It’s impossible not to like ABC carpet and home. Mixing fresh and old, ethnic and international, the New York-based Company has something for everyone. And with the new restaurant opened in New York, they are going beyond pleasing our style cravings.
abc kitchen with jean-georges focuses on delivering everything organic, local, sustainable, humanely treated, fair traded, free of pesticides, hormones and synthetic fertilizers and all other good stuff. And they do it with chic, too earning spectacular reviews on both design and food. Integrating different natural textures with a little New York sparkle, the space lures with warmth and welcome.
abc kitchen taps into the leadership and expertise of the abc home curation, featuring sustainable, local, artisan indigenous, salvaged, recycled and goodwood stories. these include found, salvaged, reclaimed & recycled building materials; handmade porcelain dinnerware
by local artisan jan burtz; bread baskets handcrafted by the indigenous mapuche people of patagonia;
salvaged wood tables handcrafted by local artisan jim denney; steel and concrete installations
by local artisan eric slayton; a venetian plaster wall and mirrors painted, etched, and collaged by local artisans;
a rooftop garden that provides herbs and micro-greens; soy-based candles that are free of pesticides,
GMOs & additives; and all organic cleaning products.
<images via www.abchome.com>
As I’m working on my Thesis project, I’ve been awfully drawn to all sorts of inspirations from nature. Here’s another one, which have influenced me a LOT. Patrick Blanc, a French landscape architect, is a developer of the concept of the vertical garden. Quoting his website, vertical gardens “rely on the new way of growing plants without any soil. … The vertical garden can be implemented outdoor or indoor, in any climatic environment. For indoor location, an artificially lighting is usually required. Watering and fertilization are automated. The Vertical Garden acts as a phonic and thermal isolation system. It is also an air purification device”.
And it’s GORGEOUS. A much-needed oasis in our hectic lives.
<images via www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com>
Nature truly has already created all the beauty out there, we just need to look closer to discover that, as did a New-York based artist and designer Aviva Stanoff. At her Design Studio each product is unique as it is created by hand through silk screening or dying. Whether its her signature velvets or silk organza, charmeuse or glass, her home collection is astounding in its simple beauty.
<images via www.avivastanoff.com>
From a movie jewel to the real jewels. Concetto is a new awe-inspiring collection of extraordinary surfaces hand-made from individually cut and bound semi-precious stones by CeasarStone. The incredible natural patterns and hues are combined with heat, stain and scratch resistance qualities. With 19 varieties and an option for back-lighting, you are in for a real treat.
<images via www.concettous.com>
To follow up on the amazing downtown walk, we stop by for the dinner at Bottega Louie, a new hip restaurant I’ve heard a lot about all over blogosphere. And we know that the blogosphere doesn’t lie. The place was even better that I’ve imagined. Designed by View Design Studio, it already got the 2009 AIA Los Angeles Restaurant Design Award.
Combining classical architectural details, exquisite food (bot on the menu and at a little retail area) and the trendy social atmosphere, Bottega Louis definitely makes you forget that you are in LA rather you are sitting in the heart of Manhattan. Well, someone here is in the New York state of mind today.
And I seems to find the one responsible for the package design of the irresistible macaroons boxes. Those evils look SO cute and luring. Shortly, if you ever find a spare $20 you know what to get me) 
<images via 1, 2, 3>
