Herve Van Der Straeten Athena

Remarkably sculptural but unexpectedly versatile, vintage Hervé Van der Straeten furniture and lighting is at home in all kinds of interiors. While the French designer’s chandeliers, tables and other works draw on everything from visual art forms in Japan to luxurious Art Deco–era furnishings to modernist icons such as Mies van der Rohe, Van der Straeten designs are unapologetically original and rather difficult to categorize.

Van der Straeten was born in Savigny-sur-Orge, France, in 1965. As a young man, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He studied painting but began making jewelry, too. Van der Straeten’s inaugural accessories, constructed with brass and rubber, garnered immediate attention. In 1985, French fashion designer Thierry Mugler had included several of Van der Straeten's designs in a show, and before long, he was designing for names like Alexander McQueen and Christian Lacroix.

Despite the success of Hervé Van der Straeten jewelry, the visionary designer shifted his focus to interior decor. "For me, jewelry was more like a parenthetical," he told 1stDibs. "What I always wanted to do was to design furniture." So, in 1992, Van der Straeten launched a collection of dishes, sconces and candlesticks. He opened a showroom in the Marais district of Paris in 1999, followed by a workshop in the suburb of Bagnolet.

Today, Van der Straeten oversees approximately 30 artisans at his ateliers who help bring his furniture designs to life. His work is delightfully unconventional and will draw the focus in any space — there is a compelling emphasis on the use of industrial materials, such as anodized aluminum and steel rods, as well as an integration of traditional techniques such as marquetry in his sculptural mirrors, side tables and other pieces. Van der Straeten’s furniture — some of which can be found in the alluring apartment in Paris that the designer shares with his husband, former Roger Vivier artistic director Bruno Frisoni — is available in the United States through both Ralph Pucci and Maison Gerard.

Find extraordinary Hervé Van der Straeten furniture on 1stDibs.

Well-crafted antique and vintage table lamps do more than provide light; the right fixture-and-table combination can add a focal point or creative element to any interior.

Proper table lamps have long been used for lighting our most intimate spaces. Perfect for lighting your nightstand or reading nook, table lamps play an integral role in styling an inviting room. In the years before electricity, lamps used oil. Today, a rewired 19th-century vintage lamp can still provide a touch of elegance for a study.

After industrial milestones such as mass production took hold in the Victorian era, various design movements sought to bring craftsmanship and innovation back to this indispensable household item. Lighting designers affiliated with Art Deco, which originated in the glamorous roaring ’20s, sought to celebrate modern life by fusing modern metals with dark woods and dazzling colors in the fixtures of the era. The geometric shapes and gilded details of vintage Art Deco table lamps provide an air of luxury and sophistication that never goes out of style.

After launching in 1934, Anglepoise lamps soon became a favorite among modernist architects and designers, who interpreted the fixture as “a machine for lighting,” just as Le Corbusier had reimagined the house as “a machine for living in.” The popular task light owed to a collaboration between a vehicle-suspension engineer by the name of George Carwardine and a West Midlands springs manufacturer, Herbert Terry Sons. 

Some mid-century modern table lamps, particularly those created by the likes of Joe Colombo and the legendary lighting artisans at Fontana Arte, bear all the provocative hallmarks associated with Space Age design. Sculptural and versatile, the Louis Poulsen table lamps of that period were revolutionary for their time and still seem innovative today. 

If you are looking for something more contemporary, industrial table lamps are demonstrative of a newly chic style that isn’t afraid to pay homage to the past. They look particularly at home in any rustic loft space amid exposed brick and steel beams.

Before you buy a desk lamp or table lamp for your living room, consider your lighting needs. The Snoopy lamp, designed in 1967, or any other “banker’s lamp” (shorthand for the Emeralite desk lamps patented by H.G. McFaddin and Company), provides light at a downward angle that is perfect for writing, while the Fontana table lamp and the beloved Grasshopper lamp by Greta Magnusson-Grossman each yield a soft and even glow. Some table lamps require lampshades to be bought separately.

Whether it’s a classic antique Tiffany table lamp, a Murano glass table lamp or even a bold avant-garde fixture custom-made by a contemporary design firm, the right table lamp can completely transform a room. Find the right one for you on 1stDibs.