The Divine Law of the Great Chair

The excerpt below is from a wonderful Blog by Carrie and Danielle. It totally ties into my love for chairs and also the spiritual aspect of surrounding yourself in your homes with things that you love. Carrie and Danielle are also authors of the best selling book: Style Statement: Live by your own Design

Here’s a radical notion: what if you really liked, even outright adored every material thing in your own life? What if the quality, shape, color, function, and feel of the things you owned gave you satisfaction, pride, and delight?

Enter, The Divine Law of The Great Chair.
When you let go of things you don’t love, you create space for things that you do love to show up. EVEN IF: it’s “useful”, it’s filling an “empty” place, it was a gift, it was inherited, expensive, imported, exotic, or you truly loved it once upon a time -– if you don’t like something in your space, it’s dragging you down. This isn’t about old, or new, or what you can afford – this is about how STUFF makes you FEEL.

THIS WEEK: Identify the “old chair(s)” in your life that you’re making do with, and get rid of it. You may have to sit on floor cushions for while, but you’ll be dwelling in possibility – instead of compromise and regret.

Photos
Top: Thomas Pheasant
Top Row: B & B Italia, Vicente Wolf, unknown
Second Row: Bertoria Chair, Andrew Martin, Ghost Chair
Third Row: Knoll Eero Saarinen Womb Chair, Knoll Brno Chair, Knoll Warren Platner Chair
Fourth Row: Barbara Barry, B & B Italia, Barbara Barry
Fifth Row: Madeline Stuart, Thomas Pheasant for Baker
Sixth Row: All Oly
Seventh Row: Oly, Blanchard UK, John Saladino
Eighth Row: Chapman Radcliff, Baker, Jayson Home
Excerpt above from Carrie and Danielle The Divine Law of the Great Chair

Patricia Gray writes about Interior Design inspirations, emerging trends, and the world of Design.
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Old Suit, New Bedding

Ever wondered just what to do with all old and no longer worn suits?
Variegated, a Hudson Valley arts studio who specialise in textiles have designed and created a range of bedding using men’s suits fabrics, a modern twist on patchwork!

Each bedding set consists of a duvet cover, a pair of pillow cases and a bedcover. As the sets are made up solely of old fabrics they can only make as many bed sets as suits they can collect, the great thing about recycling this way is each set has its own unique colour and styles of fabrics used.

The bold patchworks make these sets ideal for a bachelor pad with the deep greys, blues and black fabrics skilfully blended to give a trendy look. The variations in the fabric’s and lining textures adds interest as well as making these bed sets very tactile, although I’m a little puzzled as to laundering with most suits ‘dry clean only’ I wonder if the sets can be thrown into the washing machine and drier?

These sets are not for the faint hearted price wise, with limited resources at present each set costs in excess of three thousand pounds, however, I feel that once the word and concept gets around there may be a few thrifty people about who will be popping along to old fashioned jumble sales or charity stores to snap up some out-dated suits and re-vamp them into their own versions of these chic bed sets.

Image source: www.getkempt.com

9-Light Candelabra

Designed by Corin Mellor, son of the infamous 20th century designer David Mellor, this 9-light stainless steel candelabra reminds me of tubular wind chimes with a beautiful modern concept in providing light at both the dinner table or for creating subtle lighting effects with a warm and graceful appeal in the floor standing option.

The candelabra is based on the Advent wreath which he designed for Sheffield Cathedral last year, it consists of 32 stainless steel bars with eight candle holders radiating out from the central stem with the ninth set slightly higher. The black granite base off sets the polished steel with its decorative anodized coloured rings beautifully against the white candles.

Corin designed and created these candelabra exclusively for 20ltd.com. There are only six editions of each size available so anyone wishing to bring a real touch of Christmas into their home will have to order pretty sharply!

The floor size candelabra would provide an intimate atmosphere throughout the year in either traditional or contemporary homes as the use of polished stainless steel has been handcrafted by 380 individual components. The table size is ideal for large dining tables made from surfaces which would further bounce and reflect the light, adding a whole new dimension to the piece each time the candles are lit.

For me there is a magical and almost mystical feel to these candelabra, the delightful warmth and reflection of the flames dancing on the steel bars is mesmerising, very relaxing and extremely peaceful.

Image source: www.davidmellordesign.com

Banquette Seat

Banquette Dining

This is a picture of the new banquette which was recently installed in the Breakfast Nook in my own kitchen. When I moved into my new home I decided to keep these antique Georgian chairs (which I have had for years and had previously used in a bedroom and a den) and reincarnate them in the kitchen. I wanted to use white for the upholstery, and deliberated on finding the right fabric that would be user friendly and easy to maintain. I choose a soft washable leather and finished the bottom edge of the chairs with a antiqued nail head trim to keep with the period design. I paired them with a contemporary Saarinen table, which highlights the backs of the chairs and makes them stand out like pieces of sculpture. The custom banquette seat was designed to fit into the alcove and it is covered in the same washable leather. The top corners of the banquette are scalloped to match the back of the chairs. I like mixing different chairs around dining tables and not having them all match. The trick is to find a common element that ties them together. In this case it is the dark wood color that unifies them. I also have Phillipe Stark Ghost chairs that I use when I need more seating around the table. Ghost chairs are like a chameleon and work anywhere. Banquette seats are very comfortable and they encourage lingering. Already this is a place everyone gravitates to and wants to sit and talk long after a meal is finished. It is also one of my favourite spots to sit with a coffee and a good book.

What about you – do you always choose to sit on the banquette when going to a restaurant?
And do you tend to linger longer than usual?

PATRICIA GRAY INC is an award winning interior design firm writing about lifestyle and WHAT'S HOT
in the world of interior design, architecture, art and travel.
2011 © Patricia Gray | Interior Design Blog™

Elica Hood Fans

 

One of my pet peeves is ugly hood fans. They are such a large element in a kitchen and if not handled properly can distract from the design of the kitchen, especially more so in contemporary kitchen design, as I am tending to not use overhead cabinets. The cooktop and back wall then becomes the focal point. So when I saw these innovative new designs from Elica I was pleasantly surprised. They are designed to look like a beautiful pendant handing over the cooktop and include ventilation, filters, lighting and controls.  They are now distributed in Canada and the USA.The fan in the middle row right is stainless-steel Platinum and packs advanced technology into a sleek lampshade diameter that works with any 24" - 36" cooktop and costs $1,600.00.

Download their catalogue here

Patricia Gray writes about Interior Design inspirations, emerging trends, and the world of Design. 
While you're here, subscribe to this feed so you don't miss out.