Arthur G have introduced 3 new chair styles to their range: Jeremy, Martin and Carmen.
Jeremy (above) is the ultimate three in one (occasional, desk or dining chair) while Carmen (below) has a relaxed seat height and tapered arms, making it the perfect addition to any living room setting.
Kristin Pfannenschmidt of Revived Furniture believes that upcycling reflects the mood of the moment: people are preferring to save things rather than throw them away, as well as liking the idea of owning a one-off piece. “Something that allows them to express their individuality,” she says.
Expressing her individuality with interior design is a trait that German-born Kristin has been honing for many years. At the age of 11, she spent hours poring over IKEA catalogues, curating themes for the different rooms in her family home. “I picked furniture and accessories to go with my themes, presented it to my parents and was very disappointed when they refused to buy what I had ‘sourced’!”
I recently had the pleasure on a rare trip to Redfern (to Seasonal Concepts, if you’re asking) of stumbling across a shop called A Pair of Chairs. I love chairs, especially old chairs from a time when all furniture, expensive or budget, was made to last.
This lady, Kim Stewart, loves chairs even more than I do. It was her obvious passion for and knowledge of chairs, and her excitement at stripping back and revamping old chairs, reupholstering and covering them in fabrics and colours of her customer’s choice, that kept me inside so long. Soaking up other people’s passion for their job is one of my favourite things about meeting people through this blog.
My Bespoke Chair claims to be the world’s first 3D online chair design studio.
British/Dutch artist Emma Veiga‐Malta, who has a studio in Sydney’s Mosman, founded My Bespoke Chair as a natural progression from the parent company Bespoke Art. While creating tailor‐made art and fabrics, she had many clients request specific and unusual fabric combinations for their upholstery. With the internet streamlining business, and the increasing upholstery work at Bespoke Art, Emma put two and two together and created My Bespoke Chair.
“It captures the zeitgeist of social, online shopping and mobile, smart technologies. We have developed an online “point and click” tool which gives the customer total design freedom,” says Emma. “All our fabric designs start life as hand painted art, designed in‐house. The fabrics are exclusively ours, printed in limited runs, ensuring that every chair is a work of art.”
The customer chooses a chair style, then scrolls through the collection of fabrics and selects all the chair’s upholstered elements in any combination. They can spin the chair 360 degrees to view their design from every angle.
It’s on now with 20 percent off all sofas, armchairs and easy chairs. Showroom stock only from Cult Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Excludes PP Mobler items and Fritz Hansen Egg chairs.
I love good chairs, I love posters and I love typography, so I’m pretty excited about this upcoming Melbourne exhibition.
Herman Miller has shaped the world of modern furniture design as we know it. But the company’s influence is not limited to product design and manufacturing – equally acclaimed are the now iconic art and illustration posters which were used to promote Herman Miller’s highly sought-after furniture through much of the last century. The idea of the exhibition Then x Ten is to celebrate the power of the poster and in so doing continue Herman Miller’s distinct association with design history.
This fun, family home in the Canberra suburbs belongs to Lisa Barrett, husband Chris, sons Dylan and Hugo and dog Brindi. In her spare time the busy mum creates one-of-a-kind reupholstered chairs to sell on Etsy and at markets.
Temple & Webster have some authentic Eames chairs from Living Edge, including my favourite Plywood DCW, on sale today. Check it out before they all go! More here.
Recently, I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect statement armchair and on my travels I discovered the beautiful work of Laura McEwan and Katie Blume. As the replica furniture debate rumbles on, in Lismore NSW, the duo otherwise known as Flourish & Blume, are breathing new life into truly stunning revamped vintage chairs.
Laura says well made chairs are like sculptures. “They’re beautiful objects and they represent a state of maximum relaxation without actually being asleep. Well, sometimes being asleep!” Katie adds: “One of the reasons I love old chairs is because I have discovered that they generally have their own character and story. You get to know a chair when you spend a bit of time with it. I swear sometimes when I’m working on a chair I can hear it speak to me. Sitting in your favourite chair can feel like a hug from an old friend.”
You see, these two upholsterers and textile designers, who have a hoarder-esque collection amassed over the years, really do love chairs! And they’d have to, with each one taking between three days and four weeks to transform.
Laura would love to own a few Hans Wegner Round chairs. “That chair represents such incredible craftsmanship and intelligent design but it’s not one to fall asleep in. In terms of Australian chair designers, I love the Eleanor (1954) by Grant Featherston and the Transat chair (1925) by Eileen Gray and so many more.
“We’ve met so many chairs that are beautifully made and barely aged in 50 or 60 years, some can’t even be identified as any particular manufacturer. I think my favourites would be the ones that are in a really sad state that reveal themselves with buckets of elbow grease.”
Katie adds: “I love anything old, particularly mid-century, anything with beautiful lines and great design, anything wood. There isn’t any particular identifiable chair I can say is my favourite to work with. I have to agree with Laura that there is a great deal of satisfaction and pride in finding or being given a chair that most people would probably throw to the tip and resuscitating it, reviving it and turning it into something beautiful and useful once more.”
Sometimes the hardest part can be parting with their beautiful creations. “They’re our babies!” says Laura. “We like to have at least a couple of nights where we can sit and stare at them before they’re sent on their way.” Katie says: “You get to know a chair, develop a relationship. I don’t want to see them go now they are looking the best they have looked in years and it’s sad thinking you probably won’t see them again.”
With a background in arts, Laura is very disturbed by the concept of replicas. “I see them as an abuse of the designers’ intellectual property rights. It’s no longer about the appreciation of craftsmanship but about the status of owning the object, with no regard for the conditions under which it is manufactured or the environmental impact of its production. Unfortunately, the flooded replica market means that some of the most beautiful and iconic mid-century designs have now become cliches. I suppose their popularity is a reflection of a consumer society that puts its desires before its ethical considerations.”
And while Katie says everyone has a right to their opinion on the matter, she personally isn’t comfortable with the concept or manufacturing of replica furniture. “To me it is morally and ethically wrong on so many levels.”
At the same time, Laura thinks more people are learning to cherish secondhand gems. “I don’t think there is as much quality mid-century furniture going to the tip these days, not like it was say five years ago. It just makes sense that for around the same price, or less, as new furniture that could possibly have been manufactured in appalling conditions from endangered rainforest timbers and that probably won’t last a decade, you could have an ‘antique of the future’ that has already stood the test of time and is a more ethical purchase in every way.”
Katie thinks one of the reasons she was put on the planet was to save old chairs. “I have heard many disturbing stories of people burning their old chairs or sending them to the dump because they didn’t know what to do with them or couldn’t afford to have them restored. It’s very sad. Beautiful old chairs, lost forever.”
Laura is heartened to see many interior designers using revamped mid-century pieces. And Katie says it feels great to own unique pieces. “I personally love having chairs in my home that I know are like no one else’s in Australia or the world.”
Follow Flourish & Blume’s adventures with chairs on their blog here and visit their Blue Caravan shop here.
Fabric on the above chair is by www.kambamboo.com
Laura and Katie (above) can’t get enough of old chairs.
Milan Direct is probably the cheapest place in Australia to buy stylish reproduction dining chairs online. These are all just $99 or $129 each, a lot cheaper than some of the more well known repro furniture websites.