The Hudson Company + FAIR at Collective Design Fair 2016

FAIR Showroom, NYC.

The FAIR exhibit space at Collective Design Fair 2016.

the right balance of artistry and thoughtfulness

The designer behind FAIR is New Yorker Brad Ford. 

Back in October, 2014, Ford organized a modern makers craft fair in upstate New York called Field + Supply. The focus of that fair was on modern, elevated craftsmanship showcasing artisans from the Hudson Valley area as well as makers who work in New York City and Brooklyn. FAIR is an extension of that concept and is now a permanent showroom at the New York Design Center. It is more edited and elevated than the original event upstate, but the focus remains on high-end, handcrafted design and craft. Many of the same designers who showed their work at Field + Supply are represented at FAIR and several of them are craftspeople that Ford has worked with over the years on his own high-end design projects.

With FAIR, Ford's emphasis is on the people behind the products, “I have established relationships with a lot of these artists and know how beautifully executed their workmanship is. They have the right balance of artistry and thoughtfulness so there’s a timelessness to their work which I think has a lot of value. For me, their work should be considered future heirlooms that will last for generations.”

THE HUDSON COMPANY & FAIR

Whether he is collecting bespoke furniture, lighting, textiles, or ceramic objects for the FAIR showroom, Ford's has established an aesthetic that fits well with The Hudson Company's own design values.

So, we were proud to collaborate with Brad for this year's Collective Design Fair in NYC. As a part of FAIR's exhibit space at CDF, Ford incorporated Hudson Company Select Harvest White Oak [French Cut, Bare Finish] flooring, as a contrast to the glossy white concrete of the event space flooring.The end result was an exhibit space that felt warm, clean, welcoming, and modern - all adjectives that clearly describe what FAIR is all about. 

Click here to learn more about Hudson Company Select Harvest White Oak [French Cut, Bare Finish] or contact us for a quote for your next design project. 

Hudson Company Select Harvest White Oak [French Cut, Bare Finish] floors used by designer Brad Ford at Collective Design Fair 2016.

Interior design by Brad Ford.

Designer Brad Ford.

The Hudson Company + ASH NYC at Collective Design Fair 2016

Collective Design Fair 2016, VIP Lounge by ASH NYC.

The Hudson Company + ASH NYC 

Over the past five years, we've watched as ASH NYC has made a name for themselves in New York's competitive design community. In that time, ASH NYC has grown from five to twenty five team members and has gained a reputation as an innovative and bespoke urban design shop that's right at the cutting edge of what's happening today - in interior design as well as in development, staging, and furniture and object production.

This past year, The Hudson Company had the opportunity to meet up with ASH NYC and share the story behind our brand and sustainably-milled products lines. One thing led to another and, before long, ASH NYC was incorporating Hudson Co. Reclaimed Heart Pine [Chalk Finish] into one of their residential design projects. 

'OFFICE SPACE' Lounge BY ASH NYC

Not long after that, ASH NYC was asked to design a piece for the 2016 Collective Design Fair VIP lounge. From the design brief, the designers' developed a concept they called, "Office Space." Here's how they explained their final concept:

"Employing office culture as a conceptual framework for the VIP Lounge at Collective Design 2016, OfficeSpace conflates the banal - cubicles, dropped acoustic panels and ready made office furnitures with the exuberant - art and design. For moments of rest from the chaos, we would like to invite visitors to mingle and relax by the proverbial water cooler."

To help reach their overall design objectives, ASH NYC turned, once again, to The Hudson Company's Reclaimed Heart Pine [Chalk Finish] for the custom, one of a kind conference table they crafted for the VIP lounge's (see above and below).

The result of our collaboration with ASH NYC was both very satisfying and very inspiring - to see the Reclaimed Heart Pine [Chalk Finish] used for a furniture build out was such a creative contrast to how Chalk is best known, as the flooring installed at the new Whitney Museum of American Art. 

Bravo to the whole team at ASH NYC on their success at Collective Design Fair 2016. We are honored to have been a part of the process. We look forward to seeing the designs you bring to life in the years to come.

