Designer: Johan Carpner

Johan Carpner is a Swedish designer who created a light fixture. And I think I am in love.

The lighting fixture, dubbed Glänta, is available in two different sizes, both as a suspension and ceiling mounted fixture, and in three different colors: black, gray and white.


Made from sheet metal and acrylic he designed for Blond a couple years ago.

I'm starry-eyed for this light and can clearly see the suspended version in black hanging in my white subway tiled kitchen in a herringbone pattern over my breakfast nook with a built-in banquette softened with bright cushions... all of which I don't have.

Carpner received his degree from Konstfack in Stockholm. He has produced textile patterns and carpets inspired by nature for Swedish companies such as H&M, Åhléns and Svenskt Tenn and Kasthall.

This pattern is called Vinterek. And I love it too. It is haunting, yet serene.

Carpner also designs book covers the major Swedish publishing houses. You can clearly see how he carried this creativity over to different applications and materials.

He is most known for is his outdoor trellis called Tin Tree Spaljé which trains plants to grow upwards in a pleasing shape, but also brings beauty to the garden in the Winter when everything is dormant and brown.

This winter seems like a long one.

Amazing how your mood can lift when your eye falls upon great design.


(All images from Johan Carpner’s site and Scandinavian Design.)

Inga Sempé (b.1968)

A French furniture designer who created a small, compact sofa to work in proportion with smaller apartments. This design caught my eye when I was craning my neck to read the Financial Times House & Home Section over the shoulder of someone sitting on a plane. The sofa is light and airy. Made from a beechwood frame, it is upholstered in a sort of quilted duvet with cross-hatching of interrupted seams. She named her work: Ruché.


Although it looks as if a comforter cover was simply thrown over a stiff frame, the construction of the sofa is much more complex. It similar to a mattress and has a combination of layers of memory foam for comfort and sprung steel grill for stability. Sempé wanted her sofa to appear uncomplicated -- raised from the ground by a simple structure supporting a comfortable seat. The legs terminate in beveled feet which lends to more of a refined shape.
The height of the armrests is the same as the back. And if the thought of nestling yourself in a duvet cover while watching your favorite BravoTV show wasn’t enough, the armrests are mounted on elastic webbing which allows you to lean back comfortably while you sip on some wine and munch on white cheddar cheese flavored popcorn.



Ruché also is available in a one-arm settee version with an integral table surface at the end so you can conveniently place your bottle of wine without having to wait to get up during the commercials to pour yourself another glass.


This is a great idea for a narrow room or a small space -- a sofa and table all in one. Made for Ligne Roset, Ruché marries the unusual and the traditional; comfortable and practical. You can choose from a few velvety colors and stained or natural wood finish.



Her former employer? The design doyenne Andrée Putman.



Sempé pictured above (love her tights). See Sempé's site with many more great designs: HERE.

(images from DesignBoom and Sempé's site)

Time for a Little Bubbly?

Last weekend in a hotel room in downtown Washington DC, we were toasting to Andrea's birthday -- a friend, colleague and dedicated, hard worker. Her favorite drink of choice: champagne. The hotel did not have any champagne glasses; instead they brought wine glasses to the room. We made toasts and sipped from the glasses frequently pouring the bubbly contents from the thick green bottles again, and again, and again. I dare say… these wine glasses were much easier to drink from.

Flutes are awkward. When you raise a flute to sip, you need to turn your head away so as not to hit the face of another person. And although I love the look, ease and versatility of the coupe.... well, after drinking a few glasses of the bubbly libation, the mouth of the glass seems to somehow widen -- the contents sloshing about and spilling on the floor.

Little did I know (little do I really know as I prefer to sip my red wine from a small juice glass after all) that wine glasses are a perfect receptacle from which to drink champagne.

Stacy Downs has written yet another fantastic article in today's Kansas City Star on the subject of champagne glasses. read HERE

Though I probably will not be sipping champagne for this Valentines Day, (more likely a hearty pint of Guinness), I have always loved the ringing sound a crystal glass resonates when lightly touched with another. In the late 17th century, when lead was added to glass it not only increased brightness, clarity and the light-reflecting quality, but it also gave that ring sound. The tradition of clicking glasses after a toast developed during this time in England -- it was believed the bell-like ring sound had the power to send the devil away.


However, the problem is after one too many glasses of champagne -- regardless of the type of glass -- I tend to want to do exactly as the image above illustrates the following morning to the empty bottle of champagne ...

