Mood Ring for my Interior Mood Swings

Rember these beautiful gems we all wore in the 5th grade?

I think I need one that could conjure up images like these:

Palmer Weiss

CWB Architects

Ashley Stark's NYC apartment, Elle Decor

Some days I'm in the mood for zen, clean, tailored and traditional, and the next I want color, funk, modern and pop.  Somedays I want all mid-century or french, and somedays I want a smorgasbord of it all.  Hell, sometimes it changes by the hour.   

My interior mood swings are the most likely culprit for the ever-evolving metemorphisis of my own home.  Or maybe it's just Spring and I'm ready to shed my winter skin.

Here's a color guide to chart our Interior Mood Swing Mood Ring:

All images are from my Pinterest.  

(the one thing that drives me crazy about Pinterest is that when you click your image to credit sources it will bring you to the home page of the blog where you pinned from instead of the actual page with the image....so I can't find the designers for some of the images?!!)

ChairMan Mao

Mae West's Lips Sofa by Salvador Dali
What it used to mean when celebrities ‘had their lips done.’

Ever since I did my post on Pedro Friedeberg’s hand chair, I’ve been thinking about other pieces of furniture inspired by the human body.  What’s beautiful to some, is creepy to others. So, what do ya’ll think of these?

Him and Her by Fabio Novembre 
I wonder if these have ever been met with a straight face.
They bring out the 10-year-old in me: the giggles.

Human Chair by Tucker Robins
Looks more like a monkey chair to me. 
Maybe some of our ancestors evolved into chairs.

Perspective by Pharrell Williams for Domeau & Peres

Left foot, left foot, right foot right.  Feet in the morning, feet at night. How many, many feet you meet?   –Dr. Seuss, The Foot Book

Tongue in Cheek by Peter Harvey
Clearly Mick Jagger was Harvey’s muse.

Salvador Dali's Hands Chair

Mr. Surreal himself gave this chair hands. 
Eccentric, creepy, they seem to be reaching for something.

Ruby Rocking Chair: Anatomic Rocking Chair by Pouyanm
Does this come with its own clinical hospital gown?

Leggy Blonde by Rupert Cavendish
This piece of furniture had me at its name.  Plus, it’s like the leg lamp redux.  Who can forget this beauty from the classic Holiday flick, A Christmas Story?

But this takes the cake:

CHAIRman Mao chair by Geralde Scarfe

CHAIRman Mao eerily resembles Jabba the Hutt in this rendition.  This may be as comfy as Peepaw’s Barcalounger, but lounging in the arms of Mr. Mao/Jabba just doesn’t strike me as relaxing. 

What do you think? 

Give it a Hand please...

A hand to hold your bottom

Hand Chair by Pedro Friedeberg

The wonderful, the sublime, the beautiful, and to some, the creepy: the hand chair. Do you love it or loathe it?

Personally, I love it. I have seen Mexican sculptor Pedro Friedeberg’s hand chair used, up close and in person, and in many editorial pieces. In my experience, people tend to have very adamant opinions about the notion of such a chair. Let’s examine its positive attributes: its sculptural, its conversation worthy, and it’s a functional place to sit. Not many pieces of furniture can claim such diverse utility. Of course, there are many different versions of the hand chair floating around now, but we’ll begin with probably the most notable and recognizable done by Pedro. Here we see it used in haute design:

Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan’s palm beach apartment via Metropolitan Home

Nate Berkus designed home for Brian Atwood via Elle Decor

(Don't believe that's a Pedro chair, it sort of looks like one of the wood versions from Bali below.)

Kelly Wearstler designed home office via Vogue Living

Kelly Wearstler in her Foyer

Some of Pedro's hands are joined by a foot

What I like most about the Pedro’s hand chair is that it’s surreal, it’s whimsical, and a little tongue in cheek, which makes it all the more stunning (if you have the real Pedro). Most importantly, it merits a chuckle. Certainly, laughter was even Pedro's intention. (read about him here.)

But Pedro was a true 'artiste,' and thus his pieces are not only valuable but also timeless, regardless of your taste. But what if you don't have the $ for the real deal? Would you still furnish your living room with a hand to hold your bottom?

For centuries designers and artists claim nature as their muse. Even the most modern and abstract pieces may draw inspiration from the human form, or from natural surroundings. So God made the hand in such a way that when cupped, it can mimic the shape of a seat. Pedro took it, elongated it, abstracted it, and gilded it (in many cases) to create his masterpiece. Unfortunately, or fortunately, he did not have a copywright on the hand. And thus we've seen thousands of versions of the hand chair.

Here are some from a Balinese Company. Hand carved of hardwood, they look pretty interesting to me:

What's beautiful to me is creepy to a friend who says the nails freak her out.

Here's one that seems to be saying 'A-Ok' ...

I can imagine one certain hand gesture that might take this idea a bit too far.

And here's a whole inventory full, looking like they're waiting to catch a fly ball.
Much further down the hand chair food chain (think cheap) are the plastic versions, which come in a rainbow of colors from ebay...

What's at the end of this rainbow? Buster from Arrested Development....

If not you, Buster Bluth from one of my all time favorite TV shows, Arrested Development, loved his red hand chair. There was even a plotline where he rescued his favorite chair from his mother's philandering habits:

Hey, what's good enough for Buster..

Apparently what's good enough for the immature and socially inept Buster is good enough for me. You read that right. I actually fell victim to one of these plastic numbers from ebay, and provided lots of laughs and odd looks from my friends, family and houseguests. Whether the jokes were at the expense of me, or the hand chair is yet to be determined. But here's the evolution of mine:

I was so excited to get my hand chair that I painted it gold and put it in the living room-the first room you see when you enter my house.  What, dare I ask, does that say about me?

I loved the whimsy and the contrast of the antique French chair juxtaposed with the more modern, suffice cheap, hand chair. I also felt it spoke pretty well to my life and my design aesthetic --to not take oneself too seriously. While it provided lots and lots of conversations, suggestions that it move to my four-year-old's room, and fights over who got to sit in it, my favorite moment with this chair was when someone suggested I paint the nails red. True story.

Don't worry, the chair didn't move because I succumbed to pressure. It only moved because I found these two beauties (thank you again ebay):

I can no longer say, "take my hand," in this room without referring to my actual hand.

So the chair moved to the TV room below a large painting:

I liked that it added a sculptural contrast to what's on the wall behind it.

Most recently it has moved outside where it collects rain, and provides a new territory to mark for my lab:

A sculptural territory for a tasteful lab to mark.

So maybe my taste isn't so discriminating when it comes to the hand chair. But I'm all sorts of lost when it comes to the mitt and foot chairs:

Just no. Unless its for a playroom.

I just am not a foot person. Sorry.

Now, for those with a foot fetish, maybe?
PS:Blogger, why is the formatting so messed up on this post? ugh.