Hue: Coral
FABRIC // Mughal Flower Rose in Coral from Lisa Fine // Exterior // Outdoor Chair // Hardware // Rug // Pillow // Pillow
EDITOR CREDIT // This post was developed and written by guest editor Molly Velte.
Hue: Mineral
FABRIC // Nepal in Mineral from Lacefield // Interior // Pillow // Inspiration // Stool // Rock
EDITOR CREDIT // This post was developed and written by guest editor Molly Velte.
Fab Five: Painterly Dots
Holly Phillips
ABOUT | Holly Hollingsworth Phillips is a residential interior designer and co-owner of The English Room.
This is my antique horn chair, which I purchased on a buying trip to Paris in the mid 1990’s when I was working at Travis and Company in charge of the antiques at ADAC. It was my first buying trip with the company. This chair was purchased after a long boozy lunch in the market. The owner of the set (yes it was part of a set...so wish we bought the loveseat too) said it came from a famous hair salon (Christophe...I think) in Paris that did Jackie O’s hair when she visited with Onassis. I was sold with the horn and leopard alone... then Jackie O thrown in. When it arrived to ADAC and we were unpacking I almost had a fistfight with another employee who also wanted it. I had dreamed of this baby ever since I saw it.
It makes me so happy and has traveled from house to house over the years. It now resides in my den.
I am an animal print fanatic. I know they can be misunderstood with so many bad examples but nothing can be more chic when done right.
Fab Five: Folding Screens
Fab Five: Lucite & Gold
70 Years in the Making
It’s been more than 70 years since the Eameses began experimenting with molded wood, using their “Kazam! Machine” to press thin sheets of wood veneer against a heated membrane that was inflated by a bicycle pump. As the designers pushed the material as far as it could go, they continued to explore and discover, surrendering to the design process that ultimately led to their Molded Plastic Chair. In its longstanding commitment to the Eameses’ vision of continued exploration, discovery and refinement, Herman Miller introduces the Molded Wood Side Chair. Creating the classic shell chair out of wood was made possible by today’s revolutionary 3-D veneer technology, whereby the wood is sliced into spaghetti-thin strips and then glued back together. The composite’s flexibility allows it to bend, curve and mold into shape, and because the technique reduces the thickness needed for the veneer, the result is an elegant yet strong and durable shell. This is an authentic Eames product by Herman Miller, and is available via Design Within Reach.
We adore this classic chair that blends just as well with mid-century modern as it does with traditional interiors. What's your take on it? Love it or leave it?
IMAGE CREDITS | copy & images via Design Within Reach
Andy Beers
ABOUT | Andy Beers & Cara Scarola are co-founders and principal interior designers at Ore Studios.
When my wife’s paternal grandparents sold the modern house they had built in the early1950’s just south of Seattle, we inherited a great deal of their mid-century furniture when no one else in the family wanted it. We were thrilled to get it, of course, seeing as it replaced a great deal of particle board and plywood we were living with at the time.
All of the furniture had been collected over a lifetime - nothing in the house was ever replaced in the 50 years my wife’s grandparents lived there. But the house had distinctly different décor throughout the decades, mostly because my wife’s grandmother sent things out to be reupholstered every 15-20 years.
Through photographs and family stories, we have deduced that the furniture we inherited is currently in its third incarnation. Sometime during the 70’s, all of the upholstery was sent out at the same time. A sofa (which we never owned) was covered in salmon colored cotton velvet, a large lounge chair was covered in a pink, green, and taupe velvet stripe, and three different Danish chairs were covered in a psychedelic floral just this side of tame.
When we got these floral chairs, I was definitely not enamored with the pattern, which is a woven design. Taking myself fairly seriously, I slip covered them in black. (This was during the time Cara and I were in design school). Once I got over myself, the covers came off. We’ve lived with this floral as the main pattern in our home ever since, and are quite fond of it. It reminds us of my wife’s grandmother, a ballet dancer and true aesthete.
But beyond sentiment, the fabric is also a daily reminder to me about quality in materials and lifecycle for home furnishings. Our furniture is sixty-plus years old, and the fabric is more than thirty. In an industry driven by aggressive consumption, textiles can be an enormous source of waste. Because of their inherent fragility compared to other components of an interior, they need to be replaced with more frequency than other things. But because there is also a particular degree of fashion related to fabric that changes faster than other surface materials, textiles are often discarded before they become obsolete.
When we’re specifying textiles, we think hard about lifespan and try to balance value with longevity. Good fabric is an investment worth making when you understand how to get the most use out of it - which relates not only to the technical qualities of different fibers, but also to aesthetics. These crazy green woven daisies remind me of that.
And as a final note, now that we’re firmly settled in Seattle and not moving in the foreseeable future, most of our furniture is finally being recovered again. One of these chairs was just repaired, refinished in a darker stain, and is about to be upholstered in an homage to my wife’s grandmother: another floral embroidery, but this time handmade, instead of machine-made, and a little more subtle in hue - dark brown to temper the sweetness of the embroidery’s subject material. My upholsterer is saving the daisies for me so I can have them made into cushions. ANDY
Hue: Ruby Red
Christopher Farr's Willow fabric in Ruby, designed by Kit Kemp is the inspiration for today's Hue post. This exotic fabric, its texture, pattern and really everything about it, has me most mesmerized. Do you have any ruby red in your living space?
Top: Willow in Ruby by Kit Kemp / Christopher Farr Cloth. Clockwise: A Miles Redd Living Room. Peony Pillow by Alice Temperley / All The Best on Dering Hall. Chinois Rug by Ben Soleimani / Mansour Modern. Dagmar Nightstand / Anthropologie.