Jens Risom was a master of mid-century modern design, whose peers included Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia and Charles Eames. Over the course of an extraordinarily long career, he helped bring modern Scandinavian style to the USA and created iconic designs that found their way into museums, art galleries, and the White House.

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Risom immigrated to the US in the late 1930s, where he met Hans Knoll and helped launch his new furniture company, Knoll. He remained with Knoll until he was drafted to serve in the US Army in 1943. After being discharged, he established his own design house, Jens Risom Design.

Characterized by wood construction, clean lines and superior craftsmanship, Risom’s furniture designs presented a slightly gentler, less rigid style than that of the other Danish modernists of the time. He believed in functionality and comfort, which can be seen in pieces like his low-slung, padded A-Chair and his 2009 Risom Rocker. His iconic Risom Lounge Chair (1943) was constructed from discarded military parachute straps; one of his executive office chairs was later chosen for Lyndon Johnson’s White House.

After selling Jens Risom Design in the 1970s he started a new company, Design Control, where he worked as a consultant and freelance designer. In the early 2000s, although theoretically retired, he returned to the design world when already in his 80s. Risom worked right up until 2015, when at the age of 99 he collaborated with Chris Hardy on the Ven storage collection for Design Within Reach. Ralph Pucci International celebrated the 100th birthday of the last surviving modernist of his generation by mounting a travelling exhibition of his work from the 1950s and 1960s. Jens Risom passed away in December 2016.

Cover image courtesy of Knoll.

Love it or hate it, the season for holiday shopping is well underway. We’re here to make it a little easier to find the perfect gift for everybody on your list with our holiday gift guide.

Sculptures
Sculptor Alexander Krivosheiw creates abstract forms from bronze and aluminum with a sense of motion that makes them seem virtually weightless. His First Kiss Maquette is swooningly romantic and seems to express joy in each of its curves and flourishes. What better way to show a spouse or partner that they still make you feel lightheaded?

Inspired by penguins, the world’s favorite tuxedo-wearing bird, the Pinkwin manages to be both cute and elegant. It’s a delicate balancing act, but these sculptures, with their refined lines and hand painted gold detailing, pull it off with aplomb. Pinkwins are available in black and white, in small and large sizes, and with or without the large gold back pattern.

Colorful and humorous hand-blown glass sculptures by Poland’s Borowski Studio, depicting animals, people and wild abstractions, are sure to be appreciated by lovers of art glass. The motorist in this Small Glass Car is clearly in a rush to get somewhere — could it be your house?

Decor
Like a hug from afar, this Faux Fur Throw will lend comfort and warmth when you’re not around to do it. Richly textured and cruelty free, it looks spectacular draped casually over a chair back or across the foot of a bed in the winter months. It’s an ultra-luxurious throw for staying out late on the patio or curling up in front of a movie.

The Feathered Pedestal Bowl by Nima Oberoi is beautiful enough to stand alone as an art piece, but it also makes an ultra-opulent fruit or flower bowl. The silver bowl is supported by gold-plated feathers, and is part of the same collection as the breathtaking limited-edition Metamorphosis Bowl.

Lighting
The crystalline Kartell Battery Lamp runs on USB power, making it a highly portable, easily recharged piece that can be placed wherever a little extra brightness is needed. These clever, quirky little lamps are available in clear, metallic and smoked finishes and look great on their own or in a set. They may look dainty, but their polymethyl methacrylate or acrylic glass construction means they’re tougher than you might think.

Music lovers are bound to appreciate the Uma Sound Lantern, which combines a gentle portable light source for outdoor use with a high fidelity Bluetooth speaker. The perfect accessory to evenings on the patio or by the poolside, the Uma Sound Lantern comes equipped with brightness and volume controls and is packaged in a protective cotton bag.

Refresh your dining room by rethinking your seating options. From armchairs to ottomans, we’ve put together an inspiring roundup of dining room seating that’s a little out of the ordinary.

Dining Chairs
Whether boldly colored, unconventionally shaped or made from nontraditional materials, these dining room chairs are sure to create a striking effect.

• Kartell Magic Hole Armchair and Sofa
• Kartell Mademoiselle Dining Chair
• Marilyn Armchair
• Nadir Accent Chair
• Venere Dining Chair
• Kartell Miss Less Accent Chair
• Villa Dining Chair

Dining benches
Individual chairs may be the first thing to come to mind when you consider dining room seating, but they’re not your only option. Bench seating along the long sides of your dining table creates an informal, contemporary look and is extremely easy to care for.

• • Elan Bench
  • Sponge Bench
  • Knox Bench
  • Zoey Bench

Dining stools
These dining room stools are stylish and space-saving alternatives to spare chairs. When deciding on a stool, bear in mind that the typical height for a dining table is 30 inches, so your seating should be around 18 inches high. Opting for a hydraulic stool means you can raise or lower its height at will, moving it from the breakfast bar to the dinner table in a moment.

