To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment. Jane Austen
We thank Ms. Austen for that but just what shall serve as the respite for your posterior? Upholstered, carved, streamline, steadfast or transportable the options for your keaster are limitless. Whether you go for comfort or style these finely crafted pieces will sure give you perfect refreshment.
This armchair as part of the “Steam” series, Korean designer Bae Se Hwa utilizes a steam bending technique in which he distorts and deconstructs very linear wood elements and then recombines them into new pieces that are bent and curvilinear in form.
What happens when you take everything you know about a chair (stable, sturdy, comfortable) and put it on its side? You of course get the works of Paris-based Dutch sculptor Sebastian Brajkovic who designs distorted chairs that look more like digital graphics produced by Photoshop than physical furniture.
At first you might ask, why? But why not? It’s quirky, innovative and serves as functional art. Each decision in the development of this piece is perfect from the way the sinewy legs meet one another to the way the floral fabric is distorted in order to appear as though it is smeared across the surfaces of the chair. This in a foyer sidled up to the perfect console table and contemporary piece of art would make a sublime entry statement. Brajkovic has permanent collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Perhaps less statement without compromising style is more what you are looking for. Baker furniture is my go to for chairs that are at once stylish and timeless. The Jasper designed by Jean-Louis Deniot exudes fresh classic contemporary elegance.
Available in a myriad of fabrics, Chocolate Mink is the preferred frame color with choice of accent at the front legs of rich oil rubbed bronze, antique silver or antique bronze. Imagine, martini in hand, a few of your ‘closer’ friends and Jasper all taking in a chatty afternoon. Cheers!
Of course, no discussion about chairs is complete with out at a nod to the classic Eames chair. Although immediately familiar, when the set (chair and ottoman) was introduced in 1956, there was nothing like it, and there is still nothing to equal it.
The Eameses’ modern take on a nineteenth century club chair has not only endured for more than 50 years, it has become one of the most significant furniture designs of the twentieth century—instantly recognizable and enduringly fresh.
Earlier on in this blog I mentioned ‘transportable’ as a possible chair option. Popularized by Napolean, the Campaigne chair is one of the earliest notions of “take it with you” furniture. Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign fired the imaginations of the European public with exotic imagery. Designed specifically for Napoleon’s crusades across Europe, the Campaigne chair became a fixture of the Directoire Style.
Jane almost had it right about taking in the view. Perhaps she should have mentioned something about upon what to take in the ‘verdure.’