessions of a Design Geek as we navigated the many halls that the exhibition was spread over. There were so many great things to see, far too many to cover in a single blog post so what I intend to do here is simply post a few of my personal highlights, the majority of which I found in the MADE section. This section was packed full of individual artists and designers of limited edition and one-of-a-kind objects and furnishings. It was a really impressive selection of design work.
One of my favourite stands was by Palo Samko, a woodworker & artist who specializes in handmade, custom wood furniture in a modern, contemporary style. I loved the whimsical style of many of his designs including these chairs with extremely high backs and these great mirrors.
Another stand that impressed me was that of Victor Dinovi, a designer and woodworker who specializes in functional art and custom indoor and outdoor furniture.
The Future Perfect stand caught my eye as I spotted some of my favourite designs there. The scrapwood furniture and wallpaper by Piet Hein Eek was attracting a lot of attention. It was great for me to be able to finally see it up close and I can confirm that it certainly was impressive.
There were plenty of interesting things on the Strawser & Smith stand. Each piece is formed using antique or vintage industrial relics and built by American craftsmen with traditional materials and methods.
Made mostly of found objects and materials, the designs of Doug Meyer repurpose things that people have discarded or that they consider to be rubbish. All of the pieces on the Rustbelt Rebirth stand were really eye catching.
There was a great selection of hand-blown glass bottles on display on the Hyland Glass stand. Casey Hyland is the man behind the designs and the bright and shiny bottles, some of which were also in vibrant colours certainly weren’t prepared to go unnoticed.
Geoffrey Keating‘s stand was probably my highlight of the entire show if I’m honest. the quality of craftsmanship and the passion and care that goes into making each and every one of his objects was just outstanding.
Boca do Lobo have been on my radar for some time now so it was a pleasure to be able to see their work close up like this. I hadn’t come across this great mirror before though so it was nice to spot something new.
Bec Brittain‘s lighting range certainly was something unusual that commanded attention. I have written a full post about her work over on freshome so for more information please head on over there.
However, Work & Design provided stiff competition in terms of most unusual lighting. Made from materials such as blacken iron, bronze and rust steel, the pieces are very industrial looking but then again that is what gives them their undeniable sense of charm.
Whilst these are just a few of my favourite finds, I will be doing some more in depth posts on some of the designers and their work in the coming weeks so keep an eye out for those.
My thanks go out to the many sponsors of BlogTourNYC. BlogTourNYC: Samuel Heath, BLANCO, Scholtes, Miele, Poggenpohl, Spirit of Sports, Big Ass Fans, Victoria & Albert Baths, Modern Aire, Jenn Aire, Rotsen Furniture, Vitra, Axor, Wallunica and Ethan Allen. Without their support I would not have been able to attend the Architectural Digest Home Design Show in NYC.