The W* House / Dining
'Glassdrop' pendant lamps
Diesel and Foscarini /
Price on request
Designed by Diesel's in-house creative team and brought to life by Italian brand Foscarini, the atmospheric 'Glassdrop' suspension lamps make a dramatic addition to the dining room. Particularly effective when hung in clusters, the droplet-shaped, blown-glass shades have a chrome aluminium finish that when switched off has a polished mirror effect, but when turned on adopts an alluring amber glow.
'Clap' chair
Patricia Urquiola / Kartell
Price on request
With so many chairs launching at Milan's Salone, it's hard to pinpoint just one for our dining room. However this simple but comfortable piece by Spanish design doyenne Patricia Urquiola for Kartell meets all of our criteria. It features a sleek nylon frame and a welcoming seat upholstered in a tactile honeycomb fabric available in 15 colours.
'All of a piece' tableware
Earnest Studio and Dana Cannam Design /
From €320 each
Those searching for a centrepiece with a difference should look no further than 'All of a Piece', a series that combines decoration with function. Made of marble, granite and wood, its modular elements - a flat tray, shallow bowl, candleholder, semicircleshaped endcap and glowing LED light panel -connect together with embedded magnets.
'Greenwich' table
Maurizio Manzoni & Roberto Tapinassi / Arketipo
€5,064
With a sculptural base inspired by the Greenwich meridian, Manzoni and Tapinassi's dining table for Arketipo is a strong and commanding design. An off-centre bronze or titanium ring that loops around the sweeping wood base provides stability while referencing the crossing lines of longitude and latitude. The frame is available in a variety of noble hardwoods including walnut, ash or ramin.
'Origami' dining table
Angela Adams / Angela Adams
US$5,400
A minimal, solid wood design based on geometrics, the Origami table offers function and beauty for generations. Handcrafted in Maine, it is available in cherry, walnut or white stain.
'330ST' chair
Laufer and Keichel / Thonet
€335
The 330 series is distinguished by its simple, timeless design, meticulous detailing and ergonomic curves, which break up the rigidity of the straight lines. With its reduced forms and high-quality finish, the 330 is a true all-rounder.
'Raffaele' Pendant Lamp
Federico Minarelli and Julie Janssen / Fred&Juul
€ 400
Federico Minarelli and Julie Janssen are two Florence-based architects who have gradually expanded into the world of interior design, drawing inspiration from age-old customs and displaying a keen respect for time-honoured materials such as reclaimed oak and iron. Their star-shaped 'Raffaele' pendant lamps are sand-casted in a single piece of brass by skilled uscan artisans.
'Token' sideboard
TOKENnyc / TOKENnyc
$8,495
Handcrafted in TOKENnyc's Brooklyn studio, this sideboard mixes American hardwoods with brass hardware and a blackened steel base. The bespoke design is offered in walnut, rift white oak, maple and ash.
'Twig' chair
Chad Wright / Council
From $365
The 'Twig' takes its form from 'the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge emerging from the fog', according to American design brand Council. This rather grand reference may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you look at the chair, but we like its slender lines and gently arched wooden back nonetheless. The stackable design is available in two versions, one of which is suitable for outdoor use.
'Colonnade' dining table
David Chipperfield / Marsotto Edizioni
€21,765
An ode to the most convivial of furniture pieces, Marsotto Edizioni's latest collection, 'Big Tables', comprises five statuesque tables in the brand's signature Carrara marble, designed by the likes of Naoto Fukusawa and David Chipperfield. The latter's modular offering is particularly poetic, its shape highlighting the material's classical roots.
'Conca' cutlery and 'Vassoio' tray
Giò Ponti / Sambonet
Cutlery, €51 for a four-piece set; tray, €290 for 40cm, €395 for 45cm
Sambonet has revived an asymmetric cutlery collection originally designed by Giò Ponti in 1951. It features shorter prongs and blades to reflect the Italian architect's observations on the way we eat, often just using the tips of cutlery. The distinctive line is matched by a sophisticated tray made of a single sheet of stainless steel.
