Boston Design Center

The Boston Design Center, normally only open to "the trade," opened its doors this past weekend

to commoners.  Some showrooms were having floor sample sales while others were

simply "open for viewing."

While I don't understand the concept of severely limiting your client base, it didn't matter to me.

I was just excited to see what design and decorating delicacies were behind

the forbidden post-modern facade.

I was most excited about going to Schumacher.  I've seen many beautiful Schumacher patterns and I wanted to see and feel the Martyn Lawrence Bullard and Mary McDonald collections.  I was disappointed to find that Schumacher was closed.  So lame!

Ralph Lauren was also closed but I was able to get these photos with

my crying face pressed to the glass.

Stark Carpets was open and I was happy to see their beautiful carpets in person.  I've seen some on One King's Lane and many of them appeal to me.  I was surprised to see that they also had a nice collection of antique thread-bare orientals and vintage Moroccans.  I'm on the edge of declaring Moroccans "over" because there are so many knock-offs but the real thing is still gorgeous.

In my mind, Stark is best known for their antelope carpet seen in this fantastic Jan Showers room.

The Kravet showroom was beautiful.  I didn't even know they sold furniture.  Their upholstered pieces are very elegant and some their case pieces are surprisingly modern.  

Their fabrics are all soft to the touch and seem quite luxe.  

You could spend weeks going through all of the fabric showrooms.  Weeks!

It would be easy to get overwhelmed in just one.

Here are few that appealed to me.

1.  Gaston y Daniela, Segovia pattern, Gris colorway

2.  Gaston y Daniela, Matsuyama pattern,verde colorway

3.  Brunschwig & Fils, Le Jardin Chinois, Aqua/Green colorway

4.  Gaston y Daniela, Regencia, Chocolate colorway

One of my favorite places was Janus et Cie, a beautiful showroom

that focuses on indoor and outdoor seating.

I was totally in love with the boxwood clad walls.

...their beautifully designed space and their great products.

I would love to have four of the wicker chairs around a small table on

my back porch when that gets replaced.

I was recently reading about this beautiful kitchen via this Tokyo Jinja post and noticed that the

subway tile was from Ann Sacks so I psyched to see it at the design center. 

What a beautiful showroom.  I'm not one for glitz but this patinated gold tile

was pretty amazing.

Also very cool was their selection of their porcelain tile made to look like plank flooring.  

What a great choice this would be for a kitchen.

VERY cool!

I have a very photographic memory and I was sure this yellow tile (I neglected to get the name) looked very familiar to me.  

Does it look familiar to you?

I'm pretty sure it's the tile that Kathryn Ireland used in her Ojai makeover in the most

recent season of Million Dollar Decorators.

There was so much beautiful tile, I couldn't begin to show it all but I took great interest in the

mosaics at the Ann Sacks showroom which I'll show in another post.

Despite my disappointment at missing Schumacher, I had a great time having access to the

showrooms at the Boston Design Center.  I would love to have more time to see everything and educate myself better on the products that are available if only through the trade.