Cool furniture, design objects and desiderata

[zalb916]

Maybe we're just lucky, but it wasn't particularly hard to teach her basic carefulness and how to perceive fragility and danger. We just made the effort, whereas we notice a lot of other parents don't even try.

Man, I knew I was stealing that advice from somewhere.

Teasing aside, I appreciate that you don’t let your kids greatly impact how you furnish your home, that you teach your kids how to respect nice stuff, and that you’ve learned to realize kids, no matter how much you try to parent, are sometimes just gonna be kids.

 

[nootje]

I grew up for a while in a house where you had to be ‘careful for the furniture! Don’t do that, you could hit a painting!’

Screw that, I want my house to be lived in.

 

[Mujib]

I realize this advice may be too late for you, but I hope it helps some other young parent. With regard to nice furnishings, it’s not particularly hard to teach a small child basic carefulness and how to perceive fragility and danger. You just need to make the effort. I notice a lot of parents don’t even try.

Haha - I asked about this here and shared my own experience. It's not hard to teach children, but your wife and everyone else will think you're crazy with all your rules. Even I think it sounds crazy when I repeat it to myself: "Sweetie, the leather will tear, the lacquered metal will scratch, the fabric will stain ..."

 

[Mujib]

Our sofa upholstery, Kvadrat Hallingdal, gave up after about seven years. It appeared good as new until about year six and a half—and then suddenly began disintegrating. I’m a little surprised this has happened so soon, but we are an active family and the couch is our most used seating surface. What irks me more is the steel rod that somehow got free of the sofa’s substructure and now pokes out of the side of the sofa. So much for Knoll quality control? Sofa is being reupholstered and repaired as we speak. The shop says they have seen the steel rod problem happen before…

Did Knoll recommend someone or did you find them yourself? I have some Saarinen dining chairs I'd like to get reupholstered and repaired.

 

[TheFoo]

Man, I knew I was stealing that advice from somewhere.

Teasing aside, I appreciate that you don’t let your kids greatly impact how you furnish your home, that you teach your kids how to respect nice stuff, and that you’ve learned to realize kids, no matter how much you try to parent, are sometimes just gonna be kids.

Dude, not sure what what you think I “learned to realize”. We generally followed our own advice and our kids generally follow the rules taught to them, but nobody is perfect. Frankly, adult guests have done far more damage to our stuff than our children ever have.

Did Knoll recommend someone or did you find them yourself? I have some Saarinen dining chairs I'd like to get reupholstered and repaired.

Knoll recommended them: Prestige Furniture & Design in Queens. They did our previous reupholstery job and we were impressed with the work. They also do the upholstery on the display pieces in Knoll’s showroom anytime Knoll wants to update or change the fabric.

 

[zalb916]

Dude, not sure what what you think I “learned to realize”. We generally followed our own advice and our kids generally follow the rules taught to them, but nobody is perfect. Frankly, adult guests have done far more damage to our stuff than our children ever have.

Dude, you not so subtly let us know how great of a parent you were for successfully teaching your oldest to be careful around fragile furniture. You gratuitously took it a step further by calling out the bad parents who can’t even attempt this simple parenting skill that you had mastered. You then followed-up a few years later with a story about how your younger kid was not careful around fragile furniture.

Dude, that’s funny.

We’re all great critics of other parents … until our kid does the very thing we critiqued. Then we say, “nobody is perfect.” Because, of course, nobody is perfect.

I gave you a compliment. I’ll give you another. Sounds like you and your wife are great parents with respectful kids who get to grow-up around cool furniture, design objects, and desiderata.

It still is an amusing update from you.

 

[qubed]

I grew up for a while in a house where you had to be ‘careful for the furniture! Don’t do that, you could hit a painting!’

Screw that, I want my house to be lived in.

I guess I was lucky enough to grow up in a house with a separate children's play area where we were free to do whatever we wanted, but the rest of the house was to be respected. The only lasting damage the my siblings did was a couple of ill-placed stickers on my dad's desk that never came off. Also a vase that I chipped, but I superglued it back together, and my parents never found out.

 

[TheFoo]

Dude, you not so subtly let us know how great of a parent you were for successfully teaching your oldest to be careful around fragile furniture. You gratuitously took it a step further by calling out the bad parents who can’t even attempt this simple parenting skill that you had mastered. You then followed-up a few years later with a story about how your younger kid was not careful around fragile furniture.

Dude, that’s funny.

We’re all great critics of other parents … until our kid does the very thing we critiqued. Then we say, “nobody is perfect.” Because, of course, nobody is perfect.

I gave you a compliment. I’ll give you another. Sounds like you and your wife are great parents with respectful kids who get to grow-up around cool furniture, design objects, and desiderata.

It still is an amusing update from you.

Ridiculous. That entire original conversation was about the feasibility of owning nice things and having small children at the same time. My comments about teaching kids boundaries and respect for nice things were absolutely germane to the discussion. You make it sound as if I, out of nowhere, began lecturing on parenting. Maybe you just need to chill out.

 

[TheFoo]

I guess I was lucky enough to grow up in a house with a separate children's play area where we were free to do whatever we wanted, but the rest of the house was to be respected. The only lasting damage the my siblings did was a couple of ill-placed stickers on my dad's desk that never came off. Also a vase that I chipped, but I superglued it back together, and my parents never found out.

I think it’s good and healthy for children to learn respect for nice things. They then become more capable of navigating grown-up environments and thereby become more free, not less.

 

[jbarwick]

I don't even know what a grown up environment is. Buying nice things is great but having your furniture own you because it was so expensive is not a life worth living.

 

[TheFoo]

I don't even know what a grown up environment is. Buying nice things is great but having your furniture own you because it was so expensive is not a life worth living.

Sure, but that is a separate issue.

 

[Jr Mouse]

Clearly, the natural stone had a flaw in it and through no fault of his own finally failed. f00 is in constant communication with the market of the table, and has a call placed to God to understand the marble creation process so he can make suggestions to improve things the next time around.

 

[jbarwick]

Clearly, the natural stone had a flaw in it and through no fault of his own finally failed. f00 is in constant communication with the market of the table, and has a call placed to God to understand the marble creation process so he can make suggestions to improve things the next time around.

I figured he would call the Italian quarry and discuss techniques of splitting rock to better produce slabs of quality controlled marble.

 

[PhilKenSebben]

I figured he would call the Italian quarry and discuss techniques of splitting rock to better produce slabs of quality controlled marble.

Go all the way to the source. gotta talk to the guy who smelted the metal for the chisel....

 

[whorishconsumer]

Matteo is having a 50% everything sale.

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