let there be light

We're in the midst of choosing some new lighting for our hallway, and decision making is proving a little tricky.  Now if money were no object we'd probably opt for a little something by Poul Henningen - the PH ARTICHOKE for instance, or the PH50 pendant - hey, we're not fussy.  But as money is an object - curse you oh piggy bank - and with a concern that there may be a design rule out there somewhere which says hanging an Artichoke in a hallway ain't the done thing or something, we've taken a more realistic approach to lighting that sad and neglected corridor that is our hallway.

We're down to two options, both of which we love - the white E27 SOCKET LAMP by Mattias Stahbom for Muuto and the NUD CLASSIC light fitting.  Both perfect, although the NUD Classic comes with a huge array of colourful textile cables to choose from which adds another layer to the decision making process.  Either fitting can be finished with a large filament light bulb - and the lightbulb, that lightbulb, is such a beautiful thing.  Time to flip a coin ...

Images:  Haus London

orange

We've featured the work of textile designer Claire-Anne O'Brien BEFORE, and the great thing about designers - they're only a collection away from their next set of designs.  So when we spotted this FITE stool from O'Brien's OLANN collection we couldn't resist sharing it here.  Isn't the colour and texture just a joy?  So unique, so different.  So fabulous.

And for those of you who need orange in your life, we hope you enjoy these wonderful images!

Images:  Claire-Anne O'Brien

clean living

Just love the colour palette - or rather lack of it - the bold prints on the wall, the contrasting floors throughout, the sweeping spaces and sense of light in this Stockholm apartment.  This is all good, but it's the chair goodness that is really, really tasty.  Those MODEL 66 chairs by Alvar Aalto and the 3013s by Arne Jacobsen ... delicious!

Images: PATRIC JOHANSSON for ELLE INTERIÖR (via LA MAISON D'ANNA G)

mix

Things have been a little quiet around here lately, so to right a wrong we've put together a new mix focusing on that satisfying monochrome colour scheme we're currently smitten with plus elements of wood to add some warmth.  Needless to say, everything here is on our want list ... but in reality if we manage to organise our book collection to resemble those stocked books above and get our hands on that amazing crystal poster by Debbie Carlos, we'd be happy ones.

Wishing you a fab weekend.  We're off to collect a new chair today.  Super excited, details to follow!

Images:
Interior, Bostad Erikolssen | Books, Janne Peters | 3103 chairs by Arne Jacobsen, H55 | Series 7 chairs by Arne Jacobsen, Moderne Solitude | Triplex Lamp via Cherry Blossom | Cyrstal poster by Debbie Carlos, Etsy | Karin armchair by Bruno Mathsson, Bukowskis via Architonic | SM05 chair by Cees Braakman and Boxes by Studio Pastoe, Viaduct | Enamelled cups, Sit and Read

restoration

Remember THIS?  Well remember away, 'cause that baby is yesterday's news.

So, how do you restore an Eames shell?  Easy.  First you read (and re-read) the ins and outs of restoring an Eames shell on CHAIRFAG, and for the sake of completeness head over to see how PLASTOLUX tackled a similar job  All good, except we were dealing with something a little different - a shell which, in a previous life, had been upholstered with naugahyde or fabric ... whichever, whatever.  What next?  Thankfully we were au fait with the goings on at MANHATTAN NEST, and it just so happened that Daniel had already undertaken a comparable RESTORATION with quite spectacular results.

We didn't deviate that much from the tried-and-tested way of doing things, but here's a few out-of-the-ordinaries we came up against:

Foam remnants: This was fairly dried out. Not flaky dry you understand - no, that would have been too easy. To remove this, our tool of choice was a bog standard kitchen knife. Using the tip of the non-serrated edge at just the right angle we scraped back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth ... like, forever.

Adhesive:  We managed to get rid of all but the most stubborn smears of adhesive using a fine sanding sponge lightly soaked in water.  Daniel at MANHATTAN NEST had left us a helpful COMMENT regarding a product he'd heard great things about called 'SOY-IT' to strip the adhesive off.  Upon further investigation, it turns out that here in the UK you can only buy vat loads of this stuff at a time. Great.  What next?  Oh yeah, that trusty workshop staple - nail polish remover.  Ah-huh.  Yeap.  It worked.

Discolouration:  We now had the beginnings of a great looking shell, but there was discolouration in the fibreglass between the area we'd worked on compared to the fibreglass which had been foam/adhesive free for some time.  Not to worry ... electric sander time.

Penetrol:  Except Penetrol over here is called Owatrol, and Owatrol sell about ten thousand different products ... it's this OWATROL OIL you'll need.

We covered the SHOCKS in a previous post and found ourselves a H-base courtesy of that well-known auction website ... everything fitted nicely, thank you very much.  It ain't perfect - it has three holes in the seat and the shock mount adhesive has bleed through the fibreglass.  Do we care?  No, no we don't.