R•Home Magazine Presents First Designer Showcase at VisArts’ Craft + Design Show

This year at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond’s annual Craft + Design show, some of Richmond’s most talented interior designers and merchandisers have created spaces that blend work from the show’s artists with contemporary furnishings and antiques.

R•Home’s first Designer Showcase, located in booths 608-611, contains vignettes created by Williams & Sherrill, La Diff, Project 1 and Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore. The spaces will allow Craft + Design shoppers to visualize the ways in which contemporary craft can be incorporated into the home.

La Diff, a three-story home furniture showroom in downtown Richmond, is working with artists David Bohnhoff, Meg Dickerson and Barbara Zaretsky to create a study. The study will feature a handmade desk and chair as well as a side table made by Bohnhoff, a wood artist who teaches several classes at VisArts. The desk is crafted with two special pieces of curly white oak, walnut and cherry, while the chair is solid walnut with cherry wedges in the joinery. Bohnhoff’s side table, called “Rassawek,” is a conceptual piece made of steam bent wood.

“This is my first year participating in the Craft + Design show and I’m thrilled to be a part of this long-running, annual event,” Bohnhoff said. “I’m honored and excited to have two pieces represented in the Designer Showcase room sponsored by La Diff­ — Andy Thornton and Sarah Paxton have always been strong supporters of local makers.”

Ceramicist Meg Dickerson created a series of crater-like wall pieces, meant to hang in groups, that will adorn the walls of La Diff’s study. Barbara Zaretsky, an Asheville, NC-based artist who works in fiber, is also creating several pieces for the room.

The foyer is being produced by Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, a retail outlet that sells donated building and home improvement supplies to the general public at reduced prices. Habitat’s room will be eclectic, according to communications director Kristin Vinagro, and the plan is to showcase a variety of styles from the ReStore’s collection of public donations. The foyer will highlight the work of mixed media sculpture artist John Shuptrine and glass artist Christopher Skibbe.

The Designer Showcase will also feature the work of two other Richmond-based designers, Project 1 and Williams & Sherrill. Project 1’s sitting room will incorporate the work of glass artist Danielle Blade and fiber artist Leslie Bowman-Friedlander. Williams & Sherrill’s dressing room will feature art from ceramicist Jerry Bennett, fiber artist Andrea Donnelly and glass artist Grant Garmezy.

Craft + Design shoppers can explore the Designer Showcase throughout the weekend. The show kicks off on Friday, November 17 with the Patrons’ Preview Party from 6-9 p.m. On Saturday, the Rise + Shine Breakfast runs from 9:30-11 a.m. General admission shopping hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.