(images from Casablanca (1942), Notorious (1946), and Casino Royale (1967); to read more about the types of champagne glasses click: HERE)

Sophia Hayden Bennett

The Board of Lady Managers ended up awarding Sophia a gold medal "for delicacy of style, artistic taste, and geniality and elegance of the interior hall." There was a dedication ceremony for the buildings, but Sophia wasn’t there. Rumors began to spread that she suffered a mental breakdown, which plainly indicated why women should stay at home and not wander into the realm of men.

Critics dealt her another blow when they insisted the building was too feminine. One said regardless of her technical knowledge, the structure with its “graceful timidity or gentleness” was clearly designed by a woman.

The Women's Building was torn down after the Exposition ended. Sophia, frustrated with the way she had been treated, retired from architecture. She later married William Blackstone Bennett, an artist. Sophia never designed another building after the 1893 fair, and lived a quiet life in Massachusetts until her death in 1953.

(first image: Exterior of The Women's Building, period photograph, Boston College Digital Archive; second image: MIT)

Women in Design: Sophia Hayden (1868 - 1953)

Born in Santiago, Chile. Her father was an American from New England and her mother was South American. When Sophia was six, she was sent to Boston, Massachusetts to live with her paternal grandparents. She became interested in architecture in high school. In 1886 she was the first woman to be accepted to the architecture program at MIT; she graduated with honors in 1890.

Front elevation of Hayden’s thesis project: A Fine Arts Museum, 1890. (from MIT)

Floor Plan and Section, 1890. (from MIT)

After graduating, Sophia could not find employment as an architect; she accepted a position teaching drawing at a Boston high school. The following year, she entered a design competition for the World’s Colombian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. Her design was for the Woman's Building -- a structure given to various social causes such as church groups, temperance societies, a model hospital ward and kindergarten, a sanitary kitchen and a library. It was also to house exhibitions of embroidery, knitting, lace, fans and crockery. Sophia won the competition with her design of a three-story, white building in the Italian Renaissance-Revival style with arches and columned terraces. For this she was paid a modest sum of $1,000 for her design, while men who one competitions for the fair were paid 10 times as much.

Exterior of The Women's Building, period photograph (1894?) Boston College Digital Archive

Sophia traveled to Chicago to produce the final drawings, leaving the execution to Daniel Burnham. Burnham was very pleased with her work describing her as having great adaptability and being a hard worker. She returned six months later to direct the interior and exterior designs of the buildings. At that same time, she discovered another woman was involved in the project. Her name was Bertha Palmer, and she had other ideas.

Bertha Honoré Palmer (1849-1918) Chicago History Museum

A statuesque socialite with well-coiffured wavy hair, Bertha Palmer was a power to be reckoned with. She was not easy to approach. She demanded calling cards be passed scrutinized and screened by several of her servants before any visitor could speak with her. Being of Huguenot descent, no one ever contradicted her. But that was to change once she met the twenty-one year old Sophia.

Officers of Board of Lady Managers, portraits of 10 women. Key: 1. President Mrs. Potter Palmer 2. Mrs. Ralph Trautman 3. Mrs. Edwin C. Burleigh 4. Mrs. Charles Price 5. Mrs. Katherline L. Minor 6. Mrs. Beriah Wilkins 7. Mrs. Flora Beall Ginty 8.Mrs. Russell B. Harrison 9. Mrs. V.C. Merideth. 10.Susan Gale Cooke. 1896. (image via the Field Museum's flicker account.)

Mrs. Palmer was elected President of The Board of Lady Managers for the 1893 Fair. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Mrs. Palmer (née Honoré) met her husband, a wealthy dry goods owner, while she was shopping in Chicago with her mother. Potter Palmer was 23 years her senior. He moved into real estate and became immensely wealthy. Mrs. Palmer enjoyed their North Side mansion with a roof-top ballroom and picture gallery filled with Impressionist paintings she brought back from Paris. She also loved diamond jewelry.

Paul V Galvin Library: The book of the Fair

For Sophia’s building, Mrs. Palmer had invited prominent women to donate architectural elements to adorn the building. Mrs. Palmer believed the building would be better with these donations. Sophia disagreed. A mishmash of elements would dilute her vision, her concept and overall design aesthetic. As the doors, window grilles, columns, wood paneling, balustrades, slabs of onyx and black marble, granite steps, sculpted figures, and tapestries came pouring in, Sophia turned each one down. This hurt the feelings of the high-society donors, which didn’t sit very well with Mrs. Palmer. Sophia explained to Mrs. Palmer her schematic program for the structure -- the exterior and interior -- and why these random donated elements would not work. But Mrs. Palmer wouldn’t hear of it. She fired Sophia from the project and reassigned the final decoration to Candace Wheeler.

