Jazz – Nice!

Lapalma showcased several new products at the recent Salone del Mobile 2022 Milan show. First up is the Jazz bookcase designed by Lapalma’s new art director, Giuseppe Bavuso.

This quirky, statement piece is inspired throughout by the fluid spontaneity of improvised jazz performances. Supporting elements emerge from the base, seemingly of different lengths and at random angles, to interlock with the higher surfaces and replicate an imaginary stave. The structure seems on the edge of reason; from certain angles, you’d be forgiven for thinking the whole thing is about to collapse like a house of cards, but turn your head and study the details, and the structure resolves into an incredibly strong harmony.

Enough with the musical metaphors! Lapalma Jazz Bookcase available now.

Nice!

Rendez-Vous with Milan

Fresh from the Salone del Mobile 2022 Milan show is Rendez-Vous, the new table range from one of our longstanding Italian favourites Alea.

Avoiding somewhat, the current trend of heavy materials and industrial aesthetics, Rendez-Vous has a wonderful, restrained light feel.

The tubular, metal-painted leg structure is available as desk or poseur height and the radiused-corner slimline tops span up to 3000mm. Everything is available in Alea’s comprehensive standard colour palette.

Rendez-Vous is a wonderful collaborative table, perfect for boutique interiors and supporting impromptu meetings and project teams .

Rendez-Vous’s informal elegance makes it well suited to private and managerial offices, and its simplicity makes it an easy element to integrate into a domestic context.

And if boutique elegance doesn’t float your boat, Alea also do the industrial look.

Vitra HAL Range

HAL Lounge Chair

Vitra have expanded their HAL range of seating with the introduction of the HAL Lounge Chair, Jasper Morrison’s reinterpretation of the traditional upholstered four-legged armchair with a high backrest. The chair’s aesthetic is understated and versatile, suited to use at home or in public spaces, and can stand either alone, in pairs or in groups.

Vitra HAL Lounge Chair and ottoman in home setting

Despite its compact dimensions, the lounge chair is exceptionally comfortable. The shell is fibreglass reinforced plastic encased in polyurethane foam with natural or stained oak legs. It comes with soft loose seat and neck cushions or, if preferred, with an integrated seat cushion.

Vitra HAL Lounge Chair range from above

The HAL Lounge Chair can be paired with the HAL Ottoman, allowing users to enjoy its full comfort with their feet up. Both the HAL Lounge Chair and HAL Ottoman come in a choice of upholstery options with removable covers.

From Bottle to Chair: The Rise of PET Furniture

Think on this: in the time it takes you to take a swig from a plastic bottle, a staggering 20,000 of them are thrown away. Worldwide, there are more than 1,300,000,000 bottles sold every day, with only 6% of them being recycled and many ending up in the oceans.

Manufacturers in the Netherlands have hit upon an innovative solution to bring a second life to plastic bottles by transforming them into PET Felt. PET—or polyethylene terephthalate, to use its technical name—is a thermoplastic polymer resin that allows manufacturers to utilise plastic waste in their products, turning it into a sustainable, versatile, and durable material that can be moulded into any shape.

discarded plastic bottle
So, how does this—
finished PET chair
get to something like this?

Bottles—in some cases fished from the canals of Amsterdam—arrive to the recycling centres in 250kg densely pressed bales, that are teased apart, cleaned and sorted.

Next, the bottles move into a granulator machine that shreds them into 1cm flakes. Meanwhile, the granulator removes all remaining debris to produce pure PET flakes, ready for the next phase of their transformation.

The PET flakes now travel through an extruder, melting them and forming polyester fibres with a soft wool-like texture. Colour can be added at this point. The fibres are then cut into thin sheets to prepare them for felting.

The felting machine folds the fibre into layers and compresses it. Then, thousands of barbed needles stab the material, turning it into felt. Multiple felt sheets are next merged together to create a dense mat, ready for pressing.

PET manufacturing process - from discarded bottle to thermoplastic felt

In a single moulding action, the 3D pressing machine turns a sheet of felt into a sturdy form, preserving its soft wool-like texture. PET Felt can take any shape—chair shells, seats, and backs, dividers, lampshades, even tables! The felt also has excellent sound dampening properties, making it ideal for acoustic products such as wall panels and baffles.

PET product examples

The resultant products are innovative and sustainable. The possibilities are endless.

PET Products: Our Top Picks

PET products - our top picks

Like what you see? Enquire here.

Introducing CBS Design Series

This February, ergonomic accessories specialists Colebrook Bosson Saunders have launched Design Series, a suite of products designed to tackle ever-changing working patterns.

These include the Ondo connectivity module, the Loop Micro device mount, and Ollin and Lima laptop and tablet mounts.

For product information, insights, and design stories visit the Design Series site.

