Bonus Bone: Dream Home

Today Porcelain & I visited the DreamHome showcase at Chicago's Merchandise Mart. Eleven designers, including Oprah's Golden Boy, Nate Berkus, put their skills to the test in a faux nine-room house. Each designer (or pair of designers) got to glitz up one standard room: foyer, living room, library, bath, bedroom, dining room, kitchen, family room, and courtyard. For a suggested $5 donation (to the University of Chicago's Cancer Research Foundation), Porcelain & I got to waltz around and act like we owned the joint.

Since there was no purchase pressure (only those "in the trade" can even think of asking about cost), we were free to snap a bunch of photos, all the while pondering our amateur insights. I saw many things that I really liked, including a paint treatment (see below) that will look divine in my bedroom! We poked at the fragiles, sat on the satin, and danced our fingers across acreage of glossy marble.

Detail of bedroom wall, designed by Kara Mann

I knew going in that we would see things that might make us envious and yearn for better paying jobs. I knew we'd be WOW'ed. But what I wasn't quite expecting was that we'd be able to discriminate. We didn't do it in a haughty way but we were actually able to discern, among all the sparkle and flash, that which didn't work. More importantly, we offered clear opinions on what might have worked better. Porcelain, I think we just might be exiting design puberty.

For these reasons, I, Cardboard, declare this a Design Boner.