ICFF 2014 in New York City last month was one of the better shows of the year with its newly added hall and a lot of emphasis on designer/makers. It was good to see creativity flowing with brands like Wilsonart dedicating two entire booth spaces to the work of design students and Watermark from Brooklyn whose booth looked more like Santa’s workshop than a trade show booth as they offered a hands on “design-your-own” faucet experience. Designs overall were fun, creative and, most importantly, confident..all signs we feel signal yet more strengthening of our industry and a new optimism in things to come. What was your takeaway from the show? Feel free to share in comments below. Here are ours:

Meystyle from London wowed with a bigger booth and a broader collection offering, featuring their trademark wallpaper with embedded LED lights.
Love London collection by journalist, photographer and dear friend of Modenus, Barbara Chandler. Barbara’s iconic photography is available as a book, art, wallpaper, textiles and more via Digitex
BlogTour has long been a fan of Mineheart, if you remember back we could never get enough of their light bulbs containing a tiny chandelier, and it was great to see the creative group at ICFF. They’re looking for select retailers in the US so let them know if you’re interested.
British Designer Naomi Paul wowed with her fabulous knit pendant designs. It was her first time showing in the US but we have a sneaking feeling it won’t be the last we see of this talented designer.
It was great to meet our Twitter friends Quirk and Rescue who showed their vibrant colors in the British Pavilion where they shared their newest designs on wallpaper and cushions. We also think the idea of well designed clip boards might catch on.
There is nothing we haven’t already said about bronze sculptor Nick Davis. We love his work that ranges from individual sculptures, to entire chess sets to small furniture pieces and always features sometimes whimsical, sometimes dark figurines that capture our imaginations….
…our photographer Chasen West was so in love with Nick’s work that we had to promise him to publish two images. A wondrous world created by our favorite sculptor, makes us wish we could introduce him to Neil Gaiman, no?
Dan Yeffet & Lucie Koldova designed this fabulous stool for Haymann. We love the contrast in color and texture.
We could have spent a few hours just studying whimsical detail at toolsforeverydaylife.com in particular the rulers collection by Rickard Wittingham.
It was great to see iconic Highpoint brand Made Goods show its lovely face at ICFF. We loved this shell mirror in particular.
James de Wulf, known for his great skills in taming concrete into pool tables and other furniture pieces also wowed with his brass and iron pendants that ranged from rough and industrial to refined and chic.