HOME FURNISHINGS : FURNITURE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY : The Forms, Colors and Textures That Are Leading the Way to a New Design Era : Textures & Finishes
Aluminum and steel, which have seen a surge of popularity in architecture recently, are also gaining importance in furniture design. Metallic finishes, now found on the finest wood furniture, are quieter and more elegant when given a soft, antique patina.
French furniture designer Philippe Stark, Italy’s noted lighting company Artimede and Los Angeles designers Ron Rezek and Bob Josten are all creating some of today’s most innovative home furnishings using aluminum as their medium. In the past year, Rezek introduced a line of galvanized aluminum lighting, and architect Josten unveiled his unusual cast-aluminum and aluminum-and-steel tables. No longer considered simply high-tech, these metals are being incorporated into a variety of new designs.
COLOR
As far as today’s furniture-color palette is concerned, anything goes, from the brightest primary colors to soft neutrals.
Animal prints--black-and-white pony or cowhide prints in particular--are still de rigueur, as are accent furnishings of bright lipstick red. Southwestern design influences have introduced an entirely new color vocabulary to home furnishings, with muted desert shades of terra cotta and sand, sunset pinks and purples, and turquoise blues and greens all finding their way into the world of furniture design.
Painted folk-art furniture and one-of-a-kind artist-produced pieces are also seeing a surge of popularity, especially in galleries such as Patton/Duval and Umbrello along Melrose Avenue. Many of these furnishings are authentically reproduced; others are less reverent, with a lighthearted nod at more modern design.
FORMS?
Wood, steel and concrete are some of the most popular materials that are shaped into unusual functional items destined for the homes of the 1990s and beyond.
The newest sculptural furnishings range in style from woodsy tables and chairs to neoclassical designs and unusual art furniture. San Francisco designer Ron Mann’s furnishings run a gamut of styles and materials--wrought-iron lamps, Douglas fir tables and chairs, sand-cast bronze accessories, steel tables and candle stands, all illustrating the sophistication of natural forms.
Many Los Angeles artists--Robert Moore, John Patton, Kerry Feldman, Krister Olmon and Ian Arthur, to name a few--are now designing functional furnishings. A Scottish-born ceramic artist, Arthur makes wall sconces in Southwestern, neoclassical and Art Deco designs.
Photographed by John Reed Forsman at Jacob Schuster’s Melrose Square