Street festivals aren't just about loud music and beer in the Windy City. OK, they are, but not this one.

Chicago is home to many such street fairs and festivals, with at least three to choose from each week during the warmer months of the year. Over the weekend and at the tail end of the season, newbie Design Harvest entered the game in West Town along Grand, in an area recently known as the Grand Avenue Design District. Home to about a dozen furniture and home accessory stores, the neighborhood is a serious destination for deal seekers and interior designers. 

I walked east down Grand towards Design Harvest on Saturday afternoon with two girlfriends. Lo and behold, vendor Grand Street Gardens was hosting a petting zoo in the middle of the city.  Since none of us had been to a petting zoo since elementary school we made a beeline for the gumball machine filled with pellets and got our feed on. The little zoo housed goats, a calf, a pig, three ducks and a bunny. But it's all fun and games until a goat bites a baby horse. I got upset and it was time to go. 

Roscoe Jackson, our first stop inside Design Harvest, is a company helmed by two gentlemen: Alabaman Caleb Dawson and Chicagoan Shawn Gnann. They have a studio here in the city and one in Southern Alabama. Caleb, the southern half of this duo, travels around the country in a pick-up truck showing their goods, made of post-consumer materials, to shops and interior designers. Asked why the color of one bowl they were working on was different from the next, Caleb told us he added a little dirt to it. Didn't your mom tell you a little dirt never hurt anyone? 

They were also the minds behind this asterisk stool, a comfy perch made from recycled HDPE plastic. 

I went a little crazy over this table by designer Jason Lewis of Jason Lewis Furniture. The lines, the color of the wood, the chairs! By far one of the standout pieces of the festival. When I grow up, one of his built-to-order pieces will live in my house. 

The Renegade Handmade tent featured an array of crafty items along with MCM furniture from vintage shop Lenny & Me. The texture on this oh-so-pretty porcelain plate by Raquel Masri is made by transferring lace doilies onto clay. I know what my mother-in-law is getting for Christmas. 

We stopped at the Intelligentsia coffee booth to warm up and get caffeinated. I had to snap a photo of yet another use for wood pallets! 

Strand Design was a big hit with me and my gals, not only because their booth for the show will be recycled and used for their furniture line but because they make an amazing bag out of old vinyl billboards. Folded, not sewn. It's a deal at $135 and was one of the more affordable items at Design Harvest. My photo of the bag got corrupted somehow, so you're going to have to click here to check it out. 

Our last stop was SG Grand.  It opened just last month and is absolutely gorgeous! The chairs above caught my eye right away. You might recognize their vibe from this post Andrew did while in Amsterdam last week.

Design Harvest was quite a change of pace from your normal Chicago street fest—no drunken, shirtless males, for one—and I hope it will resurface next year with better weather. It was a great way to end the festival season and get us excited and looking towards May when they start up again. You can view the full line-up of designers with links at the Design Harvest website.

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