Upcycle, recycle, rebirth...today's post would have made our wartime ancestors proud!I've always been a huge fan of renovation projects whether it's one piece of furniture or a whole house. And in the current economic and ecological climate what better way to go than to make something "good as new"?
One of my favourite interiors sites, Design*Sponge, has been running a very popular thread entitled Before and After, in which readers have the opportunity to send in their own makeover projects. Ranging from the modest to the magnificent, from the successful to the "I kind of preferred it before", all share a creativity and resourcefulness that can do little else but inspire.Below are my picks of the bunch. Sacrilege or sense? This rather battered Eames chair, rescued from a skip, is shown some love courtesy of tile grout and porcelain tiles. I personally think this would look amazing on our roof terrace...
Patchwork is huge news in interiors, thanks to the likes of kooky company Squint. Below, a 50's dinette type chair is given some multicoloured harmony...
Whilst the owner of this sideboard keeps the 50's love going with a homage to Kandya's painted panel midcentury furniture.
Two variations on a similar theme below; one solution takes colour firmly by the horns, the other plays it safe but serene in pure white.
I have actually, (like in REAL LIFE and not in my imaginary world) sat on the staircase below. They happen to belong to a friend of mine and yes, they really do look that good.
The owner of this rather tasteful ottoman obviously decided that under all that extraneous flesh there were some rather good bones. A brave rebranding.
Whilst this one makes me rather glad that I didn't recently shell out a fortune for a Time Life chair..what a difference some fabulous Scandi fabric can make..and I happen to have four yards of this very one kicking around in my cupboard...
As you can see from the image below, some of the projects were a little more large scale than others. This particularly beautiful house reno is in Alaska.
...And some projects are just decidedly controversial. The picture below shows identical chairs, one in its original state, the other refurbished by the owner. It's always a tough call when you're playing around with a classic and for me, the original fabric (as seen on the right of the image) wins hands down, although as a mismatched pair they still look fab.
Finally, an inspiring and design conscious reality check to toy manufacturers. Rockers good; revolting plush furry things that take up visible house room bad...Just because we became parents didn't make us lose the taste gene completely.
How I miss the old London Routemasters...fond memories of travelling to school in the Elephant and Castle each day with a walkman the size of a house brick and the smell of eau de Silk Cut wafting around on the top deck...
Nothing beats the sense of excitement of trying to jump on at the lights, hanging on for dear life to the handrail and watching the grumpy conductors shoving prams in the cubby hole under the stairs.
I also remember the bad times, like when my sister slipped off the platform at Kennington and ended up dislocating her leg, showing her knickers to the whole of South London.Sadly, like my youth, they are gone; big red dinosaurs consigned to museums and the occasional private trip to the seaside.
It is with great pleasure, therefore, that this week's Shop of The Week promises to deliver that shot of nostalgia in spades. London Transport Original Signs is the place to get your fix of transport yesteryear. Run by the fantabulous Haydn, LTOS is a vertitable treasure trove of signs and memorabilia from both the bus system and London Underground.
It's been a lifelong passion for Haydn, starting with his first acquisition of a handful of old enamel signs, rescued from a derelict factory not long after the war. But transport was always going to be in his blood; both his parents were conductors and many of Haydn's earliest memories revolve around the sights and smells of those times.
These days Haydn's mind bogglingly huge collection is sold through prestigious lifestyle boutiques but do yourself a favour and get them straight from the source. Not only will you get a large dose of charm and personal service, you also get the opportunity to have them framed (by the wonderful Steve) and delivered at a fraction of the other shops' prices. I am lucky enough to have several of these beauties framed and displayed in our house, including an old Northern Line diagram and a Not In Service sign which I have chosen to hang over the bed as a postmodern form of contraception...
Aswell as orginal bus blinds and signs, the site has a wealth of great London Underground pieces which make wonderful gifts. Not only are they a remarkable and unique piece of our social history, they can also serve to remind you of a particular time in your life. Whether it's the station where you first met your partner, or where you got off for the football, you are sure to find it here.
Like Haydn himself, the actual site is abit of an oddity (and I mean that in the nicest of ways!). There's none of the slick graphics that you might be used to, infact it's abit like a rummage sale where you have to trawl for its infinite treasures. For me, though, this is part of its charm and with enthsiastic feedback from all four corners of the globe you can be assured that you won't be disappointed.
And don't forget that these are original pieces, and won't be manufactured again. Love them for their smells and their stains, for the sense of the stories they tell, because once they are gone, they are gone....
