Highlights from Maison & Objet

With 3,000 exhibitors filling nearly 1.4 million square feet of exhibit space in eight massive halls in the Parc des Expositions at Paris Nord Villepinte, the September 2013 edition of Maison & Objet drew some 85,000 visitors. A few of the notables: Scandinavian design is back in a really big way, wood is everywhere, there’s lots of silicone in the kitchen and for sheer fun a limited edition LED light blows its own soap bubbles, over and over again.

Among the standouts in woodwork, Bertrand Lacourt is a French artisan “logger and cabinetmaker” living in northern Burgundy who handcrafts each piece of furniture from start to finish, from cutting down selected trees in the Burgundy forest to the final touches. Each piece is signed and numbered, including the Monoxyle chair, carved from a single block of tree trunk. And Israeli designer Dor Carmon created Ducky for Normann as a toy for his newborn daughter, but it’s also a delightful decorative sculpture—the smooth oak texture and heft make it irresistible.

And among the fair’s significant offerings in lighting, the TAE-1879 bulb oil lamp, made of borosilicate glass by Opossum Design, was designed by the company’s cofounders Heike and Uwe Sinnig as a tribute to Thomas Alva Edison, who invented the first usable light bulb in 1879.