A Sustainable Furniture Showroom Takes a Seat in Jackson Square
Author:Lindsey ShookJust when you thought the San Francisco design scene couldn’t get any cooler — wait, did you really think that? — a new showroom opens its doors. Located in the city’s historic and style-centric Jackson Square district, Varian Designs’ 1,100-square-foot showroom features nine designs from its Timber, Broen and brand-new Home collections, as well as original art by the company’s founder, Forest Dickey. What a perfect first name for a man who crafts stunning furniture from solid wood.
Contemporary, rustic, and elegant, Varian’s handmade tables, benches, and chairs are environmentally conscious, combining reclaimed, recycled and salvaged materials such 19th-century, hand-hewn wooden structural beams. While some designs recall Craftsman styles and others echo midcentury modern, all are innovatively built, using machine-sawed materials and laser-cut steel. The studio makes an effort to preserve and accentuate elements unique to each piece of wood, such as 100-year-old nail holes, insect damage, former structural joints and natural aging, making them decidedly one-of-a-kind. With such fierce, architectural shapes, we’d love to see these in the home or the boardroom.
Varian Designs, 540 Jackson St., 917-915-0605.
