Obs 137: New Year's Resolutions—and the case for UNCOMFORTABLE FURNITURE
Plus, Vegas vs. the country home and a mislisted V**o M********** among the hits
Hello, midweek in the return to work in America. Hope everyone had a restful holidays.
Housekeeping:
Hats still for sale. Buy them here.
New York Times wrote about what our homes might look like in 2026. I liked this line from Kelsey Keith, friend of the newsletter:
“In the pandemic, it was more about shoving a Peloton wherever, now it’s about a dedicated closet, a yoga room,” Ms. Keith said. “People are really designing for their own idiosyncrasies.”
What’s that line Harold Ross had? One must permit each writer their own degree of idiosyncrasy. It was in a story about the Renata Adler b33f. He gets it. Nice to see design to get a bird’s eye NYT treatment like cinema and dining does. Here’s to more idiosyncrasy.
Anyone have any design resolutions? Myself, I want to find more ICBM Boca cutlery and switch over my entire kitchen to metal. Maybe get rid of the cabinets. Maybe get rid of my kitchen nook shell chairs for something more deranged.
What about yourself? Please go nuts with the answers, and comment with your resolution below. Or take it to the chat:
Going to keep the poll up for a while. Curious how it’s going to be.
My dark wellness newsletter (and podcast) SNAKE SUPER HEALTH now has an Instagram. Follow it here.
I also liked this line from (friend of Snake) Emilia Petrarca in an interview yesterday, for Arden Yum’s Ad Hoc:
My friends and family make fun of me for buying the most expensive, most uncomfortable furniture in the world, but the thing is: I don’t care. (full story)
The truth literally hurts. What’s wild about this statement, if you click through, is Emilia’s talking about a Bombole—not even that uncomfortable by the standards of uncomfortable furniture. Salute her good taste. It is the path forward. Everyone who visits my place hates to sit on my couch. It’s called being an adult.
That’s it. Onto the goods.
Retail corner
I keep losing my gloves this winter. One pair I left at my chick’s bar, the other I left at the pull-up place. I have a pair of Energy gloves—touch screen, excellent—but they’re sticky and not for every day use. The above ones are great. They’re for running—or they say they are. You don’t need hands to run. Most running shoes from the 1980s are just fashion shoes now. They’re just supposed to be for running. Nice and thin, work well enough to keep cold if it’s not too cold out (it’s never really that cold in New York). I like the high vis—matches me parka. Only people lucky enough to live in Eastern Ontario need very thick gloves. Now onto furniture.
Obs 137
Monnet table, $1,600, Wed., Chi.: There is, in design, the Vegas-country home paradox. Does an item look better in a Vegas hotel or a new construction for rich people, or does it present itself better as something more amateur, vernacular, such as an antique-heavy country home? This is the dividing line. Nothing else. Lines are drawn here: a welcoming, cozy but not very professional house or stark, serene formality that might not feel like a warm home. I feel like this coffee table is the best case for the latter. It is futuristic and stark. Designed in 1970 for Kappa (not pants), and runs about 2 large in archival auctions. It is pretty enthralling: one of these revelatory design pieces that makes you want to sign up for an aesthetic. If everything looks as good as this table, you might think, let’s turn the whole place into this.
Still, hard to incorp. something like this into a shaggier, cozier situation so the usage here is limited. But it’s stark without being… nothing. It’s expressive and strong.
That’s it for free stuff. A list of the best-curated furniture available to consumers over the next week follows below. All pieces are on auction (read: priced normally), with instructions and best practices below the paywall. About 100 pieces, with the photo below hinting at the items available to buy:
