Waste = nourishment The concept of waste is eliminated. Instead of piling up waste, we turn it into nourishment for nature or for the next generation of products, creating biological and technical cycles where the products are composted or recycled in new production. Renewable energy Instead of burning fossil fuels and having a negative impact on our surroundings, we use renewable energy. Variety Nature’s ecosystems are a multiplicity of complex cycles developed and designed in harmony with the immediate and very special surroundings. Human design profits from this variety and should take this into account. More information: The Story of Stuff ProjectMcKinsey & CompanyMcDonough Braungart Design Chemistry After a summer spent traveling (collectively, we visited Copenhagen, London, Lisbon, Paris, Dublin, Marfa, and more), we’re back at our desks sorting through our finds. Here are 10 design trends currently on our radar for fall: Above: Is stained glass making a comeback?
here’s an example we spotted at Native Bio Bistro in Antwerp (photo via Native). Above: Faye Toogood may have designed the Spade Chair in 2012, but lately we’ve been spotting it in stylish interiors everywhere, including The New Road Residence in London (the Spade Chair in ash is available at Garde in Los Angeles for $1,295). Above: Jewelry for the table: We’ve been noticing a new wave of artisanal flatware designs emerging, such as this Rhodonite stone and steel set from Baciocchi Associati for Nilufar (also see 10 Easy Pieces: New Artisan Flatware Designs). Above: The handmade faucet look is everywhere; we spotted this one in a project by London architect Simon Astridge (stay tuned; later this week we’ll be posting on five off-the-rack industrial-looking faucets). Above: Over on Gardenista, Michelle explored the return of the carnation recently (see Carnations: Rethinking a Supermarket Flower). Floral arrangement and photography by the talented Sophia Moreno-Bunge for Gardenista.
Above: It’s an interior design adage that every room should have a touch of red. Every room should have a piece of what designers call “brown furniture,” unfashionable, dated pieces that counteract perfection in on-trend rooms. Shown here, a clean-lined space by Studio Oink humanized by the addition of a traditional chest of drawers (see the whole project at Earthly and Ethereal: An Apartment Makeover by Studio Oink). Above: When I browsed the North Modern show in Copenhagen in August, it seemed fringe was on everything; Then, in London, I spotted fringed rugs at Habitat and Conran and several other housewares mainstays. Shown here: the Raw Rug from Hay in Copenhagen is available in anthracite, gray, and midnight blue. Above: Another trend spotted at North Modern in Copenhagen: handmade everyday glassware (we especially like pieces from Rick Gerner). Above: We’re noticing sculptural handmade pottery table lamps everywhere (we’ll be posting on this trend soon).
Show here, a trio of lamps by LA potter Carmen D’Apollonio. Above: The sheepskin trend is taking a new form in layers: long Icelandic sheepskin layered with curly white, fur hides, pillows, and more. Photo courtesy of Carla Zwart of Met Melk & Suiker. What are our picks for the great outdoors? Check out 10 Best Garden Design Trends for Fall 2016 over on Gardenista.When this chair was launched at the Milan Furniture Show, one commentator declared it a 'stylishly understated showstopper'. And while the 1940s-style 111 Navy Chair is a design icon in its own right, what really made an impact was the material: it’s made of 111 recycled Coke bottles. The chair came about as part of our partnership with US-based Emeco (Electrical Machine and Equipment Company). Emeco was founded in 1944 to supply a U.S Navy contract for a light, durable chair to be used on ships and bases. They are as committed as we are to recycling and reducing waste. So, we asked them to make a chair using recycled PET plastic from our bottles.
We estimated that the chairs would reuse the PET from about three million plastic bottles a year. Emeco are used to working with aluminium, so they had to deal with some new challenges. “Ninety-five percent of all aluminum ever refined is still in use,” says Gregg Buchbinder, Emeco’s chairman. “That’s because it’s expensive to refine aluminum and inexpensive to recycle it.” But PET is different. It is simple to use PET to make products like t-shirts and carpeting, but difficult to upcycle it into a structural chair.” The impact of this project is huge, as Gregg says: "It’s a lot of bottles and a lot of chairs. We've turned something many people throw away into something you can keep for a long, long time." Coca-Cola Thank You FundOnce upon a time we saw a breakfast nook that didn’t look very inviting, but we loved the gorgeous big windows looking out at the backyard and we knew it had to brought back to life. So, this is what happened: Like the rest of the house, the breakfast nook was taken down to the studs, but the bones of it are essentially the same.
We replaced the windows and swapped out the vinyl floor so that it would flow continously from living room through to the kitchen and on to the breakfast nook. To get a sense of how the spaces flow together see here. But this is essentially a decorating story, with two main players: the antique French table from the late 1800s and the gallery wall. The table has been in my family for as long as I can remember. It has traveled with us to various cities and continents, and along the way has played many parts including dressing table, study desk and kitchen prep area. If you look at the wood top you can see the table has lived, a few wine stains here, a coffee cup ring there. I love this table. I have so many memories associated with this table that I am glad it has found an central place in our new home. The second important feature of the space is the gallery wall. It has been up for a while and really came into existence because I wanted to minimize the presence of the small TV.
I love looking at this wall as each piece was collected in a different place: a flea market in London, a vide grenier in the Périgord, an estate sale in Berkeley, a flea market in Paris, and one print by my artistic brother (the nude in the top right). The pieces are all so different in style and medium, but happily coexist on one wall. So much history packed into one little space! But the banquette is really what made this area of the house come to life. Hubby looked at various designs online and built the two banquettes in one weekend. Ultimately he decided that it was best to keep the design simple and use a piano hinge to lift the top lid. We also had to create an internal box to vent the heating out of the the banquette. The banquettes fit the space and suit our needs perfectly. We envisioned that banquettes would enable the space to function like this, and we were right. The perfect place for the kids and their friends to gather.It wasn’t until a month ago that I got reacquainted with sewing and was finally able to sew two custom box cushions.
For how to make a box cushion see here. I chose a Japanese oilcloth. I wanted something that would be easy to wipe down so oilcloth seemed like a good choice, but traditional oilcloth was not the look I was going for. Luckily I found some Japanese fabric in neutral gray with a subtle pattern. I haven’t sewn in 25 years, so I’m quite pleased with the result. I wanted to juxtapose the vintage pieces with a touch of industrial. I knew I had a winner with the Victory Pendant Lamp. The chairs are reproduction of the Emeco navy chairs. The bookshelf is similar to this and is the perfect place for our vast cookbook collection. Since this space is adjacent to the kitchen, I decided that regular bookends wouldn’t do and instead used an old Le Creuset pot, and a large, heavy yellow mixing bowl. The last finishing touch was the bamboo roman shades (mine are Singapore Oak). The blinds took forever to get made, but they do fit perfectly in the space. They say the kitchen is the heart of the home, for us, our breakfast nook is the heart of our home.