'Piano' chair
Vilhelm Wohlert / Stellar Works
Painted oak and natural oak, £390, or walnut and beach, £425
One new kid on the design block that impressed us this year was furniture company Stellar Works, which made its debut at Salone del Mobile in Milan. With its mixed parentage (its owners are French and Japanese), the Shanghai-based brand takes a cue from the various concession areas in its home city and prides itself on crossing cultural boundaries when it comes to design. Apart from its own eclectic collection, which blends Eastern and Western sensibilities, Stellar Works has secured the rights to reissue several of Danish architect Vilhelm Wohlert's furniture pieces. Wohlert's 'Piano' chair, a long forgotten design, is the first in the series and has been made, like all Stellar Works pieces, entirely by hand.
'Mut' chairs
Noé Duchaufour Lawrance / Fasem
€657
This season we'll be decking out the dining room with works from one of our favourite French designers, Noé Duchaufour Lawrance. Included in a collection of several new pieces created for Fasem is the 'Mut' chair - an understated leather seat that promises to mould to your shape over time spent at the dining table. And that table itself might just as happily be one of his 'Sign' designs, a leather covered steel structure with a clear glass top.
'Chelsea' cutlery set
Corin Mellor / David Mellor
£75 for six piece place setting
Now at the helm of his father's eponymous cutlery and kitchenware company, Corin Mellor has inherited the familial flair for the physics of tools. His new 'Chelsea' set features subtle variations of thickness and satisfying forms that balance perfectly in the hand. It gets its name from the area where David Mellor set up shop in 1969.
Jug and Cup
Aldo Bakker / Aldo Bakker
£325
It's impossible to pigeon-hole Aldo Bakker. When it comes to the materials he uses for his designs, this young Amsterdam-based designer is that rare breed that is equally at home crafting from copper, wood or glass. We're very much looking forward to the results of his current collaboration with French porcelain manufacturer Sèvres, but judging by Bakker's set of porcelain cup, and jug shaped like an Aztec antique that we spotted at this year's Salone del Mobile, we'll be eating off new table-ware pretty soon. The fact that the set is available in five different colours only makes it all the more covetable.
'Tivan' dining chair
Arik Levy / Molteni & C Dada
£1,764
Such was the enthusiasm that greeted Arik Levy's Breva dining chair last year that he went back to the drawing board to finesse the design. The result is the Tivan, the Breva redux, this time with fluted armrests while retaining the handsome sturdiness of the original. This is a chair that encourages you to linger at the dining table long after the post-prandial cocktails have been served. Comfort is the key here - the frame is made from a mix of oak, American walnut and hi-tech plastic, the latter artfully hidden beneath a sheath of fine grained leather, while soft saddle ladder is moulded onto the seat.
'+Stone' tableware
+Stone / +Stone
from £150
Not to sound like we're stuck in some Renaissance-era time capsule, but it's a real shame that more designers don't craft in stone. Properly worked, this rugged material adds gravitas to any domestic setting. Case in point is this tactile set of tableware collaboration between Portuguese stone specialists Sienave and the UK-based designer Michael Sodeau. Natural stone from Sienave's private quarry in Algarve's Monchique Mountain has been painstakingly cut to form bowls, plates, vases and cups that look equally good on the dining table or as decorative pieces. Unadorned, their simple lines are pleasingly primitive, but the genius in the collection is the pairing of other equally natural materials such as oak and cork to provide interesting soft and hard textures.
'Jazz' table
Ferruccio Laviani / Emmemobili
£7,350
The very talented Ferruccio Laviani makes tables that make you want to just pull up a chair and sit around them all day. His remarkable 2011 collection for Emmemobili is a tour de force in simple lines that also manage to impress with their visual lightness. The 'Jazz' table, in particular, is a beauty from every angle. Solid strips of oak are gently bent around a circular frame to create an airy striated effect while providing plenty of leg room under the table. The table top is finished in either oak veneer or white marble. Elegant, perfect symmetry and practical -- a handsome addition, we think, to any living space.
'Apollo' easy chair
Artur Moustafa and Jonas Nordgren / RVW
From £1541
Moustafa and Nordgren give meaning to the phrase 'less is more' with their easy chair collaboration; the unerring black of the finish throughout make it unobtrusive but undeniably chic. The seat comes upholstered in leather or fabric, while the double cross steel leg frame is available powder-coated or in a brushed finish.
‘Sessel’ chair
Martino Gamper / Established & Sons
£1,020
The 'Sessel' chair is Martino Gamper's first design for a production chair. Gamper, who built Wallpaper's Chair Arch at London's V&A museum last year (W*127), has gone for a new twist on the iconic bentwood chair, taking it apart and then putting it back together with square bentwood panels and no supporting ring. The chair gets a pretty new palette, too.
‘Modo’ chandelier
Jason Miller / Roll & Hill
$4,000
New US brand Roll & Hill is lighting the way with an uplifting line of lamps and more, such as this 'Modo' chandelier by founder Jason Miller. Comprising 15 glass-encased bulbs suspended on an aluminium frame and pointing in all directions, it casts a glow on diners in dark corners as well as illuminating the main table. 'Modo' chandelier, $4,000, by Jason Miller, for Roll & Hill.
‘Link’ cutlery
Sohei and Sumiko Arao / Sides Core
Price on request
Architects seem to have a particular capacity for cutlery, and the proof is in the eating with this new range of spoons, knives and forks by Sides Core, a company founded in 2005 by Osaka-based architects Sohei and Sumiko Arao. The duo designed the curves of their stainless steel 'Link' cutlery by considering how the pieces would look when placed side by side.
‘Incas’ table
Angelo Mangiarotti / Agape Casa
€5,564
Bathroom specialist Agape made its first move into furniture in Milan, launching Agape Casa, a collection of reissues and never previously produced designs by Angelo Mangiarotti. The 11 different ranges include 'Incas', first produced in 1978. The original table was in sandstone, with pyramid-shaped legs supporting the heavy square surface. Retaining all the elegance of the original, Agape Casa has updated it in solid oak. The result is in tune with contemporary lifestyles without compromising the table's powerful shape .
Nest lights
Tommaso Nani and Noa Ikeuchi /
Prototype
It was the combination of industrial and ethereal, two words that don’t often go together, that intrigued us about these pendant shades. Like so many of the best designs they’re ingeniously simple, made just by wrapping a sheet of micro-perforated steel into a conical shape, around a bulb. The resulting glow is not so much disco ball but more of a gentle waltz across the ceiling.
Cork bowls
Jacob Marks / Skram
$180
Though you can’t escape the 1970s feel of the material, cork suddenly seems like quite an attractive addition in the home once again, though maybe still not as a flooring surface. These stacking bowls though, made from 100% sustainably harvested, high density cork, are an attractive option. Designed and manufactured in a former cotton mill in North Carolina by Skram’s founder Jacob Marks you can choose to have them black lacquered or plain. For decorative value we’d choose black lacquer, emphasising the 1970s feel of the material with the graphic effect of the ellipses, when stacked.
Essay dining table
Cecilie Manz / Fritz Hansen
£2827 excluding VAT
Danish designer Cecilie Manz’s new dining table for Fritz Hansen is a sparse but robust creation and as such, the perfect piece of furniture for everyday use. Made of just three parts of solid wood – a slab for the surface and two square loops for the undercarriage - you can choose from oak, ash or walnut for the top with the addition of white or black lacquer for the legs. Manz wanted to create a piece of furniture that would fit in someone’s home forever, hence the simplicity. And as anyone with a good eye will spot, the small details such as the bevelled edges on the legs and the subtle floating support of the tabletop are what brings it to life.
