A Yellow Armchair

A Yellow Armchair


Looking at my blog, one could conclude that I’ve got an unhealthy obsession with chairs. I assure you that this is not the case. Leather divans? Venetian mirrors? Decanters? Yes. Chairs, not so much.

I have, however, one specific chair-obsession (perfectly healthy, though) and that’s my love for yellow armchairs. As with many things in my life, it’s all the fault of a book. There is a yellow armchair in Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes*. The armchair in question belongs to Charles Ephrussi, de Waal’s forefather, a fabulously wealthy banker and art lover and model for Swann in Proust. As soon as I read the book, I of course wanted the chair.

And now I’ve got one!** If you’ve read my Big In Japan post, you have already partly seen it, but it deserves to be presented in its full glory. Or as full as I can capture with my iPhone in the Brussels non-existent light. This one is a modern, streamlined take on the yellow armchair genre by an Estonian company OOT-OOT (I picked the fabric myself). In addition to being a beautiful piece of design, it’s cheerful and comfortable and improves my mood every time I look at it. I say look, because I hardly ever sit there these days, as my youngest sister never leaves that chair.

The solution is, of course, obvious. I need another, old-fashioned one in pale yellow leather for the library room that I’m going to have. And a slightly mustard-y yellow, seventies-inspired one would be cool, too. I only need to find a suitable house for it.

*I highly recommend the book. It’s part family history (and what a family that is), part memoir, part a meditation on art, part a chase after the mysterious netsuke. It also involves fin de siecle Vienna.
** I highly recommend yellow armchairs as well.

3 Comments

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  1. 1
    Holly

    I have a chair quite similar to yours, although I inherited it from my parents and I believe it’s circa 1960 something. It also has a matching ottoman and they’re in a shade between yellow and beige. Straw, perhaps?

    I’m utterly fascinated by your photography. It’s so beautiful and you definitely have quite an artistic eye. I keep wondering … what sort of a place is this? There is a definite vibe about your sets that is well-thought out and yet not contrived.

    The Hare with Amber Eyes will go on my library list!

    • 2
      Ykkinna

      Dear Holly, thank you. Almost all the photos are taken at our house in Brussels (we are renting it), that’s also why the ‘sets’ are quite limited. I wake up early every morning, edit the day’s post and quicky take the photos on my iPhone. I’m actually quite selfconcious about them, as I’ve never been much of a photographer. I keep thinking that I should up my photography game somehow, but as my job is very intense, it’s difficult to squeeze in the blogging as it is. All this is to say that I appreciate your kind words very much. And your chair sounds perfect!

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