Providing the unexpected

At Gold Leaf Design Group, we love to experiment and explore, creating something truly beautiful that fits the space and vision of our clients. A great example of that is the design we installed onsite at the Hilton Oakbrook Suites for Looney and Associates. An explosion of color and texture, this patchwork permanent botanical design creates an eye-catching and functional divider.

Gold Leaf at HD Expo Las Vegas 2016

We can officially mark another successful HD Expo off the books, phew! This year we showcased our newest planters, wall hangings and artful decor. Using a palette of beachy neutrals and mixing in luxury textures, we added visual excitement with our bold patterns, flowing grasses and our metallic wall hangings. It was definitely one of our favorite booth designs to date and if you know us at Gold Leaf, that's saying a lot! Scroll down now to check out the fan favorites.

Above: Wall Play and three new custom wall hanging designs. Left: Detail of our Mocha Ware vase with vibrant orchids set on our graphic Inlaid Stone Cube. Right: Inlaid Stone Spheres in stripe and check patterns. 

 Hanging Sponge Planters with our permanent Tillandsia. 

Linea planters and Wood Chain.

Coral Wall Play (TM) design with yellow cord. Inlaid Stone tables and sphere in background. 

Our permanent Weeping Willow in our Linea planter.

Arrangement of Orb Wall Play (TM) with Hanging Orb Planters and 

Polished Half Stainless Steel Balls.

Naoshima and Trapezoid planters with our permanent Bear Grass.

Bell Urbano planter with permanent Sansevieria with 

Gold Seed Wall Play (TM) wall accents.

Hanging Sponge Wall Sculpture and custom permanent green wall (succulents and echiveria). Custom wood planter with Talking Stick arrangement. 

Liriope Grass with custom walnut planter with stainless steel legs with 

Cactus Wall Play (TM) accenting the wall.  

Top Design: Kalanchoe stem with flowers in shadow box, custom painted with Pollen Wall Play (TM). Bottom Design: Custom wall hanging planter with Burro Tail. 

Thank you for checking out our 2016 HD Show Booth. We hope you were inspired! For quotes on any of the designs shown above, please contact us today: quotes@goldleafdesigngroup.com.

I am Gold Leaf: Cathy

Cathy in her own words...

Art & Nature have always been a large part of my life. It began with my parents…my dad filling our home with paintings and wood carvings and my mom sewing and knitting everything we wore.  Great art programs in grade & high school helped nurture my talents, as well as working on school stage designs. We built trees and rocks with chicken wire and papier mache (so much easier to order redwood and rocks from Gold Leaf).

My love for nature grew when my family traveled all over the country visiting national parks and camping along the way.  I truly believe that Green Space, outside and inside, improves our overall well-being.

Working for Gold Leaf Design Group embodies many of my passions in life…art, nature, sustainability. Everything we do is with the highest of quality and integrity. We create visual spaces, custom art & botanical designs that inspire and enrich the lives of many people…..what a great thing!

THE OFFICIAL GOLD LEAF QUIZ

Name: Cathy Collins

Title: Hospitality Production Manager
My typical day starts at: 7:30 a.m.
My typical day involves:  Hospitality team meetings, coordinating our design staff and the production of custom design projects

FAVORITES
Favorite season: Fall
Favorite Band/Singers: Genesis, Chicago, Frank Sinatra
Favorite quote: Life is a journey, not a destination
Favorite Books: City of the Century, Orphan Train
I would have liked to have met: My grandfather

TRIVIA
When no one is looking, I... leave dishes piled in the sink
How many tattoos do you have? 0

Favorite TV shows: Castle, historical documentaries

My top three hobbies / interests...Gardening, Running, Antiques

I wish I had more... time to travel

My ideal day starts with: Early morning run, coffee outside with the daily paper or good book

My ideal day ends with: Listening to music albums on my vintage console

What inspires me: Nature, children, art

How many scars do you have?  3

EITHER/OR

Peanut Butter....Crunchy or Smooth​? Smooth
Talker or Listener? Listener
Pencil or Pen? Pencil
Beatles or Elvis? Elvis
Chocolate or Vanilla?​ Chocolate

2015 Custom Designs

Our 2015 Gold Leaf Design Group catalog hit mail boxes last week. Every year we add many new high-style and unique artifacts to our collections and present new ways to think about our perennial favorites. We also devote a portion of the catalog to our custom creations for the Hospitality/Commercial industries. We pride ourselves on being creative, efficient, and dedicated to producing only high quality works here in our Chicago facility, and our customers (big and small) appreciate our attention to detail.

