Paradigm Gallery Design Blog

Every year, just like GQ names a “Sexiest Man Alive”, and Motor Trend names its’ “Car of the Year, Pantone, a leading color authority named “Blue Iris” as its’ “Color of the Year” for 2008.

As 2008 comes to a close, we noticed that “Blue Iris” didn’t really take off as much as other colors, especially in interior design.

In fact, 2008 seems to have been the year of Green, from a color and environmental movement. Everywhere we turned, greens, ranging from lime to olive green popped up all over the place. Just walk into Crate and Barrel and you’ll see what we mean.

One of the recent “Color of the Year” winners, Cerulean, which won in 2000 made a guest appearance in “The Devil Wears Prada”, so Pantone’s picks definitely do shape fashion, design, and the mainstream.

Check out how Meryl Streep lets Anne Hathaway know about the importance of fashion in conjunction with Cerulean:

However, we Blue Iris did impact Paradigm Gallery in one major way: The Egg Chair. Our Egg Chair had always been a very popular modern classic piece. Typically, our top selling Egg Chair color is black or red. But, this year, Cobalt Blue came to the forefront as our most popular color Egg Chair color of 2008. Cobalt Blue is very similar to Iris Blue, so maybe the Pantone folks were onto something.

What colors stood out to you this year? Did Iris Blue play a part in your design?

Over the last 11 months, we’ve seen a lot happen in the design and furniture market. From the embrace of green as color used and an environmental cause to multi-purpose furniture becoming extremely popular as the economy spiraled downwards, 2008 has been a very intersting year. Over the next couple of days, we’ll review some of the trends we noticed and welcome you to get involved. What did you like from the year? What could you absolutely not stand?

Living Room Sectionals Are Still Popular

This year saw living room sectionals becoming much more minimal in design, and very versatile in function. Our living room sectionals were very hot this year, especially the modern sectionals that allowed multiple configurations, and pieces that could be used a chaise or lounge, ottoman, and so forth. As the economy faced issues, many of our clients sought pieces that could solve an entire room’s worth of furniture needs, rather than buying an individual living room chair, chaise, lounge, etc. Makes sense. And no living room sectional rose above the Centerline Living Room Sectional. Our most popular and definitely most versatile:

Stay tuned as we continue with the trends reviewed into the end of the year. Beat us to the punch, tell us what trends you noticed this year.

During our time in business, one thing has become very clear; the Barcelona Chair is THE iconic piece of the modern furniture movement. Since Day 1, the Barcelona Chair became our most popular item, and has yet to let up. Paradigm Gallery has always offered the best Barcelona Chair reproduction on the market. Our Barcelona Chair reproduction, which we call the Pavillion Chair is designed and manufactured by Alphaville Design (a leader in the modern furniture classic reproduction industry) and almost identical to the original chair designed by Mies, licensed by Knoll. We love the originals and if you’re interested in an original Barcelona Chair, visit our friends at Design Within Reach.

Despite our attempts to keep the most premium Barcelona Chair reproduction on our site, other retailers have flooded the market with, what we call “Entry Level Barcelona Chairs”. These chairs have similar shapes, but there are certainly some compromises. This may include colors offered and types of materials used.

So, in an effort to satisfy our growing list of new customers, we are now providing 3 Barcelona Chair reproductions, also known as our Good-Better-Best Barcelona Chair Program:

1) Pavillion Chair (Basic – Good)

• Only available in black color
• Only available in vinyl option
• #200 stainless steel frame with 2% nickel content
• Best for the price focused consumer
• Only $495

2) Pavillion Chair (Standard – Better)

• Available in black and white colors
• Available in leather and vinyl blend (the surfaces your body touch are leather, with sides and backs being vinyl)
• #202 stainless steel frame with 4% nickel content
• Only $595

3) Pavillion Chair (Premium- Best)

• Available in 23 total colors
• Available in 3 grades of leather (standard, semi-aniline, and full aniline)
• 1/2″ thick #304 stainless steel frame with 8% nickel content
• 12mm heavy gauge steel frame
• 17 high quality thick leather straps, similar to Knoll
• Starts at $795

Whichever chair you pick, you can’t go wrong. Let us know what you think about the new options. Any questions, post them here, and we’ll definitely get your questions answered.