Wow!  What an amazing week!  I just returned from a trip to NYC as part of the Designhounds NYC Design for the Senses Tour.  

Thanks to Designhounds, ICFF, FreePower, Mr. Steam, and Signature Kitchen Suite, we were treated to an array of amazing experiences.  We learned, luxuriated, laughed, and made new lifetime friendships along the way.  

I am so grateful to Veronika and the Designhounds team for giving me this incredible opportunity! 

For the next week or two I’ll be sharing about new products, new trends, and the fun and fabulous experiences we had.  

NYC seems such an appropriate place to indulge all the senses, and to top it all off we had absolutely glorious weather in which to do it!

NYC Bound!

I packed my favorite Away luggage and headed to the city, arriving late afternoon at the designated parking garage the hotel had recommended, and leaving my car to hike the 2 short blocks to The Roxy Hotel  in Tribeca.  The Roxy is a sexy, luxury hotel, lounge, and vintage movie theater designed with Mid Century Modern and Art Deco influences.

On check in, I was handed breakfast vouchers for the hotel restaurant, and offered a complimentary glass of Prosecco.  After driving almost 5 hours, the last of which was in NY traffic, I was all for it! Fortunately I am an intrepid Boston driver so I can hold my own in NY…maybe the MA plates help scare people out of the way 😂.

After an awkward pause arguing with the elevator before I realized I needed to activate it with my room key, I arrived at my very swank room wrapped in dark chocolate tones with black and gold accents.

Having whined about the dreadful lack of any sort of appliance to make hot water at my KBIS hotel back in February, my kids gave me a collapsible travel electric tea kettle so I would never be without my morning tea again!  I am not functional without a pot of breakfast tea with milk!  

I had my teakettle and the Roxy had this cute under the counter Smeg refrigerator for my milk.

Designhounds

An hour later I met the crew that would be my traveling companions for the next few days in the lobby and we all piled into Ubers to head off to our opening cocktail reception and dinner sponsored by FreePower.  

At the Little Owl Townhouse function space, we were treated to a cocktail reception with signature cocktails and tasty nibbles, and welcomed by Veronika, the CEO and undisputed queen of Designhounds, an agency which facilitates relationships between design professionals and brands looking to reach authentic audiences. 

Designhounds treat bags were distributed which included the prettiest gourmet chocolates and a Designhounds water bottle.

FreePower wireless charging

The cocktail reception was followed by a delicious four course dinner and a presentation by the FreePower CEO (and Shark Tank winner!), Jake Slatnick, to tell us a bit about the history and evolution of the company.  

I had already had a brief introduction to their latest product at the Kitchen and Bath Show (KBIS) in February where it won the “Best of Show” award - no small feat in a show with nearly 700 vendors!

FreePower is an amazing company - relatively new, they were founded to solve the problem of creating fast wireless charging that is elegant, effortless, and everywhere to finally deliver on the promise of wireless charging - convenience.  

Their latest product is integrated wireless charging for countertops. Seamless and elegant, the unit is embedded into the underside of the countertop creating a charging zone that will charge up to 3 devices at a time.  

The charging zone is demarcated by a halo of LED lights that glow through the stone or quartz.  Once installed the halo can be controlled (color, brightness, mode (i.e. wave-to-wake)) via a phone app.

What sets FreePower apart from other wireless charging devices is twofold: 

Unlike other wireless chargers, which feature a small active area that requires precise alignment, FreePower allows for total freedom of placement: users can simply drop their devices anywhere in the zone and they'll pick up a charge. 

It is also nearly imperceptible within the space, no bumps or ridges to interrupt the counter, visible only via the (optional) glow of its proprietary charging halo, which outlines the charging zone. 

The unit can be embedded in stone, quartz, and a variety of other countertop materials. The appropriate cavity is cut into the backside of the counter at a qualified fabricator and the mounting bracket is attached. The unit is then installed and connected to power at the jobsite.  

A series of quartz and quartzite countertop displays with embedded units on the table allowed us to try out them out during dinner.   

The applications are vast - at home these could be embedded in kitchen or bathroom counters, in islands and bars, or furnishings like desks and nightstands and end tables.

While the sexy halo glow works in stone or quartz with some level of translucence, the charging coils work through any number of materials including wood, infinitely expanding the possibilities.

I would kill to have a bedside table with one of these!  And I REALLY wish all hotels would add these to nightstands…it would mean no more having to travel with a suitcase full of charging cords and crawling around on the floor in search of a free outlet!

Imagine a future where airports, airplanes, bars, restaurants, hotels, and hospitals all have seamless wireless charging whenever you set your phone down!  

I’m looking forward to a wireless future.  But for at least some spaces, that future is now.

Thank you to our sponsor, FreePower, for hosting such a wonderful evening, and for developing such an innovative product!  

We spent the rest of the trip saying “they should have a FreePower unit here” nearly everywhere we went!

I’m kicking myself for having juuuuuust finished my own kitchen before discovering this product.

If you are building or renovating, you should absolutely consider adding one or more of these units to your space for elegant and efficient wireless charging capability.