Design Wise: Piet Boon

Each week here in The Library I'd like to play librarian, if I may, and introduce you all to someone I think you'd like; someone who's not only worthy of mentioning but also of further reading. It will usually be someone I've met or come into contact with. And it will usually be someone inspiring. Because we can't get enough of those types...

Last week it was Mr Jeffrey Bilhuber, interior designer to the stars. (Including Ms Anna Wintour, although I can't imagine how difficult it would be being her decorator.) This week, it's another extraordinary design talent: the inimitable, always elegant Dutch designer Piet Boon.

I first came across the work of Piet Boon and his design studio when I bought one of his monographs, Piet Boon 2 (which features what must be the most beautiful cover of any architecture or design book ever published). The project inside were imbued with a quiet elegance and understated sophistication, and yet they had a polished drama as well. In a word, they were soigné. Then I discovered that Mr Boon started his career as a carpenter. What an arc, to go from chippie to world-renowned design star! Now his busy studio not only designs architecture and interiors for residential and commercial clients, it also produces furniture and products for the likes of Dutch manufacturer Moooi. (Another great brand.) I was so impressed that I asked him if I could feature his work in a book I was editing at the time, called Design in Black and White. He couldn't have been more gracious.

If I had an extravagant income, I'd hire Piet Boon in a heartbeat. As it stands, I'll just have to be content with his beautiful books. Although I DID see that his studio is having what appears to be a sale of some kind, so if you're in The Netherlands this month perhaps look it up? I'd offer more details, but I don't quite understand the language. All I can recognise is "Pin of Cash", which I presume is Dutch for bring all the money that you can?
Datum: zaterdag 19 en zondag 20 november 2011 . Tijd: 10.00 - 17.00uur 

Lokatie: in het nieuwe gebouw tegenover de hoofdingang van ons hoofdkwartier Skoon 78, 1511 HV Oostzaan 

Betaling: Pin of cash 

Garantie: op items uit deze sale zit geen garantie en kunnen ook niet worden geretourneerd

Look up pietboon.com for more details of his projects and signature style (which he describes as "Simple Sophistication" but I tag as "coolly glamorous"). But in the meantime, here are some images of his well-groomed style, as featured in  Design in Black and White. (Images Publishing.)

NB Piet's new book, Piet Boon III, has just been released worldwide by Lanoo publishers. I've already put it on Christmas Wish List.

{Images courtesy of Piet Boon.}