In 1951 an American designer called Richard Schultz joined Knoll International Design Development Group. In 1966 he designed a collection of outdoor seating and tables at the request of Florence Knoll, who wanted well-designed outdoor furnishings that would withstand the corrosive salt air at her home in Florida.

The furniture popped up the original Thomas Crown affair with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway in 1968; the film was uber cool and so is the furniture.

The 1966 Collection furniture is included in many museum collections including the Louvre Museum Design Collection in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, just to name a few.

Today the collection is distributed by B&B Italia. When a furniture collection is still on sale over 40 years after its debut, it has got to be worth a look.

Now I’m not going to argue with you about this furniture, I’m just telling you it is the most beautiful outdoor furniture ever produced. If you can’t see it I’m going to blame it on your lack of visual education.

This lack of visual education is the reason why people struggle to accept new design ideas. People like what their parents like. Give them an education in art history, design and architecture and our physical environment will be transformed.

The furniture is powder coated steel and the meshing is Teflon, this is furniture you’re going to have your children and grandchildren fighting over, and for once their taste in furniture is going to be enhanced by inherited taste.

To me this is truly timeless design, it’s uncomplicated, comes in black or white, and there are only a few elements available. A few new elements have been added in 2007, lower slung and reclining, but strictly adhering to the original design.

But visually is where this furniture stands apart. Simple lines, classically formal, the legs look like elongated Greek columns. The fine mesh brings an almost nautical aspect to the design, conjuring ideas of floating, wind and light.
For me white is the only way to go, black is for those who can’t handle the white.

There are a massive amount of lighting manufacturers. Some are specialized for example in outdoor lighting, a brand like Ares, others do only Murano glass fixtures, like Barovier & Tosso, others have a massive selection of home and architectural light, like Artemide.

If you are choosing lighting, the best place to get started is at www.architonic.com , select interior or exterior lighting and any further categories. Now spend a couple of days at work getting excited about lights and getting no work done. Here at Blonde Design we also have a lighting catalogue that we will email you if you request it at info@blonde-design.com.

Now lighting can be taken very seriously. You can do architectural style lighting in your own home. You could use a series of spot lights along a wall more as a decorative pattern than to actually light your interior.

You can chose a light as a sculpture, freestanding, ceiling mounted or wall mounted, interior or exterior.

Lighting can be analyzed very technically. A 3d model of your room can be generated and the lighting inserted, giving you a clear visualization of your lighting.

At Blonde we do this mainly for larger architectural projects, but it can be very interesting on domestic projects too, especially if you decide to take your lighting more seriously.

At Blonde we love lighting; it is truly the single most transformative element in design.

Till next time…

Lighting is not an afterthought. If anything it should, and it inevitably will be if done well, the single biggest chunk of your interior budget. Too many people try to “forget” lighting out of their budget.

All too often we notice the lighting because it is unpleasant; offices lit with row after row of aggressive neon, apartment building lobby areas lit like football stadiums, restaurants that make your food look grey etc.

Lighting is about comfort. If the lighting in a given space is installed properly it will improve the user’s comfort, simple as that. And that can be a relatively subtle thing.

Some lighting is purely functional and logical. You need a specific amount of light to comfortably read a document in front of you. You need a specific amount of light in an area where you will be using a knife.

At other times it’s decorative, whether it is a beautiful pendant lamp, or using the shape of a spotlight to “draw” light on a red wall in a plush club.

Lighting is changing; new technologies like LED and compact fluorescents are making the incandescent light bulb a thing of the past and offer new ways of illuminating a space.

I can’t tell you what to do but, if you are redoing your home or office or building from scratch or whatever, get a lighting consultant in, or check that your architect knows a thing or two about light, cause they don’t necessarily . . .

“I can do it myself; I don’t need an architect or an interior designer . . .”

Architects and designers don’t always have the best reputation.

If you watch Grand Designs, a BBC series that takes a building project per episode and follows it from start to finish, you might well believe that if you hire an architect or designer for a project, you will inevitably end up firing them and that every project doubles in price by the end.

The thing is that we have all walked into a friend’s house and thought oh my god what were they thinking . . . that couch/table/kitchen/wallpaper/light is foul.

And we all have an opinion on contemporary architecture; often “oh my god how did they get planning/building permission for that?” Some people might even find themselves agreeing with Prince Charles, but that’s for another blog.

The fact is that reading Espace Contemporain every month or watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition does not make you a designer.

Thinking you have good taste does not make you one either. Would you treat a heart condition yourself just because you know about right and left ventricles and the concept of blood pressure?

Of course like any profession there are good and bad architects and designers, and there is no one who can choose for you.

But find one who suits you and chances are that the project you undertake will last inevitably. You will have avoided plenty of mistakes, which means time and money, and your project will actually get finished, as opposed to 90 per cent of self done projects which reach a state of 80 per centedness and remain that way indefinitely.

And the beauty of an architect or designer is that you don’t have to supervise everyone. You just have to supervise them. They then deal with the carpenter, electrician, plumber etc., and they, in theory actually know how to . . .

The blog today is going to be singing the praise of Ikea’s kitchen range. Now don’t get me wrong, I have a deep respect for most things Ikea, this Swedish mammoth has democratized design in a way which was unthinkable 50 years ago, even though they have done it mainly by copying everything they sell from classic Scandinavian design.

Their kitchens really are something to behold and not only because the price is remarkably cheap. As an exercise you can download their kitchen design software from their website, redesign your kitchen and see for the price yourself.

Now the thing is, you can’t argue with the quality either. I recently saw a brand new installed version at a friend’s house and it really looked and felt good. And Ikea know this, they offer a 25 year guarantee on all their kitchen furniture – a 25-year guarantee! It’s just unheard of . . .

They go even further by offering a 5 year guarantee on all their range of electrical kitchen goods, again unheard of . . . I guess you need to read the small print, but there is only so much small print can cover.

Now there is a limited range and choice esthetically speaking and you won’t get some Ikea designer round your house drawing up plans and elevations for you, but most people can’t do the interior design magazine kitchens at home because they haven’t got the space.

And if you want something more unique, there is nothing stopping you getting the base from Ikea and having a carpenter to custom make you the doors and buying a granite work surface in from the local stone mason.

Anyway I’m sold and as we speak I’m redesigning my own kitchen with Ikea, I guess I’m putting my money where my mouth is and I’ll soon see where it gets me . . .
Back soon . . .