Jens Quistgaard the Movie

From the Danish documentary film "A Saucepan for My Wife" Produced by ABCFilm.dk -Directed by Stig Guldberg. www.jensquistgaard.com

Listen: Zahara: Olor a mandarinas

As I prepare to reunite with friends, family, and loved ones over the next couple of days, I leave you with this beautiful tune.

Life is short, enjoy the moments, and appreciate those that bring a smile to your face.

Have a great holidays everyone.


Via Zahara, via howtomakeababyelephantfloat.

Abbey Lee Kershaw by Greg Kadel

"Greg Kadel’s cover spread for the latest Muse is nothing shy of stunning. Starring Aussie beauty, Abbey Lee Kershaw, the ethereal layout maintains a perfect balance between sensuality and elegance with barely there ensembles styled by Katie Mossman."

See the rest of the shoot here.

Via fashiongonerogue.

Spaces: Danielle Epstein/Cherie Zucker: Katonah

An incredible weekend home in Katonah, New York, furnished with a healthy collection of fine 20th Century modernism by interior design firm Cherie Zucker. In the office are a pair of Marco Zanuso lounge chairs, vintage Ib Kofod-Larsen brass armchairs, a desk chair by Preben Fabricius and Jørgen Kastholm, a Stilnovo 60's chandelier. Milo Baughman dining chairs surround a custom bronze and mirror top table. In the great room are a pair of stainless steel Oscar Niemeyer lounge chairs. The sunroom boasts a Serge Mouille 3 arm lamp, Verner Panton wire lounge chairs, a Paul László sofa, a Vladimir Kagan chaise lounge, and a Karl Springer coffee table. In one of the bedrooms hangs an Eero Aarnio hanging chair and a pair of Pierre Paulin Concord chairs. The connecting bathroom has a pair of Eero Saarinen Tulip Stools. Contemporary works include a coffee table by Arik Levy and a lounge chair by Marcel Wanders. The massive chandelier that descends from the upper stair hall to the entry is based on Angelo Mangiarotti's 1967 Giogali chandelier. The pillow filled niche in the basement playroom was inspired by a front loading clothes dryer.

DANIELLE EPSTEIN: CHERIE ZUCKER.
CROMWELL ART: ART CONSULTANT.
DAN SHERMAN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: LANDSCAPING CONSULTANT.
ELECTRONIC ENVIRONMENTS: AUDIOVISUAL CONSULTANT.
SOUND VIEW ENGINEERS & LAND SURVEYORS: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER.
SMI CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

Photography by Eric Laignel.

Via Interior Design

Watch: Last Minutes with ODEN

"Thank You Jason Wood for allowing us this moment."

Directed/Edited: Eliot Rausch
Director of Photography: Luke Korver, Matt Taylor
Song: Big Red Machine / Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner

Via PhosPictures.com

Review: Downtown Chic by Robert + Cortney Novogratz

Robert and Cortney Novogratz, founders of Sixx Design (and parents to seven children), share tips and anecdotes from years of interior design and renovation expertise into their first book Downtown Chic. Surveying seven of their past projects step-by-step, with plenty of before and (rather remarkable) after imagery, the Novogratz's give plenty of helpful advice on such things as creating a proper renovation plan, and how to hire your renovation team, i.e. who you will need and what to ask when hiring them. At once both a inspirational volume of interior design and practical guide to home renovation, this book is a great reference for the design fanatic and for anyone about to tackle their first project.

Buy it here.

Watch: Polaroid SX-70 by Charles + Ray Eames

Polaroid SX-70 Promotional Film from Ekim on Vimeo.

A 1972 Polaroid promotional film by the Eames Office. Enjoy!

Listen: Homeless Man covers RadioHead

"This tear-jerking video comes courtesy of the Opie and Anthony Show on SiriusXM radio. The footage was shot after the show's producers enlisted a homeless man, Daniel Mustard, to voice over a promo then found out he could sing. Here Mustard does an acoustic version of Radiohead's Creep with a slightly different take on the vocal phrasing and years and years of pathos in the delivery."

