It’s always exciting when an iconic manufacturer comes out with a new model or new design, and Cherner Chair Company has done just that with their new task chair. In our last issue of the magazine, we had fun admiring two local home offices, and we will never get tired of dreaming of designing our own. Take a gander at Cherner’s new chair:
Available in the classic walnut finishes, some color finishes, and with or without seat pads
It would probably look really good in this room—one of our many dream home offices:
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via Remodelista
January 12th, 2010
Last week, the Seattle Homes & Lifestyles team attended Third Thursday at Seattle Design Center. We had a great experience learning about the Jeffrey Braun Furniture collections, carried at the G.R. Hedges showroom at SDC, presented by Jeffrey and Lindsey Braun.
The company’s Signature Collection and City Collection custom home furnishings are contemporary and classic in design. The Brauns introduced their latest design, the Chloe chair (shown here in both armchair and armless versions), which incorporates cane—a passion of Jeffrey’s.
Chloe Chairs
All aspects of the company’s furnishings are green certified. Jeffrey Braun Furniture is based in the Northwest and has manufacturing facilities in Seattle and Los Angeles. —Denise Peterson
September 21st, 2009
Thanks to a tip from our sister pub, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, we found out that the U.S. Postal Service released a set of stamps this summer that commemorate the work of the midcentury modern icons, Charles and Ray Eames. The husband and wife team designed furniture, art, graphics and architecture, amongst other things, from the ’30s through the ’70s. Their iconic pieces of furniture can often be seen in the Seattle homes that we feature in SH&L.
© USPS. All Rights Reserved.
Once framed, this set of stamps would be a great gift for any design enthusiasts. You can shop for more Eames’ products at vintage stores, obtain reproductions at stores such as Design Within Reach, or go online to sites such as The Eames Office.
September 25th, 2008
Seattle keeps getting more and more fashion-forward, with stores like Neiman Marcus and Jimmy Choo making their first Northwest-appearance in Bellevue in 2009. We’re happy to announce that a big home design name is also landing here: Calligaris, the business we love for its sleek Italian styling, is opening a shop on Western Avenue on May 1st.
Calligaris SHOP
1006 Western Ave. (off Madison)
(206) 488-3309
Here are a few of our favorite finds from their Web site:
Mummy chair —
We are big fans of neo-surrealism
Seattle console —
How about that modern white up against the wood grain?
Zoe stool/lounger —
Bravo for a modern company that’s not scared of color, especially the brilliant combination of orange and pink
Retro coffee table —
Rounded corners give retro-interest, but the metal legs modernize
April 24th, 2008
The English architect Peter Smithson is often quoted for saying, "When we design a chair, we make a society and a city in miniature."
It’s amazing how one chair design can come to embody an entire design movement or stand for one designers entire aesthetic philosophy. For those of us that revere people like Mies van der Rohe, Verner Panton and Henry Bertoia, but find the possibility of owning an original piece to be slightly out of reach, now we can be fulfilled by reaching for them in miniature.
Vitra, a design legend in its own right, and a company called DCI are offering the 20th-century’s most iconic chairs in pint-sized proportions—not to mention the pint-sized prices compared to their real life big brothers. The catalog reads like a who’s who of modern design and all the major players are accounted for. Perhaps for some desktop inspiration or a dream dollhouse, these minis prove that good design endures—big or small.
My favorites are:
Marcel Wander’s Knotted Chair
Eames DSW
Hans J. Wegner’s 3-Benet Skalstol
The Vitra line is now carried at Inform Interiors, 1220 Western Ave., (206) 622-1608 and Velocity Art & Design, 251 Yale Ave., (206) 749-9575. The DCI line can be found at Chartreuse International, 2609 First Ave., (206) 328-4844.
March 25th, 2008
Want to know more about chairs after reading about them in our March issue? We did, so we asked around and found the best books on the subject. Whether you want to learn about the history of chairs or just look at beautiful examples, turn to these five enlightening books. 
The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design by Galen Cranz (W. W. Norton & Co., 1998): A specialist in the sociology of architecture at the University of California in Berkeley, Galen Cranz writes about the evolution of chairs and explains their social role in Western culture—she even investigates the hidden toll they take on our bodies.
Chairs: A History by Florence de Dampierre (Harry N. Abrams, 2006): In this book filled with beautiful photos, Florence de Dampierre visually explores chairs in the context of different cultures throughout time. Chairs would make a great addition to any furniture-lover’s library, but it is so pretty we think it should be on coffee tables everywhere.
The Modern Chair: 1850 to Today by Gilbert Frey (Arthur Niggli, 1992): Though this book doesn’t contain many photographs, bibliographies about each designer and a timeline of modern chair design might make this the best resource for modern chair research.
Sourcebook of Modern Furniture, Third Edition by Jerryl Habegger and Joseph H. Osman (W. W. Norton & Co., 2005): This is a great textbooklike reference on all types of modern furniture—not just chairs. However, in the modern design era, great furniture designers are often more known for their chairs than anything else.
1000 Chairs by Charlotte and Peter Fiell (Taschen, 2005): This book is literally a "who’s who" of chairs. Fun for flipping, it can also be used like flashcards to quiz yourself or your friends.
(With special thanks to Peter Miller of Peter Miller Books and Jason Hallman of Area 51)
March 25th, 2008
