Design Sale
Written by Matej Gašperič
Architect
Are you familiar with Le’ Courbusier LC 4 resting chair, Tizio lamp, Arne’s The Ant Chair or Starck’s Juicy Salif lemon squeezer?
Does names such as Moroso, Alessi, Kartell, Vitra, etc. ring any bells?
Does your heart beat speed up (not because of a high price tag!) while you come across some design peace of furniture?
Does a well designed working and living space inspire you?
Do you choose Apple products over any other regardless of the tech specs?
Do you rather wait for years, save money and buy nothing that opt to compromise with a design?
Do you constantly have a lack of space for new design products?
If you have answered mostly “no“, you could stop reading. This blog is not for you. You might even get irritated by it. So STOP! Stop reading it! I’ll write another one, soon enough.
…
But if you have mostly answered “yes“, you are definitely one of those irrational passionate weirdoes, to whom being surrounded with a design and beauty is simply a necessity. For you, every design piece you acquire is not just a functional peace of furniture. You know its history. You know its soul. It inspires you.
And when a time come, that you say goodbye to some of those – and inevitably, from time to time, that time comes – then it is not an easy task. But nevertheless it is a task that needs to be done. And in that cases, you sincerely hope, that they would end up somewhere, where they would be appreciated at least as much as you appreciated them.
For us (me and Alenka) that time has come now. There is simply not enough space left and since one could not seat on five chairs at once, we have decided to let some of them go and find them another home. So there is your chance, to get a hand on some top design pieces of furniture at (almost – but not quite – yet sill much cheaper than in a retail) affordable price.
Amoeba Highback is the jewel of the collection. Designed by the Danish designer Verner Panton, more widely known as the author of the famous Living Tower, this is a beautiful piece of furniture, that could not go unnoticed. It softly embraces one, who choose to sit inside, and keep it safe, detached from the outer world, floating inside his own creative balloon. The temptation to keep it is enormous, so the price is set to 1.000€.
Vitra probably needs no special introduction amongst the design furniture adicts. Swiss (Basel) based office furniture company, dedicates all its efforts to develop healthy, intelligent, inspiring and durable solutions for the office, the home and for public spaces. That every piece they produce is also a design masterpiece and a collectors, one could take for granted. The price tags on their products are definitely not low by anyone’s standards. But since they are easily matched by the quality of Vitra’s products, one could safely say, that he or she is not that rich to buy cheap. And one would be dead right on that one.
Vitra’s Worknest office chairs have been designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. With greyish green fabric and orange / violet accents – two & two – on the hand holders, they have had served as a working chairs in Kaaita’s manufacture. They have witnessed many long & sleepless nights, when they have literally supported the creation of a numerous beautiful products from Kaaita’s collection. We would just love to keep them somewhere at home, but for the moment, another eternal Vitra’s chairs (Meda chairs) are still serving us well. So finally, we decided that it is only right to find them new home. 700€ a piece or 2.700€ if you choose to adopt all four of them.
Beside more widely known Kaaita Dating (“Kaaita randi”), Kaaita’s office has, for long five years, served as a center of creativity. Designers, copywriters, architects, manufacturers,… have always appreciated the creative environment it offered. Meetings have been usually held in the first room, where they gathered around the beautiful antique round table.
Four modern, high tech and ultra comfortable Vitra’s Eams Plastic Chairs in cream white colour, proved to be a perfectly chosen addition to it. I am quite sure, that sooner or latter, I would design another interior to feature this beautiful chairs. But for now, heart breaking as it is, we have decided to let go. Since they are a family, you could only get all four together for 600€. Eight complementary, custom made pillows in black (bottom) / dark violet (top) colour, you get as a bonus.
Kartell is yet another company, one devoted to top design products, could not not know. Amongst fierce competition at its homeland (Italy) and worldwide, Kartell is undoubtedly the leader in the wide niche of plastic furniture. Since the design flows in it veins, there is no wonder that they frequently cooperate with a design celebrities such as unorthodox and controversial Frenchman Phillipe Starck, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Ron Arad, Feruccio Laviani, etc.
The later designed the breakthrough FL/Y lamp which, when it come out, has been featured on the front page of almost every Kartell publication, interior showcase,… No less that eight of them – all in discrete black – has been trusted to bring light into the Kaaita’s headquarters and they did the job, we entrusted them, perfectly. Now, that the office has been abandoned and replaced by a warehouse, to meet the present company’s needs, they are ready to enlighten some other’s world. 80€ a piece / 300€ if you choose to take at least four. But since especially in numbers, they mad truly superb interior, for one with an appropriate flat or office, there is no need to resist temptation – 560€ for all eight lamps is a true bargain, a true design addict could not resist. And one even gets three spare bulbs in the package.
Ron Arad’s Bookworm is another Kartell product – almost a classic. It comes in three different lengths and five different colours. Combined with the infinite number of possible shapes and configurations it assures that your creative soul could grow wings and that you could mount it to perfectly match your place and soul. (Un)fortunately, this worm has already find a new owner – our dear friend jumped on an opportunity and made sure, she would not run out of the book space soon.
Regardless of the fact if you are a true design fun /addict or just have an affection for beautiful design, no jump to Amstardam would be complete without a visit to Droog store. And once you are there, there is no way, you would leave the place without buying at least a peace or two. To spare you the trouble, we went there for you so that we could provide you with a little something from Droog.
Their Sticky Lamp looks like it would have been planted into the electric socket. Simple and uniquely designed – typical Droog style serves more as a extravagant room decoration or a gag in kid’s room, than as a functional lightning. But who says that everything needs to be fully functional. We offer a bucket of four for 50€.
A Strap is another Droog design product – this one fully functional for a change. Picture tells everything so you could make use of them (four, white) for 45€.
A little piece of garden has been set up, in front of Kaaita’s entrance, in a beautiful and elegant polyester pottery by Domani from Belgium. Since it is truly a remarkable piece that fits more than well also on our home terrace, we haven’t full decided yet, if we should sell it or not. If you are interested to buy it for 250 €, just let us know, and we would think about it.
And since we started with office furnitures, we would also conclude this little sales list with it. The last piece is a true relic since it has served almost twenty years as an office chair for CEO of Hal interactive. A true king amongst the office chairs produced by Wilkhahn. But since every end means also a new beginning, it feels just right to let it go. Extremely comfortable with unprecedented ergonomic features, it is a perfect fit for a rare breed of top management executives who truly admire a superb design. A bit worn out, but still fully functional, its price starts at no less than 1.500€. If does not go, I would not regret it and would gladly enjoy sitting on it for another twenty years.