Paul V Galvin Library: The book of the Fair

Sophia walked into Burnham’s office, described what happened and from exhaustion began to cry. Burnham quickly called a doctor. Sophia was placed in an ambulance and driven away with the rubber wheels quietly crunching along the gravel road towards the sanitarium. Sophia was said to have a “… violent attack of high nervous excitement of the brain.”

(top image from Penn Libraries.)

Women in Design: Nancy Vincent McClelland (1877-1959)

Series: Women in Design

In 1988 ASID reported that 72% of women were interior designers. By 1998, the number increased to 81%. Yet at that same time, 70% of the 120 designers admitted to Interior Design's Hall of Fame were men. The number of women attending design school has gradually increased over the decade (I’m trying to find statistics for 2008/2009), however, estimating the number of women currently practicing in the field is difficult to find. Estimating the number of who are industrial designers is even more difficult.

One explanation for this is that many women are in and out of the workforce turning their attention to their families. Another reason, I was told, was that women lacked self-promotional, business and management skills to raise their profiles.

Oh really?

Or has the media let them down.

Why is this?

Women have been crucial to the development of interior design as a discipline and profession. The active participation of women in the history of interior design has yet to be seriously treated by scholars and historians (with the exception of Penny Sparke, Pat Kirkham, Beatriz Colomina and others who have made extraordinary contributions.)

After all, what is a well-decorated room compared to an acknowledged work of art? Or the architectural design of a building? The interior design of a room is fleeting, composed of everyday objects -- paint, fabric, ornaments, furniture and knickknacks. They can change as quickly in color and detail as the leaves on a tree. While the initial visual impact may be memorable, its longevity is limited and subject to the whims of popular taste. The study of the history of interior design is only recently being taken seriously.

A second reason women have been largely ignored is that, unfortunately, the attitude towards women having an innate knack for "decorating" has not seemed to change much over the centuries. Women were recognized as having a natural instinct for the placement of color and objects; the activity was also deemed suitable for them. And so it began, slowly at first, but steadily thereafter -- women as the arbiters of taste in their fine new houses that sprang up everywhere in America.

I propose to post a series of posts with your help -- dear readers -- about women interior and furniture designers, some names we have heard of, but others who have been forgotten by time. I would like to uncover these women, dust off their names and give them the attention they deserve. Some of this information is difficult to find, but I think as a collaborative effort we can... and, therefore, begin to rewrite history.

To Mrs. & Mr. EEE

A very merry and hearty congratulations! Although marriage is about respect, partnership, friendship, compromise, ((certainly attraction)), and memories of times you spend together… I give to you your own room, Mrs. EEE.

Design it as you please – with a large window to let streams of sunshine in, or French doors leading out to a balcony filled with blooming flowers in springtime. A fireplace inside for cold winters, high ceilings so as not to constrict your thoughts, and a warm and worn floor from many brilliant thinkers of the past who have paced about in the same room.

Decorate it as you may with a Linke desk,

François Linke Louis XVI style gilt-bronze Desk, Sotheby’s New York, April 20, 2009



or one designed by Carlo Mollino,
Oak Writing Desk from the Casa Editrice Lattes, Christie's: New York, September 26, 2007

or even a simple one from Ikea. Add pooling silk drapes on the windows or tidy pinch-pleat tartan ones. Built-in bookshelves galore! And a window seat with a cushion for the cats. Paint your room white, paint it black, paint it whatever color you desire.

Mica Ertegun (MACII) for Barbara Goldsmith NYC apartment. Source architechturaldigest.com

But know that this room is yours and you are to do with it what you like. I do believe in marriage, there is a time for love and partnership, but also a time for you. So this room is a place for you to think and write and create. Because when you give time to yourself you will always be enthusiastic to give time to Mr. EEE and that way you will continue to build a very lovely and significant future together….

Yes, No, Maybe So? Skull & Bones

We’ve aired our differences on blogs about mounting Elk heads on walls or using cow rugs to cover our floors. Many tend to be in favor of using these items to decorate a room, however, not without a little *twinge* -- some of us pausing for a quick moment, pondering about the once live animal.

