It isn’t just a coat of paint or textured surface that makes an interior, it’s the objects and furniture pieces we fill them with. Often these items have personal significance – demarcate a moment in time – but also reflect the creative intent of its maker.
Established in 2022 by life and business partners Chelsie and Jacob Starley – transplants from Utah – lighting and more recently interiors practice Astraeus Clarke has taken the New York design scene by storm with its particular brand of geometrically distilled reference and unexpected functionality.
Foraying into furniture and accessories – the just-launched Vesper Collection – the duo have imbued the expected typologies of a vase, smoke tray, and glow-in-the dark star set with that same unexpected treatment. This capsule release comes ahead of a new limited edition dining table, stool, and mirror. The best things come in threes.
Overall, these sparingly flourished objects are indicative of the emerging trend of embellishing designed objects with the lightest touch of striking adornment, details that don’t impede a specific use and might even support these modalities in new ways.
Take the Silhouette Vase’s laser-cut, semi-tube anchors that help stabilize and keep a central cylinder in place. Cut-through circular holes extend the otherwise monolithic composition as subtle decorative, somewhat neotenic flexes that provide additional support. With this treatment, there’s a nuanced nod to ancient ceremonial vessels. Precision produced out of solid brass, the vase comes in raw, plated chrome and painted finishes: oxidized blues and greens not unlike the tone of the Statue of Liberty. No two are alike.
Evoking the near-ethereal and romanticized image of an old-world Hollywood lounge, the Smoke Tray forms as a carefully sculpted mahogany rectangle intersected by two solid chrome-plated brass rails on either side. Taking on the cinematic appearance and formal cue of a film strip, the salver can be used as an ash tray, catch-all, and incense holder. Hinting at the material palette of the furnishings yet to be debuted, the weightiness of dark-toned wood interplaying with the shimmering metal suggests a degree of endurance and timelessness
An especially surprising yet still complementary addition is the 21-piece The Constellation Set. These playfully hand-drawn star shapes are a sophisticated interpretation of the glow-in-the-dark elements that many children have affixed on the ceilings of their bedrooms. Rather than being produced in cheap plastic, however, the metal used emits an equal intensity of light reflecting, rendering the same effect.
Originally developed for Astraeus Clarke’s recently developed Lower Manhattan showroom, these seemingly simple yet collectively impactful elements reveal an important facet of the practice’s ever-refined approach: a desire to imagine total spaces, treating every detail with the same level of attention. “This is where the vision widens,” says Chelsie Starley. “These objects are part of our ongoing pursuit to create not just things, but environments with spaces with intention, feeling, and soul.” Objects can truly make the difference in defining the encapsulated voids around them.
To learn more about the Vesper Collecction by Astraeus Clarke, please visit astraeusclarke.com.
Photography courtesy of Astraeus Clarke.
