Scrapwood Wallpaper and Piet Hein Eek Red Chair

Scrapwood Wallpaper and Piet Hein Eek Crisis Bench

The design world has gone mad for Piet Hein Eek, and so have we. Best known for his intricately designed scrap wood furniture – particularly popular now as we scramble to track down ever more sustainable ways to scratch our design itch, Piet Hein Eek has been devoted to using reclaimed materials for most of his career and long before it was fashionable

He first developed an interest in old materials after restoring a cupboard for his sister. He has built his business around vintage materials, saving these discarded pieces of wood and working outside of the circuit of mass production. His work is now sold in numerous galleries worldwide, and he has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Milan Furniture Fair, Italy; and Cïbone, Tokyo. Now for the first time, Piet Hein Eek’s work is realized in wallpaper and available to a wider audience at the Wallpaper Collective.

There is no pattern in Scrapwood Wallpaper, and it has over 10 square feet of unique planks. It is printed on heavy-duty wallpaper with paper top-layer and membrane backing colorfast and washable with a soft cloth. Furthermore, every step of the sourcing, printing and packaging process employs the smallest possible environmental impact.

Palace Paper's Herringbone

Herringbone pattern is named for the bone pattern of herring fish which consists of very short rows of slanted parallel lines. The rows are oriented in opposition to each other, causing the slanted lines to form a dense pattern of chevrons. Pieces of herringbone cloth dating back about four centuries before Christ were found in the ancient Hallstatt salt mines near present-day Vienna among the mummified remains of Celtic people. Other herringbone cloth, made from horsehair, was found in Ireland dating from around 600 B.C.  This distinctive pattern was also used for floor tiling and road pavement throughout Europe.

Given this rich history, and it’s prolific use in woolen suits, it’s no wonder herringbone generally introduces a certain solemnity to whatever it touches. However, re-imagined in contemporary colors, it can breath fresh life into any room.

Skeleton of a Herring.

Recently I was Googling Blossom Dearie the NYC  torch singer of the 50’s – 90’s. I was looking for a sound bite to put on my phone, when I found a wallpaper named for her – my two obsessions collide.

Blossom Dearie the dreamy singer.

The New Yorker critic Whitney Balliett once said that Blossom Dearie’s tiny wisp of a voice “would scarcely reach the second storey of a doll’s house,” and yet her singing career spanned more than 50 years. Paul Solberg’s  homage to Blossom Dearie, in the same pixilated silk screen design, ensures that her cult status, like Andy Warhol’s, lives on.

Andy Dandy

Blossom Dearie the dreamy wallpaper.

So regarding the proliferation of the skull as the icon for fashionable, hip living … Traditionally it has been the symbol for death, secret societies, toxic substances, pirate ships, alienated youth, or more benignly – Halloween. The skull routinely makes menacing appearances  in Renaissance paintings, in Shakespeare, throughout Christianity and in pagan rituals, on Hell’s Angel’s jackets, and as an emblem in masonry. Co-opted by contemporary designers, it’s the kinder gentler skull – (like the one on my kid’s ski hat, and one of my beloved wallpapers). In honor of Halloween – some of my favorite skulls:

Bronze on Oil Slick - Beware the Moon

Vincent Van Gogh

Day of the Dead Skull

Salvador Dali

Andy Warhol

Paul Cezanne

Basquiat

Damien Hirst

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world.

Shakespeare

Tennis Natural

Cricket Natural

Cricket Bat Teal

When the British interior design team Turner Pocock joined creative forces with artist and graphic designer Catherine Cazalet the result was a quixotic collection of wild animals and racket sports. Transformed by the use of a contemporary color palette, the designs are fresh and totally delightful.