I love finding a unique palette, especially when it’s deliberate. And this cool palette of mint & turquoise and pale yellows reminds me that you can find ways to mix multiple colors without looking over the top or silly. I also like that it feels very fresh & Californian.
(Images via KML Design & Atlantic-Pacific.)
The other day I was walking down Madison Avenue in New York, and happened to look up at just the right moment: I was directly under the AT&T (Sony) Building designed by Philip Johnson. I recognized the broken pediment immediately, and couldn’t take my eye off of the structure as I continued walking.
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an instrumental American architect of the 20th century. Johnson studied philosophy and architecture at Harvard University and in 1932 became the director of the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Architecture. He coauthored The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 (1932) which introduced the aesthetics of the Bauhaus to America. Johnson gained notoriety with his own residence in Connecticut, The Glass House (1949), as well as his collaboration with Mies van der Rohe on the Seagram Building. Johnson’s style emphasized scale, landscape, minimalism, and classical architectural details, and evolved from Modernist to Post-Modernist to anti-Post-Modernist.
The Glass House is a template of minimal structure, geometry and proportion:
The AT&T (Sony) Building in New York (1984), which remains a controversial postmodernist landmark:
The Lipstick Building (1986) and the unconventional Rockefeller Guest House (1949-1950), both in NYC:
(Images via The Glass House, PBS, galinsky)
Monday’s History Lesson: The Butterfly Chair
Wednesday’s Design Meets Fashion: Winter
Friday’s Destination: The Collection, Paris
I love this shop. The Collection is centrally located in the 3rd arrondissementat 33, Rue de Poitou in Paris. Since it opened its doors in 2003, The Collection has carried products for the home mostly by designers from Europe. Their wonderful inventory of home goods includes lighting, wallpaper, furniture, ceramics and accessories.
In 2006, The Little Collection line for children was created. I’m in love with that button wallpaper!
(Images via The Collection)
One thing I love about winter is wearing lots of layers with different textures, especially in just one or two colors. It’s luxurious but understated and natural. The same technique of mixing different textures in a simple palette works great for the bathroom and kitchen as well, where you can mix stone and wood with soft fabrics.
(Images via Pinterest & Style Files.)
The Butterfly Chair, aka the Hardoy chair, the sling chair, or the BKF chair, was designed by Argentinian architects Grupo Austral in 1938 for a project in Buenos Aires. It was officially introduced in 1940 at the design exhibition Salon de Artistas Decoradores. Composed of two bent tubular steel rods and a leather sling creating a suspended seat, the Butterfly Chair was an instant classic. Along with two awards, it won the attention of Edgar Kaufmann Jr., the Curator of Industrial Design at the MoMA in New York, who named it as one of the “best efforts of modern chair design.”
B.K.F. Chair, 1938
Antonio Bonet (Spanish, 1913-1989), Juan Kurchan (Argentine, 1913-1975) and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy (Argentine, 1914-1977)
Knoll bought the US rights to the chair in 1947, but in 1951 legal issues involving copyright forced production to come to a stop. More than five million copies of the chair were estimated to have been manufactured during the 1950s alone. The Butterfly Chair is a modern, classic statement of good taste and tradition, and looks equally elegant in an upscale interior as it does in a dorm room.
Monday’s History Lesson: Milk Glass
Wednesday’s Design Meets Fashion: Contemporary Simplicity
Friday’s Destination: Cape Town
This beautiful city is the most popular tourist destination in the whole of Africa. Residents have their choice of popular, trendy urban areas to mountainous suburbs, as well as historical neighborhoods filled with colorful Cape Dutch architecture. Locals are proud to be part of the design scene, and I’ve just read that the city has been named the World Design Capital for 2014 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. Here are a few artists that caught my eye this week:
Luke Pedersen and James Lennard of Pedersen + Lennard believe in great quality and local manufacturing for their line of accessible, functional and beautiful furniture and lighting.
Illustrator and designer Heather Moore is the talent behind Skinny laMinx. She has a new shop in Cape Town, but in case you can’t get there you can find her shop on etsy. Love it.
Jesse Breytenbach, owner of Henri Kuikens, is a free-lance illustrator, comic artist, and print-maker. I think these block-printed textiles are beautiful… I would love to see that yellow print pillow brighten up my living room!
(Images via Pedersen + Lennard, Skinny laMinx, Jezze Prints)
Happy New Year! Did you make any resolutions? One of mine is to simplify…everything. Over the holidays my husband and I stayed in a contemporary minimalist flat and it reminded me that simple and uncluttered is much easier to manage. So in an effort to keep up with my resolutions, I’m baring down the clutter in my home and the clutter in my closet and going back to the basics that I know work. When in doubt, less is always more!
(Images via Asiliam & Vanessa Jackman.)
Milk glass is a translucent or opaque glass which was first made in Venice in the 16th century. Original colors included blue, pink, yellow, brown, black, and the opaque white which inspired its name. The milky appearance was achieved by adding tin dioxide or bone ash. It was used mainly for dinnerware, lamps, vases, and costume jewelry. It became very popular in France during the end of the 19th century, and pieces produced during the Gilded Age are known for their elegance and beauty. During the Great Depression, glass was manufactured and distributed free or at low cost for distribution throughout America, and milk glass made during this time, called Depression Glass, is highly collectible despite its lower quality.
Today, this charming and wonderfully vintage glass is highly collectible and looks beautiful when displayed.
(Images via 1stdibs, high street market, pinterest, country living)
