INSPIRED BY: AMEE ALLSOP

Binburra Beach House, Sydney.

Elegant Minimalism and Natural Style 

Australian Amee Allsop considers space, proportion, light and materiality when working with her clients. Her emphasis on quality materials and craftsmanship is key to creating a space that transcends time and trends. 

Based In New York, Amee designs in the spirit of Australian living by elevating the simple and beautiful essentials of a space and creating a minimal yet quality lifestyle. 

A great example of Amee's fulfilled but paired-back interior design can be seen in the Binburra Beach House in Sydney. Open spaces and broad windows fill Binburra house with natural light and highlight the custom wooden cabinetry and trim that are contrasted by concrete flooring and counters. Amee has also worked in commercial design in Chelsea, New York. 'The Kitchen is one of New York City's oldest nonprofit spaces, showing innovative work by emerging and established artists across disciplines.'

In the East Hampton, Red Dirt Road to be precise, a unique home that connects indoor and outdoor living partly in thanks to a large wrap around deck, a distinctive Australian home feature. This A-framed house was built in 1980 with good bones but needed a large gut renovation. A large skylight was inserted and a slot window in the master bedroom were added to capture natural light to flood the interior with. Amee used a palette of fresh whites with black hardware accents, subtle features reminiscent of the beach lifestyle.  Extra wide wood flooring softened the predominantly white interior and added a dose of organic material to soften the monochrome theme. 

There's lot's more of Amee's excellent work on her website. You can also follow her on Instagram.  For more on wood flooring get in touch with The Hudson Company. 

Australian designer Amee Allsop.

INSPIRED BY: FRAMA, COPENHAGEN

Frama Showroom, Copenhagen.

Frama's free-standing kitchen.

St. Paul's Apotek, home of Frama, Copenhagen

Frama CPH: crafting elegant, innovative, and classic forms

This week we are taking a good long look at the inspiring work of Copenhagen design house Frama.

Specializing in minimalist forms with a classical aesthetic, Frama is turning out some of the Scandinavian design world's most coveted stoneware, furniture, lights, and custom-built kitchens.

Located in Copenhagen's historic Nyboder neighborhood, the Frama showroom and offices occupy the lovingly preserved St. Paul's Apotek (a pharmacy from the 1800's that has saved much of its original woodwork and architectural elements, see above at right). Much of the Frama studio is painted in 'St. Paul's Blue,' their custom brand color, created in partnership with Jotun paint makers.

One of Frama's most exciting and ambitious innovations is their new line of custom-built kitchen designs (see above left). Unlike traditional kitchens, a Frama Kitchen is a completely free standing unit and is not permanently mounted to floor or walls. The Frama Kitchen's steel frame and steel box drawers are more like pieces of furniture within the kitchen environment than the traditionally built 'in-storage' style kitchen. 

In addition to their drool-inducing custom kitchens, the current Frama Collection contains furniture, accessories and lighting made from a variety of high-quality, high-character materials, including cork, wood, marble and metals. With their impecable eye for clean, modernist aesthetics and their appreciation of timeless materials, Frama is not only a 'brand to watch,' they are also a design house whose approach to creativity and craftsmanship are certain to inspire us at The Hudson Company for a long time to come.

See more from the Frama Collection here.

The 90 degree wall light by Frama.

Aj Otto Stoneware by Frama.

Frama Studio, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Photos courtesy of Frama and Kinfolk.

INSPIRED BY: HOME STORIES design shop

Sophie and Paul Yanacopoulos-Gross have created something truly inspiring with their stunning, Brooklyn design boutique Home Stories - a space that feels both timeless and modern.

With strong international influences, Sophie and Paul's style blends a mixture of time periods and geographical styles into a harmonious aesthetic - utilizing a strict color palette that is anything but boring. And from their time living together in the countryside, the couple has developed a finely-tuned eye for simple, calm and natural materials, textures, and patterns.

In 2013, Paul and Sophie moved from Switzerland to New York where they renovated their 148 Montague Street space. In addition to a thoughtful selection of interior and personal items, Home Stories also offers custom services such as cabinetry and shelving design. Examples of their custom work can be seen in the Home Stories showroom, where their custom solutions help display the shop's linens, ceramics and smaller furniture items. 

This combination of well-traveled inspiration, simplicity, and quality craftsmanship are qualities that always inspires us here at The Hudson Company. And it's not hard to see how Paul and Sophie's curated collection of goods and services is becoming such an influential force in the Brooklyn design scene. 

Visit the Home Stories Shop at 148 Montague St, Brooklyn, NY 11201, United States.

INSPIRED BY: Designer MONICA Förster

Monica Förster is an industrial, furniture and object designer from Sweden. Her range of collaborations cover Volvo, Alessi, Whirlpool and many in between. She has received awards and acknowledgements almost every year since 2004 including Elle Decoration's Designer of the Year 2015. 

One of Monica's most recent designs is a set of tables used as side or coffee tables to compliment her line of seating for Danish brand Erik Jorgensen. The thin line wooden frame from the seating range is echoed in these new tables that support an oval top made or either stained wood or solid granite. 

Above is a family or candle holders Monica designed for Cosentino Group and made of a stone material called Dekton.

"The idea for this family of outdoor torches in two sizes has been to play with shadow and light," Förster explains. "The result is a sculptural torch holder full of poetic feeling."

Retreat is modular, flexible sofa system Monica created in 2015 for furniture producer Fogia. With the intent to design something timeless and above trends this series allows the user to combine single seats, corner seats, with wide or narrow chaise lounges. 

““I sometimes say that I’m not interested in form, but that may not be entirely true. What I mean is simply that the idea behind each project is more important. When the idea is set I focus on shape, color and detail.””

