Books books books II

So what are the trends for bookshelves 2011?
- Shape: Variability - flexibility
- Boxes / wooden crates
- Materials: combine many different materials, colours.
Rustic + New = perfect.

We already saw this trend starting to come at the end of 2010 with the fact of mixing design furniture with rustic second hand pieces. Perfect for the bachelour trying to find things for his new home!
A simular trend was seen in the 1920's when a lot of discoveries were being made in terms of materials. And then again in the 1950's when the use of second hand-recycled materials were being used. A well-known architect and furniture designer was Charles Eames. His bookshelves shown at the bottom of this article he combines different materials, colours, open and closed compartments, etc.
So why has this trend come again now?
Since we started keeping our eyes open for eco-friendly, recyclable, and low cost housing and furniture, it becomes natural to look for second hand furniture. In fact, what's the point of making new furniture if we already have them available? And what makes a home more personal than combining "randma's old rocking chair" with the latest design?





Photo from Kråvik & D'Orazio.
Swedish design - Svenskttenn.
The bookshelf "Alternata" where the different compartments can be combined however suits you best.


Collect _ Wis design.
Collect _ Wis design.
Collect _ Wis design.
Isn't this one sweet? It's called "Unique_standard"
In fact it uses low-cost wood.
Kast _ Maarten Van Severen
Infinity _ Flexform
Infinity _ Flexform.

Sistema _ CapelliniCharles Eames bookshelf

Luxury vs. Budget I

When you start learning about design you can start to see the difference between a design piece and it's copy. It's not always easy though and at other times very obvious but one decides it's not important. The main reason one chooses the copy generally is the price. It's simply a choice.
I recently bought the coat hanger from Tiger for just 4 euros. I couldn't resist simply because I had seen the Charles Eames version live for the first time earlier that day and saw that it cost 250 euros. After having bought the Tiger coat hanger I went into Lagerhaus and saw that they also have a copy, (that I thought looked much worse than the Tiger one) for 14 euro. So I was very happy with my 4 euro budget coat hanger.
When it comes to the Moooi lamp, well it's a gem! It is truely beautiful. BUT I decided to make my own! I bought 400m (yes you need all of it) of plastic string used for wrapping presents, a yoga ball (that can obviously be cleaned and re-used) and paper machè glue. It took about 2 days all in all once I had everything I needed. A few hours to wind the string and a day for it to dry. Anyway, I'll do a detailed blog entry about that later on!

David Delfin house

According to me this is a close to perfect apartment! It's large open spaces flooded with light and with design objects melting in perfectly. The mix between old and new. Older design classics such as the Charlotte Perriand dining room chairs, living room chairs by Charles Eames, the Serge Mouille lamp and an impressive collection of artwork. A perfect mix of sober colours and a space that feels both perfectly organized but at the same time personal. Even the dog fits in perfectly! This is the home of the clothes designer David Delfin and his boyfriend and architect for Studio AKA Gorka Postigos in Madrid.


I'm guessing this is a clothes hanger by Charles Eames as I know of a wall-hung version that is simular. And the more I look at the photos of this house I realise that almost every object is a design classic, so I doubt they would be the kind of people buying a fake or copied item.
The lovely lamp by Serge Mouille.
Carpet by David Delfin and chairs by THE Charles Eames. The coffee table is by Isamu Noguchi.
Lovely leather chairs by Charlotte Perriand. And hey! They stole my idea of using a gymnasts beam as a bench! Perhaps I should become an architect! :-p

Quite a provocative bedroom with the ropes and the anatomic artwork.
Perfection!

Musical chairs II

This is the second edition of the popular "musical chairs". The first one, written in october, can be read by clicking on this link:
Musical chairs 1st edition.

Here's another edition of "Musical chairs" for you! I found these gems and just had to share them with you! I'm sure some of these chairs will become classics if they are not considered classics already.
This chair is called Ray and is by Orlandi Design. Isn't she a beauty? Obviously inspired by the classical chair by Ray & Charles Eames in the 50's. So many copies have been made but I have to say that this one is my personal favorite.


Ray from Orlandi design from behind.
Some of the different finishes of the Ray chair by Orlandi Design.This is one of the older copies of the Ray and Charles Eames chairs designed in the 50s. There are so many copies out there that I hardly know which one is the original.

This is a chair by Mooi who also do the great round lamps that I featured in "and on the first day there was light" at the begining of November.
The pebble chair by Benjamin Hubert is a great one. I love his design in general. Check out his other stuff on here.
or look at the entry I did about him in October here.
This is the Mooi clip chair.
The Mooi clip chair when folded.
Another playful chair that I like very much is Gus by design group. http://www.gusdesigngroup.com/

This is a cute playful chair by a group of young swedish designers Fagerström & Abraham. This chair is called Braid. They just graduated from uni in 2006 but have already gotten quite a lot of recognition. And rightfully so! Check out their stuff at: http://www.fagerabraham.se/