• River Stones Pout
• American Leather Maxwell Ottoman
• Question Mark Stool
• Kartell Charles Ghost Stool
• Lucky Stool
• Doris P Barstool

This is one dynamic, talented and prolific designer! You may not initially be able to pronounce her name (er-kwi-ola) but once you start researching what she has designed you will remember her name.

Born in Spain, Patricia now lives and works in Milan running Studio Urquiola – her design firm that focuses on exhibitions, art direction and architecture. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Madrid in 1989. In 1991 Patricia designed her first commercial pieces of furniture in collaboration with Vico Magistretti and for the last two decades, she has continued to create pieces that are both highly imaginative yet functional. What makes her work very desirable is that her pieces sell for whatever vendor she has designed for – vendors like Kartell, Driade and B&B, Alessi, De Padova, Flos, Molteni and Artelano. Patricia is quite the who’s who of Italian furniture manufacturers.

In interviews, Patricia says she is still not sure after all these years how she actually arrives at a finished product. In once case she states, “All the little answers to the questions I ask give you a sense of the product. The mood of the piece is what people catch, I just flow with the river and try to do products that are sincere.”

Some of this designer’s pieces are on permanent display at MOMA and other international museums. One of her many awards is the Medalla de Oro al Merito en Las Bellas Artes, which she won in both in 2010 and 2011, and in 2012 she was nominated as Designer of the Year.

Several of her products are proudly displayed in our Kartell gallery including the Comeback Chair (which garnered the Good Design Award in 2014), the Foliage Chair, and the Usame End Table.

Cover image courtesy of B&B Italia.

Shopping for accent tables is a great opportunity to add a unique feature to your space — thanks to their portability and compact dimensions, there’s little need to play it safe. The boundaries between different accent table types are fluid, and most can be put to multiple uses, the major exception being pub tables due to their height. Our selection of accent tables includes:

Cocktail tables
– The two pieces that make up the Mardi can be interlocked or positioned separately.
– The Onyx is topped with a slab of natural stone, making each table one of a kind.
– The Bellagio transforms effortlessly between two heights thanks to a built-in gas lift mechanism.

Coffee tables
– The Ca’D’Oro Coffee Table features legs of blown Murano glass with a fascinating perlage effect.
– Available in clear or extra clear, with optional mirrored sides, the Ti appears to float.
– The Gaultier coordinates beautifully with a range of decorating styles and is ideal for serving guests.

End tables
– The innovative Charley is a mirror that doubles as a table — or a table that doubles as a mirror!

Side tables
– The Ponticello is ultra-portable and available in a range of fun colors.
– The Meri combines a timeless, organic-looking texture with a stylish, modern shape.
– The stackable Cut Side Table makes a colorful and useful addition to any room.

Pub tables
– The pedestal-style Grand Canal 55 Pub Table is made of beautiful black or clear Murano glass.
– The bright and funky Moma Bar Table is suitable for indoor or outdoor use.
– The Crystal Pub Table features three metal legs that thrust dramatically skyward like a trio of stalagmites.

Temperatures don’t exactly hit Siberian lows here in Florida. But opulent faux fur accessories still have a place in our hearts and homes.

Why Go Faux?
High quality faux fur has a number of advantages over the real thing. It’s animal friendly, making it a guilt-free and eco-friendly alternative. Being synthetic, it doesn’t require cold storage when not in use and isn’t tempting to hungry moths. Care is less difficult, and an ordinary drycleaner should be able to clean it for you (always check the instructions, of course).

Throws
Faux fur throws are both cozy and versatile. Their delightful texture makes throws a luxurious option for warding off the chill when sitting out on the patio in the evenings, and when not in use they can be draped across the foot of a bed or hung strategically over an accent chair. A faux fur throw also adds a soft, fluid counterpoint to the strong lines of a contemporary sectional.

Pillows
Add an instant touch of luxury to your bed with a scattering of faux fur pillows. Dreamweavers make plump pillows is an array of imitation fur types and colors, including a thick, snowy Faux Lamb and Faux Fox in black, white, silver and fiery red. The Fox and Lamb pillows (see images above) are the perfect pieces for this look!

Rugs
A faux fur area rug can be as subtle or as bold as you like. Add a taste of the Southwest with a large faux cowhide, or sink your toes into the deep shag of a faux sheepskin. More exotic options range from Dreamweavers’ quality faux striped mink to imitation bearskins and safari prints. The Striped Mink Area Rug (see images above) is a great option for this kind of rug.