As you might imagine...when the possibilities are so open, trying to communicate them can be challenging. This year, we have made several changes to how we present our custom capabilities to clarify and make planning easier for you. 

Let's get Reorganized

In keeping with our tradition, we like to start with a splash. Our custom design gallery is up front, but the bulk of our custom portfolio is at the back of the catalog starting on page 175. It is there that you'll find examples of custom designs, our components, and a graphic layout of our streamlined ordering process.

It may sound cliché, but it’s truly as easy as 1, 2, 3. Choose the silhouette of your design elements. Determine the profile of your container. Add your finishing touches to make it unique and voila! You’ll have yourself a truly custom design that our in-house project managers can quickly quote and get you details on. We've organized our components in our catalog around these principles, reducing the need to search for items.  The process is streamlined, but the possibilities are nearly endless.

Plus, our Chicago-based facility means quicker turn around times and expert in-house production and oversight ensuring that your design vision comes to life. And, as always, your design will be constructed with the highest attention to detail and quality of materials. It’s the Gold Leaf promise.

For quotes and info on your specific projects, contact our Design Project Managers today: quotes@goldleafdesigngroup.com or 877.738.1790.

Other features

In addition to showing a selection of designs, we know that the details are important. That is why we included detail photos so you can see the texture and coloring of our components. Our exacting eye and demanding nature means the quality is unparalleled.

We have also sprinkled human silhouettes throughout the catalog, giving you a better sense of the scaling of our huge containers and large lux décor items.

You will also notice we have priced out some of our custom creations. These items are available "Off-the-Shelf." These "stock" pieces are still individually constructed especially for each project, but with the ordering process simplified, you'll find them to be quick and affordable. You can even order them directly off our website.

Go check it out

So go check out our catalog. You'll find not only great inspiration and options for custom designs, but our curated collections of unique artifacts.

Sustainable Good Press

We were pleased to see our framed handmade paper included in Interior Design's Spring Market Tabloid. These striking pieces of art are Earth-friendly. We take recycled cardboard, newspaper, sawdust, pineapple fiber, banana fiber and grasses and use traditional Japanese paper making techniques to create a dimensional display of texture and pattern.

We have a variety of styles and sizes. We also have six styles of paper rolls that look great on walls, as shown by our friends at Clarke and Co Design.

We also found our Woven Rubber Wall Art in the pages of Hospitality Design. Handcrafted from used rubber inner tubes reclaimed from the world’s abundant motorbikes and trucks. Each inner tube has served its purpose and has reached the end of its useful life…for transportation. Collected from repair shops and long distance truck depots, each inner tube has its own characteristics, identity and story. The rubber is cleaned, matched to each design, cut and then arranged into shape, creating a soft and durable outdoor safe piece of functional art. 

We have these sustainable products as both Round and Square versions. Check out all our Sustainable collections.

I am Gold Leaf: Sherry

Sherry in her own words...

My background is in interior design. I got started in Pennsylvania, working as a freelance designer, for about 15 years. What really gave me the push was my neighbors would come into our house, and ask me who our designer was! Before that, I lived in Australia for 14 years. The people were my favorite thing about living there, and the climate and beaches were beautiful.

I specialize in meeting my client's needs in a variety of styles. My experience at Gold Leaf has led me to working with larger hotel chains and customizing hospitality projects. My day-to-day activities include lots of phone calls and emails, then working with our production staff to create amazing works of art that look stunning in any setting.

Working at Gold Leaf, I enjoy having new kinds of projects every day. I'm constantly astounded by what we're able to do to meet our client's specifications. 


THE OFFICIAL GOLD LEAF QUIZ...

Name: Sherry Zwinklis
Title: Design Project Manager

My typical day starts at: 6:00 am
My typical day involves: Corresponding with my hotels and purchasing agents, scheduling, quoting, reporting, routing, and shipping. 

FAVORITES
Favorite season: Fall
Favorite Band/Singers: Flo Rida
Favorite quote: Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them.
Favorite magazine: Veranda
I would have liked to have met: Theodore Roosevelt

Favorite TV show: Scandal

TRIVIA

My top three hobbies / interests...Paddle Boarding, Sailing, Swimming
When no one is looking, I... make fun of people. 

I wish I had more... time and money. 

My ideal day would include: Brunch by the water, and then go for a sail in the afternoon. 
How many tattoos do you have? 0

How many scars do you have?  1

EITHER/OR
Peanut Butter....Crunchy or Smooth​? Smooth
Talker or Listener? Listener
Pencil or Pen? Pen
Beatles or Elvis? Beatles
Chocolate or Vanilla?​ Chocolate

Travelling with Gold Leaf

Summer is here, though you would not know it by the weather. It has been struggling to reach 70 degrees for the last couple of weeks, but now we are seeing some warmth. I suppose we'll be missing the cool weather in August after our eleventy-billionth 90+ day. In thinking about summer, we think about travel. Gold Leaf Design Group's creations can be found the world over...

Looking for some place warm and languid? For the Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach Resort, we created a custom wall installation for their beachside dining space. Or maybe a historic Italian village complete with crypts and caves is more your taste? Chicago architect Patrizio Fradiani created a whimsical Wall Play™ installation as part of the spectacular Domus Civita. If either location would like me to come in as a "consultant" to inspect the work, I'm sure I could be convinced.

Gold Leaf on Michigan Avenue

Spring has finally sprung, though it seems like it has turned into summer, at least for today. Hopefully it cools back down a bit so that we can enjoy mild weather and walk along the Lake. Or maybe Michigan Avenue where Gold Leafer (and recent mom) Jess found our Wire Circle Balls. They were included as part of the work of McFarlane Douglass and Companies. Thanks for making our walks lovely guys.

Gold Leaf Design in Eagle Pass Texas

JCJ Architecture was called upon to design a new full-service destination hotel for the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino. Inspired by the scenic location along the Rio Grande, the design for the hotel called for the use of vivid colors and textural contrast throughout. Bringing out the most subtle blends and contrasting colors representing the very fabric of Texas nature. Gold Leaf Design group answered this call with “Sun-Kissed” dyed redwood partitions reminiscent of fiery Texas sunsets.

It is a great example of what we mean when we say we are inspired by nature. We take what we see around us and accentuate and play with it. Natural gradation in plants, from growth and the rebirth of spring inspired us to think of other colors and other materials that it might be applied to. What if it is purple? Or the colors of the Texas sunset? How can we make it striking and unique? How can we take the the natural and giving it our own twist?

Sometimes, of course, just bringing the beauty of nature indoors and presenting it just so is exactly what is needed. But the creativity of combining the man-made and the natural is quite exciting to us.

Gold Leaf Design in Washington D.C.

What do you get when you take nearly 100 tree branches and combine them with almost 1000 pounds of glass beads? A series of striking designs. See for yourself!

We have always loved combining the natural with the man made. We don't view it as improving on nature, but rather accentuating its beauty. Gold Leaf Design Group was asked to create one of our signature pieces for planters in the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda MD, right outside Washington DC. Premier Plantscapes wanted something luxurious and elegant and natural to compliment the upscale redesign of the mall.

We first started beading trees several years ago and it has proved to be very popular, inspiring both interior designers and imitators alike. This particular design called for nearly 100 large Manzanita branches with about 2/3 of them to be covered in glass beads. It required a lot of coordination even from the start as we needed to source from several vendors to keep individual prices down.

We started by bringing in the branches and inspecting them for cracks and suitability. We sort them into branches to be beaded and those to stay natural and then trim and shape them. Each beaded tree had about 2500 glass beads so we needed to make sure the ones selected were free of cracking and would be strong enough to support the weight.

Each bead was hand-placed onto the branches. Nearly 1000 pounds of glass beads total. The job didn't stop there, we also needed to carefully pack and crate each piece for shipment to Washington. Fortunately we've had a lot of experience in making trouble-free shipping and installation.

A lot of thought, planning and work go into our custom pieces like this one, but the result, I think you'll agree, looks gorgeous and looks great in our customer's planters and the environment they've created. Making each piece consistent, but not cookie-cutter...working with both natural and man-made materials...ensuring the long-term beauty of each piece. That is the kind of challenge we thrive on.