So I finally made that trip to Ikea and picked up a few things I needed. It has been a wonderfully fun process examining the differences between how I want to live and how I am living. For months I’ve been stalking all manner of interior and design blogs, from Ikea hacking ideas to the crème de la crème of mid-century goodness every other designer I know would kill to collect.
Much as I’d love to fill the new apartment with designer furniture and live in a space out of a Molteni & C catalogue, I can’t really hold down a mortgage and a full set of Eames dining chairs at the same time (or so my accountant mom tells me), not to mention no one can possibly live with minimal clutter in a photo-ready space unless you also have a battalion of maids who pick up after you, thus have settled for reasonably cheap efficient storage while maintaining lots of space and a decently balanced bank account. I love space, but I’m a bit of a hoarder, I think; I cannot stand the idea of living in a cramped space and something has to give. So I’ve started with selling most of the old furniture I bought when I first moved to Sydney. They were things I picked up out of necessity and practicality and never really liked all that much and at the same time, kind of like the shitty public transport system you put up with because the affordable alternative isn’t all that better. And the idea of having to move one day does give one prerogative to keep things minimal. So I’m starting with a somewhat half-clean slate.
Even in Sydney a trip to Ikea on a weekend is a stressful thing; the traffic on Parramatta Road heading West to Rhodes is just as bad as trying to get into One Utama on a Sunday but it was the one and only day the stars aligned: for me and the boy to both be free (well, more importantly the boy had to be free since the bookshelf I intended to buy - and bought - is almost 2 metres high and wide, assembled, and particularly heavy) and with a car big enough to haul it back.
So now I have my massive bookshelf/TV storage, that I’m actually pretty happy with. It holds my TV and enough of my books and it may actually have enough space to store socks and other small things in a drawer if I care to experiment with my weekends and some particle board.
The next thing on my list is a dining table. I am torn between keeping this bar table that I already own and buying better bar chairs for it:
Ikea Utby bar table; Photo by macgeek13
However, I think it can really only comfortably sit two people thus have been toying with the idea of buying one more in the same size thus making it dual-purpose as a work space as well as a table that sits 4-5 when I have people over. OR, sell everything and buy a lower dining table and dining chairs which will look better but will not function as a work space because the table height will be significantly lower..
The last thing I want to pick up is an armchair. Here’s something I really like that is a little reminiscent of Arne Jacobsen’s famous Swan chair (which I also like!). He is one of my very favourite Danish designers/architects. Demi Moore has one of his egg chairs in a gorgeous tan leather. This is Pierre Paulin’s Orange slice chair:
Pierre Paulin Orange Slice; Picture from Deconet
I’ve been having a debate with some of my designer friends who advised me to buy a reproduction instead if I’m serious about buying a mid-century piece, which would be much cheaper than the original. In terms of designer furniture there are three basic categories: originals, reproductions and replicas. Reproductions basically refer to licensed copies of the original, eg. Fritz Hansen makes the licensed version of Arne Jacobsen Egg chairs. Replicas are basically knock-offs: mass-produced copies that may not be made to the original specifications and have no affiliation to the original designers. Have a guess which one is more affordable?
As a designer part of me feels like buying a replica is like condoning copyright theft. At the same time, unless a lot of money magically appears in my bank account, there is no way I can afford to buy an original. The licensed reproduction Egg chair costs about A$3,000, which is fairly reasonable but I’m not sure I am willing to spend that kind of money. So I managed to come up with a solution that isn’t really a solution at all - which is to keep scouring second hand furniture stores in hopes of finding an original mid-century that I can refurbish.
It is pretty fun trawling second hand stores and garage sales on the weekends; so far I’ve come across two Herman Miller office cabinets and a Eames DSW reproduction by Vitra in a very odd blue - quite encouraging really! And Sydney has some great furniture gems I have yet to unearth. Hopefully I’ll come across an armchair I like, though I’m really in no rush to get one.
I will post some pictures of the new apartment up eventually. But until then I will leave you with this gem I found on one of my trawls:
Such a great idea if you have a lot of old books and belts you have no use for! I’d love to credit the genius but I have no idea where this photo is originally from.
I love the interwebs <3