But what about something that is human?

Remember the plastic glow-in-the-dark skulls growing up that we bought at the five and dime store? Or those out there who have bought them for your kids. They were cool, but also creepy. But if we had to handle a real human skill (excluding med students) how many of us would get squeamish? And feel, well... weird.

Christie’s (New York) just pulled a lot from the January 22nd upcoming sale. It was a real human skull from the nineteenth century that had been used as a ballot box by Yale’s elite and old Skull and Bones society (est. 1832). The skull was given an estimate of $10,000 to $20,000.

The skull has a hinged flap on the top of the head and believed to have been used as a ballot box to collect votes during the cryptic society’s meetings.

Who was the one who sawed through the skull to make the lid -- bits of bone dust flying around in their eyes, nose and mouth?


top image from Haunt Your Home; second image from Huffingtom Post.

To Haiti

A tiny little country with a wreath of clouds around its mountains and a long coastline has been plagued by revolutions, corrupt political leaders, poverty and now a devastating earthquake.

Jasmin Joseph (b. 1923) Caribbean Village, 1983
Christie’s, New York: September 3, 2008

Haiti was once a rich and flourishing country. It is now the poorest country in the Western world.

Wilson Bigaud (b. 1931), La Ronde, 1953
Christie's East: May 19, 1992

They have an old religion, an old oral history, and an old mythology woven into a complex cultural foundation.

Hector Hyppolite, (1894-1948), La Dauration l’amour (The Adoration of Love), 1946-48 Milwaukee Art Museum

Haiti has one of the richest visual spirits. Sparkling with vitality, Haitian art has an unprecedented openness and honesty.

Wilson Bigaud, Haitian Market Scene (date unknown) ; Sloans & Kenyon: Chevy Chase, MD; February 11, 2007

Haitians are not ordinary people, they are visionaries.

Salnave Philippe-Auguste (b. 1908), Flamingoes, c. 1962-1964

Wishes to them that their courage and strength will point the way toward a hopeful future. I hope their spirit will rise once more.

Rigaud Benoit (b. 1911), The Healing of the Sick, c.1964

Top image: Hector Hyppolite (1894-1948), St Francis and the Christ Child, 1946-1948 ; Last two images from the book Haitain Art by Ute Stebich, 1978. Erzulie, the Voodoo goddess of love, is known for her love of flamingoes.

Yes No Maybe So? Maarten Baas' Ice Bucket from his Melting Collection

La Maison Ruinart, the oldest established Champagne house in the world, was founded in 1729. The first release of the Dom Ruinart prestige cuvée was in 1959. To celebrate the 50th anniversary last year, the house commissioned Dutch designer Maarten Baas to create something for the table to commemorate it. The result : The Melting Collection Ice Bucket.

Any of us in favor of this design?

It is offered in a limited edition of 50 signed and numbered pieces. And comes in a felt-lined leather and wood presentation box and a "display" Dom Ruinart bottle. The display as the bottle is filled with water, not champagne.

The price: $8,800.00. You can buy it HERE.

The glasses are not a limited edition run and available in a gift box which contain two glasses and a bottle of cuvée. click HERE for more images from designboom.

Does anyone remember in the 1980s those plastic kitchy pop art-ish items people would display in their homes such as a glass raised in the air spilling out plastic milk, or a Hershey bar melting? My friend's mom had a lot in her house.

That is what this ice bucket reminds me of.

While I'm a fan of Maarten Baas furniture creations, I'm not so crazy about this. It reminds me of the gag joke of plastic vomit. Sorry Maarten.

(vomit image from retrojunk.com)

Why Women Like ‘Em Big

We say size doesn’t matter. But yet we like them big. We marvel at the curves, the slope of the shoulders, the taughtness of form. We salivate and fantasize, even fetishize. A good one can stop us in our tracks; we bat our eyelashes, blush and say to ourselves: I must have it.

But why? Why do we seem to prefer them so big?

The humble table lamp -- the bigger, the better. For all the preening we do in our homes, we have come to love big lamps. Take a look around, I bet there are a few in your home. These days lamps are as important in making an impact as a sofa or a table. But this hasn’t always been so.

