VIA’s Top Picks

More innovative projects for laid-back living were tapped for the 2011–2012 VIA Labels, awarded in May by the government-and-industry- sponsored design promotion group. Straight to a vacation home’s bathroom, or a welcome addition to a guest room, Jean-Michel Policar’s EASY compact column hand basin for Lido elegantly fulfills its function—a mirrored top section opens to reveal generous shelf space and LED lighting, and the basin sports a towel rail. The seat and puffy bubbled back of Eléonore Nalet’s ultra-comfy Serpentine armchair are clad in a turquoise indoor/outdoor, flame resistant, waterproof fabric.

Two VIA winners offer options for romantic night lighting: an ingenious sprinkling of miniature transparent LEDs twinkle in six nuances of white and two levels of intensity on Ludovic Clément d’Armont’s starry Semeur d’Etoiles (star sower) ceiling, while the energy economizing Smoon Cage lamp for Beau&Bien by Sylvie Maréchal is a versatile suspension, table or standing lamp in the shape of a covered birdcage—the covering comes in translucent polyethylene or deluxe Limoges porcelain. www.via.fr

Originally published in the July/August 2012 issue of France Today