Modern Furniture

If you have to spend more than 8 hours of your day, everyday in an uncomfortable position; it stands to reason that you are not going to be productive or even comfortable. The Wassily chair was the first tubular chair to be ever made that is still popular in style today. At first glance it looks like a stitched together cube formed from the seat panels and backing.

The back of the chair was originally made with iron yarn but now comes as leather that can be replaced when it gets old. The entire framework of the chair is made of pieces of tubing fused together to create the boxy outline. It’s also coated with chromium that ensures corrosion resistance and a highly polished glossy metallic coat.

If you love blue, this is the year for you. Furniture and accessories are dripping with style in hues from blackened indigos to aquamarine. A color loaded with possibilities, blue remains on the top of the list this spring and summer. The bright blue of seasons past is still popular, but it is morphing into aqua jewel tones and ocean shades as we head into 2009.
Blues are partnering with more neutral and subtle tones like dove gray and stark white, strikingly contrasted to strong colors. Different, stronger blues are edging toward a more sophisticated
palette, not a traditional one, but more sophisticated nonetheless.
This spring hue will be awash in many patterns and textures. Look for aqua blue in combos of chartreuse green and chocolate browns. Bold plaid patterns and modern swirls showcase the color ensembles in accessories and rugs. Blue painted furniture adds eye-popping color and visual interest to your room.
Whatever blue hue speaks to you, let color play a dazzling role in your home decor this year!

Good construction, all by itself, can make a simple drapery look expensive. I know a designer that makes plain, unpatterned curtains in a neutral color—but when he gives them an 18-inch weighted hem, a quiet grandeur emerges. (Ask for headed-chain weights when the curtains are made.) Have the drapery lined and interlined.  It will look rich and heavy and it makes the sound in the room very peaceful and soft.

Tip: Hang the draperies high so you get the full effect of fabric sluicing down to an aristocratic hem.

In the nineteenth century, to accommodate the many people who could not afford a broad piece of land on the avenues, urban builders put up apartment buildings on long narrow lots. These apartments became known as railroad flats, one room wide and three or four rooms long. To reach the bathroom at one end, you have to go through several other rooms. Though railroad flats are large in terms of square feet, their proportions are extremely awkward—they are much too long for their width. Railroad apartments violate the attributes of human scale and proportion.

When you encounter a space or an object with awkward proportions, whether it’s too long for its width or top heavy, you will feel a certain uneasiness. For example, it is never appropriate to cut out a rug around a hearth. The cut-out area violates the proportions of the rug, causing you to feel uneasy. A rug should be a smaller version of the room’s dimensions, echoing the overall shape of the room. Always scale down the rug size so you maintain the classic proportions of the rectangle.

When people see objects that are offensive to their eye due to poor proportion, they often become frustrated and tune out because they don’t know how to make it better. They shut their eyes and turn their backs. But flawed proportions can be corrected in many instances.

Using Mirrors to Correct Bad Proportions
Unlike our bedroom, stuffed with a modern furniture, the entrance hall of our apartment does not have gracious proportions. The space measures 8 feet      inches X 23 feet 5 1/2 inches, much too narrow for its length. The ratio of height to width is also a problem: The width of the main hall is less than its height by almost a foot. (Whenever possible, the ceiling should never be higher than the width of the room.) By multiplying the actual width by 2, the visual measurement becomes 17 feet 3 inches X 2 3 feet 5 1/2 inches, a fat rectangle satisfying to the eye. When we have receptions in the apartment, everyone likes to gather in the hall because it is pivotal to entering and leaving other areas of the apartment such as the library, living room, kitchen pantry, and bedroom hall. The mirrored wall is a brilliant way to create a golden mean of proportion, fooling the eye to achieve a feeling of harmony.
Here are some other ideas for using mirrors to correct awkward proportions:
♦ If you have a long narrow hallway, place a mirror at the end of the hall to bring in light and visually widen the space. You can either hang a traditional mirror in a frame or mirror the whole wall from cornice to baseboard.
♦ If you have a long dark room, place a mirror or pair of mirrors on the long wall to break up its length. Windowpane mirrors will fool the eye into believing that you have two additional windows, creating more space and light.

Imagine not having to get out of bed to raise the blinds—or to lower them, if you want to sleep late. Motorized blinds, which work by remote control, are an intoxicating luxury.  Dressing for bed, you would click to lower the blackout shades; in bed, with the lights out, you would click to raise them, revealing the sparkle nighttime skyline. Finally, at daybreak, husband or wife would wake up, grab the remote, lower the shades against the sun, and go back to sleep.

With modern furniture in your room it’s a luxury, but worth pricing, as more manufacturers catch on. And the possibilities are tantalizing. (Go to a window-covering specialist, not a hardware store.) Consider it a worthy investment if your bed is a command center for reading, writing, talking on the phone, and relaxing.