Kai Kristiansen chairs

As promised, the new kids have arrived. GG had promised a pair of armchairs in the style of Grete Jalke's lovely design from 1950's for my birthday (the finch print was a lovely surprise on the day since these didn't arrive in time).  Similar styles were also on the radar by Finn Juhl, Ole Wanscher and Hans Wegner.

We've been hunting since about May, but finding a reasonably priced pair within our limited budget has proved difficult. We could only find either really great single chairs, or cheaper looking English versions which normally have exposed screws rather than proper wood joins, and generally look a bit clunky. However they are also usually priced a lot lower, and its been tempting as the weeks go by to cop out and get a pair - luckily we were outbid a few weeks ago on such a set, as holding out has proved more than worthwhile... 

Just before heading to Paris we bid for and won 2 armchairs designed by Kai Kristiansen for Magnus Olesen, model #121 from about 1955.  Kai was born in 1929, thereby making him 4 years younger than me when he designed them.  He is probably more famous for these dining chairs, which out of interest the Japanese seem to love, as a large number of sites that turn up Kai's furniture for sale are in Japan.

They arrived yesterday morning, rather annoyingly packed in pieces of broken up polystyrene packing material, sending small white bubbles all over the room which took forever to sweep up, and will likely take thousands of years to degrade in landfill. Yippee.  But the chairs were well within budget and even better than described, although that wouldn't be hard since they came from the German eBay site and the whole description was in German.

Hmmm, looks like its time to get a real planter pot for the tree we inherited from the prior rental tennants.  I could do with an extra saucepan.

 

GG's not sure about their location just yet - he prefers the space to be completely open, without defining 'living room' from 'dining room' etc.  I like the definition. In fact I'm going to define it further with a rug and coffee table. You'll know when you're in my living room then, GG.