Items from VandM.com dealers (From top left counterclockwise): Gilbert Poillerat Guilt and Wrought Iron Floor Lamp $18,576, Silver and Black Chair and Ottoman Anodized With Patent Leather $4,000, Multicolored Shag Rug Manufactured in 4/21/1970 $596, Pillow with 1960s Op Art Bulls Eye Velvet Fabric $180 each, Wood Workers Table Industrial Table Specialty Table (Price on Request), Sculpture Ceramic Horse Early 20th Century $375, Vintage Italian 1970s Metallic Buddha Lamp $250, Dorothy Lannone “At Home” Silk Screen # 43/100 $2,500, Martin Schott “Zurich-London” Photograph $4,800, Wood and Bone Power Figure On Steel Museum Mount Base by Sandra Mackintosh $3,200, Embroidered Mao banner in frame $780, Vintage Naive Art Sport Painting of Swiss Wrestling Sport $220, Vintage 1920s Swiss Gymastics Champion Photo Portrait $90, 1920s Swiss Gymastics Champion Photograph Portrait $220, Portrait of Woman Circa 1940s $690, French Louis XVI Style Large Round Crystal Bronze Bit Crystals Chandelier $14,000. Project designed by Bill Indursky.
In the recent past, home decor and design have ushered in artist made furniture, sculptural lighting, and truly one-of-a-kind items. Now artistic fervor fuses with last year’s push for site specific design to yield the next trend – total artistic vision. Suburban homes from sea-to-sea were looking like furniture showrooms and boutique hotels. Gone now are the hotelier looks which have been replaced by quirky personal vision – what I am calling ARTISTIC EXTENSION: ARTIST AS ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGNER.
The perfect ARTISTIC EXTENSION room. It combines sculptural furniture, personal collecting, a simple natural color palette (on trend), and a mix of materials to get across the owner’s very personal vision of their space.
Collecting taken to a veritable fetish. This museum in the UK is from a private collector of industrial farm tools.
More of this magical collecting place.
Another version of the same thing. This time a more modern clean approach to creating an artistic space that relies on art installations to create the one-of-a-kind environment. This one comes from the long line of Carlo Scarpa style of experiential 1960s and 1970s museum design which is a popular genre in Italian culture. It is about the wonder that happens when you contrast OLD and NEW.
A residential version of the more modern approach in the previous example. This one mixes a French Dormer used in a surprising way to be the mantle of the fireplace. The interior also is in the trendy gray and natural tone palette. Also the 90s Shabby Chic trend is sneaking back in. It is part of the Austere Luxury movement that I talked about in one of my previous 2011 trend reports, Sartorial Servitude.
On my wish list, this one-of-a-kind personal vision piece of furniture from Mexican designer Pedro Friedeberg from 1963. We saw the need to have artist-sculpted furniture come in about 3-4 years ago and it still continues, but it is now combined into an entire space of quirky things creating a unique space.
Here is another version of personal vision, this time from a more “mass produced” item created by harman/kardon. Even the mass producers see that people want unique items of interest and vision (or in this case sound!)
Billy Haines gives us this rabbit lamp. Again, all the trends hit, sculpted lighting, bronze, and a mix of modern and traditional.
Here Wendell Castle, master of sculpted furniture, continues his unique vision allowing you to get a single piece and add it to your total look.
Deco, as I have discussed at length in previous 2011 trend reports, is back and it appears in sculptural objects like this one that would be perfectly quirky in a personal space.
One of the sub-trends is the rise of GOLD in all of its forms. Especially in this bronze gilt look. Not shiny yellow but not dull, this one has tons of character. These are pulls being made today.
Even personal adornment is quirky and sculptural.
