Conoe Sofa for Suzanne Talbot

Suzanne Talbot's Sitting room in her Parisian apartment The floor plan for this room design is annotated here as well as other furniture pieces that are placed along side the Canoe Sofa. These pieces show the uplifting and flowing design in the legs which relate to the sofa.

Suzanne Talbot's Hat Designs

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The Canoe Sofa designed by Eileen Gray was a lacquer piece that was made for the client Suzanne Talbot who was a French designer during the time. This was Eileen’s first client based project and much time and care was put into this piece to match up with Suzanne’s taste which I believe succeeded in the end.

Suzanne Talbot was a Parisian hat designer in the 1920s. Much information about her comes from her designs that reveal her personality and characteristics. For instance, her hat designs in the 20’s time period of the Gatsby were “in” at the time and kept up with the trends. This shows her younger more hip style of a designer of the time. Suzanne’s hat designs also consisted of a flowing organic feel, which even contained plants upon them. This relates back to the flowing shape of the canoe sofa. Also the use of color and fabrics weren’t extreme and were mainly dark or neutral colors. The soft fabrics emphasized the flowing elegance it contained. Suzanne’s design also hid the users face which gave a mysterious feel about them. This shows a more intimate personality trait about Talbot. She is not one of the “norm” woman of her time but a free woman . With these traits in mind I came up with Suzanne Talbot’s sitting room in her Paris apartment.

With the Canoe Sofa being a lacquered wood item and Suzanne’s elegant style, a darker yet rich room color came to mind. The use of wood objects took role as well the sense of flowing smooth furniture’s that complimented the sofa. The Canoe Sofa is placed in a sitting room as the main focus. With such a unique custom design is should not be over looked. The room was then made around this point. Within the room being a darker rich color, lighter shades of and soft fabrics for the upholstery and drapery were used to lighten the mood of the room. Plants were also used to enhance Suzanne’s organic designs. To mimic the Canoe Sofa, wood items were placed around the room that contained flowing elements to them at them. The sofa contained very unique legging to hold it up that gave a sense of floating so the importance of this technique was used for the other furniture pieces as well. A flowing base into the floor holds these other designs up. To create a social standpoint, many chairs were placed into the room so Suzanne could entertain her guest.

Overall, the Canoe Sofa was used as a primary focus for this one room. Its elements are carried around the environment which is also surrounded by Suzanne’s personal taste and attributes. The sitting room carries a rich and elegant essence to it that can be found in the canoe sofa as well as Suzanne Talbot.