Inside Chicago’s Most Stunning Design Experience: The Showhouse at The MART Brings an Art Deco to Life

There’s a certain electricity that hums through a space when design is done right. Not loud, not flashy, just… intentional. As a designer, you feel it before you even see it. That quiet pulse of texture, proportion, and light working in harmony.

That’s exactly what’s unfolding right now inside The Merchandise Mart, where The Showhouse at The MART has transformed 3,000 square feet into something closer to a living, breathing mood board than a traditional exhibit.

This isn’t just a walkthrough. It’s a conversation between eras.

Thirteen of Chicago’s top interior design firms each took on a piece of the story, shaping individual rooms that flow together like chapters in a novel rooted in Art Deco bones but written in a modern voice.

From the moment you step into the sculpted foyer, you can feel the restraint. No over-designing. No clutter. Just confident decisions. Arches that don’t beg for attention but earn it. Materials that don’t shout luxury, they whisper it.

The kitchen feels like it belongs to someone who collects experiences, not things. Anchored by Gaggenau appliances and wrapped in sleek Scavolini cabinetry, it’s equal parts function and sculpture.

Bathrooms drift into spa territory, where Porcelanosa surfaces stretch light across every corner. Flooring by Divine Flooring grounds each room with a tactile richness that feels curated, not installed.

And then there are the details. Fixtures by Brizo that behave more like jewelry than hardware. The kind of finishing touches that remind you design is never about one big moment, but a hundred small, precise ones.

What makes The Showhouse linger with you isn’t just the craftsmanship. It’s the realism tucked inside the fantasy.

These rooms aren’t staged to be perfect. They’re designed to be lived in. You can picture the coffee left on the counter. The jacket tossed over a chair. The city humming just outside the windows.

The rooftop terrace might be the most Chicago moment of all. A soft exhale above the river, where the skyline becomes part of the design language. It’s not trying to compete with the city. It frames it.

There’s something poetic about placing this experience inside The MART itself, a building that has quietly shaped how America thinks about interiors for nearly a century.

The Showhouse pulls back the curtain. It lets people see not just what designers create, but how they think. How they edit. How they obsess over the smallest decisions that most people will never notice but always feel.

It’s inspiration, yes. But it’s also access.

And in a city like Chicago, where architecture is practically a second language, that kind of access matters.

Plan Your Visit

The Showhouse at The MART is now open to the public on select weekdays, with additional programming and design events happening throughout the season.

📍 Location: The Merchandise Mart, First Floor | 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago 🕘 Hours: Tuesdays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (or by appointment)

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