Original pine furniture of the pine dresser ilk is not only tired and over-stripped but is in short supply and what remains is
Original pine furniture of the pine dresser ilk is not only tired and over-stripped, but is in short supply and what remains is often pricey. Fresh-forested new pine, on the other hand, is generally of poorer quality and less interesting grain and colour than old, and it doesn’t look good in the raw.
Salvaged timbers not only look more convincing in neo-period mode, but they also enable cabinet-makers to make viably affordable pieces in a wider range of woods (new hardwoods are hideously expensive) and to add an age ingredient to creative modern design. “It doesn’t try to be anything, it just is.”
Whether it’s pitch pine floorboards, redundant Zimbabwean railway sleepers, oak rafters, elm joists and remnants of flattened French barns, salvaged timber is the preferred material of a growing number of furniture makers. “There is something indefinably beautiful about old wood,” says Richard Hempsted, who builds all Totem’s pieces to partner Lynne Sephton’s designs.
Coffee tables, some smooth, some plain, others hinged and bolted, stand below mirrors hung on thick pieces of rope. The 28 July issue of Time magazine included a 16-page supertribute, for which Madonna wrote about her stay at Versace’s villa at Lake Como. “The cook prepared delicious meals, the Sri Lankan servants waited on us with white gloves, and my dog, Chiquita, was taken for long walks by gorgeous Italian bodyguards with walkie-talkies.” Bodyguards Where are they when you need them?. Venturing into Totem Interiors in Crouch End, London, is like stumbling upon an ancient shipwreck.
Luxurious old fabrics, urns and enormous busts provide the perfect backdrop for the elegant solidity of the shop’s furniture: simple, sanded dressers and ornately pedimented chests stand beside and yet do not detract from one another. “Among the big fashion names were Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld and Valentino,” said the Mail. “But the other personalities were surprisingly absent – no Madonna, no Demi Moore, no Stallone.” Never mind. “She dances with Kate Moss at hip New York nightclubs,” said Mimi Spencer of the Evening Standard, “she goes laden with gifts to Madonna’s baby.”Tuesday’s funeral in Milan reached every paper, with all except the Mail and the Guardian using the “Di comforts Elton” snap. We are hardly talking about taking back the vote.”Meanwhile, pens were turning to sister Donatella, designer of the Istante and Versus ranges, as the hot tip to replace Versace by the Telegraph, the Guardian and the Evening Standard She even has his rock star cache. On the contrary, he forced women back into some very old and dusty ones.” This paper’s Annalisa Barbieri countered with “how insulting…