Although electricity arrived in the suburbs by 1905, it wasn’t until the 1920s that electrical lamps became popular in the home. With the arrival of the Art Deco style, lighting designers explored new designs. Many of us can remember one of the first lamps we owned -- the spring form adjustable lamp we bought our freshman year in college and set in our cramped dorm rooms to study. Initially created in 1932 George Carwardine, an engineer, was inspired by the form of the human arm. He experimented with different springs creating a light that was very functional and stylish. The “Anglepoise 1209” he named it. Two years later Herbert Terry & Sons manufactured Carwardine's improved design dubbed the “1227”. The design has changed little since then.

1959 Cadillac Cyclone

The trend in interior decorating toward tall, large-scale table lamps in preference to floor lamps blossomed during the 1950s. I’m not sure why. I can certainly speculate… Cars were big back then and punctuated by big fins. The 50s was a decade of optimism. Gender roles were divided and defined. Women were encouraged to stay at home, beautify themselves as well as their homes, while men were out in the workforce. Bigness embodied a feeling of prosperity and excitement.

You can see a lot of big lamps used in set design of movies from the 50s.


Pillow Talk (1959) is one example. Doris Day’s character, Jan Morrow, is an interior decorator. In her own apartment in NYC she’s got a pair of big lamps in her bedroom. She has a telephone line that she has to share with Brad Allen, a composer and womanizer played by Rock Hudson, who is always on the phone sweet talking a female or two. Hudson gets a glimpse at Day and decides she will be the next object of his affection. In order to get close to her, he plays a gay man.

Rock Hudson has a few of his own big lamps too.





There are a variety of big vintage lamps on the market today: murano glass... (Swank Lighting)



ceramic (also from Swank Lighting)

But a leader in big lamp making, I think, was Sascha Brastoff. Brastoff worked in Los Angeles from 1953 until about 1973 creating decorative accessories, ceramics, enamels on copper, and resins of his own design.

I have three of his lamps. Kitchy, I know but I love them. I had a date one time who exclaimed that he hated my foo dog lamp (above). I am certain that was the last time we went out.

I got this lamp for my husband for a birthday. (don't look at the cords, I'm 'rearranging'.) He wasn't terribly excited. I have a third Brastoff big lamp in storage. It is of a blue, gold and white abstract stripe design. My husband doesn’t like it. He says it is much too big.

There’s no need to pay for the work of famous names to get great big lamps (at auction Brastoff’s lamps are quite affordable). You can get something big and stylish for less. Head down to your local flea market, estate sale or auction house. Who knows what you might find to light up?

(Top lamp was a find at Rivermarket Antiques in KC. I had the wallpaper roller converted, of course, into a lamp.)

We Are Our Own Heroes

The usual resolutions and goals set for the start of a new year are falling a bit flat for me this time around. Each year I make them -- some are met, others forgotten and a few adjusted -- and the following year I make them again. I had reasonable hopes for 2009, but the year ended with a loud, crashing thud. This New Year's Eve, I'm tip-toeing cautiously into 2010 carrying with me no resolutions, no goals, and no expectations.

I think many of us are hesitantly optimistic as we peer into a new decade still treading in thick, murky waters of economic uncertainty and personal wonder. Some of us, perhaps, are feeling a little rundown and tattered. One thing, as a few fellow bloggers have addressed, is we have a blogging community. An amazing thing, really. A platform where we can exchange ideas and knowledge, it gives us a place to grow and get to know one another. People who we otherwise would never have known. This, I believe, is quite a boon. It can shake us from the feelings of isolation when we've encountered an upset or disappointment sitting quietly behind our computer screens. While we mull over when that pendulum will begin to swing the other way bracing ourselves for yet another hard knock, we have this blogging community to believe in and nurture. As hokey as it sounds, our blogging community -- in many ways -- is like the racehorse, Seabiscuit.

A hopeless long shot, Seabiscuit was small with awkward crooked legs and a sad tail. He wasn't an aristocrat. He was a proletarian, a plain regular working horse. He came along in a time when America was desperate for hope. So many people cast doubts about Seabiscuit, but one person believed in him. And that is all it took. Seabiscuit became a hero. A hero that looked like America. He was once nobody and became something to many people.

So many millions of people have talent and beauty, but have not drifted into an area to be appreciated. Blogging allows talent to be read and beauty to be felt. No one really knows when all this economic hullabaloo will calm down. We are an angst ridden, somewhat depressed nation, with many of us grinding our teeth wondering when that next big project will come in, and how far that last pay check will stretch. But one thing for sure is when I read many posts and comments from other readers; I see that we again can believe in triumph over hardship. Many of us are simply true honest voices who believe in the power of beauty -- and that is the dream this country was built upon.