02 March 2010
This looks uncomfortable
Posted by
Paul Anater
This is from a two-year-old back issue of Metropolitan Home. You can see where this place and who the perpetrators are by following the link.
I think the place is a nightmare. The only thing missing is a big sign that says "stay away." How do you make people comfortable in your home if they're afraid to wrinkle the upholstery?
Labels:
interior design
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Oh, c'mon! You know if your invited over you'd have to sit on the giant hand (I would)
ReplyDeleteModernemama - TOTALLY!
ReplyDeleteI would be bouncing up and down shrieking "It's grabbing my tuchus!"
Because I'm actually 12 years old.
AS Jonathan and Simon glared at you. Then they'd pull out a steel folding chair and say "Maybe you'd be more comfortable on this." Ugh.
ReplyDeleteIt would give me great pains to be in a place like that...might even become nauseous
ReplyDeleteI wonder of you're allowed to eat when you're visiting.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a set from THX1138
ReplyDeleteWow Nim, that's really reaching back in time. My friend Nancie summed it up perfectly on Facebook when she wrote, "That's not decorating, that's set design."
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of the dystopian film and literature and that's *the* classic :) Besides.. that expanse of white? that's TOTALLY what it looks like!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love the word "dystopian." You know, I wouldn't hate this so much if they'd gone for Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
ReplyDeleteHahahah!! I knew it was Jonathan Adler!! First of all, who wants to sit in a massive hand?? And I'm all for pulling furniture away from the walls, but the sofa in the middle of the room with the teeny-tiny orange table in front of it looks lost.
ReplyDeleteIs that a planter with boobs under the TV??
I do like the raindrop artwork above the sofa in picture #2, though.
Kelly
Just put it on something other than a white wall. Please.
ReplyDeleteI am also 12 and would sit on the hand. Additionally, I would ask whether or not the orange plastic giraffe on the table had pooped the green apples/limes/orbs, and did they go into the hand on the table first. Photo #2 is just freaking pointy.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about the placement of the giraffe but you bing up a good point.
ReplyDeleteOoo!Last photo caption:
ReplyDelete"And we raise our hands to the gods that the little orange coffee table grows healthy and strong (but mostly bigger) and that brains will no longer be scooped to make way for orchids..."
I think we're just too sophisticated to get this.
ReplyDeleteAre those golden hand chairs designed by Pedro Friedeberg? Looks like they could be...
ReplyDeletePhoto styling-wise and I sincerely, with all my heart hope that this is a photo styling faux pas and not just bad design - that giraffe in the unfortunate position over that green fruit- seriously? It just screams don't publish this photo...yet someone thought it was okay.
Good eye Carmen, they are Friedebergs and originals at that. Despite the pedigree these rooms come off like a set rather than a place to live. Despite the unfortunate placement of the giraffe and fruitbowl, it's all too styled.
ReplyDeleteAside from the Friedeberg chairs and the white buffet (by screen), I'm not a fan of the decor (I prefer to see rooms with charisma and personality - both of which are quite absent from this room) but magazine photo stylists do set up the shoot to look like perfection akin to "still-life instead of real-life". Perhaps Adler isn't completely to blame for the design crime committed in this over-stylized room?
ReplyDeleteI have to say it...I want the hand chairs!
ReplyDeleteAdler is always to blame Carmen. Always.
ReplyDeleteNancy: I had a boss at an ad agency who had those Friedeburg chairs in his office. Any time I see them I feel like I'm in trouble.
Naughty people! I never thought about the giraffe and the apples!
ReplyDeleteThe main problem is that Rental White, isn't it? But the flooring is so pallid -- it would be hard to pick a wall colour that looks good with it.
I actually rather like the cosy 1970s lounge room with the brown, avocado and orange, but it's probably just bringing back memories of childhood!
Pallid is the perfect word. These rooms are in a condominium in Florida and I can tell you that those floors are terrazzo, a Florida specialty. Using a wall color other than white would make warm up the place significantly and make the floors appear to be less sterile.
ReplyDeleteI have a fondness for '70s campy stuff too and it's rooted in my childhood. However Jonathan Adler has a misanthropic cleverness in his use of those colors and shapes that leaves me cold.
Paul, Thanks for the early evening laugh: "Adler is always to blame Carmen. Always." - so needed a cheerful moment after this hectic, frantic day :)
ReplyDeleteHah hah! Glad I could take off the edge.
ReplyDeleteNo white walls in my house!! And how about this -- I just painted a ceiling Bittersweet Chocolate :-)
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice the green giraffe poop on the table. Guess I was too traumatized by the boobie planter.
Kelly
Actually, I checked out over the three blind mice and Liza Minelli pillows.
ReplyDeleteComfort is #1, no matter how beautiful the piece!
ReplyDeleteKarena
Art by Karena
Ouch!
ReplyDeleteI've always thought that a designer's signature look shouldn't be immediately obvious. The trick is to channel the client's sensibilities and guide them gently to something that can be seen as a signature look as you glance through a portfolio. But what do I know? I'm just some schmoe in St. Petersburg. Maybe I'd be a schmoe in New York or LA if I worked on forcing my clients to adopt my sensibilities. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteWhat is with the giraffe's appearing in all the bad designs??? If I recall you posted that creepy kids room stuff with a giraffe in the images too. I am becoming giraffaphobic.
ReplyDeleteThey are an Adler thing unfortunately.
ReplyDelete