You can learn more about ASH NYC at their website and on Instagram.

Lounge space before.

After.

The ASH NYC Team at Collective Design Fair 2016.

Installation in Focus: West 29th Street Loft, New York

A Whimsical New York Loft, A Durable Pre-Finished Flooring Solution

This 4,000 square foot West 29th Street Loft, designed by the talented team at Studio DB was completed in the summer of 2013 and features Hudson Company Select Harvest White Oak [Cascade Finish] flooring. Because the client in this project was a family with four kids, the architects incorporated a lot of creative and durable elements into their design solutions - not least of which was their choice to use The Hudson Company's pre-finished Select Harvest White Oak flooring. 

On their website, Studio DB outlines the the design program for the loft's design: "The kitchen anchors a large, open living and dining room with window exposures on three sides. Access to the kids' bedrooms is off a custom wallpapered hallway with a zip-line down the middle.  The kids' rooms each connect to a shared loft space, with unique access from each bedroom including a colorful rock wall, monkey bars, and a concealed ladder.  The interconnected loft ends at a slide which filters down into a corner playroom. The master suite is a more sophisticated space. A light filled study is tucked behind the master bedroom, which is separated by steel and glass doors."

To learn how The Hudson Company can help you reach your goals for your next design project, contact us today at info@thehudsonco.com.

Photos by Mike Garten for Studio DB, Copyright of Studio DB.

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.

The Hudson Company in ELLE DECOR Magazine

Reclaimed Heart Pine Flooring in ELLE DECOR

We are thrilled to share that our very own Reclaimed Heart Pine [Original Face] floors are featured in Samantha Emmerling and Hillary Brown's article 'Toolbox' in the newest issue of ELLE DECOR Magazine (April, 2016), on newsstands now.

Reclaimed Heart Pine [Original Face] Flooring is one of our most popular and versatile reclaimed wood flooring products and has found a place in design installations of all kinds, including two New York retail spaces for outdoor mega-brand Patagonia (see both stores below).

Reclaimed Antique Long Leaf Heart Pine wood is sourced from Hudson River Valley factories and warehouses whose construction dates back to the Industrial Revolution. Reclaimed Longleaf Heart Pine wood was once a predominant standing timber across a large span of the eastern seaboard. For generations, Long Leaf Heart Pine's prevalence and unique properties made it the most widely-utilized timber in American construction.

Today, The Hudson Company is always on the lookout of high-quality, high-character Heart Pine to reclaim, custom mill, and re-introduce to designers and architects for use in their next projects. 

Learn more about the full range of Hudson Company Reclaimed wood floors (including six varieties of Reclaimed Heart Pine) on our Reclaimed Flooring Page. 

The Patagonia Store, Meatpacking District, NYC

Patagonia Surf Shop, New York.

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: California Craftswoman Aleksandra Zee

Photo by Trinette Reed for Huck Magazine.

This week, we are featuring the inspiring work of Oakland based artist and woodworker Aleksandra Zee. Zee's stunning, reclaimed wood mosaics first came to our attention via her impressive Instagram feed, which led us to her growing portfolio of large and small-scale wooden wall hangings.

Trained in the fine arts, Ms. Zee is deeply inspired by the desert landscapes of the American Southwest and by Native American handicrafts and textiles. She has described her work as, 'recreating Navajo blankets out of wood.'

Speaking to Huck Magazine in 2014, Ms. Zee described her passion for working with reclaimed wood materials:

"I believe in working with a material that inspires you. For me, reclaimed wood has a history and I want to add to that history and give it a new life: rustic, worn, warm, and reminiscent. I love that transformation process. First I choose the lumber I am going to use. Then I separate it into colour palettes. Then I lay out a rough pattern, play around with it a bit, and when it’s perfect I nail it down. After the pattern is created I seal the piece and go to town with a sander."

We are excited to see where Ms. Zee's inspiration and passion for reclaimed materials take her in 2016.  

You can learn about Aleksandra Zee and her work at her site. Unless otherwise noted, all photos are from aleksandrazee.com.

Aleksandra Zee for the Buchanan Hotel, San Francisco. Photo by Laure Joliet.