Salt spoons
Thomas Eyck / Aldo Bakker
€70
Thomas Eyck's brilliant salt servers in the shape of spoons do that rare thing in design these days - improve upon function. Rather than dipping your fingers in a little bowl of salt in the middle of the table, these spoons store the salt in their hollow handles so you shake as much as you need into the well and sprinkle over your food instead.
Blow glassware
Simone Cagnazzo / Ichendorf Milano
from €20
It's certainly true that everything tastes better from quality glassware and if you're on the hunt for an upgrade you couldn't do better than Simone Cagnazzo's Blow range for Ichendorf Milano. The hand blown set is delicate and decorative and more for the dining table than the kitchen cupboard. Wherever you choose to use it though, good taste won't be in question.
Teapot and cups
Maarten Baas / Skitsch
from €24
New Italian brand Skitsch launched at Salone 2009 to much fanfare. Not only did they launch with a vast showroom in the heart of Milan but they'd called upon the great and good, young and old (well, established) of the design world to design their debut collection. Amongst the larger, louder furniture elements was this tea set by Maarten Baas. It has just the right amount of cartoonish charm on which the designer has built his name and is more affordable (and maybe practical) than his much feted smoke and clay series.
Carbon fibre chair
Shigeru Ban / Tokyo Fibre
Price awaiting confirmation
“I wanted to make a chair that was lighter than Gio Ponti’s Superleggera, so light a child could pick it up with just his little finger,” said Japanese architect Shigeru Ban of his new carbon fibre design. Weighing around 500 grams he’s done just that. Two slender layers of carbon fibre sandwich very fine aluminium panels to create a chair that, though light as a feather with a paper-thin silhouette, is still as strong as an ox, and a lot more comfortable to sit on.
Trapezoid chopstick rests
Lijuan Wu / Spin Ceramics
RMB 20 each
Perhaps unsurprisingly china the material was named after the country of its origin. More surprising is that China’ china heritage, until recently, had slipped into a mire of hackneyed reproductions and obvious, gaudy designs aimed at tourists. Spin ceramics was a pioneer in resuscitating the tradition and putting a modern, well, spin, on it. As Creative Director Gary Wang explains, “we decided to go back to basics: pure forms, subtle colours and clear purposes”. Lijuan Wu’s Trapezoid chopstick rests are just that – simple, beautiful and totally practical.
Envelope light
Florian Hauswirth / Post Fossil
Prototype
Postfossil’s Envelope lampshade takes paper to new planes. Inspired by Florian Hauswirth’s envelopes, the design folds around a bulb like an envelope encloses a letter – the flaps folded upwards and moistened before being stuck down, forming protective ribs and giving the lampshade extra flexibility. Not only good looking when it’s stationary, the lampshade is also conveniently designed for easy shipping. Airmail, we would have to assume.
Table B
Konstantin Grcic / BD Barcelona
Price awaiting confirmation
Providing a welcome antidote to the recent fashion for large wooden rustic dining tables, this new design by Konstantin Grcic is elegantly sleek while still being thoroughly robust enough to cope with even the bawdiest of banquets. The tabletop, which consists of a vast aluminium extrusion (up to 3.5m) comes with three optional substructures in wood, steel or artificial stone.
Loft condiment set
Thea Mehl / Teroforma
$50 set
Dinner chez Wallpaper is always a rather saucy affair, so it’s important to have the right serving spoons. This condiment set from Teroforma is handcarved from Pennsylvanian hardwoods, and we are assured that no two chutney forks, jam spoons or pate spreaders are exactly the same. Serving up style, with condiments.
Eve chair
Piero Lissoni / Cassina
€830
Would you Adam and Eve it? The beauty of this new design by Piero Lissoni for Cassina is the fact that the leather back and seat is almost completely seamless. Achieved by a clever configuration of sizes and folds, the perfect baby-bottom soft leather slots over the frame with no signs of any stitching in the finished result. To sit in it or stroke it, that is the question.
