Q: I am interested in the wallpaper you wrote about a couple of weeks back. It didn't have an allover pattern (which makes me a little dizzy). I like the idea of big swirls of random color instead. But how does it set up on a wall?
A: Randomly, as you said — and as you can see from the photo we show here borrowed from the newsmaking showroom where manufacturer CR Laine spread the paper wall-to-wall as background for its handsome furniture collections.
Created by young artist Tracy Hiner's Black Crow Studios, the images are breathtaking blowups of close-ups of minerals like malachite, amethyst and agate. On this gigantic scale, the jewel tones flow at random around the room, adding subtle color and "action" to the scene (and putting me in mind of the swirling bands of color TV producers think they need to keep our attention during the nightly news).
The effect of Tracy's wallpapers is remarkable: Instead of definite patterns that define the space, the almost-amorphous designs serve to push back the walls and open into a new and natural universe.
And never mind how New Age-y that sounds: It's one of the freshest ideas in wall coverings since the l8th century, when French masters like Zuber et Cie created trompe l'oeil landscapes for the walls of the rich and famous. (Zuber, by the way, is still in business; visit Gracie Mansion in New York and see a splendid example of their famed block-printing skills.)
Hiner and Black Crow Studios teamed with mineral aficionado Brenda Houston to find and translate nature's images into our homes. Learn more at blackcrowstudios.com.
Go to crlaine.com to learn more about the furniture, which is handcrafted in North Carolina using locally sourced kiln-dried hardwood frames — another nod to the eco-consciousness that vibrated all through last month's Furniture Market in High Point.
Q: What else was trending at the Furniture Market?
A: Glad you asked! We saw a bevy of oversized chairs — room for two, or for one and a dog, or even for the Dalai Lama, sitting cross-legged, one imagines: Stickley Furniture created such a chair for His Holiness' visit to Syracuse University and then made a limited edition of 100 numbered pieces. (For $10,000, you can sit like the Dalai Lama. Wisdom not included.)
Stickley (stickley.com) also offered one of the smartest pieces we saw anywhere in the vast Furniture Market: Its Gathering Island is a table that lives up to its name, offering tiered shelving for storage or serving. Paired with Stickley's new upholstered swivel stools — counter or bar-height — the Gathering Island is an altogether new and practical idea for family-room living and entertaining.
Not really new but newly back in vogue: shelter headboards for beds. Think of wing chairs gone high, wide and handsome, and you've got the idea. And no wonder: With so much of today's architecture just plain bland, it's lovely to snuggle into a "room" of one's own for a good night's sleep.
Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Manhattan Style" and six other books on interior design. To find out more about Rose Bennett Gilbert and read features by Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website and www.creators.com.
View Comments