Virtually there - November 09 |
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The great fantasy of the internet is that, in some mysterious way, this immense agglomeration of binary bits sloshing around in the ether will somehow improve our lives. Pah! Yes, information is good, but (and it’s a big but, as the actress said to the bishop) more information is not necessarily better. Consider, if you will, the issue of furniture. I want some new furniture. Something hip yet elegant; original yet traditional; opulent but value for money; neat and not gaudy. I thought it would save me time if I surfed the net for inspiration rather than traipse around furniture stores. I was wrong. So wrong.
 The place to start for cutting-edge furniture is the Milan Furniture Fair. I went to trend blog If It’s Hip, It’s Here for their coverage of the coverage and instantly fell in love with Revival, Byblos Casa’s brand new collection of dayglo rococo designed by Alessandro Mendini. In fact I was so taken with the look that I followed it to PhyllisMorris.com. Phyllis has showrooms in LA and Moscow and the feel is Marie-Antoinette meets mod on Sunset Boulevard, with a little Russian mafia chic thrown in. Don’t ask the price, because you can’t afford it.
Back at the Milan fair, I adored Karim Rashid’s patterned sofas for Meritalia, so I surfed on to karimrashid.com. I had forgotten that Karim Rashid is my favourite designer but, when I saw his wallpaper collection for the German company Marburg, I remembered instantly. It took a bit of searching, but I found the pattern I wanted on sale at DesignYourWall.com and you should see the hallway now… But I digress. I was looking for furniture.
Moroso was showing sofas by Tord Boontje at the fair. I had forgotten that Boontje is my favourite designer (his Midsummer lightshade looked just fabulous in my daughter’s room until it accidentally intercepted a loose shoe) but, when I saw his O-nest garden chairs on the Moroso site, I instantly remembered. And then I was sucked into Moroso’s world of crazy Italian sofas: the Do-Lo-Rez, Print, My Beautiful Backside (has something been lost in translation, I ask myself?) and Misfits. I want them all. The New Zealand distributor for Moroso is Matisse of course. I’m sure they’ll bring them in if I ask nicely.
Inhabit.com reported on top green designs at Milan and that got me to thinking that maybe I could be a tad more sustainable in my approach to furniture. ReVision Furniture (from Artists for Humanity) makes tables from recycled magazines. Instructables.com explains how to make a headboard out of old books and a grass lawn chair. Even more fun was the dart gun made from an old biro and some rubber bands but, if your little ones get into trouble for using them in class, you didn’t hear it from me.
SaveOurSofas.org points out that too much big furniture is going to landfill when it is perfectly serviceable and encourages us to reuse, recycle and refurbish. With that in mind, I looked at how to make a loose sofa cover at Lovehome.co.uk. I preferred the instructions on how to customise a chair with comics (I might actually do that).
Bored with sofas, I searched for interesting tables and found the Paint or Die but Love Me table by John Nouanesing. He wins – I love it. He may well become my favourite designer. I spent quite some time trying to find one to buy, but it was beyond me. If you succeed, let me know.
Story: Kim Rutter
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