Recycling Centre Treasures.

I’m a huge fan of the 60s style furniture and 60s furniture that has been re-vamped. Recently I’ve been looking at images online and designs of different types of old furniture being re-loved and given a modern twist.

I really want to do this particularly with a chair. I’m going to keep visiting the recycling centre until I find the right one to take home.

Here are a few designs I like and will be taking inspiration from:

Zoe Murphy.

Zoe Murphy is a British designer making her mark on used furniture. She’s updating “retro with retro” you can read more about her in an interview on WeHeart.co.uk. I love the way the original is merged with the new and not spoiled. The new and old work well and compliment each other making it seem as though it has always been that way. The detail inside the drawers is also fab!

Charlotte Love.

These chairs are maybe my favourite they look so simple to re-create and are really beautiful. Charlotte Love an interior stylist (amongst other things) has styled this pretty, pastel coloured photo shoot and included these chairs.

101 Woonideeen.

This table and chair was featured in an issue of Dutch magazine '101 Woonideeen'. The table top design has been made using a Spirograph. You can find out how to make it yourself here. I really like the sharp shots of neon on the side of the table leg and rim of the table top, it makes the piece really playful and fun without being over powering. 

The Zig Zag Chair.

Throughout my first semester of third year at DJCAD I was working in the workshop every Friday afternoon with two other girls in my class. We were to produce the ‘Zig Zag’ chair by Gerrit Reitveld whilst also contributing some of our personality to the design where we saw fit. This exercise was simply to get us back in the work shop and become comfortable using the tools once again.

Here are some images of our work.

Furniture Project: Done and Dusted!

It’s about 2 weeks ago now since our presentation day at uni. I wanted to post about how it went sooner but haven’t had a chance as I was busy getting ready for Christmas but I’ve managed to get some time now!

Our group was pleased our rocking chair was completed in time and we felt our presentation went well.  I felt really proud of our year as we achieved so much and all the final designs and presentations were amazing. I think our year had a wide range of different types of furniture and objects from, a Karma Sutra inspired chair to a sculpture made from re-claimed pallets. A couple of groups made videos for the presentation which I thought were very clever and I would like to do something like this in the future.

I didn’t have a favourite, but I did like the ‘Find it Fix it’ group which consisted of Esther Lockhart, Meghan Stenhouse and John Macdonald. Their concept was to find old furniture and fix it up to be useable again. However they didn’t just restore the object they added their own mark and made it into something new. I really like this as you’re saving something that would otherwise be thrown away but also adding a bit of your personality to it. I think the skills I have acquired during this project will be very useful in doing something like this in the future, maybe even in my own home one day. To read more about the ‘Find it Fix it’ groups work you can visit either Esther Lockhart's or Meghan Stenhouse's blog.

Below are our presentation sheets. We designed them to be viewed in a panoramic style going around the room with our rocking chair in the centre.

So the furniture project is now over ...bring on the next!

Furniture Project: Coming to an End.

Our furniture project is finally coming to an end, it's been a long process and thankfully everyone has survived (just!).  The past two weeks have been spent in the workshop. We’ve been trying to get as much done as we could without disruptions from the snow, to finish our rocking chair. It looks like the hard work has paid off and tomorrow we just have to put together some last minute things and complete our presentation sheets for Tuesday. Here are some photos from our workshop experience.



Marking out the radius of the rocker to make the former.




Laminating the rockers.



Laminating.

Rasa cleaning up the steel frame.

Sanding to create the brushed steel look.

Danielle making the seat.

Finding out where it rocks best.

Sanding down the rockers.

Doing some painting at home.

Furniture Project... Update.

We are now in week four of our furniture project. My group are trying our hardest to get started making in the workshop but we still have a few things to do before then.

Since I last blogged about this we’ve been coming up with our own furniture designs and figuring out a concept. We got together and did some brain storming Design Studies style! We thought about different types of people and what they wanted out of a piece of furniture, for example most elderly people would probably choose comfort over style whereas young children may want something fun and interactive. We then discussed what types of furniture already exists and what styles we liked. 



Thinking about people’s habits led us to the path we’re on now. We noticed that in general people fidget and move a lot, swinging on chairs is common.  We therefore wanted to create a chair that can give people this option, to swing or not to swing. We’ve gone on to develop an idea of a modern rocking chair, which will hopefully look stylish and give the user the option to rock or be stationary depending on their mood.  We also like the idea of a rocking chair as it is a place for mothers to sooth their child and some people find it relaxing to sit rocking and read a book. We are also thinking about adding a table that rocks along with the chair. Below are images of some rocking chairs we looked at in our research.



1960s Rocking Chair





Unusual Danish rocking chair, designer unknown.





Ku-dir-ka rocking chair by Contraforma





Charles Ray Eames Rocking Chair







 We incorporated our early research in the design (some of this is shown in my previous blog). We are keeping our design very angular and we would like to add some colour.  Below are some sketches from my sketch book.



 1:5 scale models have been made which I still need to photograph and today we were working on our full scale model. The advantages of a full scale model are that it is easier to see areas that need to be changed or tweaked for example the height of the seat or the thickness of the wood.

Work in progress...

Frame of Chair... this may be made from steel.

Tomorrow we will complete our full scale model and amend any problems we have encountered.  Hopefully we’ll get everything sorted and have the go ahead to start in the workshop soon.

Furniture Project

In the studio at the moment we are just starting a new project on furniture design. It's early stages but we've been given our brief and split into groups. Our brief is to design and make a piece of furniture or object reflecting contemporary culture and domestic life. I'm currently trying to emerge myself in research, looking at different types of furniture, styles, uses and designs.

I'm a big fan of the television programme 'Mad Men' which is about an advertising agency on Madison Avenue, in New York in the 1960s. I love the style from the early 60s and find the furniture attractive. The main thing I like when I look at some of the furniture from the 60s is the legs on the tables or chairs. I like that the legs taper slightly as they reach the ground. I also like the sharp edges they used.



When I was researching today I came across 'Pinch'. ‘Pinch’ specialises in furniture design and is based in the U.K. Their style reminded me a little of the furniture I see when I watch 'Mad Men'. One of my favourite pieces was the desk pictured below. The smoothness of the wood and the touch of green they've added appeals to me.



Something else that I’ve come across and find interesting is this cocktail table by ‘Twig’. Different shaped wooden sticks have been bonded together with resin to make this glossy table. I love the pattern it makes for the table top.



Well the research continues! I’ll post an update of how the project is progressing in a few weeks.