MAKE ROOM FOR THE SURREAL
Bicycles in the bathroom, fish in the sink and a collection of bowler hats hanging from your ceiling. Absolutely anything’s possible, says LUKE RIX-STANDING
Tired of tables with four legs, porcelain sinks, and rooms that stay the same colour when you turn the lights off? No, we didn’t think you would be – but hear us out.
These surrealist home improvements will make you question all you thought you knew about your living room and, perhaps, your reality.
The Collins Dictionary describes surrealism as: “A style in which ideas, images and objects are combined in a strange way, like in a dream.” We’re not going to stick to this too rigidly here (full disclosure: We just want to show you stuff that’s cool and weird), but it’s worth keeping in mind nonetheless. It worked pretty well for Spanish artist Salvador Dali; it may do the same for your kitchen.
You probably won’t want to seriously
NOT AS THEY SEEM
SURREALISM often sets up an apparent contrast between what something appears to be, and what it actually is (see Dali’s aptlynamed ‘Lobster Telephone’), and Red Candy’s quirky furniture store (redcandy.co.uk) is filled with bits and bobs that are not quite what they seem.
Their best designs are laced with irony: A jar in the shape a giant tooth, which, when de-lidded, reveals a cavity to be filled with sweets or consider full-blown surrealistic style for your next decor update, but these outthere looks and quirky designs might inspire a few new touches...
AN ARTISTIC TRADITION
Surrealism is steeped in avant-garde aesthetics, so the designs themselves fit well into a modern interior. A quick Google search yields Rene Magritte-themed cushions, Salvador Dali curtains, and mugs adorned with the works of Max Ernst.
More overtly domestic are the sculptures, and replicas of Salvador Dali’s iconic ‘lips sofa’ (it’s exactly what it sounds like) are as comfy as they are mindbending.
Surrealism has its own category in print shops and poster websites, so any bare stretch of wall can be easily filled with melting clocks, abstract collages and contortionist portraiture. cookies, or a giant pencil sharpener hollowed out to make a pen pot. Other highlights include a stone camera whose long lens functions as a vase, and a laboratory flask whose warm glow emits from test tubeshaped light bulb.
But our favourite accoutrement is the Giant Champagne Cork Stool (£150), a slam dunk party piece sure to impress even your most humourless guests.
If those are the corks, what fun could be had with the bottles.
FURNITURE OF THE ABSURD
Surrealism can be a purely aesthetic experience, and the best designs play tricks on the eyes as well as the mind. Think optical illusions or portraits that look different from different angles: Anything offbeat enough to elicit a double take from an unsuspecting guest.
The designs of Jake Phipps (jakephipps. com) are yet more inscrutable. An attractive glass-topped table rests not on four legs but a single undulating loop that twists and turns in on itself, like a snake that’s bitten its own tail.
The Lost at Sea Side Table comes encrusted with golden barnacles, as though newly salvaged from the ocean floor. For lighting, bowler hats hang from the ceiling masquerading as lampshades, a warm glow pouring from beneath their brims.
But most mind-bending of all is his aptly named Salvador Mirror. The frame literally peels back from the mirror’s surface to reveal its contents – in this case, you.
A WARPED REALITY
So much for surrealist decor – for those willing to make more structural alterations, a brave new world of eccentric design awaits.
Fake windows are now all the rage, thanks in part to the proliferation of basement flats beneath bustling cities, but also because their LED displays can use realistic natural light to reflect the time of day and show ultra-HD ‘views’, from soaring peaks to plunging valleys.
Hungarian artist Bogi Fabian (bogifabian.com) travels the world painting unique murals on clients’ walls, with a special kind of fluorescent paint that can only be viewed in the dark. Wait ‘til sundown, snuff out the lamps and enter a dream world.
For daytime designs, Zurleys (zurleys.co.uk) offers matching sets of reflective furniture to create your very own bedroom of mirrors. And for furnishings that seem to have dropped straight from the walls of Tate Modern, direct your attention to Dust Furniture (dustfurniture.com).
All their units come with cartoonish colour schemes and stylised swirls and spikes – which in some cases, bring to mind the cubist contortionism of Pablo Picasso. Cupboards, wardrobes and shelves are precariously stacked atop one another, like a circus balancing act.