Curvy, carved + folded

Ooooh, I like these shapely pieces. First up, is this gorgeous table from Haas Brothers. Hand-forged steel “folded” into a simple shape. Don’t you love the aged-looking, burnished golden patina?  

Second, a collection of carved and curvy stools from Anthropologie. Quite nice.

Speaking of nice… See the latest MINTY offering. It’s an antique dim sum cart! Tasty. 

Happy Monday!

Stripes!

I was prowling around Anthropologie and — zowie! — these new striped upholstered pieces caught my eye and knocked my socks off. The Bertram chair is a tribute to Paul Smith with it’s trippy stripes and fine tailoring. The Striped Kilim sofa is as crunchy as the Bertram is sleek. Bands of delicious fuchsia, red, green, and black.

 

What is it about stripes? Whether they are bold or reserved, stripes just mix-it-up so well with other patterns.  Here’s how a few other retailers and designers are doing stripes.

 

TOP, Tim Clarke sofa, LA TImes photo; CENTER TOP, unknown; CENTER BOTTOM, Jay Jeffers Gentleman Bedroom in the 2007 San Francisco Decorator Showhouse; BOTTOM, Black & Spiro

 

TOP, Anne Coyle Interiors, Bond Street Banquette; CENTER + BOTTOM, Tim Clarke

 

TOP, The Designers Attic blog; CENTER TOP, City | 1st dibs; CENTER BOTTOM, unknown; BOTTOM, designer Kristen Buckingham

  Kate Spade’s Stripes: TOP, flagship store adorned in luscious stripes; BOTTOM, Striped Twitter page

Fun striped household helpers, Alice Supply Co.

 

Thanks Paul Smith, for covering virtually everything with your signature stripes.

These stripes underfoot are my very favorite Paul Smith designs. Available from The Rug Company.

Octopi are floating by…

Maybe the octopus will replace the owl / mushroom / peace sign of 2008 or the birdy-anything-and-everything of 2007 or the coral-that-wouldn’t-die of any year previous? If this is a trend, I welcome it. The octopus is more elegant and weird and magnificent than cute little fungi or silly hoot owls. It’s nature’s freak show with flourishy tentacles and erotic contours. And, yes, I could easily live with a huge framed octopus on my walls. So, will you embrace octopi? 

 

Anthropologie has octopi popping up in each of its categories. Their Amelie sofa features navy upholstery fabric overwhich a huge octopus is embroidered in crewel. French artist Nathalie Lété designed the crewelwork and her octo-art appears on the De Vincennes dinner plates. The store also is selling a magnificent Tentacles ring and tangled octopi float in repeat on their Octopus Garden Wallpaper. 

 

Albertus Seba’s Cabinet of Natural Curiosities is an illustrative page-turner. Each sumptuous rendering is stranger and more beautiful than the one before and there are plenty of satisfying tentacle-clad creatures .

Natural Curiosities, inspired by but not connected to the Seba book, is an art wholesaler selling octopus prints and little tabletop sculptures to Mecox Gardens, Atlanta’s Armour & Company, and other retailers. 

FROM TOP: Ocatavio Print in Armour & Company store and owner’s Jayme Leffler home; Octavio Print in saudi blue; copperplate 1826 engraving of Octopus by Lord Bodner

The New York Public Library wants us to make art from their extraordinary collection. Two fabulous zoological engravings of octopi are available from NYPL and range from $30 for a 10” output to $275 for a 40” print.

Glen Senk + Keith Johnson

This month’s Elle Decor features the New York apartment of Glen Senk, CEO of Urban Outfitters, and his partner Keith Johnson, Anthropolgie’s Antiques Buyer and Gallery Director. Together for 34 years, the couple met when they were 9-years-old and next door neighbors. You’ve no doubt admired some fabulously strange industrial object or interesting antique in an Anthropologie store or catalog that was hand-picked by Johnson. He has an exquisite eye.

Be sure to watch Sundance Channel’s Man Shops Globe starting October 7th at 10pm to travel along with Johnson as he shops flea markets, antique stores, and markets the world over. And check out garden shop Terrain, the Urban Anthropologie group’s newest online store. 

{ Photos from Elle Decor and 1st Dibs }

I love the curtains in the top photo! They are a 1940s fabric designed by Alexander Calder that Johnson found at a flea market.

The Union Jack quilt in the top photo knocks my socks off. It’s the custom work of Lost & Found, an Anthropologie vendor.  

A sampling of goods from Terrain, the new Urban Anthropologie garden shop.

 

TOP, Cenk and Johnson; CENTER, Johnson; BOTTOM, promo poster for Man Shops Globe screening event