au naturale at IDS13

Still recovering from a busy weekend centred around interior design, I’ve finally caught up enough with my regular life’s goings on to capture my experience at Toronto’s annual Interior Design Show – IDS13. Starting with the opening party on Thursday night where I enjoyed networking and socializing with my design community colleagues and cohorts, Friday was a further treat when I joined fellow design bloggers on a walk about the show floor, lead by Margot Austin of Canadian House & Home and generously hosted by Masco Canada and the creative minds behind their blog, Beige is Dead. Not having absorbed quite enough, I returned on Saturday for a couple of more hours strolling the floor and enjoying the show.

A theme that emerged to me, and perhaps reflective of the sustainable perspective and inventive reuse of materials I embrace on saf affect, is the use of natural and environmentally conscious materials, often in their barest forms, in the booths and products alike.

One of my first stops was the How do You Work? feature, where my attention was captured by landscape designer Joel Loblaw’s colourful installation of painted wood cuts inspired by a colourful work of art.

The Recycler utilizes used bike parts in furniture and accessories; South Street Boat Builders keep wood in its natural form to form a chair.

Nomo Creations crafts fine strips of wood into elegant light fixtures.

The Felt Store supplies felt material made of renewable wool for design projects, as well as offering finished products of their own.

Living Lighting on King‘s dramatic booth design featured a panelled wall of gilded Edison-bulb lit sconces as the backdrop to a custom twig chandelier.

Earth Inc.‘s booth set the scene of an urban, edgy, yet welcoming backyard with rustic, natural, and vintage industrial elements.

Japanese design studio Nendo created a dream-like stone garden from Caesarstone’s signature quartz composite solid surface material.

Torlys designer cork flooring comes in some unique, on-trend textures and colours and is the longest cork plank available.

Stone Forest‘s massive womb-like tub carved from solid stone was a show stopper.

Ikea illustrated how their contemporary products can work alongside vintage decor such as with this stunning brass tub, with modern light fixtures strung from a framework of copper piping.