I headed down to 400 S. Jefferson (it’s really on the corner of Van Buren and Des Plaines) in Chicago yesterday afternoon to be your personal scout at the Chiasso Warehouse Sale. What a happening! I even spotted a family making a day of it picnicking on the carpeting.
 
(The rugs were up to 80% off, […]

I came to this conclusion last night when I had the occasion to entertain a group of women in my home. Now, mind you, I’m not normally insecure about where I live. In fact, it suits me just fine. It has all the space I need, I am grateful to have it and understand that […]

Download Chiasso featured on the Today Show.
Chiasso’s Luna Workstation was featured last week on the Today Show. The office workstation combines a sleek modern design with ingenious functionality. Imagine sitting down and getting things done in your own modern shrine to work. Organized for maximum efficiency and effectiveness, this single unit holds your computer and […]

If you haven’t seen Persepolis, the Academy Award-nominated Best Animated Feature (based on the Marjane Satrapi graphic novel), go today! From opening credits to ending, it’s a gem of a movie whose core themes are integrity, authenticity and the indomitable human spirit. It’s in French with subtitles and, appropriately enough, most of it’s in black […]

Miami: 82 and sunny. Chicago: 27 and…enough said. 
Nice weather can definitely change your outlook on everything—even design. Still, the Miami Modernism Show, for which I had escaped the comforts of 14 inches of snow to attend, was a disappointment because, with the exception of only a handful of the 60+ dealers who had come from […]

Did I ever mention my distain for football? No, well, it’s only equaled by my aversion to bad (read: completely personality-less) motel interiors. I practically have an allergic reaction to the game—and it’s not because it’s a sport. Apart from a few cute QBs and running backs, where’s the finesse?
On any given weekend, when I’m […]

Every fashion designer has an indelible one in his or her seasonal collection. And every fashionista has one in her closet, whether it’s a dress, hat, pin, pair of shoes…So, doesn’t your home deserve one, too—a sofa, wall art, table sculpture, lamp or vase that jumps right out and shouts “I’m the most YOU of […]

I was getting my nails done in a Vietnamese salon the other day, one with a particularly fine sound system I might add, and wanting to hold my hand out to examine the new copper shade I had eschewed for my usual Lincoln Park After Dark, when out wafts the most intriguing, almost-but-not-quite familiar music.
Turns […]

As this is an election year, and it’s been—what?—ten minutes since you heard the results of the last one, let’s take a poll. Try to be as honest as you can with yourself. Remember, you are among friends, and there are no wrong answers.  1. How do you identify yourself—as a city person or suburbanite? 2. Are you […]

Every couple of years, I make a wise decision to revisit what in a relatively short time has become a self-help classic. It is entitled The Four Agreements: A Toltec Wisdom Book. In this 140-pager, author Don Miguel Ruiz outlines four ideas that help put things in perspective in our modern world: 1. Be impeccable […]