A la recherche du temps perdu
EXH design /
£2900
EXH design is a Shanghai-based design and architecture firm set up in 2006 by Xi Zhang and Swiss-born Erich Diserens. With an eye for a clean line and a foot in tradition, the furniture they design combines contemporary appeal with antique charm. This oak table, charmingly named ‘A la recherche du temps perdu’ after Proust’s seminal tome, was inspired by a Ming original, with horizontal beams that transport the weight of the surface to the elegant legs.
Calligraphy cutlery
Kate Chung / JIA Inc
€50 set of 4
Cutlery might not be a household staple yet in China but that hasn’t prevented JIA inc from designing one of the finest designs we’ve seen for some time. Designed by Kate Chung, they take their form from the brushstrokes of Shou Jing Ti calligraphy, a font created by Emperor Song Hui Zong at the beginning of the 12th century. He probably didn’t envisage his script informing eating utensils but the sweeping handles make for a very tasteful set of cutlery.
Seal salt and pepper mills
Banmoo /
RMB 368 pair
These salt and pepper mills are handmade from rosewood and based on the Chinese seal stamps of yore. Though their function is humble enough there’s something rather lofty about their design, perhaps a nod to the more heraldic action of the stamps they’re inspired by. In particular the contrast between the delicate, curved nozzle and rectangular block of the body gets our seal of approval.
Small lights
Rodrigo Vairinhos / Neo Studios
From €85
We spotted Rodrigo Vairinhos, the man behind Neo Design, at Salone Satellite last year and, impressed by his natural flair with form and materials, vowed to keep tabs on his progress. A year later and his Small Lights show he’s shaping up nicely. The 4-piece collection of ceramic spotlights is based around different stages of clay on a potters’ wheel.
Accento salad servers
Konstantin Grcic / Serafino Zani
€46 set
If you like your dinner guests green with envy whilst you dish up your salad, you’d be well advised to get a set of Konstantin Grcic’s servers for Serafino Zani. The generous paddle surfaces and weight of the 18/10 stainless steel make for pretty perfect servers and, everyone knows that when it comes to cooking, even if it’s just throwing together a few leaves and tomatoes, a chef’s only as good as their tools.
Groove vases
Miranda Watkins / AR Wentworth
From £50
'As a metal more usually used for tankards in taverns, it is high time pewter got an upgrade,' says London-based Miranda Watkins. Elegant but industrial, delicate to look at but robust and heavy to hold, her collection of highly polished grooved vases makes for quite a centrepiece.
108 FJK dining chair
Finn Juhl / One Collection
€662
Finn Juhl's 1946 108 FJK dining chair is back on the production line thanks to One Collection, the sole license holders of the great Dane's back catalogue. 'It has all the classic Juhl elements: organic form, floating support and a truned wooden frame, all in a simple, everyday design,' says Henrik Sorensen, One Collection's director.
APC dining chair
Emiliano Godoy / Godoylab
$680
This walnut chair by Mexican designer Emiliano Godoy is an interesting and attractive take on the cantilever design. The natural spring in the wood allows for the weight of the sitter to be spread evenly, despite being supported on only two legs. Though the technical precision is impressive, it wasn't Godoy's starting point for the design. Comfort and the environment were his key inspirations: the seat is made of two curved pieces to provide natural support and all wood used is FSC certified and formaldehyde-free, allowing your mind and body to rest easy.
Shark carving set
Henning Koppel / Georg Jensen
£80 pair
Danish silverware company Georg Jensen is celebrating the 90th anniversary of Henning Koppel, one of its greatest designers, by launching a collection of his iconic designs. One that particularly caught our eye was this carving set originally designed in 1971 named 'shark'; no doubt a nod to the sharpness of both utensils' teeth. Designed to slide inside each other, the stainless steel fork and knife are as pared down as the design can be, without scrimping on function. Ergonomic to hold and practical to use, they're as much ornament as they are essential carving equipment.
