Coffee Tables that Look Down on Seating

Decor trends, like fashion trends, are all about invention and re-invention. One season, symmetry is king. The next, odd numbers and groupings are favored over neat pairs of objects. Coffee tables as we think of them today (low and long) made their debut in the Victorian era. Before then, end tables and console tables would be placed in front of a settee for the purpose of enjoying a cup of tea or coffee with company. I can't think of a time when this trend has had a resurgence so it is well overdue. I happen to love the odd sense of proportion that a tall coffee table creates and I hope the style picks up enough to challenge the dictatorship of the low coffee table for good.         

 

Images: 1) Elle Decoration, British Edition, November 2013.  2) Hello Metro. 3) Desire to Inspire. 4 & 5) Cote de Texas. 6) Design Manifest. 7) Design Indulgences. 8) Keltainen Talo Rannalla. 9) Lovely Shelter. 10) Pinterest.  

Geometrics

Images: Pinterest. Megan Park. Design Sponge. Made in Design. Luella June. Hard to Find. Alison Milne. Lushome.

Dreaming of a Hanging Bed

Images: Crazy Little Things. Mira Mira. Country Living. Daily Aros. Hiplyfe. Roots Before Branches. Flickr.

Creamy Knits

 

Images: 1) Despiertaymira. 2 & 3)  Decor 4 All. 4 & 5) Country Living. 6) Biscuit Scout. 7) Squidge and Bean. 8) Lush Home.

Pink and Black

Images: 1 & 2)  Living etc, August 2013, February 2013. 3) Keltainen Talo Rannalla. 4 & 5) Homes & Antiques, Issue 240, October 2012. 6 & 7) Vogue Living, Vol. 46, No. 1. 8) SF Girl by Bay.

Film Interiors: W.E.

So much of Madonna's W.E. represents the best offerings of film artisans that the senses have trouble absorbing all that is projected at them. The gorgeous original score by Abel Korzeniowski brings to mind Yumeji's Theme from In the Mood for Love. The costume design is flawless, with Wallis (Andrea Riseborough) always dressed for company in haute couture gowns and Cartier jewels and Wally (Abbie Cornish) wearing a black and white Chanel-inspired wardrobe. And the sets that are their backdrops tell as much about the characters as the dialogue. Surrounded by opulence first in England and then France, Wallis' residences start to feel like gilded cages as she learns what it really means to be married to a royal who has committed the unforgivable sin of abdication. Similarly, Wally's Park Avenue apartment seems to mock her as it suggests a perfection that she cannot approach in her marriage. Everything is in its place and yet all is not as it should be. When Sotheby's security guard, Evgeni, rescues her from her abusive husband, she is finally able to breath again in his welcoming exposed-brick loft. Spaces tell stories, and sometimes we have to change the spaces we move in to live a different story.

Images: Semtex Films.