Category: Design and Interiors

Looking to update your collection of mid-century classics? You need to make a note of 4th March 2008 – that’s the date of the Modern Design auction at Christies in South Kensington, London.

Name your favourite designer of the modern period and there’s more than a good chance of them being represented here. Although the cost of that Eames / Jacobsen / Nelson / Aalto / Knoll / Panton item might not suit your current budget. Take our advice and get on something affordable, with the potential to rise in the coming years. Like this John & Sylvia Reid dining suite, made for Stag Furniture in 1959. It’s down as £500 – £800 – get it at the lower end and it’s a great price for what you get.

Failing that, browse the auction lots online to see how past investments are shaping up.

Find out more at the Christies website

Does this sofa look familiar? Well, you might have noticed something very similar on this site previously – the classic Florence Knoll sofa from the company’s 1954 Lounge Collection. Go Modern do a cheaper copy, but Ikea goes even cheaper than that with its own version, going under the name of the Karlstad sofa.

Not to be confused with the Karlstad swivel armchair, the Karlstad leather two-seater sofa is ‘designed’ by Tord Björklund and features adjustable armrests, touch-and-close fastening to keep the cushions in place and a soft and hard-wearing leather which promises to ‘age gracefully’.

Available now, it retails for £499.

Find out more at the Ikea website

Perhaps not the most stylish magazine rack you can buy, but the Bum Magazine Rack is probably one of the more eco-friendly.

Your eyes do not deceive you – that is an old pair of jeans holding the newspapers and magazines. They have been recycled and modified, then fixed to the wire frame with the belt loops of the jeans.

Obviously each one will be different, so if you happen to want a require a specific label of jeans, you might want to drop the company a line. Whatever pair you choose, the rack retails for £185.

Find out more at the Scrap Design website

It’s been 57 years since Marco Zanuso designed the Lady Chair. And there have been few armchairs more stylish.

In a way, its very much of its era, but at the same time, the Lady Chair could pass for a contemporary piece of design. It has a metal structure, solid wood armrests,  injection moulded polyurethane foam padding and polyester fibre, all supported by aluminum painted metal legs.

Prices vary depending on finish, but start at £1,501.

Find out more at the TwentyTwentyOne website

A piece of art or a useful piece of household design? The Mushroom Stool by Eero Aarnio is probably both.

Amazingly, this stool dates back to 1962, a good 10 years before this kind of pace age look became fashionable. Two sizes available (small and large), both in white, black, red, wine red, light blue, blue, yellow, green, orange, disco silver and disco black. And with the stools being plastic, you can use them indoors or out.

Not cheap though, £517 for the small size and £591 for the large.

Find out more at the Skandium website