Lima laptop mount
Ollin Laptop Mount
Loop Micro device mount
Flo arm + Ondo connectivity module

Is it a cabinet? Is it a desk?

It’s both; it’s HomeFit!

We are all working from home more and more. That’s great if you have a separate work room with space for a desk and a good task chair. However, many of us don’t have the luxury of such a space, and even if we do, chances are it’s now being shared between two or more people.

There is a solution, and it’s called HomeFit!

When not in use, HomeFit looks like a regular cupboard or sideboard, and at only 105cm wide, 30cm deep, and 68cm high, it’s about the size of a small Billy bookcase.

But when we need to work, simply open the doors, flip up the worktop and HomeFit becomes a full 80cm work desk. More than that, it’s an electrically adjustable sit-stand desk!

Home Fit - a small cupboard that opens out to a sit-stand desk. Image shows closed cupboard and fully open and raised.

Available in all white, all oak, or black and oak on a 15-day lead time.

from £625.00

Available from November 2020. Please contact us for full specification and other finish options.

Home Fit opened out as desk.

5 Chairs for Homeworking

We live in strange times. Those of us who are not self-isolating face a weekly shop that is like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie. Hand sanitiser, pasta, and toilet roll are now more precious than gold. All sport is cancelled. Coronavirus has come to dominate our lives and the UK government is now urging workers to avoid the office and work from home where possible. At some point soon this could well become a full lockdown. Fair enough, we might enjoy some home comforts during our working day. And yet, often the home is not that comfortable, at least when it comes to home working. So if you are working from home, hunched over a laptop on the sofa, or your backside is going numb on a rock hard kitchen chair, check out our 5 chairs to upgrade your homeworking experience to something more comfortable.

Herman Miller Lino

Herman Miller Lino chair in home environment.

Lino is the new task chair from Herman Miller. Leaning on more than 50 years of Herman Miller’s industry-leading research and design, Lino holds the same DNA as the rest of their performance work chairs, offering each person balanced movement and dynamic fit. Lino brings scientifically backed comfort and a wide range of aesthetic options to your home. Lino’s contoured seat works together with its high-performance Duo Suspension to give you total spinal support, and the breathable suspension features integrated lumbar support thanks to a composite of different thread tensions.
You can customise your Lino Chair by choosing between a Black or Mineral frame, six different suspension colours and a large variety of upholstery options. For the base, choose a colour that matches the frame or, for a sleeker look, turn to polished aluminium. For even more comfort go for the PostureFit back option that supports the sacral and lumbar regions.

Herman Miller Lino Chair Range

Humanscale World

Humanscale World Chairs

Diffrient World is Humanscale’s first foray into all-mesh task seating. Designer Niels Diffrient wanted to create the most minimal, full-function task chair ever made. With an innovative tri-panel mesh backrest that provides custom back and lumbar support and a lightweight design, Diffrient World is simple, beautiful and functional. The design eliminates the need for traditional mechanisms, instead using the laws of physics and the sitter’s body weight to offer perfect recline for each individual sitter with armrests that are attached to the back of the chair so they move with the user. Diffrient World offers the ultimate user-friendly sitting experience. A high quality, affordable task chair with minimal parts, Diffrient World was built with longevity in mind and will look as good in ten years as it does today

Orangebox DO

DO is the result of taking a completely fresh look at task chair design, DO does more with less. DO is innovative in terms of the materials used, the way it’s assembled and transported, and the powerful performance it delivers. People come in all shapes and sizes and with shared workspaces becoming increasingly common there’s a growing need for simple, adaptable seating.
Thanks to user-centred design and a weight balancing mechanism, DO doesn’t have multitude of knobs and levers to find and struggle with. In fact, DO increases the range of adjustment on offer, while at the same time simplifying how it’s delivered, making DO easier to set up and intuitive to use.

Both the technical and upholstered mesh textiles adapt to each user’s body shape to always provide great back support. The single skin mesh allows better temperature control and breathe-ability than a traditional upholstered back. Lumbar support is included as standard. The weight balancing mechanism automatically adapts to any size of user, taking away the need for the usual tension adjustment & complicated chair ‘set-up’. The optional travel limiter allows back recline to three different angles but ensures that the back can only ever be locked in the upright position.

Vitra ID Trim

Vitra ID Trim button back task chair in lime green

ID Trim is part of Antonio Citterio’s ID Chair Concept family of chairs. The ID Chair Concept is based around the FlowMotion mechanism that supports the sitter across the full range of movement. Nearly all functions can be adjusted while sitting in the chair, and just a few quick turns of an adjustment screw enable precision tuning from minimum to maximum resistance. Even if the settings are not optimally adjusted on occasion, the chair still retains its ergonomic properties.

