Furniture of Metal

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1031, 23 July 1930, Page 6

Furniture of Metal

SUITED TO MODERN HOMES Will Never Displace Wood THE ideal of the artistic craftsman is to harness beauty and utility. Art not only gives beauty of verse or painting: it converts the most ordinary everyday article into something that is a pleasure to the senses. The trend of modern art is nowhere having greater effect than in homes, for which artistic designers are continually planning furniture that will combine the modern requirements of comfort, spacesaving proportions and beauty of line.

These ideals have brought them to the use of metal In furnishings, a characteristic feature distinguishing the past year from others. The first attempts consisted of rather fantastic installations, which often caused adverse comment, but further developments have provided that, while practical and hygienic, metal furniture may also satisfy the artistic sense. It is odd how the idea of sitting down on nickelled steel chairs shocks people who have for years slept without apprehension in beds of Iron or copper, have ridden continuously in metal motor-cars, and bathe daily in iron baths. Steel is usually coupled with the adjective “cold," but this coupling refers to steel as a destructive instrument, not as port of the comfort of a home. Perhaps people cannot wipe out from their memory the purgatory of those metal garden chairs, whose ribbed seats sank when cine sat on them but bounded up as cine rose, with sometimes a loose rib ready to tear the material of a dress. Wood will never bo displaced by metal, for it has in its favour tradition, comfort, elaboration and the power of adapting itself harmoniously to a luxurious scheme. But metal is far from having said its last word. It has its enthusiastic devotees, who will continue to assist its evolution until it becomes acceptable to the many rather than the few. Metal furniture naturally does not suit every type of room. It lends

itself best as a decorative feature to the more modern type of house in which heavily carved antiques would be quite out of place. Builders of new homes keep the idea of metal furniture in their minds for, when planning a large hall with a beautiful wrought iron staircase, they will find that wrought iron gates will be more in keeping with the contour qf the hall than wooden folding doors lead ing into the dining room. To carry out the decorative scheme wrought iron legs to the dining table and chairs will add a note of dignity. They can be especially designed so that they will be no heavier than old fashioned chairs of mahogany and plush. Glass topped tables with'nickelled steel legs have become great favourites with modern women, who like their shining simplicity. While not pursuing a new idea because it is "the latest,” they realise the pos sibilities of beauty and convenience.