GLASS ACTS Sleek and space-agey, they look like the kind of martini glasses you might sip from at the bar on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. Two Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design students are finalists in Bombay Sapphire's annual contest to create innovative versions of the cocktail nation's ultimate accessory. Brian Paschke's Transtini, made of curving double-walled glass, has a slightly oval base for easy handling and a soft rubber bottom; check out the little slots on the rim where olive picks can lie across the drink. Meanwhile, Paul Falcon's entry lives up to its name, Fluidity: his tinted-blue vessel is balanced on a slooshing wave form, a sculptural metaphor for the taste of the martini flowing down your throat. They're up against Carleton University grad Dolly Audit for a chance on March 10 to proceed to the international finals in Milan, Italy, during the prestigious Salone del Mobile design show.
EVERY LITTLE BREEZE Options in the interior-décor world can be dizzying. Adding to the vertigo, Lampe Berger (available at Lothantique [2655 Granville Street] and Atkinson's [1501 West 6th Avenue]) is much more than a scented candle or essential oil can ever be. This Parisian fragrance system, created in 1898, simultaneously acts as an air purifier. The porcelain base burns specially created oils that drift through the air and kill up to two-thirds of the bacteria residing there. Coco Chanel was a fan, and Paris's Le Plaza Athénée hotel is purified with this small piece of French ingenuity and elegance. Rarefied air just took on a whole new meaning.
ROCKS OF CHOICE Ingenuity and the DIY credo can always take the mundane to designer heights. A current trend is to use industrial materials in a more refined context. For example, gabions (available at Nilex [3963 Phillips Avenue, Burnaby]) can make for great looking structures in the back yard. Often used as highway retaining walls, these flexible wire cages can be filled with a rock of choice (try Northwest Landscape and Stone Supply at 5883 Byrne Road, also in Burnaby) and stacked to build a partial wall. Use cut stone for a more refined appearance or broken rock to keep with the industrial feel. Decorate the yard's new accent with vines and hanging flowers. You can also fill with soil, seed with grass, and-presto!-a giant chia pet or grassy knoll.
ABSTRACT MATS Patricia Baun's hand-painted canvas rugs may have their roots in folk art, but this season, her collection of floor art brings to mind Mondrian, modernism, and mid-century mosaics. The Vancouverite recently unveiled a range of strikingly abstract stripes and grids in time for her debut at Toronto's Interior Design Show earlier this month. The repeating patterns come in colours that evoke vintage Marimekko or coolly contemporary interiors: oranges and yellows with brown, say, or varying shades of sage green. The mats, made hardy with layers of wax and sealer, cost $50 to $55 per square foot through her Web site, www.pmbdesigns.com/.
GOOD WOODS Tropical woods can bring a warm exoticism to contemporary interiors, but you never know what kind of environmental devastation they're leaving behind in their home countries. Enter the new Kroehler Coastal Home Store (1401 West 8th Avenue, 604-733-6824), which, alongside its 150-odd styles of couches, ottomans, and chairs, has brought in eco-friendly furniture from the far reaches of the world. Check out the plantation-grown shesham (a type of rosewood), whose reddish hue evokes the parlours of colonial India, or rich-brown plantation-grown rubberwood in glossy or rustic finishes. Tall teak display stands are starkly modular but rippled with a warm grain: they work alone as a night table or grouped at varying heights to show off collectibles. Add texture to a room with seagrass, Filipino abaca (banana-tree bark), or even coconut. (Overall prices range from about $300 to $700 for coffee tables up to $1,200 to $2,300 for dining tables.)
STICK 'EM UP For the extremely creative, or extremely lazy, blik self-adhesive graphics will transform pretty much any room in the house or office. And no paint can need be opened to accomplish the feat. The blik temporary adhesives (you can find them at Koo-Koo [2152 Main Street]) stick to practically any surface?-from floors to walls to windows-and take very little time to apply. Imagine a flock of birds flying across the night sky of your ceiling or a poem on your bathroom wall.
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