Newsletter 07: Home, Design and Wellbeing

I bought a small bureau recently. For Alison, my partner, who needed somewhere to work from home that didn’t impose on the room.

With its pigeon holes and drawers it is practical — but what I was not expecting was the calmness it brought to the room.

Alison is a school teacher. Marking, preparation SAT’s  - it’s part of rhythm of teaching. Coming home to a bureau that asks nothing — that simply offers a surface, some order, a place to put things — turned out to matter.

Design interacts, even consoles us, in intricate, often unnoticed ways. Like calmness itself, it removes the clutter. Lets you think

The Japanese capture this in a word - Shibui (渋い). In Scandinavia good furniture, weaves together the layered nature of home and design. 

Long before we sold on Etsy and Vinterior, as we planned our own store — pieces have passed through our home, on their way to the studio. Some move quickly, some stay longer.

The ones that stay longer are usually telling me something — quietly, no shouting allowed — about proportion, about material, about its life before it entered our living room, bedroom or kitchen.

The Noguchi coffee table has been static for some time. Its asymmetric form seems to fascinate even our 18-year-old dog, who in his lucid moments walks its circumference with something approaching intention. It’s a misinterpretation of Noguchi maybe, but it is what makes it perfect, and why it stays. 

Of course that’s my story. The things you bring into your own home will acquire stories of their own.