Chicago Design Blog | Material Girls | Chicago Interior Design

{Monaco Blue Chairs in One of My North Shore Projects}

My apologies for my absence on Material Girls as of late!  Between holiday festivities, a gut renovation of my new home in Arizona (stay tuned for pictures!), client projects here in Chicago and throughout the country, and all of the other madness that goes along with the design bizz, I’ve been thoroughly occupied.  Can’t complain, though…busy=booming!

I was thrilled when one of my favorite vendors, Silestone, asked me to weigh in on Pantone’s color of Spring (Emerald Green) and Pantone’s color of 2013 (Monaco Blue) in conjunction with their  amazing quartz countertop surfaces (check out the feature here!).  I absolutely love the playfulness yet richness of Monaco Blue, and have used hues similar to it in many design projects.  I must admit, I am not necessarily a green person, but upon thinking about Emerald Green, I found myself intrigued by this classic hue.  I may now be a “green” convert…the latest look of my showroom is actually very green!  Guess Emerald Green is rubbing off on me

{My recently “greened out” showroom}

Take a look at some of my favorite ways to incorporate Pantone’s “Happening Hues” into your decor!

{Pantone Color of Spring 2013: Monaco Blue}

  { Pantone Color of 2013: Emerald Green}

{Monaco Blue Walls in my Hinsdale Design Project}

 {Monaco Blue in Lauren Santo Domingo’s Paris Duplex via Mark D. Sikes}

 

{Emerald Green in Lauren Santo Domingo’s Paris Duplex via Mark D. Sikes}

 
{Monaco Blue Walls and Chairs via Decor Pad}

{Emerald Green Wallpaper, Headboard and Accents via Elle Decoration}

{Emerald Green Drapes via Splendid Sass}

{Monaco Blue Painted Furniture via The Aestate}

{Emerald Green Walls via HGTV Blog}

{Monaco Blue Walls and Furniture via All Things Stylish}

{Monaco Blue Painted Door via Create Girl}

(Emerald Green Walls and Accents via Good Life of Design)

My kitchen design for the CS Interiors Ritz-Carlton Residences Anniversary Home- mixing gold and silver!

Thank you to Kohler + to Albar for this dramatic impact within my kitchen space. Can’t resist a shout out to one of favorite tile resources, The Fine Line for my Missoni inspired custom backsplash-Heck ya!

We have vendor presentations at our showroom weekly and during these informative tete a tetes  we see the latest and greatest collections from some of our favorite lines-along with the new.  The other day, we had a presentation where I spotted several fabrics that mixed silver + gold….too many to be a mere coincidence.  Is this a “thing”?  If so, are you digging it?

Personally, I love it.  I am a metallics chick (what girl doesn’t like something sparkly?) and think if it is done carefully it doesn’t look disjointed but rather sophisticated and chic. Along with that is the idea that there are no longer any “rules” within design. Love this!

Let’s look at jewelry, for instance.  David Yurman has been mixing metallics for years!  Often paired with colorful gemstones, a Yurman piece is classic and lovely.

Silver  + gold David Yurman jewelry

I say same goes for interiors.  Here are a few of my favorite mixed metallic designs and spaces.

{via Lou Lou’s Decor}

{via Houzz}

{via House Beautiful}

{via Decorpad}

{via Fantabulous Design}

Spain enchants me……On my very first trip to this captivating country,  I had the opportunity to be swept off my feet and to travel to Spain courtesy of Cosentino, the makers of Silestone, Sensa and Eco products. Cosentino’s current production capacity is 700,000 square meters of engineered stone per year, making it the largest manufacturer of engineered stone slabs in the world. The opportunity to visit their quarries and manufacturing plant and to get an all exclusive behind-the-scenes pass of everything Cosentino was the highlight of my summer.  And what a trip it was.

