New York designer Sandy Chilewich who began her career creating bold and fancy styles of leggings (Hue) is now combining beautiful colours and textures to accessorize the home. She combines modern design with durability and easy to clean products, used both indoor and outdoor….functionally fashionable!

Hue Hosiery

Make a statement in GOLD…

Chilewich Gold

Layer for contrast and texture…

Chilewich Layers

Define a space…

Chilewich Space

Lounge chair by Warren Platner, 1966 for Knoll

Atop of an unusually small pedestal base for such a large seating surface, the Platner lounge chair is an impact maker in any environment.    A beautiful mixture of metal rods and soft cushy textile make for a sculptural look and a cozy sit.   Designed in 1966 by Warren Platner, for Knoll, this chair has potential for retro glam and sophisticated modern.  

 When accompanied by its coordinating side table, this chair becomes parent and small tot. 

Platner chair with side table

The side table also features metal rods with a glass disc that perfectly fits inside the circumference of its top.  It is sweet and subtle yet the light bouncing off the torso of this table has the making for a small but sparkly dance party.  The Grandmother of this collection of course is the dining table that allows the dinner guest to gaze inside a tunnel of arched metal stems through its glass top surface while enjoying their meal. 

Platner Dining Table

Platner Dining Collection

 

This table is like a giant piece of elegant jewelry for your home, as is the whole Platner collection. 

On Sale Now until Feb. 7^th 2010.

The Warren Platner Collection

 

Designed by Verner Panton in 1969, the Living Tower embodied the spirit of the 60’s interactive ‘living’ landscapes.  Verner designed many great pieces, breaking away from the more traditional techniques and materials being used by his fellow designers. 

Hans J. Wegner Wishbone Chair

He took the living landscapes theme to a whole new level with the “Fantasy” Landscapes he created for Bayer in 1968 and 1970. 

"Visiona II". One of Verners Fantasy Landscapes

The Living Tower is still available through Vitra today, although not an inexpensive piece.  The Tower serves as Art, interactive furniture and a fantastic, eye-catching way to divide a room.

Verner with family

The Living Tower is available in red, matt blue and chocolate.  It is constructed of a Birch Plywood Frame, uses polyurethane foam, classic upholstery and the outer dimensions are 78 3/4″ square.  There are 4 levels at which you can lounge on the Living Tower.

4 Levels of the Living Tower

A fun,  funky piece of furniture sure to be a conversation piece for years to come.

I think everybody and their dog should have a downtown Kitty cat mat for their furry feline friend.

Place it under the food dish to catch all the bits and give your kitty something to look at while they lap up their liquid.

Prrrrrrr!!!!

10.  It’s sculpture first, furniture second

9.  It’s REALLY comfortable
8.  It has a high skinny back to rest your head on

7.  It has really neat humungous shock mounts that gently rock while you sit in it
6.  It makes a great cat bed

My adorable cat Chloe in our Bird chair

5.  It was WAY ahead of its time and still is today
4.  It looks as though it might squat at any moment to incubate an egg

This egg would be about the right size

3.  It is truly beautiful from all angles

2.  I can sit cross legged inside it
1.  It looks great naked

Why do so many great architects also have the mind to create such timeless and recognizable furniture.  The group is great and have contributed to influence the growing future generation of designer architects.

Mies Van Der Rohe has influenced the design of many houses and put together a collection of furniture that will fit in any style home. Not only great in a home, Mies furniture looks great in an office setting as well.

If you have a property that requires a thoughtful and imaginative structure to get the most out of the land, taking some ques from any Frank Lloyd Wright house may work well.

Utilizing the lines from the surroundings, Frank lloyd Wright has created classic furniture that looks great in a west coast modern, homes with rich wood and exposed beam structure.

Another great who liked to use organic shapes for those of you that are into more of a modern look is Eero Saarinen.  He has problaby the largest selection of notable furniture that can funk up an area or really morph your home into a fresh modern space.

One example of furniture that may drastically change the look of your living room is the Womb chair.

Another great notable is Le Corbusier

The big question is – Who is next?

