weekends off

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10 years ago today

my friend Keith and I break down in the middle of the Mojave Desert on our way to Vegas.

(which was probably a good thing.)

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recent fåvorites.

Top: Hershey's Syrup clay pot with cactus. The woman said she bought it (without the cactus) 25 years ago from some Amish kids on the side of the road near Hersheypark. This is the kind of thing I wish I'd thought of.
Gunnar Cyren teak peppermill with Peugeot grinder, for Dansk. Usually you see just the Jens Quistgaard peppermills, so this was a rare find.
Giant canvas and leather bank bag from the old Porteous department Store here in Portland. It was bought out years ago by an unscrupulous new owner who heaved all the great old history into the dumpster. The woman we bought it from said she had to climb into the dumpster to retrieve years' worth of all their old hand-drawn advertisements, which are now in the historical society. Also she lugged out her old desk, which the Scrooge-like new owner made her pay $100 to keep.
Lastly, Richard Scarry's Engelsk Ordbok (Storybook Dictionary) in Swedish/English, making the decision of what second language to teach our son an easy one, albeit impractical and likely confusing. But you never know!

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Aa - Z

From Suzanne Slesin's 1984 book English Style.

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Priorities

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Checks please! Milton Glaser's Big Kitchen

In 1977 food service mastermind Joe Baum opened The Big Kitchen in the underground concourse of The World Trade Center. Baum was a visionary, and knew how important aesthetics were to the dining experience. So, like he did with Alexander Girard at La Fonda del Sol and Warren Platner at Windows on the World (opened the year before, 107 stories up), he gave Milton Glaser creative reign (or at least graphic design reign) at The Big Kitchen.

There's nothing about this that isn't awesome- the giant letter stations (I had to sit through an hour of a New School panel discussion about Joe Baum to learn they were called stations), the Memphis-y looking "fountain" station, the "Kitchen" typeface, the track lighting, the Market Bar and Dining Rooms type, the Food Market and Raw Bar menu, the aprons, etc... 

This was a really great place brought to life by two major talents. I love that Joe Baum was this fantastic restaurant guy who loved design and Milton Glaser was (is) the preeminent Graphic Designer who loves all things food. The perfect pairing.

Possible inspirations? or random coincidences:

The checked storage containers in Glaser's own kitchen, below, 

and Ettore Sottsass' Superbox.

Photos of The Big Kitchen are scanned from The Interiors Book of Shops & Restaurants, 1981.

Photos of Milton Glaser's kitchen and dining room are from Terence Conran's The Kitchen Book, 1977

Kitchen typeface page courtesy of Zachary at http://containerlist.glaserarchives.org/

Ettore Sottsass from here

A related guest post on YHBHS here

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Linda ♥ John

John Taylor that is. So it says all over her grade school notebooks (Linda Taylor, Mrs. John Taylor, etc...)

Above is a In Fashion magazine from 1985 signed by him, which I found recently at a flea market and surprised Linda with (secretly hoping his corny "LIFE IS GOOD!" line would put the old fires out. Nope!

Here he is with Rio- and what is that crazy vaginesque beanbag he's laying against at 2:04? and should we be manufacturing them?:

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Sight Unseen Pop-Up Shop

de Kooning

Kline

Motherwell

de Kooning

Motherwell


These five Wary Meyers Abstract Expressionist Painting Pillows will be among the many excellent goods for sale at this weekend's Sight Unseen Pop- Up Shop, in The American Design Building at Great Jones Lumber, 45 Great Jones Street, NYC. Put together by Monica and Jill of the behind-the-scenes-of-design website Sight Unseen, if you're in the city this promises to be a fantastic show of new objects and design- and everything's for sale!
Friday the 13th (yikes!) through Monday the 16th

Click here for all the info

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Bjorn to Ride

Spectacularly whimsical 20" tall Bjorn Wiinblad ceramic horseman candelabra, new in our shop.
Also in our shop, which, thanks to Remodelista's mention has been recently depleted, are some Patrick Nagel prints, Alessio Tasca bookends, Gunnar Cyren cooking pots, a Gerald Thurston desk lamp, a Jack Russell needlepoint, a brass souvenir of Kuwait Towers, two more oil tankers, a Jens Quistgaard tray, a brass Beverly Hills key tray, and a lucite wine pourer,  among other things.
the Wary Meyers Shop

Below: A Gump's of San Francisco's incredible Bjorn Wiinblad display from the mid-70's. Notice the giant fountain overlooking a chrysanthemum-bordered reflecting pool. wow

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Are you ready for the country?

Only if it's tempered with a heavy dose of contemporary, ideally the 1970's 80's contemporary of white formica, tile grids, and High-Tech details, all interior design staples from when the American Country/Primitive look was in its renaissance.

From the top:

Designer John Saladino's country house (literally), featuring  Noguchi lamps, Saladino-designed leather sofas, and other modern lighting, including the Colombo-looking ones and the cool clear-glass table lamp next to the fireplace.

Two photos of Mary Emmerling's apartment (the first from House & Garden Sept. 1978), with tile grids, factory lamps, formica, and even a sheepskin-seated ten-speed among the antiques.

Below that more tile and a I'm counting the round white lamp cord as the modern element, and most likely that  gridded apron was from Conran's. The real star though is the table, with old iron cow-feeders built in to the corners.

Bottom: In a French country farmhouse is a different take on the farm table, with a sink and cooktop conveniently set into one end. Stereo speakers (with very European-70's retractile cord) are hung on the window shutters so that sound can be directed inside or outside- my favorite photo from Suzanne Slesin's French Style (1982). All other photos from Mary Emmerling's  American Country (1980)

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