Stainless Steel Bathroom Fixtures
13 June 2008
“Steel Crazy, After All These Years…”
I don’t normally feature the same company twice in one week, but Julien, Inc. has a long line of stainless steel products, and some of these items are found in their bathroom. I pointed out earlier that this company is actually headquartered in Canada, an item that’s worth repeating because the product line featured here is clearly inspired by Japan. And so a few more of the boundaries that are thought to divide us are now seen not to exist at all. For all we know the designer of these particular items working in Canada may have come from South Africa! The world is getting that small.
Actually, some five or six of my fellow woodworkers are married to Japanese ladies and have, in consequence, a large interest in all things Japanese, as do I. There is a certain rightness that accrues to the simplicity of line that is used in so much of what is produced on that island.
Nowadays, of course, because the world has been made so small with modern communications, we tend to take so much of that for granted, but it is not hard to imagine the wonder with which the architects Greene and Greene approached the Japanese Pavilion in the Chicago’s World Fair of 1893.
I think what particularly intrigues me about this company is that they specialize in stainless steel, but they don’t just stand there with a stack of sheet metal and a welding torch. They design things that not only endure—as stainless steel must—but creations that you want to endure because of both the utility of the design and its intrinsic beauty.
And the other element that is worth noting is the cleverness with which they have approached their designs. This particular bathroom suite is very much a case in point. The one thing I found myself wondering about was the magazine on the bench. Well, as it turns out, what’s been made to appear as a bench is really something a bit more demure, a cover. One slides open the handcrafted wood top to reveal the toilet underneath. Ah, then that would explain the magazine!
Joseph
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