Description
Chrome was the material of the future when the future was still round: in the sixties, lamps were given domes, spheres and gloss. The VION quotes that era – a mushroom shade on a slender, chrome-plated rod, with an open rectangle in the shaft as a graphic detail.
Everything about it reflects: shade, rod and base plate throw the room back. It is intended for a carbon filament bulb with an E27 socket – warm, old-fashioned light in a futuristic shell.
One and a half metres tall, four kilos light, no assembly needed: unpack, plug in, back to the sixties.
On the material
Metal in the living space: why brass tarnishes and stainless steel does not
Metal is the only material in the living space where almost everything you see is only a few micrometres thick. The core of a lamp base made of chrome-plated steel has nothing to do with how the piece looks. What makes the impression is a layer thinner than a sheet of paper.
Almost everything practical follows from this: why brass tarnishes and stainless steel does not, why a scratch disappears on one and stays on the other, and why “stainless” does not mean that a brown spot never appears.
Related in the Journal
Rooms
How objects work together once they are in place.
All articlesFrom the Journal
Journal
- Warm Colours in the Living Room Without It Feeling HeavyWarm colours in the living room rarely fail because of the choice of colour. They fail because everything is…
- Pendant Light over the Dining Table: The Right HeightWith a pendant light above the dining table, three dimensions determine whether it works: the height above…
- Coffee Table: The Right Height and Size for the SofaA coffee table has three dimensions that determine how it looks: height, length and distance from the sofa.…
- Furnishing the dining room: what a cabinetmaker looks for in a table and chairsA dining room almost never fails because of taste. It fails because of four measurements that have to be…
- Caring for a wool rug: what wool needs and what harms itWool is one of the easiest rug fibres to care for – as long as it is treated correctly. At the same time it…
- Pairing Cognac Leather: Colours That Work with ItCognac leather is not a single colour but a range – from light caramel to deep reddish-brown. What all…
- Which Colour Goes with Walnut?Walnut is a dark wood with a warm, slightly reddish-brown undertone. It is precisely this undertone that…
- Grouping vases: height, number, spacingA single vase is an object. Three vases are either a group or a muddle. The difference lies in three…
- Choosing a rug: size, material, placementThe most common mistake when buying a rug is the size. A rug that is too small not only looks lost itself,…
- Styling sideboards and shelvesA sideboard is a surface that fills up by itself. Without a plan, after a few weeks it holds post, charging…
- Choosing a sofa: what really mattersA sofa is the most expensive and longest-lasting piece in most living rooms. And it is the one where the…
- Using natural stone decor well: bowls, vases, objectsNatural stone brings to a room what textiles and wood do not provide: mass. A stone object looks heavy even…
- Choosing an armchair: size, material, positionAn armchair is usually bought for its looks and judged by its comfort. The two are less connected than one…
- Buying Furniture Online: The Measurements Nobody Thinks OfWhen buying furniture online, the choice is rarely the problem. The problem is the route in between: the…
- How Natural Materials AgeA piece of furniture made of solid wood, leather or stone looks different after five years than on the day…
- Why a Room Feels Restless Even Though Every Piece Is BeautifulThere are rooms in which every single piece is good and yet the room as a whole never feels settled. The rug…
- Side Tables: The Right Height for Each Piece of FurnitureA side table is the piece of furniture that is measured least often and placed wrongly most often. It takes…
- Lighting the Living Space: Kelvin, Lumens and Three LevelsLight is the only furnishing decision that changes twice a day. Until the afternoon the window does the…
Origin, Material & Craft
- Natural stone: why limestone does not tolerate acidNatural stone is usually bought for its looks and regretted for its looks. Yet almost everything that…
- Wood moves: why joints shift and boards crackWood is the only material in the living space that keeps moving after it has been worked. It takes up…
- Fragrance without flame: how wax and diffusers workA home fragrance without a flame and without electricity does not sound very technical. In fact there are…
- Rug fibres: wool, jute and polypropylene comparedWith a rug, the fibre determines almost everything: how it feels, how quickly it looks dirty, whether it…
- Acrylic and PLA: where plastic is the better materialPlastic has a poor reputation in interiors, and mostly rightly so: it is used because it is cheaper. But…
- Metal in the living space: why brass tarnishes and stainless steel does notMetal is the only material in the living space where almost everything you see is only a few micrometres…
- Upholstery fabrics: what rub counts and lightfastness tell youAn upholstery fabric is the only part of a piece of furniture that is touched every day. It decides how the…
