Home Show Trends: The Found Object:
While traveling through the halls of Pier 94 on the West Side Highway of New York for the “At Home”, to the trade only,section of the Gift Show I wanted to better understand what the trends are now and where they are coming from. I was struck by a sense of nostalgia and by a sense to the degree to which each piece was highly personalized. There was a heightened sensuality to the objects they invited one to touch them and to ponder their creation in a way that furniture and objects have previously have not. While these objects did not at times leave a sense of “wow” they left one with a sense of curiosity and whimsy. The pursuit of the “found object” an object taken out of context and used and adapted in another way. The elevation of the ordinary object to fetish or art.
Trends are tending towards turning back the wheels of time to when industrialization was in its infancy. All the items on display in the booths hold a patina, monochromatic, weathered rusted, romantic notions of time passed, and imperfect layering of materials. The pairing of materials was fairly uniform: raw oak and steel or zinc. Giving the impression of a workshop each booth was staged to create the illusion that you just happened upon a curiosity shop in the streets of Paris. The trends also speak to another aspect of our time, we are more backward looking than forward, indicating that we are not optimistic about the future, we’d rather not contemplate it, nor idealize it. Where periods of design fanticized about automation we are more like the “arts and crafts” in that we idealize a time of simpler pleasures, what we are surrounding ourselves with is illuding to simpler times, before time started moving at warp speed-pre-blackberry. Even picking up a Restoration Hardware catalogue is indicative of this, everything is the same, just add dip it in rust.
Antiqued books at Bohemian lined up in a studied haphazard manner behind glass shelves with artifacts meant for study of nature. This staging so convincing giving the impression they had been sitting collecting dust that you were tempted to brush them off, even though the booths had only been mounted days before. With furniture the lines were paired down but the materials were reinvented. That same piece 1920’s modern furniture which no longer excites the public or the buyers to purchase with its modern lines and clean lacquered finishes. These pieces with their unusual pairing of natural and man-made materials offer a flight of fantasy.
The Zeitgeist seems to have happened upon the idea of providing a narrative and that historic, thrift shop and antique shop finds are the new modern. As pieces become harder and harder to find they need to be manufactured, at times out of genuinely salvaged materials and other times out of new materials made to look old.
I wanted to better understand how home trends begin. This show more than any other I had seen had a uniform feel to it throughout. It was as if each reseller had come to the same conclusion. By all objective measures it seems that it was also well received and welcomed. By the last day of the show the manufacturers were scribbling their domain names on scraps of paper or invoice slips when no more catalogues to be found. They commented that they had never had this happen at any show, they usually returned with boxes full of catalogues. Perhaps this is the year that American consumers will open their pocket books, redo the master-bedroom that they have been holding off on.
In parallel to the theme of salvage and pairing of rough hewn oak with steel, were nature themes. Large botanical prints, natural materials such as bird feathers encapsulated in blown glass, moss covered balls, bird cages, ceramics made to look like shells, rope covered nautical inspired tables. As well sea shells and sea fans are a popular theme. Karen Robertson booth held a well curated collection of sea fans and sea stars dissected and sandwiched between two panes of glass. Anatomic drawings were represented by Spicher and Company. Design Legacy had collected circus memorabilia complete with a “lucky ducky” rotating water moat with rubber ducks and circus table as well as old placards. Black and White photos were transferred in another booth on to pillows but with a pixilated to also give it the patina of time. To add to the time worn feel fabrics de rigor are un-dyed linen on Louis XV chairs but of larger proportions so as to allow for more comfortable lounging?
Go Home was complete with reproduction factory lights on accordion brackets for both wall mounting and for ceiling mounted pendants and coffee tables and tea trays on large over sized wheels.
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Decoupage was used to alter picture frames by adding old calligraphic paper or sea shells. Honesty of materials was prevalent in the construction of much of the lighting, laying bare the construction of an object for the viewer. Lighting of blown clear glass with the bare bulb on display, or the use of welded wire to create the shade for a pendant or even the use of cardboard with the raw egg crate interior exposed. Shiner offered a selection of sculptural chairs and loungers made of reclaimed hardwoods and sustainably harvested woods. Their chandeliers in a wide variety of woods and cardboard showcased that materials potential for limitless invention. 
One booth was comprised entirely of welded wire, organizers and baskets as well as very attractive flour and sugar bins made of aluminum with a peek hole to see the material inside.
To reveal the construction of an upholstered item, plain dyed linen was used and contrasting stitching emphasized the construction of the item. We look with naïve eyes now on to the domestic objects that surround us and marvel at their creation. Also of interest were very long rolling pins that served as wall shelving.
Representing the continuing but less prevalent of theme of “Hollywood Glam” was Chandi. With extraordinary exaggerated proportions on high backed chairs and headboards. And images of Audrey Hepern and Marilyn Monroe on vinyl. As well acid bright colors, pinks, turquoise and white.
Another continuing theme was that of inspiration from the orient. Both India and Asia. Bojay, Bungelow 5, Roost & Zentique all held items that were inspired but reinvented from colonial India and pre-colonial Asia. The Indian tables were gilded in silver or inlaid tables of mother of pearl. The Asian tables were then white washed on a color of bamboo as seen in years past, this trend still continues.
The theme of recycled, repurposed and sustainable materials continues to gain steam. Roost also held a line of accessories of baskets and trash cans made of recycled magazines. Royloa Pacific Designs offered furniture from beech recycled from Chinese salvaged doors adapted to stools and tables as well as genuinely antique wash basins as accessories.
For the garden one both Achla a female architect turned industrial designer presented trellises and benches with acid bright colors, unusual forest greens and pistachio greens with exterior grade painted finish. A reinterpretation of the famous Leuytens bench. Also lovely geometric designs for the trellis and pergola were very inventive and purposeful. Exterior furniture continues along the path of getting beyond boring with use of bright colors and more whimsical and fashionable designs. Why if buying a bedroom set is so passé’ for our bedrooms would we ever want to buy a “matching set” for our exterior? And to those of you that did not realize it was passé yet, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Don’t throw the whole thing out, just put the side tables on e-bay and then buy something wild and crazy that doesn’t match.
It seemed that the message of this trend was a backlash against the perfectly coordinated interiors of days past, and a longing for a personal touch that implied that the objects were inherited or found by you personally on some adventure, or even that you altered them or got them from a favorite uncle. The object should have gone through a transformation taken it beyond the plain vanilla where god forbid you just bought the item. Our interiors now should look easy and effortless, definitely not made to look like we tried too hard to impress. Our kid’s rooms should show that we have a design flair and that we’re still cool. We’re contemplating purchases longer and the each object should have more thought put into both its construction and its ultimate placement. Objects should make the viewer contemplate what their history is and perhaps create a storyline of their own making. We long for things less to come out of a factory and more out of a workshop. One wishes for the mark of the maker on each piece. It’s an exciting time for furniture and for design where an individual voice and opinion is encouraged.
