Darren Palmer Collaboration with King Living

The greatest thing about working with an established brand such as King Living is the opportunity to turn its visual identity on its head. Known for sleek and refined designer furniture, I saw an opportunity to reinterpret their beautiful product in two new and unique directions.

The encore bed has a mid-century feel to it, with its curved leg profile reminiscent of so many great mid-century design pieces. This gave me the idea of creating a very masculine, “Mad Men” style, slightly 50s or 60s inspired look, with a contemporary edge.

The fabric style used on the bedhead feels like it could be from a gentleman’s jacket, the dark charcoal leg akin to suit pants. Luxurious velvets were used to compliment the suiting style, with a chocolate velvet covering the amazing, low backed Seymour chair giving it the sheen of a champion thoroughbred. Upholstered onto the Uno ottoman at the foot of the bed is another style of velvet, this time in a luscious gold.

A third velvet in deep navy dresses the bed itself in the form of a generously proportioned cushion and a precisely tucked bed sash. Grey squares on the bed cover tie together nicely with the Ralph Lauren wallpaper, both heavily influenced by the patterning of men’s suiting with archetypal, masculine objects like the horse artwork, the cut glass tumblers and substantial drinks tray.

The Farnsworth bedside tables and Amondo bookcase tie the timber of the bed base in, giving you strong masculine forms and a great place to style and store day to day items.

The lighting is low but focused, the bedside lamp is a designer classic that relates to the floor lamp, both featuring elegant metal domes.

Make no mistake, this is the room of a man or for those who love masculine style.

To strike the perfect balance, where one room is dark, moody and masculine, the other is feminine, bright and playful.

The Symphony bed has a beautifully soft upholstery with featured stitching that makes the bed feel traditional and contemporary all at once. With dual functionality as a beautiful and comfortable place to sleep as well as providing a large space in which to store luggage, linen or whatever your heart desires, the bed looks and functions like a dream.

The idea for the bed was to make it feel as relaxed as possible, the perfect solution being a soft, washed, blush coloured linen to highlight the relaxed style of this more informal room.

The palette of blush, salmon and cool grey strikes a balance between warm and cool, the colours all desaturated but lively still. Forms are more relaxed, prettier and softer. The linen is precise but asymmetrical, the rug an ombré, chunky knit.

The room’s furniture choices are functional but beautiful, with the wenge coloured timber of the Symphony bed, Serenade bedsides and Venus side table working perfectly with the warmer colours in the palette, the marble tops on the Serenade Bedside tables playing nicely to the cool.

Crumpled blush velvet encases the King Boulevard chair creating a new interpretation for this piece. It feels perfectly appropriate to the look as well as creating a new, relaxed look for a more formal chair.

Sharp geometric shapes are complimented with circles in the form of the bedside table light, artwork and Venus side table. The curvy form of the King Boulevard contributes to the sense of balance beautifully.

A simple vignette centred around the Former Keel Console, with soft pastel photographic artwork, foliage and décor items becomes the focus of the otherwise more simple wall, the woven basket on the floor tying back nicely with my very own Hyam blush rug.

The idea of engaging a new designer eye on existing, timeless pieces is to discover new interpretations. Together, Darren Palmer and King Living have created new ways to look at individual pieces that should inspire others to take a new and individual point of view for their own pieces, for their own homes.

Visit www.kingliving.com.au for more.