A Perfect Pair: An Alvar Aalto Chair and a Coral Lamp!

We’ve covered the great, Mid-Century creations of Alvar Aalto before. With his smart designs and organic lines, his furniture goes well with a variety of home décor styles. Though perhaps most well known for pieces like his Paimio Chair or his stacking stools, we chose today his design of the Type 31 Chair, which is one of his earliest designs and was originally created for the Paimio Sanitorium. Made of bent laminated birch ply, this chair was sometimes lacquered with an orange hue, giving it a really bright finish. We just love that it’s made entirely of wood, and really admire the curves of the bent birch ply.

If we were decorating a space, we’d combine Aalto’s Type 31 Chair with Swank Lighting’s pair of Labyrinth Coral Table Lamps. Though when coral décor first debuted it was a trendy item, the beautiful and delicate nature of this element has proven to be a staying item in today’s most beautifully decorated homes. We love the Labyrinth Coral lamps because of their intricate detail, and being from nature itself, the organic feeling of this pair of lamps is immense.

Together, Alvar Aalto’s Type 31 Chair and Swank Lighting’s Labyrinth Coral lamps work well because they are so organic and earthy. Both feature natural elements like the coral and the birch wood, and both pieces exhibit lots of natural curves and lines that are both inherent and surprising. The chair and the lamps are also of a similar, neutral toned color palette, which makes them perfect for each other but also able to blend nicely in many different types of spaces. They both even possess a bit of a modern feel, the chair having an overall modern design, and the lamps being placed on lovely Lucite bases.

For more of our “Perfect Pair” series, check out our combinations with Mies van der Rohe and Piere Paulin. You can always see all of Swank Lighting's great lamp selection on our website.