Pleasant Living: 2013 DINING BY DESIGN NEW YORK

Sunday, March 31, 2013

2013 DINING BY DESIGN NEW YORK

THE TABLES

Another year of creative dining designed by some of the best established and upcoming designers in New York City. Dining by Design, a DIFFA event fundraiser for the fight against AIDS, was eye candy for the culinary inspired.

The event is split into three parts: a dinner where invited guests are actually seated at the tables for an inspired meal catered by some of New York's finest caterers, a cocktail party where entry consists of a $200 donation, and then three days of open viewing to the public as part of your ticket to the Architectural Digest Home Show. Rick and I attended the cocktail party as guests of the New York Design Center and also took Emmy and a pair of clients for a tour of the tables when we went furniture and appliance hunting at the Arch Digest Show.

The Arch Digest show was disappointing this year. In years past the show had opened itself up to a broader range of home essentials. This year the show seemed to predominately focus on two aspects of the home: art and appliances. These are essential aspects of home design but I missed the furniture, lighting, carpets and accessories that had a greater presence in past years. This may bode well for ICFF this year. Where it had been losing ground to the Architectural Digest Show it may now have regained its preeminence as the primary show to introduce new ideas in furniture and design. Since we will be introducing a new line of furniture with Black Wolf Design at ICFF this year we may have lucked into the right time for our introduction. Y'all have your fingers crossed.

Here are some of our highlights from Dining by Design, photos curtesy of Emmy Shaver/Melahn.

Entry into the space was through a cascading waterfall of lights suspended on red cords.

For the cocktail party we were greeted by waiters with glasses of champagne at the ready in front of the Ralph Lauren Table.

For the past couple of years DIFFA has selected designers to mentor groups of students from local design schools in applying their talents to creating tables from a fixed budget. Some of the tables designed this year by the student groups were some of my favorites.

This student table and surround was created out of wire coat hangers.

Benjamin Moore didn't disappoint with color splashed and spilled all over the table, the chairs and the walls to boot.

Fantasy was in full swing at this Fragonard inspired garden party

Guests at the this table were not only treated to the eye candy of the space but literally to the candy itself. The walls were clad in thousands of Hershey candy kisses. No one needed to feel a thief in stealing away with a kiss of their own.