Today we ran out of dish soap.  When I unscrewed the bottle to add some water to the little bit that remained, a million teeny tiny bubbles dashed into the air around me.

 

 Magic. 

 

 When the world throws magic at you during the most mundane tasks in life, this is truly a gift.  In other less lustrous times, we have to create our own magic amongst the dishes or surround ourselves with shiny distractions.  A few magical kitchen tools worth mentioning include…

Magic Bunny Toothpick Holder by Stefano Giovannoni for Alessi: 

(worth noting: this made a fine gift for my après dinner-gum conscious grandmother this Christmas)

Pino Funnel by Stefano Giovannoni & Miriam Mirri for Alessi:

Juicy Salif Lemon Squeezer by Philippe Starck for Alessi:

Big Love Ice Cream Spoon by Miriam Mirri for Alessi:

Bunny and Carrot Paper Towel Holder by Stefano Giovannoni for Alessi:

Alvar Aalto Cookie Mold by Iittala:

Verner Panton went into production on his first Panton chair in 1967.  That was the Panton Classic, a uniquely styled chair made of a rigid expanded plastic, and using cantilever technology.  This chair is distinguishable by its shiny appearance due to the lacquered surface.  Also, it is only available in Red, Black or White.  The Panton Classic was the starting point for a long and successful line of Panton chairs, that now come in Junior (Child’s sized version), a set of Miniatures, and a more affordable version of the Classic known just as the Panton Chair which came in to production in 1990.

Red Classic Pantons being put to use

The advantages of the newer Panton Chair, other than it is about 1/5th of the price of the Classic, is that technological progress has allowed it to be made out of Polypropylene, and it is available in a wide range of colours.  You can now get it in White, Grey, Orange, Red or Chartreuse.  This chair has a matte finish, and is incredibly versatile.  I find the chair surprisingly comfortable;  I had assumed it would be cold, hard, uncomfortable and, well…plastic!  But I have to say it is now one of my favourites, and none of my qualms rang true.

White Panton Chairs

The Junior Panton is exactly the same as the newer Panton Chair, just about %25 smaller.  Perfect for children, and comes in lots more fun colours: White, Red, Orange, Light Pink, Light Blue and Lime (I wish they would produce these colours for us big kids!).

Junior Panton Chairs

A great gift option for a Verner Panton fan would be the set of Panton Classic Miniatures.  They are a 1:6 scale, and come in a  set of 5.  They are produced exactly as the originals were (materials, construction, etc.).  According to Vitra, on average it takes 5 hours of manual labour to create these little gems!

As a final note, I came across the picture below while surfing the net.  It amazed me the uses that Panton Chairs have been put to.   As you can see, these chairs have been customized, but what an interesting concept!  Enjoy!

Panton Chairs, St. Bartholomew’s Church, Chodovice.

A neighbour in my apartment building has two fake stuffed crows in his window that curiously peer out at me while I fill up my watering can.  At first glance, they were a bit scary … but after meeting their gaze a few times, I’ve grown to like them … a lot.  Crows get a bit of a bad wrap in our culture – like when you refer to a group of several crows, it’s called MURDER. 

That’s harsh. 

MURDER

Also, they eat garbage and that’s no good for their rep.  The other day outside of Zellers I noticed a MURDER of crows trying to bust into an entire bag of bagels with a series of teeny tiny punctures inflicted by their pointy beaks.  It seemed as though they had been working tirelessly at this for hours, so naturally I sympathized.  I bravely approached the MURDER to rip open the bag and free the yummy circles of doughy goodness and all traces of bagel disappeared within seconds. 

It was amazing.

 

Anyhoo… Apparently Charles and Ray Eames also had an affinity for the black bird (maybe not crow specific).  On one of their many travels they picked up an American folk art object … a black wooden bird and brought it home to live in the centre of their living room. 

Vitra has re-produced the Eames’ beloved pet as a beautiful smooth black bird with the very same skinny stick legs and round eye balls.  It’s elegant and endearing and makes a nice alternative to a feathered friend of the live variety.  Against a back-drop it becomes a graphic image and on the carpet in the middle of room it’s just sweet and loveable.

 

Eames house bird

MURDER of house birds