Attending IDS 10

The Interior Design Show/IDS in Toronto kicked off its 3 day run Friday, January 22nd with Trade Day for designers, decorators, architects and others in the design field.

Each year, IDS features new and highly innovative products from both Canadian and international designers (and this is the broad term designer including industrial designers, textile designers and product designers.) There are also 300 exhibitors showcasing their products as well as inspirational talks by international designers.

The show is open to the public on January 23rd and January 24th. Design talks by such design notables as Suzanne Dimma, editor of Canadian House and Home and designer Brian Gluckstein are also on the agenda. So if you have time this weekend and you are in the Toronto area, it’s worth a visit.

Below are a few photos I snapped of products that were either innovative in their design or simply beautiful to look at.

Beautiful clocks from Suite 22 Interiors.

African artefacts, furniture and accessories from Snob.

My camera doesn’t do this vanity and mirror justice – the colour was gorgeous and more blue grey than what’s showing in the photo.

The hemlock furniture in the above two photos were made from boards salvaged from a Huntsville barn. North on Sixty’s work has been featured in Style at Home and on Cityline. You can see a photo of the barn on their website – very cool!

Reclaimed wood flooring from Veser’s Antique Woods, a Montreal-based company soon to have a location in the Toronto area.

This is my friend (okay, wishful thinking), stylist, editor and trend reporter Arren Williams in the “Ultimate Space” he designed. I loved the over scale bean bag chairs (that’s probably not what they are called) designed by textile designer Bev Hisey. I was so excited to see Arren walk in while testing out the very comfortable chair that I forgot to snap photos of the chairs and the space! I’m sure Arren will have some on his blog soon.

New Wall Inc. is the exclusive distributor of Marimekko and J &V Fine Wallcoverings in Canada.

Mark Gleberzon’s colourful series of Louis chairs in acrylic.

The next five images were from the Studio North display which presented 35 unique studios and designers of furniture, lighting, and accessories who work in various media including wood, metal, ceramics and glass.

Secto Design is a Finnish company that makes these striking pendants from birch. Margot Austin, who I spied at the show, did a great post on a Style at Home blog about lighting at the show.

Brothers Dressler are twin brothers known for repurposing salvaged material into beautiful furniture. These School Chairs were originally from an old felt factory. They saw the chairs’ strength and potential, so they bought all 93 and updated and refurbished them. You can read more about the transformation here.

I spoke with the young designer at Asedo Designs who said that it sometimes takes six months to find the right wood boards to construct his innovative, one of a kind pieces. This console made from two types of walnut retails for about $6000!

I loved the way this unadorned hutch from Heidi Earnshaw Design (doesn’t her name sound so regal?) was styled with antique baking tins and utensils. Beautiful in its simplicity.

Fresh, graphic cushions from Manor12.

Colourful Viking ovens. Although I love the idea of choosing one of the 24 colours for a range/oven, I would probably play it safe with stainless steel.

Five designers each transformed a “shed” into a small room. This was my favourite – one side was luxurious seating and the other side featured a small office. It was the artwork that drew me in.