In the lexicon of modern furniture design, Pinch is ccertainly a brand to conjure with. Founded in early 2004 by husband and wife team Russell and Oona Pinch, the collection debuted at the 100% Design show with 10 original pieces that went on to win the coveted Blueprint 100% Design Best Newcomer Award.
Since then Pinch has gone on to win a swathe of prestigious accolades, including the Homes and Gardens Design Classic Award for Furniture, and the Guild Mark for Excellence in Modern Furniture Design.
Championed by Elle Decoration and with collections for Heals and Son the brand has gone from strength to strength and now counts lighting and architectural designs amongst its oeuvre.
Born in 1973, Russell Pinch graduated from Ravensbourne College of Design, London. After graduating he worked as Sir Terence Conran’s design assistant and in 1995 he became a Senior Product Designer for the Conran Group. Here he was responsible for developing a diverse range of products for the Conran shops and restaurants and many of the designs for the Conran Collection, Conran’s benchmark homeware collection.
Look a little closer, however, and you will see more than a passing resemblance between Pinch's twenty first century designs and classics from the mid-century period.
Take Pinch's Pendal Sofa, a star amongst its current collection with its sensual, curves:
Other looky-likies include the Yves Writing Desk (as seen in the title image, above), perhaps influenced by a whole raft of midcentury desk designs such as this Danish teak example by Lovig:
...and Hans Wegner's teak side table: via OurShowHome
The Vigo triple shelving Unit: via Pinch Design
...and Kandya's kitchen series: via Google Images
and finally the Maiden Stool: via Pinch Design
...and the Ubiquitous Time Life Stool by Charles and Ray Eames:
via Google Images
So what is all of this saying?There's absolutely no denying the quality of materials and craftsmanship that goes into the Pinch design process; I, for one, would be happy to give any of the above pieces house room. But perhaps the point is not that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but rather that, much like there are no new stories to tell, perhaps there are no new furniture boundaries to explore.....
The Midcentury show is one of four annual events organised in association with brilliant interiors website Our Show Home. The brain child of friends Lucy Ryder Richardson and Petra Curtis, Our Show Home, until recently, did exactly what it said on the tin, operating as a beautiful family home in South London where everything just happened to be for sale. Garnering praise from the likes of Saatchi and Saatchi and Elle Decoration (who also sponsored their last show), the opportunity to visit the house in person has now sadly had to be withdrawn due to the overwheming success of their shows which now keep them busy all year round.
The Midcentury Show, along with Kids Modern and the bi-annual MidCentury Modern (both in London), were developed in order to invite the cream of midcentury modern dealers together under one roof to give the public a chance to view and buy from a range of stunning European and American designers such as Charles and Ray Eames, Aalto, Wegner, and Robin Day amongst others. In addition, the London shows give buyers the opportunity to sample the wares of some of the most exciting contemporary designers around. Recent participants have included funky tableware designers People WIll Always Need Plates and bespoke wallpaper designer Tracy Kendall.
In order to showcase more dealers who specialise in smaller collectibles such as glassware and ceramics, The MidCentury Show deals specifically with midcentury pieces and with over 45 confirmed dealers in place for May, (and still counting) you will be spoilt for choice. Many of my favourite dealers past and present have already booked up, including The Modern Warehouse, metroretro, 20th Century Interiors, 20th Century Marks, Take-Me-Home, Skylon, Winters Moon, Fragile Design, Pink-Flamingos, Haji & White, Plywood2Plastic, Homespun Vintage Design and Retro Sixty. Prices range from a pocket money friendly £5 to a credit crunch busting £5000...
Graffiti: Italian, plural of graffito [scribbling; graffito, a scratch]:usually relating to unauthorized writing or drawing on a public surface. (From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)
Whether you believe it to be an anti-social nuisance or a legitimate form of art and/or protest, Graffiti has been a part of society since the first scratchings on cave walls.Prehistoric cave paintings and pictographs featuring animals, humans and symbols of daily life have assisted historians in compiling their impressions of how our earliest ancestors lived. Nor was it a phenomenon limited to geographical region. Graffiti has been found in the catacombs of Rome, the Mayan temple walls of Tikal and on the earliest Scandinavian church walls.The first known example of "modern style" graffiti survives in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus (now a part of modern-day Turkey) and according to the tour guides of the city, appears to advertise prostitution. Consisting of a handprint, a vaguely heart-like shape, a footprint and a number, the marks purportedly indicates how many steps one would have to take to find a lover, with the handprint indicating payment.
