Labor Day at Vastu
Hey everyone! If you happen to be in the city over the weekend (and on Labor Day)and are looking for something to do, why not visit the Vastu showroom?
We’ll be open on Monday, September 3rd at 11:00Am.
Enjoy the holiday weekend!
Recycled Rubber Furniture
Vastu is committed to conducting business in an environmentally responsible way, that’s one of the reasons you’ll never see a printed catalog from us. It also means that we’re always on the lookout for manufacturers and furniture makers who create using eco-friendly materials and manufacturing processes.
One of our newest vendors creates contemporary pieces using 97% recycled rubber from tires molded into shapes of various dimensions. The Rubber Cube and Rubber Cylinder come in a total of 10 standard sizes and 8 colors are suitable for both indoors and outdoors and are exceptionally durable.
Our 17" Diameter Cylinder in Blue
You can use these as side tables, like our model shown above, or as cocktail tables and even stools.
Their porous nature makes them easy to clean with almost no maintenance and they’re anti-fungal and anti-bacterial.
Come by the showroom and check out this eco-friendly piece of rubber furniture today!
What’s In A Name?
One of the cool things about sourcing furniture from hundreds of vendors all over the world is the diversity it brings to our catalog. Diversity in styles, materials, colors, textures and overall looks, but also in names. Pieces created by designers in other countries often come with names in the native language.
Take the Italian-lighting company Flos, whose name means “flower” in Latin. Even though Flos works with some of the best British, Danish, German and Dutch designers out there, they are, at their core, an Italian company with a majority of their designers being Italian. This, in turn, means many of their lighting designs are going to have Italian or Latin names regardless of where you buy them in the world. And more often than not, the name matches the look of the item.
Here are just a few examples and their translations***…
Gatto table lamp / Gatto = Cat
Lampadina table lamp / Lampadina = Bulb
Fantasma floor lamp / Fantasma = Ghost
Lastra pendant / Lastra = Plate
Taraxacum pendant / Taraxacum = Dandelion
But don’t think we only see this kind of naming from Italian companies. Here are some other products whose names have a hidden meaning.
KnollTextiles + Trove
KnollTextiles has a history of cool collaborations with other companies and designers like Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, and Abbott Miller from Pentagram, just to name a few. The latest to be added to this list is wallpaper company Trove.
Trove specializes in wallcoverings that contain “large scale photographic and impressionistic qualities that are mainly organic in nature.”
When Trove design duo Jee Levin and Randall Buck teamed up with Dorothy Cassonas, Creative Director of KnollTextiles, they created the Vivid Collection. The Vivid Collection for KnollTextiles includes three patterns in various colorways and each one has “a painterly expressionistic effect and large scale design” perfect for spaces that need an accent wall.
Check out this video to learn more about this award-winning collection:
And in related wallpaper news, we’ve changed out the wallpaper in our small alcove near the front of the Vastu showroom! Stop by this weekend and check it out.
Cabriole ‘Oyster’ by Designer’s Guild
Knoll Marble Tops: Beautiful, Functional, Historic
One of our designers came across a great article the other day about the marble tops Knoll, Inc uses in several of their designs such as the Saarinen Table series.
Justin Pratt, a studio manager for Knoll UK, provided the original author with some great facts about the marble Knoll sources.
“The white marble that Knoll uses comes from caves high in the mountains in northern Italy and is considered to be the most pure of all the different marbles. It is the same marble that Michelangelo used for his sculptures. Of this most pure of natural materials Knoll selects only the top 4%. So when you buy a Knoll Saarinen table in marble you own one of the great designs of all time, produced in the finest of materials.”
As if you didn’t have enough reasons to appreciate your Saarinen table from Knoll! Think about it, the top 4% of some of the best marble in the world. If it’s good enough for Michelangelo, it’s good enough for us!
Pratt goes onto to describe the process Knoll goes through to create its marble pieces:
“One of marble’s defining qualities is the beauty of the raw material so we do very little tampering with it. Once the piece of marble has been cut and shaped and finished by hand, a polyester coating is added to the surface. Only Knoll uses polyester to protect the marble and the result is a table that cannot be stained by tea, coffee, wine, lemon juice and most other household stains that could permanently mark the marble without this protection. This polyester coat allows children to do their worst during the day and then with a quick clean the table is ready for a formal dinner party.”
We’ve always loved the durability and iconic status of Knoll’s Saarinen tables. Check out the photo gallery below to see how we’ve used marble-topped pieces from Knoll in past projects!
The Washington Post Express “Best Of…” 2012
Every year, the Washington Post’s Express newspaper (found at Metro stations and other newsstands all over the metro area) asks for the public’s input and compiles a list of the “Best” places in the District for everything from “Best Movie Theater” to “Place to go with someone else paying”. After all is said and done, the Express’s “Best Of” list becomes a go-to guide to DC as voted on by you!
This is a great opportunity to vote for your favorite local businesses, restaurants and venues…including Vastu!
If you love what we do as much as we do, we’d love your vote for best Home Store under the Shopping section. Head here to the official voting page and show us some love!
Dog Days Floor Models Still Available
The Midcity Dog Days sale may officially be over, but there are still some great deals to be found here at Vastu!
Take a look…
Stop by the showroom or call us for information and availability.
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