Decorating & Design

October 17, 2012

Behind The Scenes At IDSwest

Two weeks ago I flew into beautiful Vancouver for the West Coast Interior Design Show (IDSwest) and had such a fantastic time. I fell in love with our west coast all over again.

My colleague Mark Challen and I checked in to the Loden Hotel, which was stunning and perfect for our design-filled trip. (Madonna’s back-up dancers were even staying there for her tour stop in Vancouver that weekend!)

On Friday night, Ross Bonetti — of Vancouver’s Livingspace — took us out on the town for a lovely dinner. His booth at the show (top right) was gorgeous!

I had lunch with Janis Nicolay, as well — a favourite photographer of House & Home’s and also a design-savvy blogger. This is a scan of her charming 3″ x 3″ business card with a photo she took in Vancouver’s Chinatown.

The Vancouver Convention Centre, where the show took place, features this stunning wall of end-cut wood.

This was a 150-year-old spruce stump in Brent Comber’s booth.

This work of organic optical art, also by Brent Comber, is made from wood end-cuts and almost looks like corks.

I love this glass dome trend (we also forecasted it in our upcoming December 2012 issue), and this striking table would look great in an entryway.

This was an amazing kitchen designed by Kelly Deck and sponsored by Gaggenau for the AyA booth.

That brass hood ties in with the gold details on the grill. And these striking contemporary stools suit the space perfectly.

Kelly’s sketches are works of art in themselves!

Trade shows like this are also great sources of inspiration for display. The Montauk Sofa booth designers posted pads of paper with their furniture spec sheets to the wall, and hung others from clips overhead. Brilliant!

I spotted this stylish guy just outside the booth and thought he should move in.

This gorgeous white oak table from IZM had beautiful detailing like rounded corners and curved joinery at the bottom of the trestle base.

We spotted these cool stump tables mixed with white resin from MTH Woodworks.

This student exhibit featured these terrific desk lamps with a vintage feel. (Does anyone know who I can credit for this green lamp?! Comment below.)

This Nordic-inspired chair from Inform Interiors could fit right into our trends package — coming out in our January 2013 issue. Scandinavian style is everywhere!

Mark and I both loved these plywood wall cutouts from Precisionwerkz — an easy way to add texture to a room.

This is Inform Interior’s Bocci Bar, named after all the boxes of Bocci lighting designed by Omer Arbel. Some had a green glow that suited the industrial style of them perfectly.

Look who we hooked up with for a Montauk party! Tommy Smythe himself.

This is a rendering from Michelle Morelan of Michelle Morelan Design. We met this talented designer and blogger at the Blend 2012 event (#blend2012) hosted at the luxe St. Regis Hotel. A special thanks to Madeline from Ikea Canada for organizing, and Ikea Canada for sponsoring the blogger event.

Here we are at Blend 2012 with Barbara Matson from Hodge:Podge By Markova Design and Nancy Marcus from Marcus Design.

I wrapped up the weekend with a long walk along the sea wall. Why don’t I live here?!

For more on IDSwest, check out more of our top finds in this video.

Photo credits:
1-2. Loden Hotel
3a. Livingspace
3b. Suzanne Dimma
4. Janis Nicolay
5-11. Suzanne Dimma
12. Rendering by Kelly Deck
13-21. Suzanne Dimma
22. Rendering by Michelle Morelan
23. Hodge:Podge By Markova Design, photography by Barbara Matson
24. Suzanne Dimma