From RH, the former Restoration Hardware, comes the Byron Collection of reeded European white oak. Shown here, the Extended Panel Bed with closed nightstands ($12,795 for queen-size). Designed by Australia’s Harrison and Nicholas Condos, the Byron Collection includes similarly reeded coffee, console, and dining tables, plus sideboards and other pieces, in various finishes and sizes.
By Nancy McKeon
A ROUTER wasn’t always the thing that broadcast your WiFi connection from your bedroom to the kitchen. No, once it was a tool for creating grooves in wood. Still is, actually, the proof being these furniture pieces that have all popped up in recent months. (At least two of the lines of fluted or grooved pieces are being in manufactured in Vietnam, so some craftsmen there are certainly familiar with the tool!)
Fluted, ribbed, grooved, reeded, even slatted! Those characteristics may call to mind Stickley Brothers chairs or Frank Lloyd Wright. But the look here is lightened, as is the mood—no brooding!
When weighing how much to pay for a piece of cabinetry with such flourishes, a crisp, sealed finish is paramount, especially in the kitchen, which is where Crate and Barrel has introduced a line of kitchen islands (and other pieces) with smart lines. Let not crisp and ribbed become gooey and greasy!
If you’re in contemporary quarters, chances are good that your kitchen is already part of your living room. So a nice furniture-finish piece could be a godsend. From Crate and Barrel’s new line of kitchen furnishings comes the almond-finish natural-oak Batten kitchen island, 84 inches long and made up of two three-deep-drawer units with vertical ribbing and a Volakas marble top. Note when planning your space that the drawers open out to the sides. The island is $3,999. The Batten style is also available as single- or double-sink wall-mounted bathroom vanities ($1,899 and $3,699), entryway high-back storage bench ($1,711), and additional 5-foot-tall wall panels to make wall-hung headboards or otherwise trimming out your space ($399 each). The Batten Collection is designed by Bill Eastburn of William Eastburn Design.
Slats this time, from the Container Store. We’re showing two Marie Kondo Shoji Stacking Shoe Shelves, one 18 inches long ($29.99) atop another, 3 feet long ($49.99), available in Kocha Brown (shown) and natural.
From Minneapolis-based Blu Dot comes the Murmur Collection, a series of credenzas, night stands, and dressers with fluted fronts. These Murmur pieces, made of solid wood with white oak or walnut veneers, require some assembly and come with detailed exploded assembly drawings and the tools to put things together. The Murmur Collection ranges in sale price from $956 to $2,956.
A bit more basic in execution but in the same reeded spirit is this Carrara marble-top Elodie cabinet, made of ash and oak, from Tulsi Home. The 52-inch-long sideboard shown is $1,504.50; a taller (36-inch-high) matching 38-inch-long marble-top cabinet is $1,256.50, both at One Kings Lane. Like the Crate and Barrel pieces, these are made in Vietnam.
Slightly different from the others in that the base of this ash-wood dining table is made of resin. And the fluting is more relaxed, more of a flutter. Still the 46-inch-diameter Maja dining table from Anthropologie has the same spirit, tailored for smaller spaces (seats four). It’s $1,198 at Anthropologie.com.