— Monica Förster

A series of trays and candle holders celebrating the importance of candle light in Scandinavian culture made out of Dekton, the same material Monica used in the sculptural candle holders shown above. 

Keep up to date with Monica Förster's work or peer at completed projects by visiting her website and Instagram.

INSPIRED BY: MICHAEL ANASTASSIADES

This week's 'Inspired By' is coming to you on a Sunday night, just before the new week is about to begin we take one last breath of weekend freedom and prepare for the coming week. What better way to do so than with a bit of fresh inspiration?

Michael began his studio in 1994 so by 'fresh' in no way do we mean that he is new to the world of design, though this may be an introduction to his work for some of you. Born in Cyprus he currently lives and works in London.

Below we take a look at some our favorites of his hand crafted products, not that it is easy to choose by any means!

The Captain lights were designed for Flos to be a multi-purpose free-standing lamp with a rotating head for reading or directional lighting. Brass and career marble or anthracite vanish with black marble are the two color way selections available, aptly suited for a multiplicity of interior spaces. 

'AMA' was created as a tribute to the pearl diving mermaids of Japan who spent centuries free diving in search of oysters along the ocean bed. This chandelier was another design for Flos. 

This family of IC Lights, also for Flos, is a favorite lighting design, period. The thin, elegant metal tubing that suspends a perfect sphere is really quite intriguing. The series includes a table lamp, floor lamp, sconce and pendant. 

One of his newer creations, Copycat is a table lamp composed of a hand blown glass globe and a solid metal aluminum sphere. 

“A simple shelf, suspended by a strap, seems to be in perfect balance, supporting the acrobatic equilibrium between the objects at each end. Both elements hug the wall with a precision reminiscent of impeccably wrought architect drawings.”

The triangular Tube chandler can be made in custom lengths to your specifications in satin brass or black patinated stainless steel. 

INSPIRED BY: FAYE TOOGOOD'S CLOAKROOM

One of the highlights from this year's London Design Festival, currently taking place at the Victoria & Albert Museum, is designer Faye Toogood's interactive design installation 'The Cloakroom.' 

To get the full, immersive experience, festival-goers can walk into The V&A's actual cloakroom and put on one of Toogood's 150 custom-made topcoats - made in collaboration with Danish textile maker, Kvadrat. Each coat is composed of Kvadrat's Highfield fabric - a high-tech compressed foam material - and inside each topcoats is a map that guides the user around the museum's exhibits and toward a featured exhibit featuring a series of statues made by local British craftsmen and manufacturers, representing the materials of their respective fields, from plaster, studded rubber, marble, ceramic and bronze [see photo below].

If you're fortunate enough to be in London during this year's festival, make sure to stop in 'The Cloakroom' of the V&A Museum and put on a Toogood/Kvadrat coat as you tour the exhibit.

INSPIRED BY: VITRA CAMPUS

Rolf Fehlbaum is the son of Willi and Erika Fehlbaum who founded Vitra, a company who began producing Eames chairs in 1957 when Rolf was only a teenager. 

Now, taking charge of the company, Rolf has crossed new boundaries bringing together such diverse inventory has that included Mies van der Rohe, Noguchi, Aalto, Corbusier and Lloyd Wright's Peacock chair. Before long Fehlbaum had gathered enough pieces to open his own museum near Tüllinger Mountain in Germany, which is now one of the largest collections of furniture on the globe.

Currently though Rolf has moved into collections of a much larger scale, specifically that of architecture, for the Vitra Campus. In a recent article from Cereal Magazine we see a look into this very diverse design playground which is summed up quite well with this quote from the author.

"Vitra’s stake in 21st century design is such that the shape it takes affects they way our homes and our workplaces look, and how the products we buy are made. In this wonderland curated by Erika and Willi’s eldest, drawing visitors in from near and far, design is a game played with deadly seriousness."

Photos from Cereal Magazine.

INSPIRED BY: APPARATUS STUDIO | NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Part II in our Friday series features a multi faceted design studio in Manhattan founded by Jeremy Anderson and Gabriel Hendifar. APPARATUS was born from their first lighting fixture creation called Twig 5, which was the result of necessity when they wanted to light art in the hallway of their apartment. 

Available to visit by appointment only, their showroom, impressive lighting selection and collection of accessories result in a visually captivating scene. Apparatus has also combined with Brooklyn ceramicist Alice Goldsmith to create the Link Porcelain pendant as an examination of "the strength and vulnerability of the artist's porcelain chain".  

APPARATUS' distinctive products fill a void that they see is missing from the current market. Chandeliers, sconces and picture lights are created by a varied number of materials from around the world including spun brass, etched glass, horsehair and handmade porcelain.

Photos from APPARATUS Studio.

“Strata Study explores the organically occurring phenomenon of strata: layers of earth of vegetation in nature.”

Inspired By: Oliver Gustav Studio | Copenhagen, Denmark

We are beginning a new weekly series here at The Hudson Company Blog. Every Friday we will be featuring the people, places, or products that inspire us.  We hope that this new 'Inspired By' series will also be an inspiration to you.

Today we begin by sharing images from the beautiful studio of Oliver Gustav located in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

A creative consultant whose focus is on "artisanal and holistic interiors", Oliver's Studio also functions as a shop whose contents compliment the designer's tastes acutely. Here you'll find one of a kind pieces made of wood, stone, linen and ceramic along with marble or leather boxes by Michael Verheyden and with a variety of texturally compelling pieces that suite Oliver's signature look. His collection of larger scale works such as lighting and seating by Poul Kjaerholm complete the ensemble with flawless curation.

All photos from olivergustav.com.