A  few weeks ago, New York City promoted a citywide celebration of design — known as NYCxDESIGN — throughout its five boroughs. The annual event included the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), which is held each year during this time at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Being just outside Manhattan in northern New Jersey, I always enjoy popping into the exhibition for a day to see what's trending in the various sectors. While I am interested in the latest stone and tile innovations, it is also fun to see the newest developments in furniture and lighting, too.

ICFF, which sprawled 165,000 net square feet of the Javits Center, featured more than 700 exhibitors and attracted over 32,000 interior designers, architects, retailers, representatives, distributors, facility managers, developers, manufacturers, store designers and visual merchandisers. Among the stone and tile exhibits were Artistic Tile and Walker Zanger, who both always have such elegant and unique product lines on display. Ceramics of Italy was also present with a large contingency of 22 brands. And of course, it was no surprise that Italian stone producer Antolini created a stir on the show floor. Several people that I spoke to when I first arrived had asked me if I had seen the company's booth yet.