Last week I checked out the 2006 ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York. It was like I had found a new sort of motherland, as I wandered through display after display admiring the newest innovations.

A key trend that I noted was the use of organic materials in furniture with very sleek or modern lines, as well as mixing wood and stone with metals and other high gloss or modern materials. Here are my “best in show” picks.

Furniture by iannone:sanderson: I loved the innovative artistic details of these pieces made from sustainable materials that seem to wink to 40′s styling:

Rosemary Halligarten, Inc. has rugs that are amazingly beautiful, wonderful to the touch, and original in design. This is her display:

Here is a close up of my favorite piece, called Falling Leaf of silk and wool with relief details:

Furniture by Wud exemplified the organic meets sleek by combining wood with resin-encased lead panels in wood coffee tables and super slim wooden chairs:

Caba Company had a display of their lovely BARKSKIN wallcoverings. This is a line of handmade wood materials. Here is a sample of the WOVEN line laid over their IVORY NATURALS:

CaesarStone had a small crowd gawking at this rather riveting sink basin made of slabs of fused quartz:

Carnegie had the most beautiful and eye-catching fabric display at the Fair, where it showcased several laser cut and mesh fabrics:

Niche Moderne colored their sleek lamps with earthy jewel tones for a truly beautiful display:

Chairs by British company Channels:

Cherner Chair.

One of my favorite displays was YASK furniture. I loved their tables, the finish styles, the mixture of wood and metal in a single piece:

Cool Tile Application by Stone Source:

Finally, here are some of the latest developments in sustainable lifestyles by students at the New York Institute of technology. In these displays, sustainable moves beyond materials used to look at mimizing use of space and energy as well: