BY DESIGN : Pull Up a Chair : Go ahead, sit a spell. Or curl up and get comfy. This piece of furniture should offer serious comfort--not just good looks.
Today’s best interiors invite you to pull up a favorite chair, settle into a downy pillow and get really comfortable. Design as superficial window dressing is passe, L.A.’s top designers say.
“No one can afford to be trendy or to buy furniture that’s in some ephemeral, ‘amusing’ style,” says Mimi London, who creates interiors and furniture. “Quiet design, nothing overstated, is very pleasing now. People don’t want furniture that yells at them.”
Thomas Callaway agrees. “Interior design that looks right now is a whole amalgam of styles and design details.
“We have the whole history of furnishing to inspire us,” he says. “The days of one ‘in’ look are truly over.”
Welcoming armchairs have become the iconographic piece of furniture, Callaway adds, because they’re satisfyingly self-centered. Unlike sofas, you don’t have to share them--and you can move them around to please yourself.
“Right now, I’m in love with an upholstered club chair I designed,” he says. “It’s a takeoff of a late ‘20s Art Deco chair but resonates with an early ‘50s feeling”--thanks to a Moderne geometric upholstery fabric by Clarence House.
London’s pet piece of furniture is her open-armed fruitwood-finish spruce chair, whose broad arms and hefty body show the influences of Gustav Stickley, Frank Lloyd Wright and even Adirondack chairs. Upholstered in sheepskin, it stands four-square on solid legs and firmly planted feet. The pillows are down-filled.
“An armchair today should be a serious piece of furniture, not just an ornament,” London says. “It must be comfortable enough for hours of reading or television watching, and conversation. It can be a piece you’ll keep for the rest of your life.”
L.A. designer Michael Smith, whose clients include Young Hollywood and Establishment types, says: “Life, not the fashion of the day, should dictate the design. Rooms should not be propaganda, or self-aggrandizement at the cost of comfort.”
His preferred armchair has a sculptured, rather Edwardian silhouette tightly covered in washed cotton. It’s classic but has a sense of humor.
“I can read the newspaper in it, (and) relax for a moment at the end of the day,” he says. “Clients want that same ease and simplicity with their furniture. Rooms should reflect our day-to-day lives and provide for children, dogs and piles of books. Rooms full of fussy detail take too much maintenance.”
Barbara Barry, known for her clean-lined and tailored interiors, also takes a reductionist approach to decorating.
“ ‘Less is more’ is a very modern concept,” she says. “I like just a few carefully chosen things on a table or a mantel. I prefer visual tranquillity, no clutter.”
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Barry seldom chooses patterned fabrics, opting to let the furniture, fresh flowers in a simple vase and even the people create the pattern and the focus of a well-composed room.
“I like a room that ranges wide in historical references,” she says. “This grab-bag approach can be seen throughout our culture today--in fashion, in art, even table settings. You dress and design to please yourself. Everything doesn’t have to match. You can combine Chanel and Gaultier and Gap. It’s much more interesting and very individual.”
Furniture designers Jeffrey Goodman and Steven Charlton agree that matching sets of furniture--known in the trade as “suites”--look all wrong. Their firm, Goodman Charlton, is noted for its beautifully upholstered, curvy chairs and sofas.
“You don’t want your house to look as if you just bought everything straight out of the showroom,” Goodman says. “It’s better to scout the market, experiment and take pride in finding furniture and collections that mean something.”
He explains that when rooms are uncluttered, the outline and integrity of each piece becomes more important. “Shapes should be strong and clear, not overly articulated,” he says.
Goodman Charlton recently introduced the Comet chair. The arms swoop and curve and seem almost sculpted by air current. Upholstered in cotton velvet, the chair stands on well-proportioned mahogany feet.
“Friends describe it as turbo-charged Deco, but we see several modern influences, even sports cars,” Goodman says. “We like to pay homage to a range of design icons.”
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Even Shabby Chic, the company that made loose slipcovers and over-scale armchairs popular (and inspired a million imitations), is taking a more streamlined look.
Owner Rachel Ashwell, who with partner Dara Buck launched Shabby Chic in 1989, says the company’s designs are becoming simpler.
“We still love the mooshy, downy cushions, but we’re toning down the floral fabrics, going toward white and cream and smudgy, tea-dipped looking linens,” Ashwell says.