Saturday, 21 August 2010

Past and Present



A very nice colleague at work gave me this lovely little chair for my birthday in April, having found it in a thrift shop. I loved its mid-century design, and since I have never seen this chair anywhere else, I believe it may have been made by hand by a loving father (or mother). But for a long time I had no idea for a scene for it, until I was in Oslo this summer and found a sheet of paper I immediately fell in love with :-) It reminds me of Norwegian mid-century murals and tapestries, and I thought the slightly scaled down version would make a perfect background wall for the chair.



I love the repeating sail and wave pattern and TreeFeathers' book "A history of the Vikings" fits nicely in with this colourful theme.




I'm not the only one who has been inspired by Oese's inventive use of Ikea's Lekman box as a roombox, but this is my first scene in it. I love the light through the back wall.



Perfect for displaying glassware!



Here the sun is set and the room is only lit by the cold street light.

UPDATE: As both The Shopping Sherpa and Rebecca was kind enough to inform me, the chair is made in the former Czechoslovakia. And Rebecca adds that the maker is Tofa, in her blog I found they produced dollhouse furniture in the 60s and 70s. You can see the chair with more furniture from the same maker on their blogs here (TSS) and here (Rebecca)
Many thanks to you both!


Credits: The tall sideboard I believe is by Dol Toi (thanks for veryifying it for me Rebecca!).
Low sideboard by Barton. Floor lamp, potted plant, red glass bowl and yellow plate by Re-ment, the bowl and plate are from Re-ment's Ryukyu set. Yellow striped glass is an ebay find from Germany (Bodo Hennig?) Red vase is bought in Venice. Ceramic vase bought in Paris in one of the doll's house shops in Passage de Jouffrey.

32 comments:

rosanna said...

WONDERFUL !!!!!! Helene, now and always, you definitely ARE a genius ! Rosanna

Josje said...

Beautiful, love the wallpaper!
Yes, I love Oese's scenes as well, her lighting is always so clever and beautiful.

Petra said...

Thank you Josje ;-)
And Pupbdoll, I'm so pleased you've got such a box too. It is really full of possibilities and in addition I love how others use it, like Neomini or some flickr-pals.
The scene is excellent as usual and I like this unique chair too.

My Realitty said...

Lovely! The glass is beautiful. CM

Pubdoll said...

Thank you Rosanna! You are too kind, don't stop! :-)

Pubdoll said...

Thank you Josje, so glad you liked it! I really love the wallpaper too, I was so happy when I first spotted the paper!

Pubdoll said...

Thank you Oese, and thank you for an excellent idea! I also bought one red and one blue box, we'll see if I can use them for something as well.
Knowing your love for mid-century furniture I almost expected you to love the chair :-)

Pubdoll said...

Thank you my Carol. It was nice to finally get the proper lighting for my Venetian red vase. I bought it 19 years ago! And Re-ment makes really great stuff, I love the Ryukyu set:-)

AMCSviatko said...

I think your chair is a Czech one. I have used my set in my Triang S house: http://theshoppingsherpa.blogspot.com/2009/02/sleepy-saturday.html

Rebecca said...

Fantastic paper! And what a great contrast, all the detail in the design, and the Lekman wall with light pouring through it. You're right that it's the perfect backdrop for glassware - as well as the light, it provides very subtle colouring to set off the colours in the glass pieces.
You're right that the sideboard the glass is on is by Doltoi. And like TSS, I think your chair is by the Czech company Tofa. I have kitchen, bedroom and living room sets in my yellow and red house: http://rebeccascollections.blogspot.com/2009/02/homemade-australian-ca-1970s-yellow-red.html - though you can't see the chairs very clearly. Maybe I'll do another post showing it more clearly, and the boxes it came in. They come up on UK ebay quite often.

Pubdoll said...

Thank you so much for the info and link Anna-Maria, it's always great to know the maker of the furniture and so fun it was Czech and ended up here! I will update the blog asap.

And I hope it's okay that I "borrowed" some of the Dollshouses Past and Present" name for the title, since the chair was a present I couldn't resist :-)

Pubdoll said...

Thanks Rebecca, yes spotting and buying that sheet of paper made me really happy, I had to take it out of the bag several times in the hotelroom just to admire it :-)

And I really like the blue tone in the "glass" wall. It gives a nice mood to the photo.

The Czech furniture looks great in your colourful house. Thanks for the info on the name of the producer of the chair as well as rough dating.
I will update the blog.

seventyseventyone said...

Would it be ok to feature your amazing work on my blog?

Pubdoll said...

Of course seventyseventyone, but thank you for asking first :-)
I now have looked a bit more on your blog and to be featured there would be a honour! I love your real life home btw :-)

Debora said...