Starting in Barcelona, my husband  (Edels) and I met up with a group of fast paced and trend-setting  people in the design industry who were also part of this “party”. No expense was spared to provide us with an intimate glimpse into the culture and traditions of Spain. Being in the company with other like-minded design aficionados really was a treat, and in Spain we all aligned and gathered some roots.  Salutations to my friends who joined me on the trip…Patty Dominguez-Field Marketing Director for Cosentino, the leader of our group and the one who treated us all like royalty; Lisa Henry-National President of ASID , Randy Fiser-CEO of ASID  ; Shawn and Edward Alshut  -Duo architects of Studio A2 in Atlanta; Amanda Zitlin  and Terri Crittenden – both designers at the Chicago Interior Design Firm of Susan Fredman. What an amazing time we had together and experiences that I will never forget. We laughed, learned and shared much.

Along with experiencing some of the astounding sites, restaurants, shopping and nightlife to be seen in Barcelona, we were able to visit a local Silestone dealer and to gather in their exquisite showroom. We were then zoomed off  to Almeria  where we were able to visit Cosentino Headquarters. Upon our arrival to the airport, is was apparent that Cosentino had had a hand unto the design.  Cosentino is a  global leader within its field, is devoted to the responsible and innovative development of top-quality surfaces and is the world´s major producer of quartz surfaces, it is a family business consortium financed entirely with Spanish capital. I greatly admire their values and hope to aspire to them all within my own business.

A modern interior all created with Cosentino stone…

The Cosentino Headquarters certainly were a sight to see.  A very memorable part of the trip was having the opportunity to check out Cosentino’s Silestone quarries. Silestone is a naturally beautiful, durable quartz. (As you can see below!) Silestone is the world’s leading natural quartz surface and features a range of more than 65 unique colors! Silestone is the one and only worktop made of quartz with anti-bacterial protection, giving it hygienic properties that are not to be found anywhere else on the market. All in all, I love their products-having installation plotted for my new home in Arizona and my Buckingham I + D Showroom!

A Cosentino quarry- a great view of it all….

Of course, all that walking around quarries got all of our shoes a little dirty!  And check out my nail polish-quite the popular color this summer- Essie Bikini So Teeny! I just can’t resist a nod to fashion which sets off a light bulb for daily inspiration. I have been using blue quite a bit lately within my client projects. Just an FYI-this color has been sold out FOREVER- this was my swan song-best place for that bad news. Inspiration quite literally never stops!

 I am SO excited to be adding Cosentino’s Silestone in the color Lagoon in the Buckingham I+D showroom! It was such a great experience to watch the entire process- and look at the gorgeous results. We are all simply drooling over this color-simple and timeless- and my team is impatiently waiting for the BI+D installation!

While we were onsite- an interesting part of our trip was watching the manufacturing of Silestone.  Love this group pic of us respecting the process of proper and safe protocol for one of the most environmentally sound products in the world.

We had some very special group outings during the trip, including a luncheon within the private offices of the heart of the Cosentino Headquarter’s. The beautifully catered affair was an intimate glimpse of the fortitude, intelligence and elegance of the family themselves. Let it be said that our day together was regal in feel. I have had a glimpse of what it feels like to exhibit core values on every level-and their embrace of the generations of family that will carry on these values for many more years to come.

Our castle- Luncheon with Paco and his exquisite olive oil at Castillo de Canena

Oh the architecture…historic and regal.  We were received as friends and left as such!

John and me during our final night in Granada..Alhambra Castle in the background. A night to treasure forever.

Thank you to the Chicago Cosentino Center for the Prexury Petrified Wood on the island and Haiku Silestone on the perimeter countertop in my designed kitchen at the CS Interiors 5th Anniversary Showcase at the Ritz-Carlton Residences (Open House October 12-13). Purchase tickets here. You will love it all as the Chicago design community has again proven what we can do!

 And a nod of gratitude to all of the Cosentino Family for the opportunity to have been invited to travel to Spain and to have been embraced as a part of their larger family. My experiences there have peaked my keen design interest to see what new and innovative products Cosentino comes up with next. I think that we all should stay tuned!

Adios amigos! xx