Hudson Company Reclaimed Heart Pine Floors on Architizer.com

Hudson Company Reclaimed Heart Pine [Chalk Finish] featured on Architizer.com

We were thrilled last week, when The Hudson Company's Reclaimed Heart Pine [Chalk Finish] floors were featured on Architizer.com as one of their featured 'Products of the Day.'

The timing of Architizer's feature on Reclaimed Heart Pine [Chalk Finish] seems especially apropos as we approach the first anniversary of the opening of New York's new Whitney Museum of American Art - a large-scale installation in which The Hudson Company provided over 60,000 square feet of wide plank, Heart Pine floors. To meet the custom design needs for the new Whitney project, The Hudson Company collaborated with the architectural teams at The Renzo Piano Design Workshop and Cooper Robertson Architects throughout 2013 and 2014. At the time of the Museum's opening, Jerry Saltz of New York Magazine described the Whitney's interiors and floors as, 'open, simple, Shaker-like; the wide-plank pine floors are perfect.' 

But whether installed on a massive scale (a la the new Whitney Museum) or used in a more intimate, residential application, there is just something special about these particular Reclaimed Wood flooring.

About Reclaimed Heart Pine [Chalk Finish]

Part of what make's our Reclaimed Heart Pine so special is its unique origin story. 

For the past two centuries, Longleaf Heart Pine was a predominant standing timber across a large span of the eastern seaboard. Its prevalence and unique properties made it the most widely utilized timber in American construction. 

Today, our Reclaimed Heart Pine flooring are sourced from abandoned or de-commissioned factories and warehouses located around the Hudson River Valley, some of which were constructed during the Industrial Revolution. You can learn more about The Hudson Company's reclamation process in our three part series 'Crafting The Whitney Floors.'

Product Specs:

Hudson Company Reclaimed Heart Pine [Chalk Finish] floors are available at dimensions of 3/4" x 4-8" x 2-12'. Tongue & Groove. End Matched. Shown pre-finished in Chalk. Floors are also available unfinished.

Click here to learn more or quote Reclaimed Heart Pine for your next project.

Inspired By: Lighting Designer Tom Rossau

This week, we are 'Inspired By' the rising Danish craftsman and designer Tom Rossau, whose imaginative, sculptural lights are impossible not to marvel at. With their bending, twisting, and inter-weaving handmade forms, Rossau's signature Pendant Lights are, understandably, showing up in more and more thoughtfully designed spaces (and on more and more envious design blogs). 

The man behind these distinctively intricate lights is Copenhagen-based Tom Rossau, a 40-something maker who is self-admittedly obsessed with light and shadow. Since 2004, Rossau has been crafting his intricate lights from malleable wood veneers such as birch. The combination of natural materials bent into delightful and surprising forms is what sets a Rossau light apart. Below you can see photos of Tom at work in his Copenhagen studio.

As a Scandinavian, Rossau has an intimate knowledge of the dramatic changes in light throughout the calendar year, and the corresponding effects these changes have on interior spaces and people's moods. With this context in mind, it's no wonder why Rossau's lamps are celebrated for both their artistic forms as well as their practical function. The experimentality and diversity in Tom's work is clearly a result of the designer's deep reserves of creative energy and curiosity, "I will never be finished making lamps." 

We certainly hope that's true.

Read more about Tom's stroy here. See the whole line of Tom Rossau lights here.

Product In Focus: Select Harvest White Oak [Barley Finish]

The Hudson Company's Select Harvest White Oak [Barley Finish], shown above as installed in New York's exclusive Spice Warehouse, celebrates the rustic nature of White Oak and is inclusive of knots, sap wood, and grain variation. The material's grain structure invites penetrating stains or can be fumed to create a warm walnut-like tonality. Our Select Harvest White Oak [Barley Finish] floors are pre-finished with a low-VOC finish.

Specifications: 3/4" x 4-8" x 3-14'. Tongue & Groove. End Matched. Micro-Beveled. New Face. Solid or Engineered. Pre-finished.

Learn more or get a quote for your next project here.