One of the coolest booths caught my attention with a quote. It said “This ain’t yo momma’s wicker!” The company is called PIE (Project Import Export), and the reps were the nicest people! Here’s some non-grandma wicker:

A pendant light at Haute Green:

A geometric screen in natural materials:

Amenity Home (who were also a part of Haute Green):

Side Tables from orange22 (aluminum with wood laminate):

OK, now I remember why I never posted this. I thought I’d be able to remember the names of the companies when I got home, and instead I had a mess of notes and cards – If anyone can identify these, please drop a comment and I’ll add the names immediately! Again, live and learn!

I’m pretty sure these are the same chairs they have at The Standard Hotel on Sunset Strip, if not, they are very similar. It’s fun to sit in a seed pod!:

Finally, one of my favorites. Can’t you just see walking through a marsh of cat-o-nine tails or a field of wheat and coming upon this in a hidden oasis? I don’t know where you’d really see this beyond a boutique hotel, but it was a fun surprise in the marsh of ICFF as well:

ANYHOO, Bright colors were all over at ICFF this year. While natural materials in neutral colors were everywhere, colors in all sorts of material from felt to plastic were right there next to them. Here are a few of my favorite booths:

MOROSO’s booth looked ready to be a print ad:

Plastic Fantastic from JSPR:

I LOVED this floor in the tabu booth – I could totally picture in beneath white walls in a gallery of bright folk or pop art:

hansandfranz, while conjuring up images of Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon trying to “pump you up,” presented this perfect booth of bright lamps:

More bright lamps I dub “Arco with a Twist”:

Great bright felt seating, perfect for a kid’s room or rec room:

Trippy fruity wallpaper that looks like it’s straight out of a Dee-Light video:

Gorgeous chairs (sort of three parts Bertoia, one part leaf) from Arper:

I’m in love with this table. It looks to me like Lichtenstein tried his hand at Shabby Chic – modern, poppy, a bit cartoonish:

Thout’s booth had one of my favorite color combos, red and turquiose (the stumps are a bit washed out in my images – they were brighter in person):

Of course, we can’t forget our old pal orange:

In fact, this year it seemed like there were two major trends at odds with one another – the natural look (showing off natural wood color and grains and imperfections, muted colors, etc.) versus the in-you-face bright metal, plastic, rubber, etc. The booth at Thout combined the two styles in the most interesting way, as did these anything but natural tree stumps:

Can’t you just see them on some current day psychedelic version of “Romper Room?” I also envision them in some white walled gallery space as the only furniture in the room. I love the way they used them as the coffee table base in this photo as well. It seems that the possibilities are endless!

In any case, I’ll showcase the natural look in my next ICFF post. That look provided a really interesting contrast to the products shown above.

The RISD/Swarovski collaboration – glammed up:

Again, I can’t get over this hot Austrian collection of baubles:

Then there is the playful wallpaper of SOON: You have to get up close to see the sexy, yet you can almost sense it from a distance in the geometry:

Yup, it looks like a lot of the designers listen to Justin Timberlake.

top three photos from RISD, wallpaper images from SOON

One of our first and favorite vendors, Blu Dot, is teaming up with Dwell in sponsering an open competition to design the ultimate lounge chair. They will “be looking for something comfortable, sustainable, efficient, honest and affordable. Just submit your design by July 2nd. We’ll pick three finalists and debut the prototypes at Dwell on Design Conference in San Francisco on September 15th. With Dwell’s and Blu Dot’s seal of approval, one winner’s chair will go into production and join the Blu Dot collection at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in May of 2008.”

For the official rules, prizes and a downloadable entry form, click here.
Speaking of Blu Dot, remember when I told you to subscribe to their newsletter? This is how I just found this contest news, and also a link to core77′s feature on a hamster powered paper shredder, which is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in awhile!

photo via Blu Dot news, via core77, via tom ballhatchet.

Also from Blu Dot, I am crazy about this chair I saw in their booth at ICFF…

It looks like you can fold it up flat, like a gift box you get from a department store, and it comes in a bunch of groovy colors. I think they call it “The Real Good Chair.”  I didn’t realize it at the show, but it actually does arrive flat-packed, like this:

However, my very favorite thing about the booth was the awesome photo of the person jumping on their bed in the background.  Those Blu Dot peeps really know how to style, from booth to newsletter, from furniture to websites.

Eames chair image from Wikipedia

You can rock back or forward on different sets of four legs without landing on your keister.  In addition, what color could outdo froggy green?  We love this one!