Home Inspiration With Julie Carlson
If you've fallen under the spell of UK phenom Edmund de Waal (as we have), you might find yourself obsessively rearranging your pottery in an attempt to replicate his inspired groupings. "How to live with objects, how to arrange them and give them space within the home, is central to my life," de Waal told The Sunday Times. Here are six lessons culled from the master for living an artful yet uncluttered life.
1. Layer Objects in Unused Spaces
Above: For his Ghost exhibit at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge (the town where he was raised), de Waal propped a suite of porcelain platters and vessels on a doorframe ledge. As he told The London Sunday Times, "Layer objects in unused spaces—on a wall, above a cornice, or over a door frame. Not everything has to be at eye level."
2. Look Up
Above: Skylight as design moment? De Waal grouped pale celadon pots in his Porcelain Room at the Geffrye Museum in London. He explained to the London Sunday Times: "Recently, I've tried new ways of layering my work into people's spaces, making installations that can hover high above the traffic of family life."
3. Group Objects in Frames
Above: Good news for collectors: "Clutter becomes a collection when it's framed—for example, on a shelf or in a case," says de Waal in The Sunday Times.
Above: "Framed clutter" from de Waal's On the Properties of Fire exhibit at Waddesdon Manor.
4. Everything Doesn't Have to Match
Above: As de Waal tells The Independent, "I don't think one should be evangelical about using handmade things. It's just too expensive and doesn't reflect the way we live. Be like the Japanese. Nothing matches." Case in point, the cupboard of US/Japan glassmaker Peter Ivy (above), which features a mix of glass and porcelain.
5. Find Power in Multiples
Above: For an installation at Blackwell House in Cumbria, de Waal installed a suite of sylphlike pots to contrast with the ornamental architecture. "My work is about the language of sculpture, it's about multiples and minimalism," he says in the New York Times.
6. Think Outside the Box
Above: For his Ghost exhibit at Kettle's Yard, de Waal tucked ceramics between volumes in the bookshelves and in rustic wood cupboards.
Select pieces by Edmund de Waal are available at Matin in Los Angeles.
For more design lessons, see:
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Domestic Science With Megan Wilson
A British classic with a distinctly continental flair, the Ercol stacking chair was designed by an Italian immigrant brought up in London's East End. Lucian Ercolani founded Ercol in 1920, and during the Second World War, the company made its name mass-producing kitchen chairs for the government-sponsored Utility Furniture Scheme. It wasn't until the burst of national pride and optimism of the 1950s that Ercol dusted off its wartime image and came up with something more streamlined and cheerful. Love seats and nesting tables were introduced and, to prove just how light and practical this new aesthetic could be, the stacking chair was launched in 1957. This design, with its slender, tapered, outward-turning legs enabled the chair to be stacked vertically, making it ideal for the compact modern home as well as for public spaces.
In 2002, British fashion designer Margaret Howell collaborated with Ercol to revive some of its notable midcentury designs, including the stacking chair, to sell in her shops. The reissues were a great success and the styles are now available as part of the Ercol Originals collection. The Ercol factory is still family run (Lucian's grandson, Edward, now heads the company) and the furniture continues to be made in Britain using environmentally sound practices. Here are some examples.
Above: The Ercol stacking chair, 17.75 inches wide, 19.75 inches deep, and 30.25 inches tall, is £315 ($466) in natural or black at Haus.
Above: In the US, the Ercol stacking chair is available in beech or elm and in a natural finish as well as black, white, and several colors for $585 from A+R in LA. The chair is also sold by Top Hat in New York; for pricing and to place orders, contact Sweet Bella.
Above: The Utility Furniture Scheme was created by the British Board of Trade in 1942 to make affordable furnishings. The catalog featured one of the Ercol stacking chair's predecessors, the Windsor-style Ercol kitchen chair, far right. Photograph via Ercol.
Above: A selection of Ercol Reissue Chairs in the window of Margaret Howell on Wigmore Street, London. The chairs are available at Margaret Howell shops in London, Paris, and Tokyo—have a look at them stacked in white in our post on the Tokyo outpost, Japan's Best Brit Brand.
Above: Vintage Ercol chairs are used at Rochelle Canteen, in Shoreditch, London, and can be sourced on eBay (for the most choices, search UK sellers).
Read about Christine's Ercol obsession in Design Sleuth: Stalking the Ercol Stacking Chair.
Looking for more vintage inspiration? Browse our photo gallery of Midcentury Designs (and Modern Interpretations). For outdoor seating ideas (including some stackable and folding designs), see Gardenista's 10 Easy Pieces: Outdoor Bistro Table and Chair Sets.
This post is an update. It originally ran on April 8, 2014, as part of our Warm Minimalism issue.
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Architecture & Interiors With Margot Guralnick
London couturier Anna Valentine was a ballet dancer before becoming a designer. And, with her former business partner, Antonia Robinson, she deftly made her mark in the fashion world by dressing Camilla Parker Bowles in flattering dove gray silk (take a look) for her 2005 wedding to Prince Charles.
Known for her quietly cerebral and refined approach to design—she says she takes her influences "from the fluidity and elegance of dancers costumes, the pared-down simplicity of Scandinavian design, and the flattering rigors of Japanese-style draping"—Valentine, now solo, has gone on to outfit a number of royals and recently introduced her own ready-to-wear line. But what caught our attention is her magically ethereal-looking kitchen.
