Although
usually displayed and photographed in isolation, furniture is in
fact, rarely seen in the flattering open space of the art gallery.
Furniture rentals is intended
to be used a component of a living space in relation to other pieces.
It has to function and work visually with other items around it;
relating almost in the way clothes do when one dresses either for
everyday or for a particular occasion. Furniture could almost be
seen as clothing for our homes, with each room having a function
to fulfill. If this is so, it follows that if furniture is the clothing
then lighting and art the accessories and jewelry.
As
with clothing, the agenda for furnishing our homes is as much about
our own self-expression as keeping warm and feeling comfortable.
Fashions continually change and there are many magazines dedicated
to keep you informed of the latest furnishing vogues and which designer
is doing what. The fashion designer/stylist Ralph Lauren, for example,
now influences the style of home furnishings as much as clothing.
It seems that no fashion label, from Gucci to Banana Republic, now
feels fully dressed without launching its own home-style collection.
There
are classics too, which seem to be perennial as Channels ‘little
black dress’ or Levi jeans. For instance Charles and Ray Eame’s
lounge chair and ottoman and Michel Thonet’s Bentwood chairs are
forever being rediscovered by new generations of furniture buyers.
The commonality with classics seems to be that they all seem to
spend more time in fashion than out. The reality is that clothing
and home fashions are now becoming more and more inextricably linked
under the broad umbrella of fashion called lifestyle. There is however
one major difference between clothing and furniture. Ask yourself
how much you would expect to spend on an evening out, how much on
a pair of training shoes, how much on a chair. How long will the
benefit of these each last
A
good night out or a pair of the latest trainers may cost about the
same as, say, a Phillipe Starck dining chair. In five years, although
no longer new you may be still happy with the chair; in five months
the trainers may be discarded at the back of a cupboard; in five
days that night out is already becoming a distant memory. The fact
is that the furniture fashions move at a slower pace and the benefits
of a well-designed piece of furniture can be a pleasure and treasure
of a lifetime.
Our
choice of furniture rentals and
the way we use and arrange it is what makes a house into our home.
Yet home decoration is more than satiating our inner nest building
needs: it’s also another subliminal means of our self-expression-
establishing our identity and reminding ourselves as well as communicating
to others who we are, what we like and even which social set we
subscribe to. Our homes become an inevitable extension to our identity.
Technology
has also had a fundamental and permanent impact on the way we live
and organize our homes. Houses were traditionally built around a
very different social structure, which did not encompass central
heating, television and prepared meals ready for the microwave.
What domestic central heating has bought us is an environment that
does not require us to build fires for heat. The results of this
are homes that are both cleaner and warmer; we can have fitted carpets
and flexible open spaces without draughts, thereby allowing more
space for larger pieces of furniture.
The
way we work and the way we live are also changing, the knock-on
effect of this being a change in the way we use our homes. The social
landscape is in flux, and so, too, our relationship with our home
environment. Contemporary furniture designers are fully aware of
this tolerance of individuality and it is reflected in the spectrum
of diversity of their approach. Never before in history has there
been so much collective freedom to choose from so many accessible
environmental styles to put together the home that feels right for
us and our aspirations.
The
choice of furniture rentals and
the way it is arranged can have a dramatic effect on an otherwise
indifferent space. When first considering the space to be furnished,
you need to decide the style that suits both your personality and
that of the room. The most important practical considerations are
the functional use, cost, quality, and aesthetic impact on the rest
of the environment, closely followed by whether it will exposed
to hordes of sticky fingered children.
This
all sounds deceptively simple, but rarely do people have the opportunity
of starting completely from scratch. More often there is a nucleus
of inherited items, which will need careful editing. Decide which
pieces you really love and what you will do with the things you
don’t dump. Consider your lifestyle and aspirations, and what you
want the room to say. Do you want it formal or comfortable Will
you want to entertain much How many people will use the room and
for what purpose
In
the sphere of furniture, the chair should be viewed as a special
case. In essence, it is no more than a simple stool with a backrest,
fulfilling the most basic human need to rest. It is also an icon-
the designer’s equivalent of the artist’s self-portrait. It is now
as feasible to collect contemporary chairs from different designers,
as it is to collect paintings, the advantage being that a well-designed
chair is both beautiful and supremely practical.
If
designers are willing to put their names to a particular product,
they must be convinced that the end quality of both the design construction
and finish reflects the values of the brand that they, as leading
designers, are wishing to establish. Recognized brand manufacturers
such as Cassina and Vitra also play an important role because they
realize that their already excellent manufacturing quality can have
added value with good innovative design. There is no doubt that
some multiple retailers also offer superb finishing style at excellent
prices.
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