Cristina Bulat has designed The Unbutton Collection, a sideboard and two bedside tables, that were inspired by the clothes of Pin-Up models.
From the designer
The Unbutton Collection is represented by two bedsides and a sideboard with a high visual impact, that in addition to their natural purpose, they put the user in front of a scenario that can be easily perceived. The design of the furniture is inspired by the clothes of the Pin-Up models while they were posing for photographers and painters.
The Pin-up culture makes refference to the pictures and paintings illustrating provocatively dressed women. The aim of this social movement was to promote women’s physical attractiveness, without assigning them the cliche of vulgarity.
The Unbutton Collection represents the harmonious meeting between the Scandinavian Design, characterized by clear forms and natural finishings, with the influences of the Pin-Up culture.
The presented pieces are the first prototypes developed for a romanian national furniture contest organized by APMR. The collection was exhibited at the BIFE-SIM 2014 international furniture fair in Bucharest and won the first prize at the contest.
The Unbutton Collection had a very challenging manufacturing process.
The first and and the most important problem was the production of the collar shaped ellement from the top drawers. The inital plan was to make it of wood but a mold would have increased the manufacturing costs. Later I found out that it is almost impossible to curve the wood at such a radius because of the risks of breaking the wood fiber. I was satisfied by the option of using a thin steel sheet but it brang a new serious problem – jointing and curving the veneer on the collar shaped steel sheet. After the first experiments, the craftsman managed to joint the veneer only at a 45 degree fiber direction, that was looking quite unaesthetical. Finally, we reached the desired result using linden veneer, that even if is more flexible, it still gave us some troubles at jointing. The other drawers are made of solid oak wood with linden veneer on the top face. Another dilemma was to make the outer frame of the furniture with a slightly trapezoidal shape and rounded corners. Because of the lack of time and the budget limits, the best way seemed to be making it of wood and MDF ribs of 3 centimeters thickness, cutted at the router and joined with a special adhesive.
The Unbutton Collection will be soon launched on the market and will be available almost all of the RAL palette of colors. The available dimensions are: bedside – L 55 cm x W 45 cm x D 35 cm; sideboard- L 70 cm x W 100 cm x D 40 cm.
Design: Cristina Bulat