Layout 2012: Not Your Grandma's Antiques

Antiques never fall out of favor, but they will claim a huge share of the spotlight in next year’s insides. Because so many of them boast exceptional detailing and meticulous craftsmanship, they could add instant character to a room. The key to making them seem fresh: Blend them into sleek design, spark them with sudden colours, and repurpose them in creative ways.

Whether you’re an antiques collector or just trying to figure out what to do with a cellar filled with your grandparents’ furniture, there’s plenty to inspire you here.

Justine Hand

Distressed sky blue on a classic sideboard adds the sole strong hit of color in this tranquil, rustic area. The area is all lines and angles, and the sideboard dovetails perfectly. Upholstered armchairs supply a needed bit of softness.

Black wall paint provides this traditional room an instant advantage. Dark finishes on the Windsor-style chair along with the hutch keep the appearance streamlined.

NICOLEHOLLIS

My favorite strategy to antiques: Look for components from some other nations and cultures. This black rain drum pulls double duty as a side table.

Lucid Interior Design Inc..

A classic office desk changed to a dressing table is a genius touch. The drawers provide more storage for toddlers.

Integrated

Although this classic chest is the focal point of the wall, a grab bag of chairs along with a collage of eclectic art keep it from feeling fusty.

From time to time, it’s all in the accessorizing. A patinated cable basket, an assortment of classic glass bottles, and shelves filled with crisp white towels provide this painted cabinet a cottage-chic upgrade.

Splendid Willow

Wow! Just add Prussian blue, and this classic chest sizzles. Leonine drawer pulls complement the carved detailing and the regal color.

Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs

The classic file cabinet and cowhide seat both layer texture within this space. As a result of the spareness of the décor along with the chair’s modern lines, the cabinet feels contemporary instead of cast-off.

Kaylovesvintage

I really like this homeowner not only embraced a very old-fashioned desk, but also had the moxie to pair it with a totally mod seat. The comparison makes for a gorgeous balance.

SFGIRLBYBAY

Who could not use another place to display novels? If you have a chair that is too rickety to sit on, here’s a fantastic way to give it new life.

Joani Stewart-Georgi – Montana Ave. Interiors

Spunky orange and pink, along with glam mirrored accents, make this classic bed look complicated.

Next:
Go”Green” With Antiques
Get the Look: Immediate Collection
Classic Pieces: The Secretary Desk

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Tastemakers: Our Paper Life

For all, the idea of cardboard furniture seems a little absurd. Who would wish to have a cardboard desk? Would it work?

Yes, say Chris Porteous and Geoff Christou of Our Paper Life. They would like to create the process of building, purchasing, and putting together furniture as simple as possible. And for these, the reasonably priced and quick solution was to create their pieces out of caliberrecyclable cardboard.

These bits are water resistent, simple to assemble and reasonably priced. “These bits can do everything that they need to,” says Christou. “They fulfill their functions — to hold books or laptops — and are a positive, frictionless part of life.” While it’s not suited for everybody, these simple designs look like they have been made with college students or first-time renters in your mind. Best of all, they’re challenging the way that we think about furniture.

Read on for more of Christou’s perspectives on design now.

Our Paper Life Desk – $19.99

This cardboard desk is affordable, eco-friendly, lightweight, and sometimes even water resistant. Made to simply make your life simpler, you can decorate it, draw it, pin it, or even staple on to it.

Q: What is it about paper which inspires you?
A: Using cardboard is exciting because it’s made up of 95% recycled material, is 100% recyclable — and yet is quite strong, stable, and lightweight. It’s an excellent material to work with because it allows for so many distinct possibilities. Also, the ubiquity of cardboard as well as the ease of manufacturing (in 1 step) make it ideal for applications such as furniture.

Q: How did you get started in product design?
A: I had completed architecture college and was traveling through London once I stopped, transfixed by an inlaid jewelry box in a storefront window. I believed, I could do so, then came home and began furiously designing.

Our Paper Life Shelf – $19.99

Although made from cardboard, this bookshelf is strong — it can hold books, books, magazines, clothes, shoes, and just about anything else. It’s cheap, lightweight, and waterproof.

