Alice

Alice Liao is executive editor for K+BB Magazine. To contact her, email: aliao@kbbonline.com.

I wanted to share some product images from Italian stone company Anotlini Luigi. They’re “leftovers” from the January/February issue of K+BB Magazine, which will publish some time in the next two weeks and include one of the company’s offerings in the What’s Cool Everywhere Else section. (Here’s a link to the section in the last issue, which had a green focus.)

To call Antolini Luigi a stone company is to gloss over what it does, which is to produce coolly intricate and elegant decorative patterned stone surfaces, such as those in its Natura Collection. The motifs range from butterflies

and snakes (shown on Bronze Armani marble)

to leaves

and more geometric designs (in gleaming gold, no less).

For 2012, the company has expanded its Precioustone collection, which includes Preciousgold, Preciousglitter and Preciousilver. Unfortunately, I don’t have any images of the new additions, but I do have this:

Wow, it’s just like my house… no, not really.

—Alice Liao

Maybe it’s because I just put to bed an issue this week and am in need of some winding down, but these images of saunas from German spa and sauna manufacturer caught my eye.

The first is of Casena, a designer sauna with a frameless glass front and interior and exterior cladding in dark wenge wood. It boasts an inner glow, thanks to a ceiling studded with myriad points of light.

Then there’s Lounge Q, another designer sauna with a hemlock interior and a below-the-bench heating unit. Colored lighting is also available to create mood and provide a little chromatherapy perhaps? According to the press release, the different colors of light also help maintain the firmness of the skin.

One question: Do people really put these in their homes?

(Editor’s note: While I’m trying to wrap up January/February, DRS and Associates has offered to blog about new trends spotted at the Dallas International Lighting Market. Thanks!)

If you had any question about where lighting is headed this year, then the 2012 Dallas International Lighting Market (which just wrapped Jan. 19-23) at Dallas Market Center (and home to the American Lighting Association) is a perfect place to start. With over five million sq. ft. of exhibition space and approximately 3,000 buyers visiting from all over the globe (Spanish and French were frequently overheard this weekend), the event is touted as “the International Home of Lighting“ for good reason. We surveyed the scene and pulled together a quick list of the season’s brightest lighting trends.

1. Non-Traditional Materials
Rope, cable and other “found” objects such as vintage glass telephone insulators and jars were perhaps one of the biggest surprises of Dallas Market. Even the most daring of lighting manufacturers this year took a no-holds-barred approach to rethinking what exists, blurring the line between what is chic and what is familiar.

2. Aged Brass
Keeping in line with the weathered looks and “found” object theme, aged brass has made a comeback in the bath (contrary to earlier declarations that it ‘was dead’ a few years ago). This year, lighting manufacturers added more of the vintage finish to their collections for sconces and pendants that range from contemporary to completely timeless.

3. Americana Style
No matter what year it is, the casual Americana style has not gone out of fashion in kitchen and bath lighting. While some buyers may go for the “wow” factor, nothing says “comfort” like hand-worked wrought iron, linen, bronze finishes and gentle, curving shapes.

4. Mirrored Plating
Who said that light must merely illuminate a space? Mirrors incorporated into back plates, shiny chrome stems and reflective detailing give added dimension in and out of the kitchen and bath space. These dazzling fixtures sparked real surprise at Dallas Market.

5. Oversized
Just in time for making bigger spaces seem cozier or making smaller spaces intimate, super-sized fixtures were the rage at Dallas Market. Oversized fixtures—from globes, which feature bubbled and smooth textures, to classic forms and even elaborate ornamental forms—were literally “taking over” several showroom spaces.

6. Crystal Clear
Embellishments continue to rule in fashion, design and in our surroundings. While classic beads and prisms continue to adorn fixtures—clean modern shapes like circles, squares and obelisks were seen as bases, bringing added crystal clear umpf to lighting in 2012.

DRS and Associates is a full-service branding, advertising and public relations agency in Los Angeles. Headed by CEO and founder David Schlocker, the firm has over 25 years of experience in marketing, design, and merchandising to luxury consumers, architects and designers, specific to the kitchen and bath and architectural products industries. For more information on DRS and Associates, please log on to www.drsandassociates.com.

On Wednesday, I blogged about the appliances LG is showing at CES, one of which is an award-winning refrigerator that can chill a can of soda in five minutes.

Thanks to my friend Ray, who sent me a link to a PopSci.com piece on the same refrigerator, it seems the Blast Chiller feature is even cooler than I first thought. What is it they say about a picture being worth a thousand words? Well, in this case, video is much more dramatic and explicit:

via PopSci.com

Of course, being at CES would be even cooler.

Check out the PopSci article for an explanation of how the feature works.