“You can’t have too many chairs or too many shirts”
Bobby McAlpine
Bobby began collecting them (chairs, not shirts) as a teenager. His personal tastes lean toward the small open chair or stool – the chess piece that can be arranged at will when intimate conversation is called for. Chairs are the most characterful pieces one can own and require different behaviors of people. They do, however, tend to call out to their own: the lounger seeks the enveloping arms of the club chair and the flittering, vigilant host will perch on the edge of a hard seat or stool. Beckoning rooms should offer a resting place for every personality.
When Bobby decided to create his own collection of chairs, the magpie in him took flight and collected bits and pieces from the rich lineage of classic furniture design. These influences were woven together in a distinctly modern pattern and the McAlpine Home furniture collection was born. His explorations in reimagining the common chair are evident in his upholstered pieces from Lee Industries and modern wood heirlooms from MacRae.
Rooms are the chambers in the house’s heart and so should be populated with chairs of differing temperament. It’s like composing a perfect cocktail party guest list; if all your guests were just alike, what a bore of an evening that would be….
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Truly, Bobby has had a long love affair with chairs–especially those which show their ‘bones’. I remember his Interior Design thesis project–a sort of Shaker-inspired chaise lounge–which he made himself, with all the care and ingenuity that society is admired for. In the McAlpine Home collections, both Lee and MacRae seem able to convey not only the passion behind the design, but the love of craft that has driven Bobby and his design partners for many years. Thank you for the trip down memory lane.
One of each chair, please.
You know it is funny that we often surround ourselves with people that believe what we believe, and this we feel keeps us safe, I say, ( and this I say to myself too), put yourself into the company of those that have different beliefs and if you work long enough and let go of your defensiveness you may just find that we are all just little children looking to be loved…
xo
Melissa
A perfect reason not to have matching furniture. Diversity works beautifully in life as well as in decorating.