Looking for something creative bit of craft to while away the cold evenings, then these Animal Menagerie Cards might be of interest.
Designed by Junzo Terada, the set consists of twenty card animals to construct. The pieces of card are decorated with retro fabric style patterns. Envelopes are supplied so you can actually use these as greeting cards as well as creating cute decorative items.
The set costs £16.50 from Tinsmiths.
Proving that designs can be retro , stylish and humorous at the same time are these Sausage Dog Chairs by Jimmie Martin.
The chairs are in a classic dining chair style, which can a bit stuffy looking, but here they are given a twist with the sausage dog print, which is split across the pair of chairs. The chairs are upholstered in a sophisticated shade of grey, with the arms and legs finished in a stately cooper gilt.
The chairs cost £2,900 for the pair from Jimmie Martin.
The Milton High Chair is a classic conference chair, designed by Bruno Mathsson.
It was designed in 1980, making it 30 years old, although it could easily pass for being of an older vintage. Not cheap by any standard at £1,556 for a fabric finish or £2,264 in leather, but if the rest of your world is beautifully furnished, then your office should be too.
Buy it online from the Swedish Design website.
Another great retro clock from Newgate is hardly a surprise. However, this Metropolitan clock looks like its been influenced by another design classic: the distinctive Mondaine clock.
The Mondaine clock dates from the 1940s and was designed for the railways to be easily read from distance. This new design takes on some of that readability in that it uses the chunky block divisions around the dial and has the same clarity of design. A crucial difference though is in the clock's hands – the Mondaine relies on a red hand to mark the seconds, in the case of the Metropolitan it's just a red hour and minute hand.
The Metropolitan clock is also bigger at 60cm across and, crucially, is also cheaper. Not by masses though. While you can buy an official Mondaine clock for around £230, this design costs £190.
Buy it from Bloomsbury Store
Cast your minds back to October and you may remember Heal's Dinky armchair. It was especially noticeable for its upholstery which was a reinterpretation of Lucienne Day's famous Calyx design. If you liked that, Heal's have gone one step further with the design applying it to this set of Calyx inspired tableware.
Calyx was originally created for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and remains one of Day's most famous designs. For this reinterpretation, geometric stem-like forms of the designs have been applied against white porcelain. In a bit of circularity, the placement and use of the natural motif on this tableware echoes a design that itself drew heavily from the 1950s – Sanderson's hugely popular Dandelion Clocks range.
Prices for this tableware start at £5.50 for a cereal bowl and go up to £25 for a platter.
See the range online
A 1950s design that still looks as appealing today, that's the Accent sofa by Swedese.
The sofa was designed in 1959 by Yngve Ekström, who was the founder of Swedese and looks very much of its time. The clean lines of its upholstery are supported by a solid oak frame and legs. It's available in a variety of finishes – it's shown here in white leather which certainly enhances its classic looks.
As you might expect, the sofa has something of an 'investment' price tag attached – in this case the sofa costs £3035.
Buy it from Skandium