- Glass in the living space: wall thickness, colour and what harms itGlass is solidified melt. Sand, soda and lime become liquid at 1,300 to 1,600 °C, and during cooling there…
- Paper pulp: why a vessel made of paper holds waterPaper pulp, usually just called pulp in the trade, is waste paper that has been soaked, broken down into a…
- Ceramics, earthenware, porcelain: the difference in everyday useCeramics is the umbrella term. Earthenware, stoneware and porcelain are subgroups of it – distinguished not…
- Tenon, dowel, screw: what wood joints reveal about qualityFurniture rarely breaks in the middle of a part. It fails at the points where two parts come together. That…
- Oak, ash, walnut: three woods comparedOak, ash and walnut together account for most high-quality furniture. They differ in colour, hardness,…
- What a cabinetmaker checks first when buying furnitureAnyone who has done a cabinetmaking apprenticeship looks at a piece of furniture in a particular order. It…
- Solid wood, veneer or wood effect: how to tell the differenceA piece of furniture can look like wood in three different ways, and only one of them is wood all the way…
- Teak root: how a piece of root becomes a tableTeak is the wood of Tectona grandis, a broadleaf tree from the monsoon forests of South and South-East Asia.…
- Borosilicate Glass: Why There Is More to It Than Heat ResistanceBorosilicate glass is glass to which boron trioxide has been added. This ingredient fundamentally changes a…
- Cement as a Home Material: Raw, Calm, Surprisingly Easy to Care ForCement is not a material but a binder. Limestone and clay are fired together into clinker; the clinker is…
- Selenite in the Home: The Pale Stone Beyond Crystal HealingSelenite is a crystal form of gypsum, chemically calcium sulphate with bound water. It forms where saline…
- Agate: Why No Two Slices Are AlikeAgate is a variety of chalcedony and therefore a form of quartz. It forms when solutions containing silica…
- Caring for Travertine: What the Stone Needs and What Harms ItTravertine is easy to care for, as long as two properties are taken into account: it is porous, and it…
- What Is Travertine? The Stone That Makes Rooms WarmTravertine is a limestone that forms at freshwater and thermal springs. Lime-rich water comes to the…
- The Story Behind Lorenz LaurentI trained as a cabinetmaker. Not as a detour, but because I was interested in how furniture holds together.…
- Handmade, Manufactory, Series: What the Terms Mean“Handmade” appears on a great many products. There is no fixed threshold for how much handwork a piece needs…
- Materials You Can See and FeelA room looks expensive or cheap long before anyone knows a price. The difference rarely lies in the form. It…
- Country of Origin on Furniture: What It MeansThe label on a piece of furniture names a country. Sometimes it names only a region or a city. What it…
Rooms
- Furnishing the living room: a calm foundationA living room rarely becomes restless because the individual pieces do not go together. It becomes restless…
- Making small rooms feel largerSmall rooms feel cramped not because there are too few square metres but because too many edges interrupt…
- Furnishing the hallway and entranceThe hallway is the first room you enter, and usually the only one that was never planned. Yet it sets the…
- The terrace as additional living spaceMost terraces are furnished, but not arranged. Four chairs around a table, everything against the house wall…
- Open-plan living and dining: zones without wallsAn open floor plan solves one problem and creates a new one: the room is large, but it has no order. Without…
- Furnishing rooms with little daylightA room with little daylight is usually painted white. That is the obvious choice and often the wrong one –…
- Making the kitchen more homelyKitchens are planned for function and rarely looked at again afterwards. Yet in many homes the kitchen is…
- Organic modern interiors: warm, tactile, with depthOrganic modern is harder to put a label on than Scandinavian or Industrial. What is meant is less a fixed…
- Furnishing a rented flat: big impact without renovatingIn a rented flat, the large surfaces are given: floor, walls, windows, kitchen. That is precisely why it is…
- Creating a reading nookA reading nook needs little space and is nevertheless rarely used. Usually it is not the armchair that is…
- Making the bathroom more homelyA bathroom consists of tiles, glass, ceramic and metal – all hard, smooth and cool. That is precisely why it…
- Furnishing high-ceilinged rooms and period homesHigh-ceilinged rooms are what many people look for – and then find difficult to furnish. The reason is that…
- Integrating a workspace into the living roomA workspace in the living space brings two problems with it: it looks like work, and it is visible even when…
- Furnishing an attic with sloping ceilingsAttic floors have more floor area than usable space. The square metres on the plan say little about how much…
- Furnishing a small balconyA balcony is often the smallest area in the home and is nevertheless furnished like a terrace. A complete…
- Furnishing a calm bedroomA bedroom has a single task, and yet it is often treated like a second living room. Most improvements come…