Quarantine
Quarantine
Studios
Quarantine
Studio
Competition
We launched our Quarantine Studios Competition as a way to connect with our community, giving everyone the opportunity to create an original piece of furniture with found objects in their homes. What emerged was a fantastic array of beautiful, innovative, and whacky creations from across the country, by designers and novices alike. While this time of isolation has been difficult and uncertain for all, the Quarantine competition was a way to bring some joy, curiosity, and creativity back into our lives.
Below are all of our competition entries, winner, and honorable mentions, along with each artists’ inspiration and description, in their own words. We have been working closely with Corral, which will be manufacturing the winning piece as the prize.
Thank you!
The winner of the Quarantine Studios Competition is…
Leticia Torres!
Leticia’s modern and minimal pieces were superbly designed, interesting and sophisticated. Her choice and manipulation of corn husks as her material was both creative and expertly executed. Bravo, Leticia!
We will be following Corral throughout their design process as they create Leticia’s beautiful table with woven-top detail.
Bay Area, CA
This chair and table set was inspired by the textures and colors naturally formed in corn and its leaves commonly known as corn husks. Corn husks are naturally colorful and its colors vary from a variety of beige colors to red, pink, and purple depending on the type of corn. Corn husks are commonly used to encase foods to be steamed or baked in different types of cuisines, however after fulfilling that purpose this material goes to waste.
The main idea for this furniture piece was to repurpose this natural and aesthetic material as a new sustainable and inexpensive material that can be used as surfacing in furniture. For example, to create the tabletop I used a weaving technique I was taught by my mom to create a surfacing layer that was glued and pressed onto a piece of cardboard to reinforce it. This technique could be replicated at a greater scale using corn husks to create beautiful patterns and then applied and pressed as a veneer to a flat surface like wood or plastic.
And the honorable mentions go to…
Kaelan Abernathy
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
The takeout and delivery food business has obviously been booming the last couple months and with it, an increase in wasted dining supplies. Significantly more toothpicks, chopsticks and seasoning packets are likely discarded now-a-days, compared to pre-pandemic times. I figured I shouldn't let perfectly good material go to waste, hence the Takeout Lounge was born.
Jamie Herring
Seattle, Washington
These lounge chairs are made from a total of 52 toothpicks. 29 for the Seat and 29 for the Back with 4 toothpicks for the legs and arms. Both the seat and back use fabric samples (on hand) from Architex. This was such a fun little project - and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to "create" something from home that keeps this designer's mind flowing with ideas!
Entries
Sopheap Hille
Seattle, Washington
During this time of social distancing and with the governor’s ‘shelter in place’ mandate, our family is spending more time outside enjoying our natural surroundings and 50% of the time in our Pajamas. We are fortunate enough to live right next to a forest reserve and can step right out into nature in our own backyard. It is only fitting that our furniture piece is made of firewood that my husband had chopped up with air bag packaging as a head rest.
Jamie Persampieri
New York
I personally gravitate towards casual, functional pieces with interesting details or textures. As I went on a hunt to find objects around the house, it was easy to find items that served as fun and interesting bases options for tables of various sizes and scales. I was inspired by the interesting lines, fun shapes, and textures being implemented as furniture pieces.
Opal Rose
Seattle, Washington
This entry is from Opal Rose Owens, age 18 Months! My Granddaughter. She made a chair out of Legos for her babies to sit in! Not much for aesthetics, but high on function!
Via Doug Vance
Andrea Johnson
El Cerrito, CA
I had an old shelf, a full length ripped black rabbit fur coat and a bunch of vintage High Times magazines and Fabulous Furry Freak Bros. comics. I used gorilla glue (which I thought fitting) for the fur and satin mod podge for the decoupages. I needed more shelves to hold my records but my son Diego has taken ownership of the shelf now.
Jessica Ingle
Bay Area, CA
The inspiration for this chair came while I was participating in a typical quarantine activity; painting my nails. Curiosity surrounding the material properties of dried nail polish compelled me to sketch chair concepts using this to form the seat for a lounge chair. Clear nail polish held in an undulating pattern by white thread forms the seat of the chair, while rolled paper bags from quarantine takeout create a structured base.
Millie Kwong
Stanford, CA
As we are discovering new ways to live a normal life, we are also looking for some humor to lighten the feeling of solitude. The core of a TP is used to structure the base of the tables. It is an implication of the humor during this pandemic. The corrugated texture over the core to show the solitude we are all facing at home. Finally, the dichroic light and color on the surface is our hope that when this is over, we will come out stronger and brighter than before. This diptych is meant to complement each other with a contrasting effect. This was a fun distraction from the chaos of the world.
Anh Tran
Bay Area, CA
“tranquili-TEA”
I’ve spent a lot of time in my backyard during quarantine. This inspired me to use whatever I had at home to create a clean, crisp, textural outdoor furniture that feels comfortable and looks like an art sculpture. My prototype consists of hat ribbons, a tea filter bag, and extra felt gliders from my coffee tables. All assembled together by needle and thread.
Jacob Avila
Bay Area, CA
Toilet paper has truly defined this pandemic, so I felt it was appropriate that the core of the structure be made from a toilet paper roll. The overall D&LF was based off the famous Corbusier Chair immortalized in the Maxell Ad, and given that I’ve been doing a substantial amount of reading during this time I felt having stage for my books be a must.
Elizabeth Evangelista
Los Angeles, CA
I don't know if it's the recent inability to go on hiking trips and being surrounded by trees, but I have been loving deep green colors and have been seeing it everywhere from furniture pieces to accent walls.
In light of this love for green and missing going on outdoor adventures, I decided on fresh oregano leaves from my windowsill herb garden. To compliment these plush deep greens of the fresh oregano, I manipulated paper clips as the primary structure of this chair so that they were still recognizable household item material with its filleted edges and spiraling center.
Lana Alise Heiret
Bay Area, CA
This nature inspired outdoor piece radiates beauty and elegance playing off the soft natural textures vibrating from the serene tropical weather. Made from a plastic jar from my daughter’s slime collection, cording, tulip leaves and a needle.
Regan Donoghue
Newport Beach, CA
Maddie & Jack were very helpful in putting on the beads and wrapping the pipe cleaners around for me. We used pipe cleaners and beads that we had left over from Maddie’s Little Mermaid party where we set up a necklace making table.
The pink chair was our first attempt and then we added the rest of the set. We also decided to make a COVID canopy that you can pull down from the ceiling to have a meeting closer together but apart. This was a lot of fun for us so thank you for creating a contest that allowed us to play together towards a fun goal!
Cathy Cathey
Bay Area, CA
Avocado chair, shown with and without optional cushion. Cozy, organic and safe to enjoy at work, or work from home (or work from camp).
Materials used for chair: Avocado, toothpicks.
Rebecca Chug
Bay Area, CA
Inspiration: Nature's Connection
By using only a continuous strand of yarn to manipulate the shape of the leaves to form an armchair, my design shows how we can form connections with nature in the simplest ways. Nature is a part of our identities and we all need to do our part respect mother nature.
Julian Lopez
Los Angeles, CA
This new age of quarantine though restricts us within our everyday familiar walls also challenges us as artists, thinkers and creative individuals to make new of the familiar and see our surroundings under a different light.
For me, this routine includes enjoying more of my favorite Saki than I care to admit, followed by an earnest appreciation for one of those historic midcentury relics laying around for it has survived the test of times—my old teak wood candle holder. The result was to grab the glue, the empty sake, something old and something naturally new that together could all promote a hopeful future by transforming into a soft and curvaceous vase with Billy Ball Craspedias (that also last through the times) so that all of it will forever remind me of this difficult quarantine 2020.
Omar Ramirez
Bay Area, CA
I made this chair out of cut up used nibs from my stylus and a piece of gummy eraser. I’ve been sitting at home a lot and was thinking about how lucky I was to have good furniture to sit on.
I remembered growing up sitting at my mother’s dining room table doing homework, and sitting on these chairs with too thick a seat cushion, and just uncomfortable rails for backs....so I made that:).
Barb Fritz
San Francisco, CA
Hi! Here’s my submission of a Mask Maker’s desk, the piece of furniture I wish I had as I make hundreds of masks for neighbors and my Etsy site!
Tanya Sujjavanich Ayers
I was peeling my sumo orange today and thought it had such a generous, cozy shape. This is my favorite kind of orange, it’s sweet, easy to peel and it’s unpeeled shape is quite cute. Today’s peeling rendered such a perfect piece, half round, soft and structured. The combination of the orange’s texture and shape together reminded me of a big cozy lounge chair, something people get to sit in almost anywhere. So, I peeled and cut it up and put together something that celebrates the shape of the orange while also creating and conceptual piece of furniture that someone could sit in and feel safe and relaxed, especially during this crazy time.