It is from these earliest forms of public inscription that the word Graffiti originated: Its associations with vandalism or counter-authority have been a relatively recent change in its meaning, possibly starting with the notorious "Kilroy Was Here!", and Mr Chad, a face with only the eyes and nose hanging over a wall, saying "What No…?" during the time of rationing. "Kilroy was Here!" gained common useage during World War 2 and was thenceforth adopted by American military personnel to signal their presence around the world. The phrase is rumoured to have been found in places as far afield as Polynesia and the surface of the moon....!
"Kilroy was Here!" Graffiti on the WWII memorial
in WashingtonDCvia Wikipedia.com
The concept of graffiti as an art form emerged in the 70's and 80's with the growth of an American underground subculture for whom the New York subway system proved the perfect canvas on which to affect their skills. It is possible that this entire movement can be traced back to a young American man working as a foot messenger in the late 60s - early 70s who would trace his steps through the city by "tagging" various landmarks with his name: Taki 183. Taki was Greek by birth and his "tag" was short for Demetaki. The number 183 came from his address on 183rd Street in Washington Heights.In 1971 the New York Times ran an article on Taki 183 and thereafter spawned a wave of copycat taggers eager to express a sense of their own disaffected identity.
Taki 183
via Google Images.
With the popularity of tagging not in question the emphasis shifted from quantity to quality with many artists developing their own stylised forms of writing in order to differentiate themselves from the masses. The subway system remained the canvas of choice but now it was not uncommon for whole trains to be covered in graffiti, ranging from large visually three dimensional tags to whole figurative art pieces that garnered the attention of modern galleries. In the 1980's the NYC metro authorities spearheaded a campaign to remove graffiti from the city's subway system, effectively labelling it as an unwanted and anti-social persuit. In addition Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani's subscription to the broken window theory promoted an aggressive anti-graffiti campaign in New York as a whole. By this time, however, interest in the movement had already spread to Europe, Asia and Australasia all of which spawned their own wave of artists.
Since its heyday in the suburbs of New York graffiti artists have always had an intimate connection with the music scene, principally in the areas of hip-hop where it was viewed as visual expression of the form much as break-dancing became a physical expression. In the UK, the use of graffiti became associated with the punk band Crass who used the form to engineer a campaign of anti-war, feminist, anarchist and anti-consumerist messages along the London Underground system.
via Google Images.
Graffiti has had a long standing relationship as a tool of political and social protest. In America around the late 1960s, graffiti was used as a form of expression by political activists, and also by gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familia, and Savage Nomads to mark territory. Many purist defenders of graffiti as an art form seek to distance themselves from those individuals who merely use tagging as a form of boundary marking. Graffiti art (its practioners claim) aims at self-expression and creativity and there is a constant desire to improve and progress their art form. Gang graffiti, on the other hand, functions to mark territorial boundaries, and therefore does not transcend a gang's neighborhood or presuppose artistic intent. Outsiders to the form who may have to live amongst examples of both these endeavours may or may not agree with this differentiation.
One offshoot of the graffiti form is known as "propaganda graffiti" which, due to its illegality, is often chosen by advocates of groups outside of the political mainstream (for example, far left or far right groups) who would otherwise (according to its proponents) have no other way of getting their point across to a wider audience. Examples of propaganda graffiti can be seen in areas where fascist political interests still exist as well as representing both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Probably the most widely recognised expression of graffiti (at least to a certain generation) is also its most recent, that of street art. Using a variety of media such as stickers, stencils and posters, street artists put up installations in urban spaces. All work is usually illegal but has various aims. Some wish to create a brand with their name or image, others have a more focussed political aim. Many just want the public to see their art. The street art movement operates worldwide. Here in East London the most famous proponent of the movement is probably Banksy, much of whose work can be seen along Brick Lane and the surrounding areas. The great irony of street art, and perhaps of graffiti as a whole is that what is at once regarded as anti-social and conducive to criminality is at the same time revered and preserved for posterity. To whit, Bristol council recently took consultative measures to see whether a mural created by Banksy on the side of a domestic dwelling should be protected from redecoration. Self expression, it seems, is alive and well.
Big City
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Upcycle, recycle, rebirth...today's post would have made our wartime ancestors proud! I've always been a huge fan of renovation projects whether it's one piece of furniture or a whole house. And in the current economic and ecological climate what better way to go than to make something "good as new"? 