Mahl-seit grinders
Alexander Ortlieb / Ortlieb Bernau
€80 each
Translating from German as 'time tog rind', which is a colloquial expression meaning 'bon appetit', this collection of grinders was a Form 2008 winner at last year's Ambiente Frankfurt fair. Simplicity is key: a gentle twist of the cylindrical top opens the easy-to-fill maple body of the mill. The tops in different woods distinguish your pepper from your nutmeg, while the grinding mechanism is as easy on the wrist as the mills are on the eye.
Case dishes
Hironori Inada / Stitch and Sew
¥36,750
Hirinori Inada is the designer behind this set of four containers and plates. Made from stainless steel and painted in matte resin paint, they have a timeless simplicity that belies the multitude of tasks they can perform. Having established his own company, StitchandSew last year, Inada outlines his mission as "rethinking and redesigning everyday items to make them easier to use." For the Case dishes, Inada set out to explore the boundaries between craft and industrial products, with the intention of designing a range that sits somewhere in between. Stacking inside each other for ease of storage, they're equally appropriate decorative elements as they are functional tableware.
Cactus vases
Jiri Pelcl / Krehky
€400
The Czech Republic has a quietly formidable heritage in glass and porcelain, which formed the focus of Krehky's travelling exhibition last year. Combining historic and contemporary designs it proved the craft is alive and thriving. A highlight were these cactus vases by veteran designer and former chancellor of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Jiri Pelcl. Exquisite, fragile and ethereal they might not be prickly to the touch but should certainly be handle with care.
Krenit salad bowl
Herbert Krenchel / Normann Copenhagen
£21, servers £11
The Krenit salad bowl is already a classic for those in the know. Designed by Herbert Krenchel in 1953, the bowl, originally enamel, was one of the first of its kind to be seen in Europe after distributor Torben Ørskov spotted a gap in the market for the American way of eating salad. The enamel design dropped off the production line in 1965 but forty years on it's been snapped up by Normann Copenhagen and given a melamine makeover in the process. Our favourite elements are still intact; namely the contrast between the glossy interior and matte exterior, the shallow, concave sweep of the bowl and the elegant Japanese-inspired servers.
404 chair
Stefan Diez / Thonet
£348
German company Thonet is a living example of the old adage that if it ain't broke don't fix it. Nearly two hundred years after Michael Thonet started the company, it's still run by a fifth generation namesake and still plying considerably good trade on Mr. Thonet’s original bentwood innovation. The latest chapter is one of their cleverest yet. Courtesy of German designer Stefan Diez, the 404 is made of just six pieces of wood and no other material. Four bentwood parts are knotted together and held in place by a curved plywood seat without the need for screws or glue of any kind. And quite aside from looking the Thonet part, the curved back and seat make for a remarkably comfortable addition to their fold.
Ponti 400 flatware
Gio Ponti / Christofle
From €12
Ponti's timeless 400 flatware cutlery, designed in 1953 for Krupp, in stainless steel, are now being reproduced by Christofle. The cutlery remains eternally cool, and just one reminder of the creative talent that so successfully linked Ponti and Tony Bouilhet, heir and director of Christofle at the time.
Rotterdam chair
Hella Jongerius / Vitra
Price awaiting confirmation
Hella Jongerius speaks of her home city Rotterdam as a 'sturdy working city' with a 'don't talk just do attitude' and these are exactly the kind of qualities she wanted to replicate in her latest chair for Vitra. The 'Rotterdam' chair, as it has become known, may be a classic, robust wooden stacking chair that screams of functionality but through the combination of solid wood construction, plywood seat and translucent coloured inlays it also manages to emanate Jongerius' bold and convivial signature style.
Glass tumblers
/ Teroforma
From $18
This little web-based company located in Norwalk Connecticut can be inspiration for us all. Rather than spend time and resources on building a brand, opening a showroom and printing catalogues, Teroform put all its energy into simply searching for a new generation of designers and hooking them up with the world's finest artisans to create functional and beautiful pieces of tableware. The glassware for example is designed in Scandinavia but hand made by highly skilled glass blowers in the Czech republic. Plus the fact they are made from the environmentally friendly non-lead crystal makes us feel much better when we then throw them in the dishwasher, for which they are robust enough to withstand.