Helen, it's as fresh and as good as it can get. The combination (the paper sheet, the furniture and setting) is so complementary, spot on.

Like you said, the Ikea Lekman box is a find that suits só well! My compliments. Especially the pic with the glass, backlit by the streetlighting : )) LOVE that one

Debora,
(note to myself, must visit you more!!)

callsmall said...

Hey Helene, I love how you built the scene around the chair and wallpaper (which is incredibly cool!). The vases look great in the light and the Lekman provides a fantastic backdrop. And isn't it fun to have some help from your buddies identifying your treasures??! We've got some real experts here ;) Eagerly looking forward to October!!!

seventyseventyone said...

Thanks Helene. Glad you like my house. My blog post is here http://seventyseventyone.blogspot.com/2010/08/pubdolls.html.
Gail x

Unknown said...

La silla que te han regalado ha encontrado un sitio ideal para instalarse.
Estoy asombrada de la calidad y lo agradable de la escena.
La ventana deja pasar una luz muy acojedora.
Besos Clara.

Pubdoll said...

Thanks Debora your are most welcome to visit me as often as you like! :-)
This should be a post about the chair and wallpaper, but the pick with the glasses are my favourite too :-) I had hoped for sunlight when I took these pictures but no luck there, so I had to use artifical lighting instead.

Pubdoll said...

Thanks callsmall, October isn't far away now! :D I need something to inspire me to make new scenes, but for the chair the inspiration didn't come before I found the wallpaper too. I love it, I think I must try to use it in other settings as well.

And yes, I'm so lucky to know Reebcca and I was so happy for TSS' comment too! Almost everything I know about dollhouses I have learnt from them.

Pubdoll said...

Thanks again for featuring me on your fabulous blog seventyseventyone!

Pubdoll said...

Gracias Clara, eres muy amable!
Yo estaba tan feliz de tener esta silla como un regalo.
También porque es muy agradable estar pensado!
Y la parte inferior del cuadro de "Lekman" es ideal para usar como una ventana!

Thank you Clara, you are so kind!
I was so happy to get this chair as a gift.
Also because it's so nice to be thought of!
And the bottom in the "Lekman box" is great to use as a window!

Besos Helene

Sans! said...

I have just found another one of my Pubdolls' All Time Great Rooms. It is really fabulous , my dear. I want to say the wallpaper really did the trick but that will be too easy. It really is also in the choice of your furniture (I love every single piece!) , the red carpet, your choice of ceramics and glassware, the colour scheme. I like that they are bold yet not overwhelming.

It's no wonder that you are featured again :).

You have been on my mind a lot because I am thinking of the things I want to make for you ..LOL! It is going to take a little longer than I suspect because one small part required is missing and not available (for the pipe) and I am waiting for new shipment.

Good news is the longer you wait, the more I can put into the package ..haha :).

Mimmi said...

Tanten min har akkurat lik stol i dukkehuset hun hadde da hun var liten. Hun har også sofa og bord til. Tror det er noe hyllegreier også i samme serien.

Pubdoll said...

Thank you dear Sans! Can you believe it, yesterday I was so tired I went to bed half past eight in the evening! :-)

I'm glad you liked this room as well, even though it's more of a corner than a room :-) I'm glad you could see that I had worked on not going over the top with colours, with a wallpaper like that it's easy to do. But I really like the ceramic vase and the re-ment flower pot and I think they helped in keeping the balance right.

And so fun to be blogged about in a designer blog! (I know you know the feeling :-))

And no stress with things for me, you don't have to feel obligated to resiproke and besides, with my speed I probably won't get the new oriental "gazebo" ready until next summer :-)

Pubdoll said...

Tusen takk Anne Mari, så artig å høre at det har vært flere slike Tsjekkiske møbler i omløp her i landet. Hvis du klikker på linkene til Rebeccas og The Shopping Sherpas blogger vil du se de møblene de har i samme serien, bla sofa og hyller.

De Briohyllene jeg kjøpte av deg er forresten i flittig bruk, jeg har bare ikke kommet så langt at jeg har blogget om det ennå.

Pan said...

I love how you have put the room together - the wallpaper is fabulous!

Pubdoll said...

Thank you very much Pan, and glad you loved the wallpaper too!
Since I was so happy with the paper myself, it's nice to hear that so many of you liked it as well :-)

Ara said...

I absolutly love that paper as well. You have such an eye for color! The chair is darling as well! I could def see this scene in a cozy corner of a modern art gallery!

Pubdoll said...

Thank you Ara, good to see you again :-) And thank you for the compliment, I love working with colours!

The House of Lisa said...

I like your wallpaper! And the scene is just wonderful!

Pubdoll said...

Thank you Lisa, nice to get wallpaper praise from you, I always adore your wall treatments!