Via Pedestrian

Top Ten Designer Gifts

Matt in New York emailed me to check out Things I Have Seen's top ten design gifts. Though intended as a Christmas wish list, these items are great gifts anytime of the year, with the Eames House bird as my personal favorite.

packing, shipping, packing, shipping...

Taking a quick break to say sorry for the lack of posts. The annual design auction to benefit the Canadian Cancer Society has just ended and for the next few days I'll be focused on post-auction shipping. Thank you to all those who participated in helping to make it a huge success. Also thank you to all those you helped spread the word, including our friends at Apartment Therapy and The National Post. It made all the difference and I am grateful for your help.

I'm currently a touch overwhelmed with all the packing and shipping (particularly in this current cold snap) but I'm more than happy to do it. Thank you one and all.


Photo via CelebrateCanada

Spaces: Alisha H: Gingerbread Residence, New York

Click on any of the photos and take a tour as Alisha H details the stages and steps in creating her modernist masterpiece of a gingerbread house.

Furnishing include an Eames Lounge chair with tufted cushions and Time Life Stools, a Isamu Noguchi coffee table (walnut grained!), a Noguchi Prismatic Table, Jasper Morrison stools, a Pierre Paulin tongue chair, a George Nelson + Associates Multi-color Ball Clock and Bubble Lamp, an Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair. Artwork by Joan Miro and Jackson Pollack. Oh, and don't forget a flokati rug.

Thanks David RP for the link.

Spaces: Joe D'Urso: Pardo + Gresham Residence, Manhattan

Pilar Viladas:

"It is possible to be a modernist and still have lots of stuff. In this Manhattan apartment, more is definitely more.

For those of you who were out of the room the last time I discussed this subject, let me repeat one more time: modern does not equal cold and sterile. Modern can — and should — be as richly textured as it is rational and ordered. The apartment shown here, in the United Nations Plaza (the pair of swank towers designed by Harrison, Abramovitz and Harris in the 1960s), is a rewarding case in point. Its owners, Benjamin Pardo and David Gresham, are passionate, as well as informed, about design, and it shows. The nearly 1,700-square-foot apartment, which was given a thoughtful renovation by Joe D’Urso, is filled with a profusion of modernist and contemporary furniture and objects — from Saarinen to Sottsass — that in lesser hands would look cluttered.

Layering is used to great effect. In the living room’s main seating area, classic pieces of 20th-century furniture are grouped around a two-tier coffee table (designed by D’Urso for Knoll in the 1980s). The glass top allows you to see through the objects placed on it to those on the bottom, creating a deep, layered composition of form and color. In the kitchen, a small Eero Saarinen dining table overlaps a shallow bookcase, and in the master bedroom, two coffee tables intersect, one midcentury Scandinavian, the other a smaller version of the D’Urso table in the living room. (Pardo jokingly describes this layering strategy as, ‘‘You have a lot of furniture in a very small space.’’) The stainless-steel kitchen is warmed by the addition of a brass Alvar Aalto hanging light and a Persian rug. The apartment’s main hallway was turned into a library with floor-to-ceiling bookcases that also display Pardo and Gresham’s ceramics collections. There is nothing in these rooms that isn’t modern, yet the cumulative effect of their design is — dare I say — almost cozy. This is modernism that anyone could live with."

Talk about a meeting of great minds. Joe D'Urso is one of the most important interior designers of the late 20th Century. Named by New York Magazine as a Design Revolutionary, D'Urso pioneered the minimalist industrial loft look in the 1970's. Benjamin Pardo is the senior vice president for design at Knoll. David Gresham is the director of graduate studies at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit (and the Steelcase's former global vice president of design). The home is at once brimming with modernist icons, yet never cluttered. Warm and cozy, yet sleek and clean lined. Achiving perfect balance, this is the definitive home for any 20th Century design collector.

Photographs by Anthony Cotsifas.

Via New York Times