Green Thumb tea set
Antigone Acconci and Riccardo Bastiani / A/R Studio
€50
We were a bit confused whether to put this delightful garden-inspired tea set in our dining room or outdoors. Finally we settled for dining on account of the fact that the ceramic material isn't waterproof. However to be honest with a pot and cups as cute as this it, you could serve tea quite happily in any room. The work of Milan-based architects and designers Antingone Acconci and Riccardo Bastiani, who together set up A/R Studio four years ago, this ceramic set has certainly planted a seed of want among us here at Wallpaper* HQ.
Back chair
Patricia Urquiola / B&B Italia
Price awaiting confirmation
The geometric shape of the seat means this chair throws up a fine silhouette from whichever angle you care to look, which contrasts perfectly with the naughty glamour of the zip that 'binds' its front and back faces.
Grand Ecart table
Jean Nouvel / Pallucco
€2500
If you haven't managed to get into that Jean Nouvel designed luxury penthouse yet, investing in this stunning dining table designed by the French master himself could score a very close second. A fine example of pure minimalism with it's refined simple shape and material of painted aluminium of the top and painted steel for the bottom. Yet it is the ingenious way this table extends as if from nowhere to fit another one, two, three or even four extra place settings that shows how novel Nouvel really is. Although the piece is also available in opaque black and opaque white, we're all over the luscious Bordeaux red.
Donges centrepiece
Ionna Vautrin and Guillaume Delvigne / Industreal
Price on request
Italian company Industreal may have many designers in its stable, but over the five years since it launched but Guillaume Delvigne and Ionna Vautrin have always stood out for us. Both graduates from France they now work for George J Sowden's studio in Milan. Among past success stories is Delvigne's 'Chapeaux Pour Vase' collection and the 'Lampes' while together they designed the 'Penier Perce' embroidery bowls which have been bestsellers around the world. This latest collection by the duo plays with porcelain and blown coloured glass to create three different centrepieces that can be used either as vases or as storage.
Salad servers
John Pawson / When Objects Work
€60
Inspired by paddles and traditional shamoji rice spoons, the refined detail of these black ebony-hewn servers has us craving our greens.
Bowls
Daniel Pirsc / Pirsc
€20
Czech porcelain designer Daniel Pirsc's studio may be located within the grounds of a Jewish cemetery but his career is only just coming alive. His studio cum gallery space complete with all the technological equipment needed for manufacturing his own porcelain and pottery designs has been working flat out since it opened in 2005. Distribution for his pieces has now spread across Europe, his work was included in the recent Czech Design: Dreams and Reality exhibition in Brussels and Pirsc is currently working on numerous architectural projects including the soon to open Molo restaurant in Bratislava. These geometric-shaped bowls are set to hit stores in July where we think they'll meet grave approval.
Embassy glassware
Corin Mellor / David Mellor
From £9.85
When David Mellor was commissioned by the government in 1963 to design a collection of modern tableware for the British embassies around the world little did he know his 'Embassy' collection would become such a design classic. Nearly half a century later, his son Corin Mellor has designed a range of glassware to sit alongside the recently reissued original 'Embassy' collection. The hand blown glasses share the elegance and refinery of their 'Embassy' siblings and we're thrilled to see the reintroduction of the champagne saucer – the traditional vessel for drinking champagne in Britain since 1663.
About The W* House
We thought it only fair to throw open the doors to The W* House and share with you our wealth of experience in the design world. From cutlery to cupboards, pots to plumbing, The W* House features our favourite pieces of design from around the globe, room by room. We'll update them every time we find something new we like, building the collection into an archive for as long as the pieces are for sale. Practicality isn't often a buzzword at the Wallpaper* HQ, but when it comes to sharing our finds we wanted to keep things simple, letting you furnish your house the Wallpaper* way, with the click of a mouse.
