Treasured

The interior design guru on the vintage piece that offers comfort and a moment of contemplation

Designers Guild founder Tricia Guild’s prized piece

I’ve been a great admirer of the German designer Otto Schultz for some time. I think the thing that was different about him is that he was quite entrepreneurial – he didn’t just design pieces, he wanted to show people how to use them. He had an interior design shop in Gothenburg, Sweden, which he opened in the 1920s having relocated from Germany, and even published an influential design magazine.

I first discovered Schultz through his ‘Slipper’ chair – I’ve always loved it, there’s something incredibly warming about it – that beautiful curved back. We sell a lot of vintage furniture at Designers Guild, which is all hand-picked by Mark, our head of retail and buying, and myself, so we go to Sweden or Denmark on buying trips a couple of times a year – it’s always exciting going on those excursions and finding new pieces. These chairs are quite hard to find now, so when I came across it in Stockholm last year, I knew it was coming home with me. I like it because it’s of an earlier period than most of the things I’ve got, but it has a timeless quality. It’s quite hard to put a date to it, but I think it was probably designed in the 1920s or 30s.

I was waiting to find the right fabric to upholster it with, and finally went for a wool fur fabric called ‘Mousson’ from our new ‘Moselle Lana’ collection. The chair just looks so right in it. It complements the shape and makes it even more comfortable to sit in – it surrounds one in a way, and I love that feeling. designersguild.com