Dollhouses have come and go in many shapes and sizes - but most of them have been stuck in the last century or even before that.  The most popular styles were Victorian, Colonial or Classical.  The modern era has sadly been largely ignored.  Until now.

Modernistas and Minimalistas - rejoice!   Danish design house, Minimii, has recreated a very modern and minimal dollhouse that is a replica of the villa of famed designer, Arne Jacobsen.  The 1928 villa - stark white, spacious, and minimalist - is reproduced at 1:16 scale and ready to be furnished with matching modern furniture like Jacobsen’s Egg chair.

Its sprawling interior and minimalist white color make it friendly to many different design ideas and only limited to a child’s imagination.  For more information take a look at the Minimii site.

Are you wacky for modernism? And you’re in New York, or will be coming during the holiday season? If so, you must plan a visit to MOMA to see their new exhibit, Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity. Until it was shut down by the Nazis, Bauhaus was a hotbed of creative thinking, re-examining all the ways of modern life, and influencing everything from architecture to fashion, from painting to furniture-making. This ambitious survey tries to get at what Bauhaus was through exhibits, a “lounge,” and hands-on art-making workshops.

The image above, from the show, is Oskar Schlemmer’s “Bauhaus Stairway.”

See more at www.moma.org

As promised, another installment of my BizBash Expo review - this time, with a focus on the great fabric and furniture vendors that were exhibiting. Perhaps its a sign of the allegedly abating recession, but glitz and glamour were certainly a trend for the stalwarts of theatrical fabric and event supply and furniture rentals. Take a look!

Powerhouse fabric companies Dazian and Rose Brand - think backdrops for theater productions, Broadway, television, events, and awards shows like the Oscars - showed vibrant textiles covered in crystals, bedecked with glitter, and strung with LEDs.  Both booths were so uplifting! Of course, the bread and butter of these companies is their basic duvatyns/commandos and cottons - these inexpensive fabrics are used constantly to drape and hide staging, AV equipment, lighting trusses, and more.

My beloved Party Rental, Ltd. set up a table absolutely choked with pieces from their burgeoning rental collection. Party Rental rents everything from basics like tablecloths and chairs to specialty items like glass chargers and miniature porcelain salt dishes. Their glass and crystal-laden table definitely had wow power - I could barely capture it with my little camera!

Speaking of glitz and glam, the booth for Signature Event Rentals flaunted their specialty: over-the-top furniture and decor rentals. Signature is the place to go for things like mirrored tables, stamped leather chairs, gold and silver lame couches, oversized crystal lamps, and quilted luxe furnishings.

There were many other rental companies in attendance, but two most worth mentioning that I was not able to photograph are Ruth Fischl - the Queen of exquisite fabrics and accessories - and Taylor Creative, THE place to rent clean, modern furniture and props.

Trust James Dyson to come up with the bladeless fan.  Dyson, designer extraordinaire and the inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaners, has come up with a different method of blowing air to your face.

Using a turbo-charged motor, pressurized air is forced through a narrow aperture and accelerated along the ring-like structure. This creates a jet stream that sucks in the air from all around the fan and multiplies the air flow, hence the name “Air Multiplier”.

Without blades, the air flow doesn’t have the usual choppy effect and travels smoothly to fan your face.  The minimalist ring structure also results in a sculptural effect - a beautiful addition to any tabletop.  Take a look at the Dyson Air Multiplier at their website.

Got a little time on your hands? Then you, too, could spend a week attaching 20,000 Lego pieces to a kitchen island to create an playful look for your kitchen.

That’s what the Parisian design team Munchausen—Simon Pillard and Phillipe Rosetti— did, working with an IKEA base in their own kitchen.

See the details here:

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/article/detail/1628/lego-kitchen

When thinking about the waste we humans create, think about Halloween: all those synthetic costumes used once, never again worn, come November 1st tossed on the trashheap of over-indulgence. And they’re often not designed with as much panache as you yourself could put in them.

It’s time for Halloween to go green. And so much cheaper, and more fun, too, to make your own costume—whether it’s a simple white sheet with eye holes cut out, or a papier mache mask, or a kitty-cat suit using your own yoga clothes. Get the kids involved in making their own costumes, and let them compete to see who can make the greenest! And it’s even more fun as Inhabitat is having a contest for green Halloween costumes, which you can enter here:

http://greenhalloween.inhabitat.com

If you enter, send in a photo of yourself to us, and we’ll post it here, too.

By the way, Inhabitat is definitely worth checking out whether you’re busy making a green costume or not. It’s a site devoted to the dovetailing of great design and sustainability, started by New York City designer Jill Fehrenbacher. They have really cool news about really cool designs help save the planet, like this rocking chair.

http://www.inhabitat.com/

Mark your calendars: on Tuesday, November 10, the Internatioanl Furnishings and Design Association is hosting its annual Rising Stars Interior Design Cocktail/Networking Reception and awards ceremony. It be held at 7 W. 34th Street, 11th Floor, starting at 5:30 p.m.
New York designer Jamie Drake will exchange ideas with this year’s honorees, John Wiley, Sara Story and Shawn Henderson.

For details, go to

http://www.7wnewyork.com/market_information/designerdays.cfm

The premier design center in New York, the D&D, has just started today their own blog called Go Design Go. The D&D building is 18 floors full of furniture, lighting, and accessories showrooms.

Their blog will reflect the latest product offerings as well as trends, events, and designer information.  Take a peek at Go Design Go.

Has your morning routine become a snooze?  Does washing up at your old sink leave you all dried up?  Well, take a look at these beauties…sinks and vanities all dolled up and ready to command your attention.

Neo Metro takes the conical form and transforms it to this  steel beauty called the Metropolis.

What do you get when you mix wood and a waterfall?  You get the Slab sink from Stone Forest.  The pedestal base has a wavy outline and a glass bowl.

The Black Cubetto from Vitraform - a pedestal sink in the modernist tradition - is sculpted in cubes of black ice.  Take this, chill and serve with your martini.

Ever had the problem of trying to find the right size artwork for that narrow space on your wall between two doorways or a really wide picture to put above a mantel?  Now someone has come along to make your designing life a little easier - Art That Fits.

This company provides a wide selection of images.  They have several categories to choose from such as photography, nature, abstract, landscape, to name a few.  You can also narrow it down by choosing the type of colors you want represented in the artwork.

Then you get to customize it by picking the material: canvas or paper. Finally you choose the width and height and voila! custom artwork.

View their selection at Art That Fits.

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