Form Plus Function

Want to add interest to a room, highlight your collectibles, and add ambient lighting:  try lighting your cabinets or – like here – add  illuminated niches.

One  way to take away from the harshness of the main light source in a dining area is to use additional  lighting around the edge of the  room.  This diminishes the strong contrasts between light and shadow in the room and makes it possible to dim  the main fixture, usually the pendant light or chandelier over the dining table to a comfortable, more intimate level.
Buffets and hutches  can be illuminated from within and light up your collections of china or treasured pieces .
Look for the color temperature of the bulbs you use for your display. In order to get the effect shown here you need to look for bulbs (lamps) close to 3000K (Kelvin.)
Most quality halogen and fluorescent lamps give you the color temperature as well as the  CRI (Color Rendering Index.) If there is a choice, look for a CRI as close to 100 as you can get.

My comments to this beautiful dining area: I love how the illuminated niches stand out and add architectural interest to the space. They fill the room with warmth and make the art pieces “pop”.
That said, I find that  the pendant light / chandelier looks kind of lost way above the table.  Is it even centered? – It looks like some kind of afterthought.  Lowering it would do a world of difference.

Rule of thumb for mounting height of a pendant of chandelier : 30″ above the dining table.

Ingo Maurer’s latest installation,  Lacrime de Pescatore (Tears of the Fisherman),  is magical!
Layered nylon nets in three different sizes are laden with approximately 350 crystals shimmering  like drops of water. Installed across a ceiling, it creates that feeling that you are underwater, looking up at a fisherman’s glistening net.
I frst saw it in Munich in the Ingo Maurer showroom and was so charmed by it that I forgot to take photos !”
The light source itself is not even part of this unique “light fixture” but is  fixed separately to the wall and aimed to shine at the netting and crystals to illuminate them. You can see this clearly in the second photo.
As an added touch it is packaged it in a fun “to go”container. Ingo Maurer calls it a cash and carry chandelier!

Ingo Maurer Lacrime del Pescatore

Affordable Contemporary Lighting

At Form + Function we want to show that contemporary lighting can be affordable.We offer hundreds of wall sconces, pendant lights, outdoor lighting starting at under $50.

Click on the images to enter our online showroom for some great prices and discounts.

Form + Function is 25!

Ingo Maurer Oh Mei Ma

Oh Mei Ma!

When I finally saw this great piece in the Ingo Maurer Munich showroom  I  just stood there smiling.

It is SO gorgeous!!!

Six large sheets of  handmade paper float in the air, hiding the light source. The sheets are coated with real gold or silver leaf. The result is stunning.

Ingo Maurer Porca Miseria

An explosion of dinnerware in mid-air, shards flying.

The Porca Miserie by Ingo Maurer is a must-see piece!! I first saw it on a full page in their catalog and it took my breath away. When I finally saw it in real life it was even more stunning.

The design looks random, yet it is precisely choreographed like a ballet.

“We produce it in a limited number — we do only 10 a year. Believe it or not, it takes four people almost five days. We buy porcelain plates at a regular shop. First, we smash them: I have one, I drop it; or I take a hammer to it. It looks very much at random — and it is, maybe 50 or 60 percent. The rest is in a way constructed: There’s a bit of calculation of how big I want to have the piece I want to use.” – Ingo Maurer

Ingo Maurer Zettel'z

Zettel’z by Ingo Maurer charms me every time I look at it.
A collection of love notes from around the world attached with clips to spindly wires around a cylindrical body it is whimsical, fun as well as a great light.
Took this photo at the Ingo Maurer Showroom in Munich.

Great to see it with lots of space around it!

We have it on display in our showroom and the blank pieces of notepaper that come with it (in addition to the love notes) have little by little been filled out by customers.

Ingo Maurer Lucellino

“What a sick idea to eliminate an icon like the light bulb”
-Ingo Maurer

When we were in Munich this spring and ran into Ingo Maurer the discussion regarding the new European regulations to ban the incandescent bulb by September were heated.

Never one to just accept things passively, Ingo Maurer was using his showroom to demonstrate how silly the new rules are.

I’ll never forget his display of the charming Lucellino desk lamps outfitted with squiggly compact fluorescent lamps. Horrid! More »

Chandeliers come in many shapes and sizes, and even though I usually prefer  contemporary design there is just something about a decorative chandelier laden with glass droplets or crystals that is so festive and romantic that it’s irresistible.

Not to say that chandeliers by nature have to be traditional. Many contemporary designers like Phillippe Starck and Ingo Maurer have created their own exuberant interpretations of the traditional chandelier.

Just look at the Zettelz by Ingo Maurer: Slips  of Japanese paper- some printed, some blank – attached by paper clips to thin wires entice you to participate and add your own thoughts.

We have one hanging in our showroom that our customers have added to. They just felt like it, had to.

Notes in Spanish, Danish, German…..

Love it!!

Hubbardton Forge Chandelier

In our showroom we so often get  questions like how large a chandelier to choose for the dining area or how high to hang it over the table. (Answers: Diameter 12″ less than the width of table.  The bottom of chandelier should be 30″ above table.)

In most cases the chandelier is hung way too high, probably with the thought in mind that it could then help illuminate the entire room. Wrong!

With a chandelier hung too high  and no additional lighting the overall ambiance of the dining room  is more of a diner or fast food restaurant, less conducive to lingering. More »

Ingo Maurer Egg

When my  husband and I visited Ingo Maurer this year we got to admire their new showroom. A beautiful, generous space had replaced the maze of offices, production and shipping areas.

All the fixtures now have the space they need to stand out.
One fixture I had never seen before. Well, no wonder, it is not yet in production and was going to be exhibited in Milan shortly after our visit.

Ingo Maurer has given this description of his fascination with the shape of the egg.

‘The egg shape, perfect and beautiful, is a recurring element in my work. In fact, there’s a direct connection to Milan: the egg in Piero Della Francesca’s Montefeltro altarpiece, belonging to the Pinacoteca di Brera, holds a particular fascination for me. However, for me the egg had to be flawed: it is broken, and light emerges from the cracks.’