We had high expectations for this year’s DIFFA’S Dining by Design, and we weren’t disappointed!
All of the 45 table installations were so stunning it’s hard to decide which ones were our favorites.
From minimal tables like the ones of 3M, Calvin Klein Home, Axor and Interior Design Magazine, to the extravagant installations of Knoll, Arteriors and the New York Design Center, the exhibition, which was co-located with the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, was a must-see.

Ralph Lauren Home ( Photo by Marion Curtis, StarPix )

Ralph Lauren table was elegant and sophisticated. It featured pieces from this years’ Ralph Lauren Home collection and had a very “parisienne” atmosphere. We are pretty sure that the scenery reproduced in those windows was Paris!

Axor, one of the few bathroom manufacturers to participate, partnered with Slade Architecture to create a visually stimulating dining environment. If you look at it carefully, the wallpaper was created from aggregated and arranged AXOR fixtures.

Axor (Photo by Marion Curtis, StarPix.)

Designed by Kati Curtis, the New York Design Center’s installation portrayed the concept of masculine/feminine and featured two eye-catching portraits by Ulric Colette from her “Genetic” series.

New York Design Center (Photo by Marion Curtis, StarPix.)

Beacon Hill teamed up with design duo 2Michaels to transport the viewer into a different time and space. Previewing the oriental inspired “Floating World” silk collection, we could imagine ourselves taking part in a tea ceremony. Arigato!

Beacon Hill (Photo by Marion Curtis, StarPix.)

The Calvin Klein Home table had an oriental feel too: the kotatsu-like table, the minimal setting and the recessed lighting radiated a very zen vibe that made us calm and relaxed.

Calvin Klein Home (Photo by Marion Curtis, StarPix.)

Fashion Institute of Technology table was…inside a whale?
It was like a big fish swallowed a ship and everything, from the lights to the chairs, had a very marine feeling.

Fashion Institute of Technology (Photo by Marion Curtis, StarPix.)

Several tablescapes really drove home DIFFA’s core message – to provide treatment and direct care services for people living with or impacted by HIV/AIDS, offer preventative education programs targeted to populations at risk of infection and support public policy initiatives. Turkish designer Ali Tayar partnered with Interior Design Magazine to “target” the end of AIDS.

3M Architectural Markets, with architect Lauren Rottet of Rottet Studio, also set out to make a statement. The table was split in two to symbolize the breakdown in communication between those with HIV/AIDS and those in the outside world.

3M Architechtural Markets (Photo by Marion Curtis, StarPix.)

We are very grateful to be at DIFFA’s Dining by Design also this year. It is a great moment where the design industries get together and create some amazing installations to contribute to a very important cause: the fight against AIDS.