With its compact padding, the backrest of the ID Trim office chair conveys a sense of classic elegance and quality craftsmanship. ID Chairs in warm earthy hues have a particularly understated character, perfect for a home office. The sandwich construction with integrated lumbar support provides the comfort of an upholstered backrest while being almost as slim as a mesh backrest. The interplay of the polyamide frame with the multi-chamber padding gives the backrest its three-dimensional range of movement. It adapts to the contours of the sitter’s body and distributes varying degrees of flexibility and support to the correct zones.
Integrated cushioning in the lumbar region, flexibility in the thoracic, and support to the shoulders provide support and relieves strain and tension where appropriate.

Herman Miller Aeron

Herman Miller Aeron Remastered in grey. Home environmnet.

It’s incredible to think that Aeron has been around in various guises for a quarter of a century now. It’s testament to its timeless design and world-class ergonomics that its still relevant, and still going strong.

While its iconic form has remained largely unchanged, the Aeron chair has been remastered from the castors up to meet the needs of today’s work. With the help of original co-designer Don Chadwick, Herman Miller have thoughtfully updated the chair based on the latest research around the science of sitting, and advancements in materials, manufacturing and technology. By doing away with foam and fabric, the original Aeron solved one of the problems of prolonged sitting: the build-up of heat and humidity close to the body. While many chairs have adopted mesh as a way to deliver some of this performance, there’s only one Pellicle and it’s now upgraded to provide multi-zonal support for increased comfort and ergonomic support.

Updates include a more refined tilt mechanism that delivers an even more seamless experience of movement to the sitter through a smoother trajectory and optimal balance point and PostureFit SL, an adjustable back support with individual pads that stabilise the sacrum and support the lumbar region of the spine to mimic a healthy standing position.

Herman Miller Aeron Remastered on bridge

Illuminate Your Life

Yes, that time of the year again – cold, wet, and the days are getting shorter. And to top it all, the clocks have gone back. Here are a few ideas to light up your life during the long winter nights.

Clockwise from top left: Fritz Hansen Pharoah; Fritz Hansen Suspence Nomad; Tala Voronoi; Artemide Nur; Fritz Hansen Suspence; Tom Dixon Melt; Verpan VP Globe & Fritz Hansen Calabash
Clockwise from top left: Fritz Hansen Orient; Verpan Spiral; Fritz Hansen Orient; Luum Bangle; Verpan Illumesa; Fritz Hansen Caravaggio & Verpan VP Globe

Eames Fibre Glass Chairs

The Return of an Icon

Launched in 1950 by Charles & Ray Eames, the Fiberglass Chairs introduced a new furniture typology: the multifunctional chair whose shell can be combined with a variety of bases to serve different purposes. The material of the shell’s fibreglass owes its charm to an irregular surface, which appears almost like a natural material thanks to its clearly visible fibres.

Until then fibreglass was unknown in the furniture industry, having been primarily restricted to military applications such as aircraft radomes and cockpit covers. The Eameses recognised and fully exploited the advantages of the material: mouldability, rigidity and suitability for industrial manufacturing methods. They successfully developed the moulded seat shells for mass production: the Fiberglass Chair was born. Its organically shaped, one-piece shell proved to be a much-admired innovation at a time when chairs typically consisted of a seat and backrest. Fibreglass offered the added advantage of pleasant tactile qualities and a perfectly moulded form for optimal comfort.

“The idea was to do a piece of furniture that would be simple and yet comfortable.”

A Black with Feeling

For Charles and Ray Eames, black was not just black but a colour with many dimensions. The couple mainly used a limited scale of subtle and neutral colours for their furniture designs, but each palette was thoroughly researched and carefully selected.

While working on the Eames Fiberglass Chairs in the early 1950s, Charles and Ray Eames designed a range of nuanced shades for the chairs. No colours for fibreglass had existed before Charles and Ray Eames designed their plastic chairs.

The first fibreglass colours developed by the Eameses were Greige, a portmanteau which hinted at a beige-grey, Elephant Hide Grey, a warm black-grey, and Parchment, which was notoriously translucent. Shortly afterward, still in the early production phase, Sea Foam Green was added, along with a bright Lemon Yellow and a fresh Red Orange. Later these were followed by an array of other colours.

Eames Fibre Glass

One hue that apparently caused the most frustration and was the most difficult to achieve was a warm blackish grey – after several attempts Charles Eames expressed: ‘What I really want is a black with feeling’. These efforts ultimately resulted in the colour the Eameses called Elephant Hide Grey.

Vitra manufactures the Fiberglass Side Chairs by Charles and Ray Eames in six of the original colours. The fibreglass shells have a lively visual appeal that is much-prized today. Fibreglass owes its charm to an irregular surface, which appears almost like a natural material thanks to its clearly visible fibres. The version with a polypropylene shell – the Eames Plastic Chairs– also remain available. Together the two chair groups form an extensive family, enabling countless variations of the classic Eames design, with a suitable version for almost every taste and purpose