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Summer is coming to an end. The burning sun makes way for long evenings in fading light, and the bikini and the flip flops are traded in for sneakers and a cable knit in soft merino wool, the kind you keep on until you go to bed.
August has always been a month apart. The Dutch word for harvest, oogst, comes straight from the name of the month, and August was long known as oogstmaand, the harvest month. It is the tipping point from summer into early autumn: the exuberance of July gives way to the calm of evenings where the light falls earlier.
From linen to earth tones
You can see that shift in the interior. In summer we reach for linen and light shades, for space and ease. Towards autumn that moves naturally into earth tones: warm cushions on the sofa, a throw over the armrest, ceramics in shades that still hold on to the summer.
That is what it comes down to for us as well. Craftsmanship from an earlier time in a shape that works now, so a lamp or a vase does not last one season but sits differently in each one. The same lamp that stood on a terrace table in July stands beside a bowl of chestnuts in October and never looks out of place.
The ritual of lighting them
Ambient lighting in and around the house matters again now. You hear the wind rustling in the distance. There is a blanket over the lounge set, a glass in your hand that you are in no hurry to finish, and then comes the moment when you light the oil lamps. The click of the lighter, the small flame catching at once, and that short pause while you watch until the light settles. Only then do you sit down.
The flame does the rest: blue at the base, yellow and orange above it, with every shade in between. That light softens everything around it, and the colours autumn brings give the calm and the space to explore your inner world again. An evening like that asks for no maintenance. Round Elegant Champagne Brass L, for instance, burns for 286 hours on a single filling of Peri Living Paraffine Olie, smoke free and odourless, indoors just as well as out.
Three new shapes in the home
Three new families arrived this summer, and all three sit just as comfortably on a sideboard or a windowsill as in the middle of a laid table. Collier is built up from stacked glass spheres and runs from 8 x 15 to 8 x 27 cm. Colonne shares that construction but is built from stacked rings, with a stricter line. Ribelle Champagne is the tallest of the three and goes up to 8 x 36 cm.
What they have in common is that they do not like standing alone. Much as the pepper and the salt always arrive on the table together, these lamps work in groups: three sizes side by side, or two families mixed. Put them on a laid table among the plates and the glasses and the table is finished before the food arrives. It is the simplest way to bring ambient light to the dining table, and it works indoors just as well as on a long table outside.
That is what the original Peri Living Oil Lamp has been doing for more than thirty years: simply being there, in every moment that later becomes a memory.
"Live in each season as it passes."
— Henry David Thoreau
For the August window display
Set the table instead of filling the shelf. A throw draped over a chair, a few grasses already drying out, the lamps in three heights in between. That way the display moves from linen to earth tones over two weeks, without having to rebuild everything.
Where to find us these weeks
From 30 August to 1 September we are at TrendZ in Gorinchem, and from 10 to 14 September at Maison&Objet in Paris, in Hall 6 at stands E54 and F53.
Warm regards,
Sanne