The color news from KitchenAid at the Home and Housewares show in Chicago this week is bright and bold. There are two big stories - the "new" color which was there in prototype form, and another look at the 90th anniversary model of the now-iconic stand mixer. Plus — exciting news about that retro glass bowl! More

Peacock colors like this deep, rich turquoise are definitely a trend right now (as are the birds themselves). We've seen them popping up in fashion as well as home design. But trendy or not, we do love this color we saw in House Beautiful's Kitchen of the Month -- and we admire the bold choice, especially given the fact that there's no painting over it... More

We've seen these lap mugs and knee mugs - clever and yet oddly impractical in their very practicality - but there was even more from Hupton, a design group from England. Click through to see the next products sure to show up at your local Urban Outfitters this year...

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Normann Copenhagen designs products for the home and kitchen, including some of the most iconic popular design items of the last few years. You would probably recognize their green collapsible funnel and companion red collapsible strainer. At ICFF we saw an expansion of their Familia line of cookware into similar shapes for tabletop. To see more (especially that cute teapot) read on... More

ICFF is all about design. There's a lot of beautiful design that begs to be admired and examined. We saw some things that seemed like good and practical additions to our kitchen, but mostly we saw design that made us reflect on the kitchen, its purpose, and how we think of our cooking.

The NeckLAdle is one of these things. It's a necklace made out of a segmented wooden spoon and strung on a cord. This sounds impractical for most of us, right? Listen to what the artist had to say about her design... More

From the designers who brought you the Egg Pants, here comes an old-fashioned cafeteria tray, but with a twist.

Trays like these were originally designed to slide quickly along a fast food line, but this tray takes that concept and subverts it with a reminder to go slow. More photos below... More

Microwaves and silicone - these two things and certainly the combination of both were hardly likely to win our attention at the Housewares show. We've predicted that home cooks are past the honeymoon phase with silicone and until recently we really only used our microwave for defrosting chicken and melting butter.

But things have changed. Yesterday two illustrious kitchen figures - Mark Bittman and Harold McGee - sang the microwave's praises. We're wondering if we have overlooked our microwave's good qualities. Enter this Orka silicone steamer, which really impressed us at the show. More

Here's an interesting and practical product that we saw at the Housewares show - stackable pots and pans with removable handles. You only need one set of handles and they snap off and on one-handed. Take a look! More info about these Cristel pots below... More

Cast iron, ceramic, and steel - we saw mini and personal-sized dishes and cookware in all of those materials at the Housewares show. Mini cookware is popular and has been for a long time, of course. But we were impressed by how many companies' newest offerings were in wee sizes. Like the tiny spice skillet in our kitchen tour through Devesh and Tara's Spice Pantry, small cookware can have some very practical uses, too; it's not just for cuteness.

Take a trip with us through some of our favorites, below. Staub, Le Creuset, All-Clad, and more...

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Bamboo has been used in sheets and other home textiles for a while now, but it's just making its way into the kitchen mainstream. We found these towels, above, in the Green Showcase at the Home and Housewares 2008 Show, and this was just the tip of bamboo textile iceberg at the show.

For our thoughts and reactions to bamboo in the kitchen, as well as some other bamboo towels, read on... More