#6 GET A GRIP!!! Full fat rooms, pieces that SCARE you, art deco chairs, a nice leather lounger, and the necessity of PINE ...
Plus some good folk art, a great Chopova Lowena necklace, and more.
Hello! Welcome to McLotto, a furniture newsletter for nice pieces from the tri-state area and beyond. Find the perfect club chair, question the value of a lucite table, buy an old Comme button-down, and delve deeper into Craigslist. If you enjoy McLotto send it to a friend or keep it a secret. 💋
THE MCLOTTO AGENDA
Pieces with REAL GRIP and FULL FAT that make you want to use a SLIDE WHISTLE
A Cattelan Italia appreciation message for Yasuhiro Shito: WE LOVE YOU
A WOOD shout-out, specifically to the PINE community
Yet ANOTHER art deco club chair
BE AFRAID! Folk art animals and other works that may require spiritual cleansing
How do you get a GRIP? In terms of furniture, it can be difficult to find pieces that quite literally STICK in a room and have a certain viscosity that keeps your senses alive and happy for a long period of time. (This is what my brain feels like when I see a piece that has GRIP!!! Skip to :43 on this video to see what I really mean.)
Our eyes are now trained to glaze over the typical algorithmically-generated interiors often seen on Instagram or TikTok — the Hem poof chairs, the bellini sofas, the Drool prints, Samsung framed televisions, and the much-maligned squiggly candles — that often feel criminally underfed and lacking any sort of real texture or sense of personal style. Finding a room that has some meat on its bones is a rarity. There are cheap thrills and trendy pieces that can satiate anyone for a few weeks or months, but finding sustenance and GRIP in the long term is difficult.
Of course, good grip doesn’t have to come from opulent interiors or over-the-top rooms, but rather finding one or two pieces that give your eye something to hold onto.
Scroll down to find some pieces that offer some stickiness.
NYC/ NJ PIECES
*I can’t verify the authenticity of any of the pieces selected!
A complete sucker for a cute desk organizer, and this one looks great for all of your knick-knacks.
OK, OK, OK yes bad photo but we all need more WOOD in our lives!! This looks like a solid table with nice legs. Put a tablecloth over it for some nice dinners or leave it as is.
I actually looked at this chair for myself — really cool base, removes for an adjustable back, and the guy who owns it is very sweet. Pretty low to the ground though, so make sure you have a coffee table that won’t offset it.
I love a large imposing chair!!!
A simple well-made desk. What more could you ask for? Do you have GOOD PINE to work with??? Now is the time to start!
Solid daybed that’s pretty old and has held up well. These are great seating options for having a lot of people over but not wanting your place to look cramped.
TALK ABOUT A STICKY PIECE!
This is the perfect coffee table! The "Alien" Round Metal Coffee Table by Yasuhiro Shito for Cattelan Italia. I saw this piece on LiveAuctioneers last Monday while jump roping in the park and bid on it a few times before the competition got crazy and it sold for almost 3K. This to me is a piece with timeless GRIP….I can’t stop looking at it! Cattelan Italia produced some bananas stuff back in the day but they really shine with coffee tables like this one on 1st Dibs.
INTERNATIONAL MCLOTTO
I think you should have one or two pieces in your home that TRULY TERRIFY you! Stay on your toes and responsive to your environment! This folk art dog and some wacko masks will keep you alert for spiritual cleansing.
A wonderful Gio Ponti platter for serving
I’ve started collecting some random folk art pieces on eBay — the circular painting I bought a few weeks ago and LOVE! — but here are some other relatively inexpensive pieces that might be nice to add some texture to a room.
Thanks so much for reading!
XO
MC