Designer Jonathan Legge visits Diamond Furniture
Furniture designer Jonathan Legge is part of a family of architects, and begins a Masters degree in product design at the RCA in London this September. With fellow design graduates from DIT Mountjoy Square, he set up a studio called Mash last year, to create environmentally conscious products. His latest project is a series of stands for Myles Claffey's Wingding postcards, one of which can be seen in Gruel on Dame Street. For The Irish Times Magazine, he visited Diamond Furniture on Dublin's Longmile Road to find some well designed furniture that isn't too expensive. Although not everything was to his taste, he says: "They have a nice set-up, a good mix at good prices."
"This is a really brilliant price for an oak bed. It's the most solid piece of furniture here, construction-wise, and isn't going to fall apart, no matter what you do on it. The proportions are really good - the headboard is pretty much twice the height of the footboard - and the joints are nicely finished." Six-foot oak bed was €1,299, now €749; five-foot bed was €1,249, now €699.
"These chairs are moulded birch plywood veneered with ash. I'm not mad about the table that they're sold with, but they have clean organic lines and I like the way the moulded sections are exposed at the side. I've got a thing for plywood anyway and these are very easy to move around - heavy dining chairs are a pain. These are comfortable enough to sit through a meal." Table and four chairs were €769, now €599.
"My favourite thing here are the travertine marble cubes. They're beautiful because they've been left in a natural state and aren't overly polished. What's great is that you could use them for so many things - just one could be a bedside table, three of them lined up together would make a perfect coffee table and five stacked on top of each other could be shelving. Travertine cubes were €179, now €139."
ADDRESS BOOK
Diamond Furniture, E.P Mooney Retail Centre, Longmile Road, Dublin 12 (1850-454444) and Airside Retail Park, Swords, Co Dublin (01-8907444); Jonathan Legge (086-3036888)