Chicago Part 2 – A Day of Inspiration with Delta Faucet

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Delta Faucet .  The opinions and text are all mine.

Welcome back to our Chicago recap!  We were asked to come to the Windy City to experience a Day of Inspired Design with Delta Faucet and it was soooo gooood!  If you need to catch up with what we did when we first arrived, read the part 1 of this trip by CLICKING HERE.

The day of the event came and I was SO excited to see the showroom with the Delta line up and hear about their product development.  I know.  I am a dork.  But seriously, this is the stuff that we as homeowners spend our money on to make our homes more comfortable…and any mom knows that a good shower can mean the world of difference in her day.

Check out these bathing beauties!

And they had set ups to show off the possibilities….like this one with raincans, body jets, hand held and regular shower heads!  What a dream!  I’m a tiny bit surprised Jeremy didn’t try it out fully dressed 🙂

Hands down my favorite design was this sleek lovely Trinsic kitchen faucet in a champagne bronze finish…..seriously all the heart eyes for this one.

The showroom itself was sort of like looking at art….so many different styles and designs. Even the smallest and simplest pieces had great details….clean, balanced and refined.

I was even digging the more masculine and modern designs which is usually not my thang.  Isn’t this one so nice?  Like I could see this in my boys bathroom even.  Give them something to live up to.

After we explored the showroom, it was great to hear from Missi Tate, a Delta Faucet representative about how Delta thinks of practicality as a beautiful thing.  I could tell that they really felt honored when people chose their designs because they put so much thought into the pieces.

And then it was time for the special speakers – our friends from Young House Love – to speak on design and how they find inspiration to use in their own home.

Their main reminders to look for when designing a room in your home are form, function, mood and meaning.  And I gotta tell you…they are wonderful public speakers.  This is probably the fourth or fifth time I’ve heard them speak and every single time, I walk away learning so much from them.

Then we loaded up onto the cutest trolley and hit the town….

This was my first time ever getting to do a city tour and I can’t recommend it enough!  It was so helpful and informative.  Plus, you can look cuter than average while in it 🙂

Our task was to visit some of the best designed locations in the city and gather inspiration for our own homes.  I took a ton of photos so you could virtually join us and see these places, too.  The details are insane and I know you will be inspired, too.

Our first stop was the Chicago Cultural Center.  It had some incredible tile work….I pride myself on being a detailed tiler….but this was a whole new level. And I love the details of gold mixed with the marble.  That was a big theme for the day.

The ceilings were exquisite.  Words can’t even describe.

And there was a lot of use of contrast – for example, the marble here is right next to black iron vent covers….

And that scalloped look is hot right now in tile and here it is showcased in the lighting….

Colored tile is making a big splash right now…but apparently over 100 years ago, the tile workers bested us with mother of pearl, Tiffany glass and green stones from Ireland. It is an impressive amount of workmanship and beauty.

Small mosaic tiles have my heart.  It’s crazy to think that these were all hand cut and fit to perfection.

This was a hallway to the bathrooms….even the structures in here were inspiring.

And this was the view out the side of those structures.  I love that design of the black steel on the window.  Wouldn’t it look great as a stencil?

At this point, we all probably could have walked away with enough inspiration, but we had a few more locations to explore….and more selfies to take 🙂

 

The second spot of our tour was The Rookery.  It’s amazingly ornate with incredibly striking marble, gold detailing and a glass ceiling that has the geometric design of my dreams.

It also had a really beautiful copper handrail on top of an ornate metal designed railing.

Isn’t that beautiful with the coffered ceiling?

Okay so before I go any further, the entire group was mostly women….Jeremy & John excluded.  But I gotta tell you, groups of girls…especially really smart, fashionable, smart businesswomen intimidate the stew out of me.  Most of the time, I try to put on a good front but inside I am constantly worried about putting my foot in my mouth or acting like a sore thumb or just planning my grand escape into a safe bathroom stall with wi-fi.  But straight from the get-go these ladies were so kind and welcoming.  Most of them have really successful design businesses and here I am, a stay-at-home mom who gets to makeover a room in her house.  All that to say, I am still learning to not be intimidated by what others have accomplished…but to be open to these new experiences because sometimes you can meet new friends!  I hope you check out their recaps of the trip too….I know I am!  Here are the links to the other girls….