The prolific and talented designer, Giulio Manzoni, was born in 1952 and graduated with honors in architecture from Milan Polytechnic, which led fluidly into a career in design. This was proven when he won the Leonardo prize from the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan with his product Riletto. He also holds many patents for various products working mainly in Industrial Design.

One such product is the 4×4 Extendable Dining Table, a beautiful table of canaletto walnut by one of our new brands, Ozzio Italia. This table has recently been awarded the Red Dot Design Award 2016 in the Product Design Category with the following reasons:

“The new table 4X4 presents an exclusive opening system. The product changes its shape and outlook because of the extensions that, once opened, match the top and give an elegant leaf motif.”

The Red Dot Design Award is an international product design and communication design prize awarded by the Design Zentrum in Essen, Germany. There are prize categories for product design, design agencies, and design concepts. Since 1955, designers and producers can apply for the prizes with the winners being presented in an annual ceremony. Winning products are presented in the Red Dot Design Museum on the premises of the historical Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen.

The prize-winners list includes companies such as Siemens, Apple, BMW, the Bose Design Center, Porsche and Lenovo.

We are featuring this new table in our showroom in the fall of 2016, and anticipate the excitement that it will generate.

Southern California’s Nathan Anthony has a romantic backstory — in fact, it seems husband and wife designers Tina Nicole and Khai Mai were almost fated to work together. He owned a furniture factory and she had a background in textile design, so combining their assets just made sense to the young couple. In 1989, they established a furniture design business, named it after their son, and started creating.

Nathan Anthony furnishings are strongly influenced by contemporary European design, thanks to Tina’s Italian-American background and the couple’s extensive international travels. As principal designer, Tina describes her style as “soft modern” — edgy shapes are finished with rich textiles and accented with luxury touches like Swarovski crystals.

Tina cites fashion designer Coco Chanel, architect Patricia Urquiola and poet John Keats among her many influences. Khai Mai’s philosophy is simply that “design should inspire”. Nathan Anthony furniture is built by hand, and alder frames, Pirelli webbing, and heavy gauge steel springs are standard. Their upholstered pieces are highly customizable, with hundreds of fabric and leather choices plus the option to specify unusual sizes, trims and treatments.

Founded in 1979 by Giorgio and Silvia Cattelan, Cattelan started as a carpentry business in a small village called Thiene, producing marble tables and accessories. Cattelan’s offering now includes light fixtures, accents and all kinds of furniture, but their tables remain a byword for originality and beauty. Always innovating, Cattelan has created a new tabletop material, for exclusive use on Cattelan designs. Introducing Keramik, a unique designer finish that looks like fine natural stone but is far more durable.

As the name suggests, Keramik is a ceramic finish over a glass base layer, engineered to be capable of withstanding the rigors of daily use. While beautiful, stone is notoriously susceptible to heat damage and staining thanks to its highly porous nature. Even spilled water can leave a mark on marble if it isn’t cleaned up promptly! That makes it a risky choice for a dining or serving surface. Keramik, on the other hand, offers a remarkably deep, three-dimensional effect that looks like real marble, alabaster, or slate, without the worry.

With a Keramik tabletop, you can enjoy the best of both worlds — a gorgeous surface that can stand up to boisterous family meals. Visit the showroom to view samples of Keramik, and see for yourself how realistic it is!

Continuing our exploration of top performance fabrics , today we delve into the world of Crypton. And it really is a world of its own — Crypton offers over 2,000 upholstery fabric options in a huge range of colors, textures and patterns, making it perhaps the most diverse producer of technical fabrics. In addition to fabric by the yard, the Crypton HomeⓇ line includes furniture, decor, accessories, and a line of pet beds and throws, designed in collaboration with William Wegman.

The Crypton story began in 1993, when midwestern entrepreneurs Randy and Craig Rubin developed an antimicrobial, stain and water repellant fabric that was breathable and free of the vinyl coating that was previously considered essential. Its performance qualities are engineered into the fabric on a molecular level and last as long as the fabric does. That gives Crypton a softer, more natural feel than its rivals and makes it an ideal fit for high end furnishings.

A heavy duty fabric that looks and feels like a luxury textile, Crypton is designed to repel liquids, causing them to bead and run off. It is also resistant to fungus, abrasions, odors, and flames, making it remarkably difficult to destroy, in spite of its cotton-like  hand. Today, the Hilton, Marriott and Wyndham hotel chains all use Crypton upholstery, as do many restaurants and healthcare facilities, where furnishings are required to be extremely durable.

Crypton’s popularity has led to the development of several different lines, including Crypton Home (for domestic specifications) and Crypton OutdoorⓇ. Among technical fabric brands, Crypton is notable for its extremely wide range of products, which lets designers play with an almost unlimited palette of colors and patterns. Experience this amazing fabric for yourself at the Sklar Furnishings showroom.