April 14-20, 2005

mixpicks

Foundation Course

Showhouse show

What has Trading Spaces wrought? Sitting through an episode full of ill-advised home redesign (more leopard print? I think so …) and the repressed shudders of the participants, you could make a pretty strong case that anything more than a new throw rug spells disaster and unhappiness.

Luckily, the Philadelphia Furniture and Furnishings Show cleaves more to the model of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, paying plenty of attention to a home's bricks and mortar, its shape and structure. This year's festival, for the first time, incorporates the aspects of architecture, home preservation and "greening" into the usual celebration of functional crafts and soft furnishings. With the involvement of the American Institute of Architects' Philly branch, "The Art of the Home" will present work by 50 of its foremost building designers, with some of them on hand to discuss their residential projects.

Course, adapting your home means you can make room for furnishing pieces like Arnold d'Epagnier's woodworked tables, Laura Shprentz's rustic tiles that gild their sly humor with beautiful glazes and Alexandra Austin's asymmetric teapot (pictured). It's a one-stop shop for you to plan your home from foundations up — no TV experts required.

11th Annual Philadelphia Furniture and Furnishings Show, Fri.-Sun., April 15-17, $12 per day, $15 for 3-day pass, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12th and Arch sts., 215-440-0718, www.pffshow.com.

—Juliet Fletcher