TOP SHOP: kids love design
WHILST THE FRENCH have come to contemporary design later than their Italian cousins, they have fully embraced the world of contemporary design for kids in an incredibly short time. First Milk magazine, then Little Fashion Gallery, and now ‘kids love design‘ - currently the ultimate design e-boutique for kids.
Begun by Séverine Herbeth Limon - French but now based in Switzerland, and mother to Mathis 4, and Amelie, 1 - who began researching the idea of modern children’s design whilst resident in Luxembourg, London and Brussels, the store was a culmination of realising, “all these cities have great modern furniture shops, but after the birth of my children I became so frustrated that the only room in the house I wasn’t happy with was also perhaps the most important for a new parent - the baby’s room. So I decided to do something about it.”
She has spent the last three years scouring Europe for “fresh, modern, inspiring, environmentally-friendly” design for little people that surpasses the obvious brands. In their stead are niche European names from 12 countries - names like Domestic, Ineke Hans and Fellin who promote true innovations for children and babies, and create designs that would not only look precisely at ease in the most modern of homes, but are probably a great deal more cutting edge than much of your own furniture. Read the rest of this article
Posted 10 December 2008 in Shop Watch
FOCUS: Trays of Art
GIVE MOST ADULTS a blank white A4 piece of paper and ask them to design a tray, right there and then, and they’d be petrified. Not so children, points out Ella Doran, the print product specialist, who pioneered the photographic print on table / homewares trend just over a decade ago.
“Adults do tend to get very inhibited. I can do too, but working with kids tends to free you up. They don’t have any of our hang-ups. They really like to take their time over things, and I’m always surprised at what comes out - the pattern making or the genius little quotes and designs,” she says. Ella, a mother of two boys, should know. She’s been holding occasional tray design ‘events’ for the last two years after collaborating with the Tate galleries on a couple of children’s books - and she finds that although she does hold adult classes too (one was in the middle of Selfridges department store, which, she says, was “a mad anthropological exercise.”), it’s the kids who really relish the chance to put their art work on a real-life product for the home - one that they get to take home with them.
Okay, so the process isn’t quite so instant. The finished water-based drawings are sent off to Ella’s experimental Belgian producers, where they sandwich each picture between melamine sheets, squash it and heat it until the melamine bonds, chop off the rough edges, and hey presto, finished tray (currently just £12). Once done it’s sent back to the UK for collection or posted directly to your address. Read the rest of this article
Posted 27 November 2008 in Eating / Drinking
REAL LIFE, LONDON: Anton’s Bedroom
ANTON’S ROOM in south London is - mostly - the work of his stylist mother Emma Cassi, who makes intricate jewellery from vintage lace and beads for adults and children.
Four-year-old Anton’s room is painted white “like the rest of the house,” says 33-year-old Emma, who moved to London from Dijon with her husband, Bertrand, prior to Anton’s arrival, “because it was his dream to live in London since he was 11 years old.”
For hits of colour on top of the white background, Emma has “added two coloured lines [on the walls - paint inside masking tape]. I prefer to bring colour to the room with vintage plastic toys and books.”
Emma and Anton find these “together in junk shops. They can be old frames, postcards… His taste isn’t always toy oriented, and he likes seeking out treasures!”
Posted 3 November 2008 in Real Life Interiors
TEN QUESTIONS, TEN ANSWERS: Absolute Zero Degrees on Mini Moderns
Together Mark Hampshire and Keith Stephenson of Absolute Zero Degrees, a graphic design outfit based in south London, produce Mini Moderns, a homesware label for kids with more than a little adult appeal too.
They have ridden the wave of the new market in children’s interior design, and have become, within 4 years of their launch, one of the world’s most inspiring design companies for children.
Mark, 41, (shown right in the picture on the left) from West Yorkshire, holds a degree in English literature and loves New York, Negronis and Radiohead. He dislikes red sports cars. Keith, 42, from North Yorkshire, has a degree in graphics, used to work with Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway at Red or Dead, and loves Autumn, gigs, The Festival of Britain, and the Amalfi Coast (ED: but then who doesn’t?). He hates prejudice, heights and laziness. Here they talk design, eco issues, and being online uncles to their growing legion of fans….
LittleBig: Most people turn to design for children when they have kids themselves, and become frustrated or disappointed at what is on the market. You don’t have that justification so what’s your reasoning for Mini Moderns?
Posted 25 October 2008 in Decor, Designer Profiles
TOP FIVE (ACTUALLY SIX): High Chairs
THE HIGH CHAIR seems to have become a vehicle for manufacturers and retailers to charge hundreds of pounds for what is usually a joyless and necessary purchase. (Where’s the fun in buying something that will end up daubed in dried food deposits?) The following are neither joyless, nor completely outrageously priced high chairs that seem to offer solutions to the hard-to-clean, unattractive, non-décor enhancing feeding chairs littering high street stores and homes. In fact our top marks go to Lula Sapphire’s K2 by Kuster - for its foldability, its detachable tray (not everyone has a dining table or wants to feed in the dining room), and mostly its price-point. Click on the pictures below to enlarge.
Best for Classicists and older kids: Stokke’s Tripp Trapp. Okay, so it’s a little ubiquitous now, but that’s because the Tripp Trapp goes with most decors, and lasts until your child, is ooh, an adult, if they’re so inclined. The down sides are having to buy separate accessories, which bumps up the price, and a lack of tray, which generally means more fallout on clothing and floors unless you have a table handy. Lovely new colours. From £115 - £165, Stokke, www.stokke.com; 0800 051 7036 (UK).
Posted 21 October 2008 in Eating / Drinking, Furniture
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