thoughts

Recently we've been focusing our attention on the reliance we place on others - designers, chair manufacturers, dealers - to produce visual content for the blog.  Whilst in the past we've enjoyed trawling the interweb in search of favourable designs, beautiful shapes and inspirational interior spaces, the flip side is a blog which is nothing more than a catalogue, a reference point, a tool - devoid of any personality - used to locate, look up and read up on chair designs and designers.

It was never our intention to be a resource, a data bank - mainly because we don't have the requisite knowledge to fulfil this type of role - but this is what we've become.  Or at least, this is what our blog stats are telling us we've become.  Whatever .... but those stats are talking to us and we're listening.  And the more we listen, the more the whole blogging experience seems something of a treadmill from which, at times, we want to jump.

We reached a point not too long ago when continuing to churn out the same old same old was becoming increasingly difficult. Feeling we could hardly muster up enough enthusiasm to continue and constrained by a seemingly self-imposed blog about chairs, it felt like it was chairs or bust.  Was it possible to have a blog called chairsmith and write about something, anything, other than chairs or chair-related nonsense?  Would anyone notice either way, and in the grand scheme of things, did it actually matter?

In an attempt to move forward we considered giving up chairsmith and starting something afresh - we even went through the whole rigamorle of thinking up new names for our new blog.  But wait a minute .... what of all the hard work we'd put in to date and, more importantly, could we return to the lonely days of flat-lining blog stats - curse you blog stats - or a follower count in single digits?  No. No way.  For. Get. It.

So with the excitement of a new blog and the possibility of a new blog design well and truly behind us, we've decided to go for broke and stay put.  Not least because chairsmith was always meant to be a platform for our shoppe (yeah, OK, we're working on it) and having started brand building long before having anything to sell, swapping names simply to justify blog content seems, well, silly.

So, how to make the transition from what we've been doing to something a teensy bit different?  And what exactly will the 'teensy bit different' actually be?  Like we have a plan.  Let's just say things might be a teensy bit different around here from now on.  Hold tight!

♡

mix

Our inspiration for this week's mix is this stunning Gio Ponti style armchair upholstered in a rich velvet.  We've teamed it with monochrome, because we're going through a monochrome phase in a BIG way at the moment.  Overall though, we like this combination of ochre, black and white - it's simple and easy on the eye.  These cushions by Pia Wallén are particular favourites and we need them, urgently.  We're desperate to add some softness to our house as the colder weather sets in, so we may have to splurge on these necessities without further delay!

Images:  
Interior via Designspiration | Pendant lamp by Poul Henningsen for Louis Poulsen via Caioplini Design | Eames RAR via CoMod | Pia Wallén cushions via Nordic New | Italiam armchair via Caioplini Design

almost

We spent far too much time yesterday attempting to put a post together about the restoration of our Eames armshell.  We were fairly happy with the words we used and the order in which we used them, but it was the obligatory 'after' shot that caused us the most consternation.  You see, we only had the one shot - this one.  And this image just isn't the right image.  For starters, it's not at all representative of what our completed restoration project looks like in real-life ... plonked against a backdrop, heavily edited and with filters applied for that extra ta-dah.  No.

So today we're going to get busy with the camera and attempt to take a few decent snaps of that new/old chair of ours.  Stay tuned!

why?

So, a DKW-2 dating from 1952 with its original base and original two-piece bikini covered in hopsack designed by Alexander Girard. So far, so good.  But here's the thing ... we had to look up what 'DKW' stood for.  We'd guessed it was D for dining and W for wood (as in the dowel base) or possibly wire .... but then what of the K?  It turns out the W does in fact refer to the dowel base ... and the K relates to the wire seat.

So K stands for wire.  Why?  Why K?  Anyone?  Oh, and just so we've crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is, the 2 - just in case you were wondering - relates to the two-piece upholstered pad.

Images:  Just In Modern