Chris Barrett

Where Do You Tansu?

In the Entryway?
Perfect for hats and scarves, keys and keeping other clutter out of view, this iron strap isho dansu is mixed with other Asian antiques and objects in this elegant entry by Vincente Wolf.

Even shoes or rainboots can fit if the tansu is big enough. Love the similarity between the spare Shaker-like English rush-seat chairs and the simple mizuya tansu.

In the Living Room?
The gilded doors and elaborately grained wood on this early 20th century tansu dresses up a corner of Chris Barrett’s tiny home.

In the Dining Room?
Designer and blogger Lauren Liess uses the bottom half of a tansu as a sideboard in her dining room. The big sliding doors and deep cabinet make storage easy.

In the Kitchen?
I know I’ve shown this Michael Smith photo before, but I love it so much I’ll show it again. He is a master at using Japanese antique furniture in his designs. For more great examples from him click here.

In the Family Room?
This example is a bit of a cheat as it actually a Korean bandaji (blanket chest), a family heirloom of Ally’s of From the Right Bank.

In the Bedroom?
A big tansu, perfect for clothes, blankets and pillows in the Chelsea bedroom of Ray Booth and John Shea…

or a small one on raised metal legs, making a perfect nightstand in this gorgeous Madeline Stuart designed bedroom.

Smaller chigai dana with their open staggered shelves, often laquered and decorative, are incredibly versatile too. Besides the most famous one residing in the White House, you can find them tucked in numerous interesting spaces. Check out the one in the left corner of this Markham Roberts designed living room…

…and another hidden in the left corner of Celerie Kemble‘s bedroom.

I’ve had a few questions lately from readers on how to blend Japanese antique furniture into Western interiors, so this post proves my adage that a tansu can work in almost any design style, whether modern, traditional or eclectic. Perpetually underused in the design world, tansu are great for storage and display as well as gorgeous in their own right.

So friends and readers, where do you tansu? I’d love to do a follow-up post showing photos of tansu in your rooms! Get out your cameras, do a little styling if you want and send me photos of tansu in your homes!

Image credits: 1. Metropolitan Home November/December 1995, photo credit: Simon Watson, 2. credit unknown, perhaps Kelly Hoppen, 3. House Beautiful July/August 2011, photo credit: Victoria Pearson, 4. via Pure Style Home, 5. via Chinoiserie Chic, 6. via From the Right Bank, 7. Elle Decor September 2007, photo credit: Eric Piasecki, 8. Elle Decor January 2007, photo credit: unknown, 9. House Beautiful May 2011, photo credit: Thomas Loof, 10. Lonny October/November 2010, photo credit: Patrick Cline

Oct 25, 2011 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Interior Design Tags: antiques, Celerie Kemble, Chris Barrett, japanese antiques, Lauren Liess, Madeline Stuart, Markham Roberts, michael smith, tansu, Vincente Wolf

Found! Kilim Footstools in Tokyo and Decisions on the TV Room

In response to my Junking in Singapore post, a Tokyo reader emailed me this photo of her kilim footstool, bought at Persian Abrisham, in nearby Higashi Azabu. I stopped in to check it out and they had quite a few. While this is great news to Tokyoites, it doesn’t help me get a few back to America!

They had square…

…round…

…and extra covers.

As previously mentioned, I had been planning to buy the ubiquitous Moroccan poufs, sold and seen everywhere, like these in Candace Bushnell’s apartment, for the TV room/guest room in our beach house in New Jersey. The room gets piled with kids so we need extra seating, but it needs to be lightweight and moveable when the room becomes a bedroom. They seem like a sensible and stylish solution.

The kilim footstools push the TV room in a more sophisticated “library” style of decorating and I am still not 100% sure that is the way I mean to go. Originally, the room was used as a laundry room, a real waste of space in a house as small as mine where one of the main goals is to sleep as many people as possible, particularly as the room is decently sized. It was painted a bright yellow with a childish border around the top. Here is a taste of the ugly…

We cleared it out right away, but there wasn’t any time to consider how I wanted it to look. The key piece of furniture is from my parents, an amazing bamboo daybed with the old-fashioned 33 inch wide mattress, instead of the modern 39 inch, a more graceful and space-saving choice, to use as the couch and to sleep guests. It really is a shame they don’t make that size any more. It has a simple creamy matelesse coverlet, basically Benjamin Moore’s Linen White, so I had the painter just go ahead and paint the room that color. Now, I am not normally a Linen White kinda girl, preferring instead pure cool whites to the yellowy beige of Linen White. But in such a cramped space, I do like how the daybed basically disappears into the wall. And all the accessories at my fingertips seem to work with it. My best friend bought me the amazing John Robshaw bolster pillow in the photo below, which started to clinch the deal. I pulled out my framed butterfly book-plates, planned for curtains in a Brigitte Singh block print (shown to the left) and headed down a path that would look great with either footstools or poufs.

As usual, the best way to get ideas across is to use photos of existing rooms. This cozy niche by Stephen Miller Siegel has the look that my room is starting to have. Muted colors, Indian prints, almost a masculine style.

The cane daybed piled with pillows in this living room by Chris Barrett has that same feel. I wish there was a way to rotate the photo and look at the sofa head on.

But there is another version of this room floating around my head. one with a soft white feel, with throw pillows in cool brights. The perfect example is Alayne Patrick’s apartment – she even has a dhurrie, albeit pink and white instead of blue, and some colorful poufs.

This is an outdoor version of the daybed, but has a similar feel.

Sometimes I think I want it even purer than that – all lacy and white. Theoretically hard to keep clean, but bleach does wonders. I have loved this photo for years.

Again, lacy whiteness, in this case set off by all the green. I could paint the walls or wallpaper them to make the space cozy which is sometimes the best strategy in a small room.

I’d really love opinions. Poufs or kilim footstools? Or something else entirely? And what about color schemes? The summer is fast upon me and I need something to distract me anyway right now – there were quite a few big aftershocks today. So what would you do?

Image credits: 1. L. Twaronite, 2-4, 6-8. me, 5. Elle Decor September 2005 photo credit: William Waldron, 9. Elle Decor, date and photo credit unknown, 10. House Beautiful January 2009 photo credit: Victoria Pearson, 11. Domino May 2007, photo credit: Melanie Acevedo, 12. House Beautiful June 2006, photo credit: Ray Kachatorian, 13. credit unknown, probably House & Garden or Architectural Digest, 14. credit unknown, probably House & Garden.

Apr 11, 2011 By tokyojinja in Color, Interior Design, Renovation and Decoration Report Tags: Alayne Patrick, Candace Bushnell, Chris Barrett, kilim footstool, Moroccan pouf, Steven Miller Siegel, TV room