Last week, John and I bought 4 beautiful old chairs in a market. I loved immediately the simple sculptural lines of these chairs.
Not really useful as chairs around a dining or kitchen table but just one in front of a wall or near a sofa to put some books with your cupotea on top.
The chairs are sold apart for 75$ per piece. Measures on request.
Thanks for reading.
Maarten Baas drew for the first time attention with his SMOKE furniture for MOOOI. The heat blackened and resined furniture collection that started his carreer in 2002.
I like also very much the 4 chairs he designed for AHRENDT, a Dutch office furniture manufacturer
In 2009 he received the award of best DESIGNER of the year at Design Miami with the design of this piece of furniture.
The furniture I prefer is the CLAY FURNITURE series of pieces that look as though they were molded by children.
This furniture exhales so much poetry.
For the 50 years of the Vintage Cuvee of dom Ruinart, he created ,completely in the process of his creational thinking an ice bucket and glasses that have melt as ice would do.
Various chairs and chest of drawers by Maarten Baas.
I hope that you enjoy as much as I do this extraordinary talent flirting with poetry and magic.
Benoit
I know it has been a long time since I have been on my blog….To busy and lots of PINTEREST pinning…
A lot to blog also.
First of all. I was till recently an avid magazine reader and then I realised that in all of them one sees always the same houses or the same kind of interiors. It became all so grey and beige, with whitewashed furniture and linen upholstery.With the same carpets, tables made of recycled items or wooden planks on a metal frame and lamps made from pieces of junk.In fact this is going on for years now.
Or when an interior is more contemporary, it is always filled with the same Eames chairs or chaise longue.With the same Swann chairs or the Jean Prouvé furniture and the Serge Mouille lamps…
Swann chairs by Alvar Aalto
Jean Prouvé
Serge Mouille
Or as one can see in the Spanish Architectural Digest an overload of vintage put together as for a publicity advert,really to much of the same, to be still enjoyable. And every month the same kind of Interiors…Without fantasy….
It is not that I don’t like it,but it is never inspiring.
For me, the interiors lack the personality as seen in the magazines from 20 and even 30 years ago. I still have American AD.’s from the seventies and eighties and Maison et Jardin with interiors of Michael Taylor, Kalef Alaton,Michael Schaible and partner Robert Bray,Mark Hampton, Thomas Britt and of course David Hicks, whom make me dream.
Michael Taylor. West Coast drama.
The inimitable David Hicks.
Kalef Alaton in Los Angeles.
Robert Bray, Michael Schaible in AD, July Aygust 1979. New York.
Thomas Britt.Palm Beach
I know, everything changes and nothing stays the same… But why has it to change for worse and not be an evolution for the better.
Nowadays you have seen one interior and you have seen them all…..You can’t see anymore if a house is showed that was build in Ibiza, South Africa or in Miami.
Everybody is copying and if people can’t pay the master they will do with copying his style, That is what is shown in most magazines nowadays. The best example for me of being copied is Axel Vervoordt who created a superb style in decoration that was copied all over the place, especially in Belgium and holland ,and which was never equalled.Yes, people call this inspiration….
Even my venerated american AD. set a step backwards and has sacrificed his spirit of showing great American and International homes ,to a level more approachable to people. And there goes the dreams with it…… It became flat since the former Editor in Chief of American Elle Decor, Margaret Russell took over from Paige Rense.
The only inspirational interiors are shown in the American VOGUE. Artistic and never fashionable homes. Houses where people live the way they intend to, not in a way dictated by interior fashion and where sales management is taking over….
If magazines are crying for help, they have to thank themselves for it. Levelling downwards has never been a good idea.
Thanks for reading my post
Benoit.
I like the twist that Bram Boo gives to the furniture he creates. most of them have a traditional look at first glimpse, but by adding elements in a disturbing way or an unexpected way, he creates visual confronting pieces.
some examples of the furniture I like.
OVERDOSE DESK for BULO.
BACKSTAGE CUPBOARD.
TABLE ETCETERA for TRIBU.
BOOBOO CHAIR for FELD.
OASIS SOFA for FELD.
The large arm rests are meant to be used as a desk to work with a laptop for example.
ARCHIDUC BLUE TRAY for SERAX.
A living and dining room needed a make over and my client wanted a more minimal approach of her interior.The only new item that we bought are the 3 chauffeuses that we put together to make a large sofa. All the other furniture comes from other rooms or from their house at the seaside. As for example the Pierre Paulin chairs and the danish inspired coffee table.
LIVING ROOM.
DINING ROOM.
I had the walls painted in a light grey colour that is constantly changing with the different sources of light.
The Venitian blinds were removed and the Oriental carpets were rolled up and put in the attic together with the furniture we didn’t use anymore.
The antique parquet de Versailles is now visible in all his splendor and the room breaths a contemporary air.
The same wall, but a different display of objects. The first display is our collections of vintage bamboo mirrors, Most of them came from England and were made in the 1950.s
The second display is a collections of north African Tea Trays in copper. Some were meant to put on foldable legs and be used as tables, but definitely all were used to put the little coloured glasses filled with mint tea.
Have a nice day and to keep you warm, nothing as good as a wonderful hot tea or a delicious strong coffee.
Greetings from cold and rainy Belgium.
Benoit.
