Sears Design Summit

The Design Summit I attended yesterday in Chicago is on my mind. Sears and Kmart have committed to step up design and quality across the board in their home departments. And they're living by that commitment. They've assembled a world-class design team — bringing in people from Pottery Barn, from Ralph Lauren Home, from Martha Stewart — and it clearly shows in the new lines.

Plus. They launched a site called Kmart Design with a nicely-done series of videos showing the design team's process, including trips to Paris and New York for trendspotting. I was impressed. Fo shizzle.

My favorite things:

1) Table top in the Country Living line is terrific. There were like 10 different french-looking mugs I was coveting.

2) There is a fantastic lamp with an oversize shade in the Ty Pennington collection that I fell in love with.

3) They purposefully coordinated colors across the Sears and Kmart lines. Meaning, the red throw pillow in the Sears Country Living line will match the red striped sheets in the Kmart Country Living line. So smart! And such a benefit for consumers. Makes it easy to mix and match and stick to a budget.

4) Getting to see their full design process. From seeking trends. To making inspiration boards. To seeing the cad drawings of the designs that came from the inspiration boards. To seeing actual samples of fabrics. Very cool.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how these new product lines are displayed in store, imagining how that will change and improve the shopping experience. You can find lots and lots more photos on my flickr page here.