Filed under: Toys and games, art, decoration | Tags: Alexander Girard, colorful, decoration, dolls, wooden items
These wooden dolls made of pinewood were originally created by Girard as decorations for his Santa Fe home. Fortunately though, design museum Vitra is reissuing models 1-11. These dolls with sometimes happy, sometimes melancholy faces are hand-painted and rather indended as home decoration than as actual toys, and with their modern design, they would surely look fabulous as room decoration, not just for the nursery! They also make perfect gifts, since they arrive in a printed, wooden box.
Available at Unica Home for $150.00 each.
Filed under: art, carpets | Tags: Alexander Girard, carpet, carpet tiles, colorful, FLOR, La Fonda del Sol
Today it’s gray and rainy outside, so what options do you have, but to take the sun inside, if it doesn’t want to shine for you outside? And who would be more apt to do just that than Alexander Girard? I have to say, I just love his colorful designs. If you haven’t heard of him before, I’ll just say really quickly that Girard is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, colorists of the 20th century, and is known mainly for his textile design, combining folk elements with rich, warm colors and modern design.
The La Fonda del Sol line by Girard was created for the, surprise surprise, La Fonda del Sol restaurant in 1960. Though this restaurant has long disappeared from New York, his designs remain and are just as stunning and happyiness inducing as always, with their vibrant colors and folk-inspired sun-prints. The whole La Fonda collection actually comprised a whole lot range of interior design, from wall-decor and table-ware to pillows and carpets. Unfortunately, the other items are not available at the moment, I would have loved to introduce you to the La Fonda pillows.
But luckily, FLOR has introduced a carpet tile collection based on his sunny design 
With their warm colors and friendly faces, the La Fonda del Sol prints certainly look great anywhere in the house, from living room to study, and they even perfect for a nursery or playroom. Not to mention these tiles are made of soft velours that is easy to clean should a mess occur, and can even be pulled up and rinsed in a sink, if disaster strikes. The pull-up feature is also great if you want to rearrange the tiles to give the room a new look, or if you will be moving to a new apartment and want to use them in your new place as well. Now you can have a carpet that adapts to your changing needs and brings great, timeless, mid-century art into your home as well!
The FLOR tiles come in packs of six, with large suns (one sun per tile) in the variants Azul (blue), Mandarina (orange) and Verde (green) and with small suns (nine suns per tile) in the multicolored Piqueño.
Available at FLOR, $159.99 for a six tile rug.
Filed under: Toys and games, art | Tags: Alexander Girard, art, Gio Ponti, Maharam, memory game, Toys and games, Verner Panton
This Girard pick is actually not entirely his creation, but only features some of his fabric designs created for Maharam, the over 100 year old textile family business, which revolutionized the commercial fabric sector in the 1960s with special contract design for commercial purposes. Though Maharam has some great design to offer, the prices are a bit steep, e.g. pillows available from $150 upwards.
However, if you are searching for some nifty, affordable designer item, Maharam has repacked its most famous designs, among which also Alexander Girard’s textile designs for Maharam, into one stylish memory game that does not only look great displaying some awesome patterns, but it is also completely timeless. And since it does not contain any of the flower or animal themes so typical for memory games, Maharam’s memory is also great for any age. It consists of 72 richly colored cards, depicting 36 sets of famous Maharam patterns and does not only contain quality design, such as Gio Ponti’s “I Morosi Alla Finestra” or Verner Panton’s “Optik”, the workmanship is top-quality as well, being made of heavy stock and printed in Germany.
Moreover, at a price of $36.00, it is luckily also affordable! Available at DesignWithinReach
