You may remember Evan Lackey from the IDS: DESIGNGENNEXT post. He just sent us some photos of some teak furniture recently purchased by his parents (for their own home).

I love this gorgeous sofa (and the dog is pretty cute too!). The lines are so soft and simple, while the new upholstery makes it fresh and current.
Evan: The couch is insane, 84 inches long… very thin frame, but really sturdy.  We got the couch and chair for $200 and had white leather cushions made, since the original foam and upholstery had disintegrated.

Here’s the accompanying chair. It’s so nice to be able to get a set!

The side unit we bought for about 180$… it’s nice, there is a shot of the manufacturers label too.

Always look out for manufacturers labels – they can help determine the value of a piece. Generally if a piece has a label or marking of some sort, it will be worth more.

Thanks for sharing Evan!

The other week we shared with you our teak wall unit, made by Danish designer Poul Cadovius. My mom found one for sale on ebay and accompanying it were some shots from the catalog, which I thought we’re kind of cool.

The cover of the catalog details the incredible bracket and pole system.

I never thought about putting it in the middle of the room (I couldn’t anyway, but it’s a great idea). The flexibilty of these modular systems means that you can make them work in almost any space.

A few more groovy spaces. Interestingly, it seems that in magazines like Dwell, the modern building style of using a lot of wood panelling in an interior is making a comeback. We love this look, and think that it was the gradual use of cheap materials that eventually turned people off of the wood panelled room. Yay, comebacks!

You may remember the Dansk Fjord set of cutlery in our february article from Kitka’s top 10 favorite flatware, but you may not know the significance of it’s design. During a tour of Scandinavia, Ted Nierenberg an American Entrepreneur stumbled across a hand forged knife and fork design by Jens Quistgaard at the Copenhagen Museum. The beautiful marriage of steel and teak was completely new and fresh and intrigued Nierenberg enough to seek out Quistgaard where they began discussing the potential of a mass produced line of cutlery. In 1954 the Fjord Flatware line was created, and Dansk was born.

One of our favorite designers, our house is littered with Quistgaard designs, here’s our own collection of Jens Quistgaard’s teak products.

for more information about Jens Quistgaard check out our review of the book: Danish Pepper

http://www.danishpepper.com/
http://www.teakpepper.com

Teak week is half-way through, but we’d still love to see some of your teak pieces. We know you’ve got them, whether they are Craigslist finds or from your parent’s cupboard! So just snap a quick photo (no need to get all professional) and send it in to info [at] kitkadesigntoronto [dot] com.

Here’s a shot to inspire you! These little salad bowls are so neat–the little hole could be used to carry/hold the bowl, or to use as a napkin or cutlery holder.

Let me start off by saying Finn Juhl was THE designer that brought Danish Modern to America.

Arguably Finn Juhl’s most famous design, the “Chieftain Chair” was inspired by the modern and abstract art Juhl was influenced by as a young man. Juhl grew up with an authoritative father, who persuaded him to follow a career as an architect studying at the Royal Danish Acedemy of Fine Arts, rather than pursue his interest in art history. Like many Danish designers, Finn Juhl’s designs stemmed from things he created for himself, these designs focused on form rather than function (a trait very different from Danish tradition). You can see these properties from the beautifully sculpted leather armrest sitting atop the chair’s teak frame, seeing the seat and back as sculpturally different from the chair frame is a reoccurring characteristic of Finn Juhl’s work.

Chair photos:
www.liveauctioneers.com
www.danish-furniture.com

We start Teak week with a look at Danish designer Hans J. Wegner’s famous Round chair, often referred to as “The Chair”. With an astounding 500 different chair designs we had to choose from Wegner’s career, we’d be lying if we said it wasn’t a tad difficult not to add all of our favorites. That being said “The Chair”, designed in 1949, easily stands out on it’s own, it is the highest level of craftsmanship and truly combines functionality with beauty. Those two words often get thrown around a lot, but this chair was hailed as “The world’s most beautiful chair” according to the American magazine Interiors, and we can see why.

smmmmmmmmoooooooooooooooooooooth

Hans Wegner’s “The Chair” seen here in the televised presidential debates between John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

Chair photos: www.danish-furniture.com