MNN - Mother Nature Network

The 2010 International Contemporary Furniture Fair concludes today and mercifully I was in town this year and able to scope it out along with a couple of other NY Design Week events including a raucous NoHo District Design block party that was a modern design aficionado’s dream save for one extremely nightmarish lamp.

 

At ICFF proper, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon traversing over 145,000-square feet on the hunt for fresh sustainable home design. Needless to say, the hunt didn’t take too much effort and I left the ICFF with a full memory card, a bag stuffed full of reading material and business cards, and a pair of really sore feet. I even appeared on-camera for an interview — conducted by my good pal Sophie Donelson on behalf of Valspar — about the importance of using low/no-VOC paints.

 

Many of my finds at ICFF and at the fabulous Designboom Mart within ICFF involved goodies both old and brand new from eco-conscious designers that I've blogged about in the past such as Modkat, TING, Kikkerland, Umbra, Brinca Dada, ooomydeisgn, FilzFelt, Areaware, Hugh Hayden, and Loyal Luxe just to name a few.

 

It was a real treat, however, to stumble upon some truly great green stuff from designers that were new to me including the Seattle-based team of Jon Gentry, Jonathan Junker, and Seth Grizzle. Working under the name graypants, Gentry, Junker, and Grizzle (sounds like the name of a washed-up,  truck stop country western music trio, doesn't it?) craft gorgeous pendant lamps out of scraps of salvaged corrugated cardboard. This was graypants second year turning heads at ICFF. 

 

I chatted for a spell with the amicable graypants guys mostly about my home turf, the Pacific Northwest, and took a close look at their signature work, Scrap Lights. I can totally see why they this is their second ICFF showing. The lacey and lovely lights, mostly pendants, come in various shapes and sizes — some even inspired by Jupiter and the stars — and are all handmade at graypants HQ in Seattle’s Capitol Hill nabe from discarded cardboard boxes. Also on display was the Steplight, a new lamp made from a single piece of recycled aluminum. 

I’ve encountered plenty of furnishings and home accessories made from recycled cardboard both online and in person at trade shows; they sometimes fail to impress. However, Scrap Lights stopped me dead in my tracks — with their near-ceramic quality, it was hard to tell initially that the elegant and intricate lamps were even made from cardboard that was very possibly plucked from a dumpster. In addition to lighting, Gentry, Junker, and Grizzle have even branched into amazing Scrap Chairs. 

 

Check out the graypants hompage to learn more about this young firm that specializes in “instilling new spirit into salvaged pieces of corrugated cardboard.” Like what you see? Head on over to the graycart, where you can purchase your very own Scrap Light starting at $129.