Susan Suhar
Los Angeles, CA
As a city dweller, the value of our pocket parks has magnified immensely during this time of quarantine. It’s wonderful to see people social-distancing, while also appreciating the trees, grass and flowers among us all. There has been an awakening and blossoming of not just nature, but also people and the appreciation of outdoors. Spring in Southern California brings an abundance of colorful blooms through jacaranda trees, honeysuckle bushes, and a large variety of flowers. The low table is inspired by all these blooms and the awakening through color, pattern, light and shadow.
Materials to illustrate the concept: Toilet Paper Roll – The roll was evenly cut and bent to create the table base form. Poke bowl Plastic Cover – Cleaned, cut and repurposed to represent the glass table top.
The combination of these two materials represents the beauty that can be found in the utilitarian and the irony in realizing what was once mundane (toilet paper and protective covers) is now precious.
Naomi Cook
Bay Area, CA
My 12 year old daughter Naomi Cook also wanted to submit a chair. The Q-nail chair: Cotton swabs, cotton round wrapped around wire, hardware nails and sparkly elastic string.
Via Donna Cook.
Donna Cook
Bay Area, CA
Folded Square Lounge chair- Folded square Cardboard shell shellacked with Palette Polish Cookies and Cream nail polish upholstered with a cotton jewelry box insert on top of a copper binder clip base.
Shannon Li and Elle
Bay Area, CA
Inspiration: Things that enrich our daily lives during shelter in place, love & support, “having fun when you’re bored like me” -Elle (9 years old)
Materials: jigsaw puzzle pieces, rubber bands and binder clip, egg carton and tape, staples and plastic cover
Mary Javadi
As an Interior Designer, I have always been fascinated by the texture and characteristics of concrete, therefore, I started making geometric concrete jewelry to explore different applications of this material.
For this exercise, I decided to work with the scale (micro to macro) and put together some of the concrete pieces that I had previously made for my jewelry work to create a small micro side table.
Inspired by my gradient acrylic on canvas paintings, I decided to fuse the layers of concrete to create a smooth transition between them and come up with a unified object.
Insider Entries
Note: Insidesource employee entries will not be considered for the winning piece
Evelyn Newsome
Designer
This design was created with the leftover pieces of furniture that I have ordered in the past. The thought behind this was to put the “Bits and Bobs” to use. Just as their fellow friends are holding up as actual pieces of furniture.
This chair was inspired by the situation we are all experiencing, and an item we will desire when we’re back in the office.
Think privacy, low-laying lounge, enclosed in our own personal space just as we were while in quarantine. Feet kicked up as if we were on the beach (where we all wish to be right now).
This low-laying lounge would be perfect to ease us back into work, to bring a little of that quarantine life back into the office with us.
Blair Wallingford
Project Manager - Insidesource Winner!
As the ever-impending boredom struck over the weekend I decided to create a piece and have a Photoshoot. This is my Eames inspired Adirondack Style lounge chair constructed of an Amazon delivery box.
The curved base creates a relaxing recline paired with the comforting hug of the wrapped backrest for anyone small enough to enjoy it. I wanted to create a chair and ottoman that would create a perfect lounging angle to accommodate extended comfortability during long downtimes. This is… the Quarantine Chair.
Rika Votichenko
Creative Producer
I took this competition as an opportunity to divulge one of my favorite childhood past times of making dioramas. I love creating an entire scene, a little world all its own.
The first inspiration came from fabric swatches I had by HBF and Febrik, with which I formed my color theme. All the other materials were found objects in my home that I built off of, including small ceramic soy sauce bowls, a glass with a bike light inside, tops to a midcentury candle holder, a quartz crystal, and jewelry pieces. The miniature abstract painting was done by me, and it is not as easy to do as you’d think!
Anne Van Wagener
Marketing Manager
As a graphic designer, a big influence and inspiration for me is typography… especially historic wood type posters. I love Hatch Show Prints and have a small collection of wood type that I cherish and use to create little vignettes around my house. I would absolutely love to create a line of chairs inspired by wood type!
Sarah Chapman
Designer
It’s a rather simple chair model, made of the soft curves of a cardboard egg carton and reminiscent of the eggs it once carried. The gentle curves and high back make it look like a cozy spot to sit and read a good book or sip a cup of coffee.
Christina Her
Account Associate
Inspiration: I would say “thinking man” during quarantine. The chair resembles a silhouette of a person sitting with their arms on their knees. We had many days to think and reflect about life during quarantine.
