Warm or cool, the focus for contemporary baths is fixtures.
ICFF stands for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, which opened Saturday and runs through tomorrow in New York City. It’s the year’s biggest showcase for contemporary furniture and fixtures on this side of the pond and although it’s huge, it’s always energizing to see all the newest design creativity, products and sources from around the world. Due to illness in the family, I was unable to get downtown this year to do a report. But among the invitations was one from Blu Bathworks, based in Vancouver, Canada, which sent a photo of their stunning minimalist lime green quartize bathtub [top]. This tub, from their Blu Stone designed by Michael Gottschalk, poses the following question for modern bathrooms: instead of having color on the walls, why not have it on the fixtures? The one-piece freestanding oval tub comes in a matte or gloss finish and, at 59-inches long, is ideal for smaller spaces.
Blu’s slipper-shape tub is a scaled up showstopper in bright red.
Avant-garde Italian bath fixtures from Regia also are showing at ICFF. Their Jolie “vetroghiaccio” tub, designed by Bruna Rapisarda, is double-skinned and see-through (ghaccio is Italian for icecube) so it can be illuminated by natural light and comes with a cushy “technogel” neck rest on one end. It also comes with special supports for lifting it into place.
A few years back, in a piece on Black Bathrooms we showed a Neo Metro Ebb Collection illuminated resin sink vanity and mirror, which the company still headlines. This French molded resin tub came with integral LED illumination (it was sold by the French retailer Castorama) to make the super cool blue glow in the dark.
Red is another transparent hue for Regia’s Jolie tub, which can be paired with a matching pedestal sink. While these tubs of color are far less tame than the Italian Bathtub Chic tubs we posted about in the past, they show how conservative our thinking about bathrooms can be — even when a new one is planned.
(Source: blubathworks, regia, marieclairemaison)
Wooden piano cases are remade into charming bookcases.
A 19th-century mahogany cabinet was made from an Austrian organ. The wood grain, decorative labels and original legs ooze charm and character. Reinventing these musical cases instead of discarding is not only a “green” thing, but allows them to keep playing their song.
Collections create an impression when displayed en masse.
A grouping of antique carpentry tools evoke an emotional response from the collector when their history includes ancestry. The contrast of the vintage wooden pieces against burlap wall is perfection.
An assemblage of wire rug beaters are visually appealing with their curious, handmade shapes. Combined, these collectibles create harmonious arrangements.
Mid-20th C limed and cerused oak finishes for kitchen cabinets find a new 21st C kitchen audience.
This finish began its slow creep back into kitchens from the high-end furniture market after oak pieces by mid-20th century design icons Jean-Michel Frank and others hit their height as collectibiles around 2007. Ideas can take a while to trickle down and, inevitably with revivals, there are variations and reinterpretations made possible by development of new products such as stains, glazes and waxes.
Cabinets in a minimalist kitchen in Antwerp offer a modern variation on the cerused theme by reversing it so the doors are gently whitewashed while the grain is tempered to the oxidized gray of old wine casks.
Another view of the kitchen shows the subtle effect of the finish on a big, slab-front pantry-cabinet wall which gives the effect of the natural wood look Belgians love, but tweaked.
And here’s the clear inspiration — a Jean-Michel Frank minimalist cabinet that sold at Christie’s in the $30,000 range.
Because this finish varies with the wood grain – which results from the way wood is sawn — an Oak 101 chart shows distinctions between plain sawn, quarter sawn or rift sawn oak. Plain-sawn is standard and rift-sawn the most highly prized.
Overall whitewashing – as opposed to highlighting – yields a pickled look, which I happen to love. A gray undertone helps keep the undesirable pink undertone out of red oak (white oak is blonder) and the result is hip enough to harmonize with techy 3D porcelain Geologica backsplash tile.
Fans of black-and-white modernist kitchens may go for partially ebonized and cerused oak cabinets which marry well with marble and are a more forgiving than the currently trending black lacquer finish.
Cerused, rift-sawn oak planks give country-style batten cabinets an unusually mellow look that blends well with calacatta marble countertops and backsplash and imbues the entire space with a crisp, modern edge. I can’t help but think that Jean-Michel Frank, creator the straight-edged Parsons table during his tenure at the New York City design school of the same name (also my alma mater), would be pleased to see the way his furniture style progressed into fitted elements for one of the most-used spaces in the house.
