GOING GLOBAL: world decor
Illustration by Sara Barnes
DON’T BE SURPRISED if your friend’s six year old’s passport is as full of exotic stamps as your own. Our children’s generation understands travel like never before.
Whether it’s because of our own globe-trotting preferences (we are the cheap-flights, itchy feet generation), or because our families tend to be divided by thousands of miles and seas where they once were divided by mere tens or hundreds of miles, our children are au fait with, and completely at home with, the scope of the world… for them the globe holds not so much wonder but a firm belief that they will visit the locations they read about in their favourite books, or where the relatives they regularly Skype reside. None of it is out of bounds.
BozAround: travel en famille
PLANNING YOUR SUMMER holiday right now? If you need inspiration seek out Vanessa Boz’s new travel blog, BozAround, an inspiring and informative family travel sourcebook.
French-born Vanessa (pictured below with her son Marcelo as a baby) has had plenty of travel experience. In her dayjobs as co-creator of the Bubble children’s design trade shows in New York and London, and as the London-based correspondent of the superchic French tome, MilK magazine, Vanessa spends her time travelling between the three hippest cities in the world. She has lived in all three cities, travels regularly for work and fun, and spends her summers in Cesme, Turkey, with her Turkish husband and father of her two children, Marcelo and Amalya. She is now a children’s brand advisor.
Posted 24 March 2010 in Travel
BUNK MATE: Ace hotel bunks
LOOK NO FURTHER for inspiration for your pre-teen or teenage son’s room than the recently opened Ace Hotel in New York. One of our (male) colleagues spent a couple of days there recently and is still extolling the virtues of the large canvas laundry bags with Navy-style typography, the masculine-chic toiletries from Rudy’s barbershop, the blankets embroidered with the Ace logo, and the mix of vintage and new interiors, devised by NYC design firm, Roman & Williams.
Our favourite part, however, confirms the return of the bunkbed: the ensuite bunk rooms in the NYC hotel are a perfect stopover for singles, guys on their stag weekends, grown-ups reliving their childhoods, or teens who you’d prefer to have their own room. We can’t help falling in love with the almost military issue, sleek, fuss-free, heavy-duty, powder-coated bunks sourced from American Bedding that would clearly last a lifetime and beyond. Can we have, please?
*Bunk rooms in March 2010 are approximately £150 per night. www.acehotel.com. Ace Hotel New York City, 20W 29th Street, New York City, NY 10001; tel: + 212 679 2222.
Real Life Mural: NYC
Photography by Akira Yamada
MURAL ARTIST AMI SUMA had an audience when she was painting Natsume’s bedroom walls in her parents’ NYC apartment. Natsume herself. “She LOVED it from the beginning. She would bring her little chair by and stare at me painting for hours - I really mean for hours! She never got bored. I was totally amazed by her. Her mom tells me she still talks about me a year later.”
But then, it would be difficult not to be intrigued by Suma’s delicate modern take on pink and brown, that was influenced by Natsume’s favourite animals - birds and bears - but also by her parents’ taste. “They left the design completely up to me but just asked me to keep the colour fairly quiet as they had to share the space with Natsume. I didn’t want it to be too childish, so I kept in mind the ‘French shabby-chic / antique’ feeling of the rest of the home, and I tried to keep the silhouettes vintage looking, and the colour minimal and chic.”
Suma pulls it off by pairing soft pinks with beiges and browns “keeping the tones of the colours similar by using soft, antique shades, to calm the pink down a bit.”
Posted 19 October 2009 in Real Life Interiors
TEN QUESTIONS, TEN ANSWERS: Alexander Taylor
By Christine Samuelian
At 33 Alexander Taylor is one of the youngest product designers to have made it big in the international design world with iconic shapes like the powder-coated steel Antlers coathanger, the solid oak and rubber Kids Rock rocking chair, and the Fold lamp, a version of which is manufactured by Established & Sons. Alex lives in the seaside town of Deal, Kent, with his wife and two kids, Wilf, 4, and Clara, 18 months.
LittleBig: What inspired your now famous Kids Rock rocking chair [pictured bottom]?
AT: I saw an old children’s rocking chair at a friend’s house. At the time we didn’t have kids but I was instantly struck with this image of children kicking back in front of the fire, relaxing after a tough day - I just thought it was a funny concept. It also gave me an opportunity to design a very pure piece without having to worry too much about ergonomic and comfort complaints. I wanted to design something that would survive long after the children have grown up and left home. It was never my intention to do a version for the grown-ups - I like the idea of the children having their own individuality and furniture.
LB: Any other kid-related products?
AT: The Antlers coat hook [£59, pictured right]. It’s a highly graphic and functional piece that lends itself perfectly to a child’s bedroom wall. [And we also love Alex's flat Fold lamp with coloured flex, pictured below, great for older kids' bedside tables].
LB: Any more child-related ideas in the pipeline?
AT: I’ve had a few thoughts that may develop into both playful objects and serious children’s furniture. I’d love to design a good high chair - there are already a couple of good ones on the market but I think it would be a challenge. It’s such a fundamental part of the kitchen and you have to live with it and use it three or more times every day. I’d also like to design a bed that helps children sleep all night and at least until 7.30am during the week and 11am at the weekends - I’d make a fortune! Read the rest of this article
Posted 5 September 2009 in Designer Profiles
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