Above: Valentine and her husband, entertainment lawyer Jonathan Berger, live in one of the choicest corners of the city: an apartment in a Georgian house on Bryanston Square in Marylebone. Valentine worked with London architects DRDH on its renovation, which involved restoring original details, such as the moldings, while, in the architects' words "opening up the plan to light and the spatial interconnectedness of contemporary life."
The look of the rooms, from pale palette to window height to herringbone wood floor, was inspired by the turn-of-the-20th-century paintings of hushed interiors by Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershoi. The trestle table and rustic stools, however, are a 21st-century casual-elegant twist. (For similar designs, consider Russell Pinch's Oak and Walnut Imo Stool and Achille Castiglioni's Leonardo Dining Table, both from the Conran Shop.)
Above: French doors stand alongside bespoke cabinetry with marble counters. The apartment is on the piano nobile and opens to the garden. Learn about wood floor designs in our posts Herringbone and Chevron: Spot the Difference and Remodeling 101: Wood Floor Patterns.
Hammershoi's Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams from 1900.
Above: The integrated marble sink. Considering marble for your own kitchen? Get the lowdown in Remodeling 101: Marble Countertops.
Above: The otherwise minimalist arrangement offers plenty of storage in a tall cabinet that's layered on top with a still life of vases and tableware. The kitchen opens to a hall of doors and windows that echo Hammershoi's own rooms. "As in Hammershoi's paintings of his home, at Strandgade 30 in Copenhagen, doors of varying scales not only mediate the relationships between new and existing elements but establish themselves as figures that occupy space and define its character," explain the architects. The balloon-shaped Doorknobs are architect 6a designs from Izé,
Above: Hammershoi's Interior Strandgade 30, another of his room portraits from 1900.
Above: Like Hammershoi's paintings, the kitchen speaks in a whisper—and fridge and stove are kept out of sight.
Above: DRDH's apartment plan details the considerable space devoted to the kitchen.
Go to Kitchens to see more of our favorite designs, including:
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Dining Rooms With Janet Hall
Most of us are not destined to live in a domicile designed by an internationally celebrated architect. But you can add world-class architecture to your daily life with flatware by current notables, such as Renzo Piano and Jean Nouvel, and 20th-century greats, including Josef Hoffman and Arne Jacobsen. Here are our favorite architect-designed flatware sets.
Above: Arne Jacobsen designed this minimalist brushed-stainless line of flatware for Georg Jensen in 1957; a Five-Piece Place Setting is $95 at LX Studio.
Above: Inspired by the austere lifestyle of Bohemian monks, English architect John Pawson designed this spartan set of cutlery for Belgian company When Objects Work. The When Objects Work John Pawson Stainless Tableware Set of six four-piece place settings is $672 at Fitzsu. March in SF offers the design in Sterling Silver.
Above: French architect and 2008 Pritzker Prize laureate Jean Nouvel designed this matte stainless-steel line of flatware for Georg Jensen in 2004. Jean Nouvel Steel Matte Cutlery is €15.20 ($16.51) for a dinner fork and spoon and €17.60 ($19.12) for a dinner knife at Georg Jensen.
Above: Italian architect Renzo Piano designed the curvaceous Piano 98 flatware for Scandinavian company Iittala in 1998. The polished stainless Iittala Piano Workshop Cutlery is $76.79 for a five-piece place setting and the Iittala Piano Collection Wood-Handled Serving Set is $102.64, both at Amazon.
Above: Italian architect and designer Antonio Citterio created a brushed stainless cutlery line for Iittala of Finland. The Citterio 98 Cutlery Five-Piece Set is $60 from Y Living.
Above: The Colombina Flatware Collection designed by Italian architects Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas in 2007 for Alessi is available in a high-polished stainless steel finish; $53 for a five-piece place setting at A+R Shop.
Above: In 1938, a trio of Italian architects and industrial designers collaborated on the Caccia line of flatware (it was initially produced only in sterling silver). In 1990 the company began offering the line in stainless steel; the Alessi's Caccia Five-Piece Cutlery Set is $114 from Lumens.
Above: Iconic Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti created a line of cutlery for Sambonet. Available in matte and polished stainless steel, the Gio Ponti Sambonet Flatware Five-Piece Setting is $85 from Sambonet.
Above: Achille Castiglioni's Dry Line reinterpretation of classic Italian tableware is available in mirror-polished and matte finish stainless steel; the Dry Cutlery 5-Piece Setting is $84 at the MoMA Store.
Above: Austrian architect Josef Hoffman designed a line of flatware in 1906 for the Wiener Werkstaette. Alessi recently reintroduced the Rundes Modell Flatware line in mirror-polished stainless steel; the pieces are sold individually in sets of six, starting at $132 for six Rundes Modell Dessert Forks, at Alessi.
Above: Grethe Meyer trained as an architect at the Academy of Arts in Copenhagen; her elegantly proportioned Georg Jensen Copenhagen Steel Cutlery is available in a matte and a mirror finish; €48 ($52.14) for a four-piece place setting at Georg Jensen.
Above: Alessi's Nuovo Milano Flatware by Italian architect Ettore Scottsass features a mirrored stainless steel finish; $128 for a six-piece place setting (including dessert fork and knife and coffee spoon, not shown) at Hive Modern.
For more flatware, see our previous posts:
And go to
Tabletop & Dinnerware for more of our favorites.
N.B.: This post is an update; the original story ran on March 9, 2011, as part of our Channeling Downton Abbey issue.
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