Q: What kind of changes do you see occurring in product design now?
A: Compared to this imitation wood-veneer bookcases, desks and pieces of furniture that are omnipresent (and exceptionally inefficient), I see a tendency towards honest design, wherein simple materials are celebrated rather than concealed behind imitation plastic patterned decals and coatings.

Materials like polypropylene, plywood (or in our case( cardboard) are shown to be amazing. There is a desire for an authentic relationship between the user, the thing, and the firm which manufactured it. I see this as a cooperation between the user and the item.

Q: Exactly what are you trying to convey with your designs?
A: irrespective of how much an objects costs, how much time it’s used, whether it’s cardboard or marble, it could be aesthetic and certain in a space. The process of purchasing, transporting, assembling, using, and disassembling furniture is what I focused on — I wished to make this experience enjoyable and simple at all phases.

I don’t feel that assembling a desk or bookcase needs to take more than 5 minutes, however I have heard anecdotes of hours or even days spent small and cursing with tiny screws and fragile fire-board pieces. I am trying to say that a well-designed merchandise can contribute to wellbeing, instead of taking away from it.

Q: How has your work evolved since you first started? How can you see it evolving in the future?
A: My work was of diverse scales and materials, from large pavilions, to birdhouses, to the cardboard bookcases. In the brief decade of my career, I have discovered a large change in how I spend my time as a designer and architect. I concentrate on the entire process as opposed to only on the finished item.

As I have heard more about methods and materials, I have come to understand that ultimate product is a random point in what is a lengthy, complicated, and complex material orchestra. It’s the use of this designer-architect to style this whole motion, from inception, to manufacturing, to delivery, to use, to disposal.

Q: What are some of your favourite new design trends?
A: I am stoked for its incorporation of mass-customization in product design, which is afforded by the diminishing price of pc fabrication technologies. To be able to fully customize products for people is among the most exciting trends in design.

Q: What designers inspire you?
A: Jonathan Ives, the present industrial designer for Apple is a professional material-technician, he understand the limitations and possibilities of the stuff he works with. I was inspired by him to always use prototypes built of the last material at full size.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses exhibit a keen sense of proportion, rhythm and cadence. Being inside of these, walking through their halls, and sitting in their own rooms, it’s impossible not to feel at home.

Directors and founders of Our Paper Life, Geoff Christou (right) and Chris Porteous.

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Modern Images: Eileen Grey Side Table

In case you have ever saw a highend theatrical production show, you likely had trouble avoiding an Eileen Grey side table. This image was created in 1927, but this octogenarian that was hot seems like she could have been created yesterday. She is a tiny side table whose glass top and construction make her exceptionally flexible. She is the existence of the celebration. Check her out:

FORMA Style

Oh, and did I mention her tabletop can be adjusted by you to four various heights? Eileen initially designed this dining table as a table on her guest area to ease her sister’s love of breakfast. Since that time, we’ve linked it considerably more with use in cocktails and the parlors.

Hint: Fashionable side tables in living area portions of re Tail websites can make smashing nightstands, also. This table specifically is an excellent space saver, equally visually, due to the best that is clear, and bodily, as it just has two thin posts up along side it.

Here some cocktail party chatter is made by the Eileen Grey Side Table !

A Great Girl To Understand

She also loves to question her buddy Wassily to the celebration…

FORMA Style

… Along with her pal Mr. Orange Swan Chair.

She sidles right up to a diverse lavender couch…

… and a modern leather sectional with simplicity. She does not discriminate.

LDa Architecture & Insides

Here the dining table fits in to a the lobby of a Victorian, as well as a Corbusier seat, the Fortuny light and her buddies.

Becker Architects Limited

Occasionally she slips a way for a romantic dialogue using a sleek leather and chrome seat.

FORMA Style

Occasionally she trades in the martinis for tulips.

FORMA Style

She likes to sit and appreciate a Miami penthouse see.

FORMA Style

She likes to curl up with a warm fireplace.

FORMA Style

She plays fine with squares in addition to other circles.

Design Attainable

Eileen Grey Side Table | Design At Your Fingertips – $550

On top of that, she is quite mobile, so you keep your cocktail within arm’s achieve and can keep her near.