• Beth @ Home Stories A to Z
• Aniko @ Place of My Taste
• Cyndy @ The Creativity Exchange
• Sarah @ Life on Virginia Street
• Rebekah @ A Blissful Nest
• Ally @ Inspired By This
• Becki @ Becki Owens
• Erin @ Design For Mankind
• Ashley @ Cherished Bliss

The next stop on the tour was the Buckingham Fountain.  It is a really huge fountain (the biggest I’ve ever seen!) set with the city skyline on one side and Lake Michigan (not the ocean!) on the other.

Right away we noticed it wasn’t turned on….because they had shut it down for the winter so it doesn’t freeze.  And, that is also when they get to clean the entire thing.

The colors everywhere were just perfection. And even with the fountains off, we still were able to look at the carvings, and textures and materials used. There was a lot of cell phone action….and by the end, we all just kept our air-drop on and constantly shared our favorite pics.

The last stop was the one with the most modern feeling of the tour – a building called Aqua Tower.  It’s literally designed to look like water is falling down the side.

Next to it is this sunken little park that is so adorable it makes me want to move to the city.

One of my favorite things about our tour was meeting Becki Owens.  She has a massively inspiring Instagram account that blows my mind.  And she takes all of those beautiful photos of interiors.  But what you don’t see is the down-to-earth and sweet girl that she is in real life.  She is often behind the camera instead of in front of it but really she is gorgeous inside and out! And I was really glad that Beth was there – we haven’t gotten to hang out much but she is an old-school blogger like me and there definitely is a secure feeling around her because she always makes me feel normal….even though I know I’m not 🙂

Lunch was at The Hampton Social and it was a bloggers dream.When we arrived, I think all of us gasped a little bit and didn’t want to run too quickly into the room because it was just so beautiful.

Becki cracks me up on the end with her water glass 🙂  Such a rebel.

This lunch time affair was eye candy and delicious.  I had a lobster salad that was AMAZING.  And the crab cakes?  I still have dreams about them.

John & Sherry had a separate design inspired talk for us at the restaurant and again they rocked it out.

I was trying to get a photo of Sherry smiling – this will do 🙂

At lunch we all got to talk shop and discuss whether we were choosing a bathroom or kitchen for our moodboard competition later.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel where there was a giant room set up for us to do our moodboards.  Each moodboard would be the plan we would use if we tackled a bathroom or kitchen remodel.  We were supposed to use inspiration from the city of Chicago as our jumping off point and bring samples from home (paint swatches, fabrics, etc.) to fill in the gaps.

Moodboards are not my strong suit…at. all.  So for me this would normally take a whole lot longer.  Some of the girls already had a plan and they were able to easily incorporate the city into their design….me?  I was half-nervous-laughing, half-on-the-verge-of-tears just simply because I had no idea what I was doing.

In the end, I was able to come up with this design for a boys bathroom – a masculine yet refined space.  It would incorporate chunky marble (like we saw at The Rookery), gold accents and faceted light fixtures (also inspired by The Rookery).  Then I drew inspiration from Buckingham Fountain for the color scheme (green and blue is my favorite color combo).  The Cultural Center floor had me thinking that a mosaic is the way to go for flooring.  And the worn Cultural Center railing reminded me of a leather bench that would be a great place to perch in any bathroom.  The faucet I chose was the Zura Widespread Lavatory Faucet in chrome and matte black.  I love matte finishes and this goes really well with the other black touches in the room.

After the moodboards were completed, we handed in our work to be judged by the Delta folks who would announce the winner later.  Jeremy and I changed into our dinner outfits and decided to walk around the hotel and take some pictures.

Oh just two guys wearing sunglasses at night.  Nothing to see here 🙂

The dinner was so relaxing and delicious.  I can’t thank Delta enough for having us.  And, I was really excited to learn that Beth from Home Stories A to Z was the winner of the grand prize – Delta is funding a bathroom makeover she designed!  Her moodboard was so beautiful and I can’t wait to follow along as she does her bathroom.

More good news we all will receive a faucet of our choice to use in our own bathroom or kitchen!  I can’t wait to incorporate that matte beauty somewhere!  It’s so striking!

Overall, it was such an inspiring and fun trip.  Thank you so, so, so much, Delta Faucet- I had a blast learning about your beautiful faucets and how you are making a difference in so many lives and homes.  And, to share this trip with the man I love and my best friends was just the cherry on top!  Chicago is now on my favorite-cities-ever list and I hope I get to go back one day and explore even more.  I hope this recap inspired you a bit and make sure to follow along for the bathroom that we give a mini-makeover in the coming weeks.

If you would like to see the Delta shower head we used in our guest bathroom – click here.  It’s one of my very favorite DIY spaces I’ve ever done 🙂

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Delta Faucet . The opinions and text are all mine.