The 11th Annual Architectural Digest Home Design Show is history, but much of what I saw will not be forgotten. 

So this post is a managable size, have a few pics, but all the links to this years’ favorite artists and their art.  Take a few minutes and check them all out. Prepare to be delighted, but also inspired.  as much of what you’ll see can be customized.

Lighting fixtures as art Lovely, sculptural fixtures.  It genuinely made my heart happy, for lighting is generally so neglected by homeowners to start with.  And why NOT have art suspended from the ceiling? Elizabeth Lyons’ pressed glass medallions ,  J.David Taylor’s bubble fixtures and Aquas  from Barry Entner were just mesmerizing.

Hands-on  Met Raymond Finan last year, and came away feeling I met a true artist. Specialty wood pieces made in his shop in Vermont, his attention to detail and proportion is precise, but not fussy or over-orchestrated. You just feel good looking at his pieces, and you know he loved making them.

Free-form, dimensional pieces as wall art  I really, really like the idea of wall art not being confined within two sets of parallel lines.  I remember Jamie Harris’ floating bubbles from a few years ago; enjoyed Kaiser Suidan’s Next Step Studio  with their fun-fun jacks and cubes, and the organic shapes from Cocobolo Designs .  Great first impressions for an entry, or for adding flair to long hallways; PERFECT for commercial applications.

Countertops Yes, have more fun in the kitchen! Trueform Concrete’s surfaces are not new, and not just rectangular-but I keep forgetting how cool (and organic/durable/hygenic!) they are.  Ditto for ThinkGlass‘s take on things, just loved the feel and look of them both.

Outside kitchens  Saw Kalamazoo Gourmet last year and was thoroughly impressed.  Sure they had a nifty display, but their products, their service, even how they’d start the design process with a neophyte made me a believer. There’s nothing these kitchen’s don’t have, and if you’re going there, these are the people you want to buy it from.

While unheated outdoor space can’t be claimed as  square footage on a listing in NYS, a few years from now it’ll still be big value-added, wanna-have feature for a buyer… I sense this will be the next major upscale update.

Soaking tubs  This was a nicest surprise of the show,  a lovely trend I would like to see more of. Diamond Spas  showed contemporary shapes in metal, Sea Otter Woodworks   makes handcrafted tubs in wood-teak, red cedar and authentic Japanese Ofuro tubs (so neat, they get their own link!)

Lots of  (crafted) glass   S&S’s ‘melted ice’ pieces were just so real. Had seen Jennifer and David Clancy’s Landscape Series last year, glad they were back, had lost their info. Hand-blown glass botanticals were stunning in their detail and color, but when lit from within, WOW! My pics don’t do them justice, see their work through link above.

Whimsey   Bart Niswonger starts out with a serious-enough premise, but he is a man who loves what he does-there is just unmitigated joy in what he designs, and makes, ‘nuf said.

Simplicity It’s hard to say what I most most drawn to at Vetro Vero. The colors, the grace, the classic yet modern lines. Striking and beautifully-perfectly- done, I loved it all.

The organic shapes by Jennifer and Thor Bueno of Bueno Glass could be stacked, or hung as a wall installation. Stone shaped and either silvered, like the old mercury glass-or colored and texturized by a variety of techniques, these pieces could work in a variety of places and circumstances.

History  Strawser and Smith is both a manufacturer and retailer out of Brooklyn. Wrote about their melting ice glass creations above, but was so taken by their furniture made from genuine re-purposed factory parts. A chandelier whose framework was a wheel on a band saw, a dining table whose base was from a  shop bench; if you can blow the photo up, you’d see “The Crescent Machine Company  Leetonio Ohio USA on the base.