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Inspired by the past: How Munder Skiles blended old and new for Country Life's stand at the Chelsea Flower Show
On Country Life's stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, two striking designs by Munder Skiles demonstrated the exciting possibilities of combining inspiration from the past, artisanal skills, high-quality materials and cutting-edge engineering to create furniture suited to inside and out.
At the Chelsea Flower Show, George Saumarez Smith of ADAM Architecture created a Garden Lover’s Library for Country Life that combined his love of classical architecture, drawing and books with his fiancée Jane Kennerley’s love of plants.
Among the antique pieces that furnished the space are a pair of supremely comfortable Belmont Lounge Chairs and an Amish Demi-Lune Table from Munder Skiles. They eloquently express the benefits of creating furniture that is designed for longevity, but which is rooted in the past.
The Belmont Lounge Chair (left) stands out with its sweeping curves, while the Amish Demi-Lune Table by Munder Skiles (right) is all elegance.
Under the guidance of its founder John Danzer — the world’s leading authority on the history of garden furniture — the company has created an extensive collection of designs, one of the best known of which is the 18th-century Windsor-inspired Almodington bench, one of the oldest surviving garden seats in the US, named after the house on the eastern shore of Maryland where it was discovered.
The furniture looked wonderful in situ.
The Wharton bench is based on a design made for the writer and designer Edith Wharton in 1922, and another design replicates the bench Thomas Jefferson designed for Monticello, his Virginia home.
The Kelso is based on an Arts-and-Crafts dining chair found in Scotland, and the Xylo on a piece that would have furnished a French glasshouse. The result has been an exciting option for anyone keen to create outdoor spaces that are not only comfortable, but also sympathetic to their surroundings.
Visit www.munder-skiles.com to find out more.
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