Montreal Home Show 2013: Vitre-Art

Vitre-Art
Home Show 2013

March 8-17, 2013

At this year’s National Home Show at Place Bonaventure, VA Glass Design (Vitre-Art) presents an impressive collection of door solutions both for the interior and exterior use. VA has taken the ancestral art of stained glass, married tradition to modernity, and paid a special attention to style and the production process, thus producing quite distinctive yet affordable results. The company has made stained glass to be synonymous with innovation and style, adding elegance to homes, whether classic or contemporary.  

 VA Glass Design, in order to offer to their customers safe and durable products, has developed and perfected a glass assembly technique that does not use welding. This completely eliminates lead, which is toxic both to people and the environment.           

VA's stress on quality made them choose Quebec and local craftspeople to manufacture their products, to have a direct oversight and control over the production quality. They chose to make quality to be the company's primary responsibility, instead of transferring this function anywhere else or even overseas.

VA takes into account that each house is different and each person has a specific need and taste. They let their customers to participate in the door-designing process, in creating their own custom-made doors. 

Visit the Vitre-Art Design exhibition space at the Montreal Home Show to find out more about the company and what it can offer. Also, go to the VA's website and check out their selection of interior and exterior doors, both classic and modern, and visit their Virtual Designer pages.

The National Home Show is held at the Place Bonaventure. To find more about their opening hours and ticket prices, visit the show's website.

Montreal Home Show 2013: SmartKlean

SmartKlean
Home Show 2013

March 8-17, 2013

This year's Montreal's National Home Show offers many useful items for visitors to discover. One of them is the SmartKlean laundry ball. Two countries participate in its production: Sweden and USA. The washing balls' plastic cover is made in Florida, the internal mineral plastic balls-pellets are made in Sweden, and the whole unit is assembles in Florida. 

The SmartKlean laundry ball is a very ecological way to wash the laundry. It requires absolutely no detergent, the washing is done in cold water, and no rinsing is needed. All this leads to considerable savings on electricity and water usage bills. In addition, it eliminating detergent pollution of the environment.

So how does it work? Inside the green plastic cover are small mineral balls each having a specific function to perform to change the water composition.

The dark grey are Alkali Balls that remove calcium and magnesium and increase the Ph level of the water which helps to lift oil and dirt.

The brown balls are Far Infrared Balls that radiate negative ions for easier dirt removal.

Then there are two kinds of white balls. One kind is Anti-Microbial. They contain nano-structured silver to kill and prevent germs and bacteria.

Other white balls-pellets are Chlorine-Removal Balls. They eliminate chlorine from the water and slacken water surface tension to boost cleaning strength.

In addition, there two magnets. Each is attached at the centre of one half of the green plastic covering. These magnets reduce the cluster (size) of water molecules and increase water's dissolved oxygen. They also help to decompose impurities and odours. 

Especially noteworthy is the fact that SmartKlean balls last for 365 wash cycles. This represents a considerable monetary savings as compared to commercial detergents.

I purchased the SmartKlean product at the show, and did my first laundry with it. It felt strange not to use any detergent and wash in cold water without any rinsing.  But I was surprised by the results. What came out of the washer was as clean as when I use detergent. The additional bonuses - there were no detergent odours which I no longer like, and no detergent chemicals were released into the environment because of this wash.

The SmartKlean laundry ball can be found at the Booth #2012. To read more about this product and how it works go to the company's website here or here.

The National Home Show is held at the Place Bonaventure. To find more about their opening hours and ticket prices, visit the show's website.

Montreal Home Show 2013: BMR Space

BMR
Home Show 2013

March 8-17, 2013

Group BMR covers a large space area at the Montreal's annual National Home Show. Their exhibit is located on a spacious balcony overlooking the show's main floor. What BMR presents to the public are various simple yet stylish solutions how to organize personal living spaces.

The company has very strong ecological concerns that they address in their ECO Attitude Program which pays attention to protecting environment, recycling and finding new uses for old items, as can be seen in two photos just above. The coffee table and the bed are both made from refurbished old wood transportation  platforms, to which functional wheels were attached. The final product is both useful and attractive.

As you can see from the photograph in this post, BMO offers a number of stylistic solutions on how to arrange the living quarters to make them functional, pleasant, and elegant. 

Whatever look you prefer -  the sombre one or full of colours - the BMO can help you choose the furnishings and the right decorative items that address your needs and preferences and that will make your everyday living more enjoyable.

The National Home Show is held at the Place Bonaventure. To find more about their opening hours and ticket prices, visit the show's website.

Montreal Auto Show 2013 - 45th Edition

Montreal  Auto Show 2013
January 18 - 27, 2013

This year, the International Auto Show, a very popular Montreal trade show, is celebrating its 45th anniversary. It is spread over 3 floors at the Palais des congres. The visit starts at the upper-most floor where Volvo and KIA cars share the same space. Although right at the entry into a large hall is the Volvo display, the overwhelming floor space is taken over by KIA, and the KIA sign even overshadows the Volvo car as seen in the photo below on the left.

Notice the streamline design of the back of two Volvo cars on display as well as how the cars' back lights are integrated into the overall artistic concept of the cars.

Above is featured quite a remarkable and innovative car design. This new car by KIA attracted a lot of interest from the visitors, as well as inspired  numerous picture-taking.

KIA also offers to those interested to play short computer games that can earn some attractive instant prices such as, among others, an iPad. 

The photo below shows the new concept bike K Velo by Peter Schreyer, which took him 13 months to design. With this bike KIA goes back to its humble beginnings when it started as a company making and selling bicycles.

Smart also offers a new design for the city dwellers' bicycles. Their bikes are equipped with a rechargeable battery which, however, does not eliminate the need for pedalling but greatly facilitates this task.

Beside Smart cars, there is a number of other electrical cars on display like Scion (below to the left) or Chevrolet's Spark (below to the right).

This show a veritable delight in picking up individual design elements. Notice the design of the back of a Ford car below on the left, and that of the front of a Lexus car on the right. Though the styles are quite different, both satisfy the viewer visually as to the offered shapes and forms.

There are many bright colours in this year's Auto Show, yet the dignified and more subtle tones those of Lexus above and Mercedes below are still quite prevalent.

The Mercedes display area features quite a number of popular and well designed cars for all the Mercedes aficionados.

And then there are also Cadillacs and Jeeps...

The Auto Show also presents a remarkable collection of vintage cars:

I highly recomend this show. Do not hesitate to visit it. For more information please consult the Auto Show's website
  

Salon du livre de Montréal 2012: 35th Edition

Le Salon du livre de Montréal 2012

November 14-19, 2012

This annual event - Le Salon du Livre de Montréal - is very popular with the Montrealers and represents a unique pre-Christmas opportunity to purchase many Christmas or simply holidays' presents. As usual, it is being held at the Place Bonaventure exhibition area. Especially on the first day, in the morning and in the early afternoon, the place is filled with the schools' visits. The children are crowding the book stands and the spaces between the booth. They produce the specific type of commotion and noise levels that only kids can. But it is such a pleasure to see them get excited about the books, and to see their eagerness at searching for what they would like to read!

It is also a great pleasure to observe at the Salon the grow-ups' interest in books. They browse through various books and line up, at times in long queues, for book signing sessions

The Canadian cultural icons like the Canada Council for the Arts (see on the left) and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - MMFA (see just below) were also represented with their respective booth displays. The MMFA is one of the largest Canadian publishers of books on art, and had their numerous volumes displayed and available to look through.

A number of international publishers were also present at the Salon. For instance, Wallonie-Bruxelles large booth represented many Belgium publishers of that region.

In case you have missed this year's salon, I highly recommend to keep this event in your mind for the next year.

For more information, visit the Salon's website.

La Grande Dégustation de Montréal 2012

This event will be held at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, November 8-10, 2012.

This will be the second edition of this event inMontreal. It provides the unique occasion to discover the finest wines that the world producers can offer. The environment is friendly, and the one-to -one encounter with wine suppliers or distributors offer a special experience, both wine appreciation and learning  experience. The taste-tasting of the wines will be for many unforgettable.

This is an event not to be misses! There will be wine producers from around the world. You will meet them in person, sample their wines, and can even stock up on their brands.

Each year the event showcases a country or a region, and a product of a special interest. In 2012, Portugal is the country of interest. Cabernet Sauvignon and rums of the world will also be honoured. To find out more about the event, visit the La Grande Dégustation de Montréal website.

http://www.lagrandedegustation.com/en