Innate Dark collection

Jon Goulder and Fiona Lyda for Spence & Lyda
Australia

This capsule collection of essential pieces for the home includes an armchair, credenza, console, coffee and side tables – six pieces in total. It is the result of the first collaboration between Adelaide-based furniture designer Jon Goulder and Fiona Lyda, the Principal of Spence & Lyda. The mood of the collection is enhanced by Jon and Fiona’s intuitive desire to allow the materials to remain in their natural and simplest states, constructed and formed with an honest and inventive design aesthetic.

The designers explored the possibility that design generated in Australia is ‘of themselves’ and echoes their values both aesthetically and in response to their lifestyle. They created furniture with an Australian sensibility, using the inherent design language of spare, elegant and enduring. Each piece captures a sense of refinement through the use of materials that are hardworking, honest and unique to their Australian sensibility – wood, leather, stone and steel. Each piece is made to be handed down through generations and loved for lifetimes.

It’s a collection of dark finishes – black leather, black powdercoated aluminum, punctuations of brass, and Tasmanian oak and blackwood. A process of ‘pickling’ – an application of vinegar darkened by steeped steel wool – reacts with the tannins in the timbers to create a deeper patina that drove the dark mood of the pieces. Laminated and moulded saddle leathers, a process and technology developed by Jon Goulder, involved pre-forming the leather then laminating in a purpose-built vacuum press. Laser cut metals created a lean, clean silhouette and demonstrate a design imperative for pieces that will last. Adelaide black granite was sourced for the tables because of its depth of colour and surface vitality. Deliberately muted tones buffed to a matte finish have low reflectivity and are subtle and strong.

Photography: Andres Ripamonti.