Commemorating their 30th anniversary in the Michigan Design Center in Troy, Michigan, Tennant & Associates is a family-owned, trade-only showroom offering custom fabrics, wall coverings, lighting, and furniture for both traditional and contemporary styles across residential and contract applications. “We have a little bit of everything, and nearly everything we sell can be customized,” said Dawn Tennant, co-owner of Tennant & Associates. “It is exclusive products that can only be sold to interior designers.” From leathers, silks, and handwoven natural window coverings to lighting solutions, Tennant & Associates serves as a source for a number of well-known companies like Holly Hunt Enterprises Inc., Hartmann & Forbes Inc., Phillip Jeffries, and…
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E.W. Kitchens’ 75th anniversary
Celebrating 75 years of business this year, E.W. Kitchens is a family-owned, full-service kitchen and bath design firm founded in 1947. The business is headquartered in Wixom, Michigan, which is also where their warehouse is located, and has a smaller, upscale showroom inside the Michigan Design Center in Troy, Michigan. E.W. Kitchens’ showroom inside the Michigan Design Center features their offerings of high-end cabinetry with kitchen displays showcasing a variety of different design styles, as well as other products such as range hoods and The Galley Workstation, a unique sink design that doubles as a workstation to prepare and serve meals. Although E.W. Kitchens primarily works on kitchen and bath…
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Virginia Tile opens in Troy
Since 1928, Virginia Tile Company has become a leading tile distributor in the Midwest, serving 14 states with its two distribution hubs in Livonia, Michigan, and Kansas City, Kansas and network of showrooms. Fulfilling the needs of residential and commercial building industry customers, the company is a provider of porcelain, ceramic, stone, glass, metal, and mosaic design solutions, with select regions also offering resilient flooring and woodworking products. On Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021, Virginia Tile held a grand opening gala in celebration of its new flagship location in Troy, Michigan. The milestone event was attended by more than 200 industry representatives and supporters from across the country to witness the…
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Vintage curation
“If I am offering design as a service to someone else, I can solve problems that maybe the client did not even know they had or make their space more functional, but more importantly, more enjoyable. Good design truly does bring joy to people,” said Kim Tanner, owner of Strangelovely in Godfrey, Illinois. Strangelovely is a classic vintage furniture and home décor shop located on the lower level of a historic home built in 1850 in Godfrey. Initially launched in 2012 by Tanner as a hobby upcycling vintage furniture during her spare time while living in Chicago, the shop has evolved into a careful curation of vintage quality and craftsmanship…
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Made to measure
Theodore Alexander Furniture has become synonymous with widely available, luxury home furnishings for the modern residence, with stockists and showrooms around the world. One of these showrooms is housed in the Michigan Design Center in Troy, Michigan, and together with its series of Ralph Lauren Furniture offerings provides visitors from around the Midwest with the best of the global design brand, including its Made-to-Measure furniture capabilities. “Theodore Alexander is a company with one of the largest in-stock stocking programs. They have a lot of furniture that will ship immediately and then a lot of custom furniture that allows us to make something, especially upholstery, exactly what you want it. We’re…
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TURF-Noble partnership
From its Chicago headquarters, TURF Design Inc., an acoustic commercial products designer, is reimagining interior health through its minimal yet sophisticated acoustic solutions and their sustainable properties. Foundationally, TURF exists to fight disturbing, open space echo by creating visually stunning ceiling baffles and wall panels from pre-consumer PET plastic that are manufactured on-demand to keep inventory waste low. In a new strategic partnership with Carolyn Ames Noble, ASID, WELL AP, founder of Ames Design Collective, the TURF team’s creative capabilities are now matched with Noble’s consulting services and expertise in sensory-based and inclusive products, as well as Color Material Finish, or CMF, design and interior environmental design. The two teams…
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Sustainability Deep Dive
As a shepherd of product ideas and designs for the human environment, the industrial design industry has a huge impact on the climate crisis and outstretched waste statistics around the world. To unpack this reality and connect through solutions, the Industrial Designers Society of America, or IDSA, kicked off its inaugural Sustainability Deep Dive conference last year, which tackled the complexity of imbuing the product lifecycle with sustainable processes, strategies, and experiences. This month, the conference made its second annual trek across current themes and innovations in industrial design and sustainability, and the resulting programming was a rich exploration of concrete solutions, wonderous and science-backed products, hopeful-but-firm calls to action,…
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Re-framing the view
In 1823, a Baltimore-based businessman ran an advertisement for the sale of a Wire and Wheat Fan Establishment in the “The American Farmer: containing Original Essays and Selections on Rural Economy and Internal Improvement with Illustrative Engravings and the Prices Current of Country Produce, Vol. IV.” In it, J. Grafflin listed the sale of wheat fans, rolling screens, and “assorted wove wire for windows and other purposes,” and R. Sinclair, who purchased the establishment, indicated he intended to keep the “ready-made, all kinds of wove wire, suitable for rolling screens, safes, riddles, sieves, and wheat fans.” While other entrepreneurs and inventors would quickly sell, advertise, and file patents—such as Bayley…
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Gallery of luxury
In Troy, Michigan, the Michigan Design Center has been serving Michigan’s design community, including designers, architects, builders, and consumers through its campus of nearly 40 curated showrooms for more than 30 years. The showrooms represent more than 1,000 manufacturers with names like Ann Sacks, Kravet, and Baker Furniture, and recently, the center has added a new showroom to its roster: The Gallery of Luxury. The new 1,871-square-foot showroom—which will celebrate its grand opening May 5th—offers a selection of furnishings from leading European contemporary manufacturers like Cattelan, Bonaldo, Pianca, Glas Italia, Fiam, and more. The gallery’s owner, Marsela Gjoni welcomes both consumers and trade professionals to take part in the unique…
