Architects Zoe Chan Eayrs and Merlin Eayrs on Creating a Captivating Dining Area
The dining area is a very personal space, where you can be surrounded by objects and trinkets you’ve picked up throughout your life while you enjoy the ritual of eating. You’re very much slowing down, connecting with friends, maybe lighting a candle.
London-based designer Zoe Chan Eayrs shares tips for creating a captivating dining area.
Chan’s designer husband, Merlin Eayrs, helps run the firm Chan + Eayrs.
Layered lighting is also very important—it shouldn't feel like there is one specific light source coming from above. You can use table lamps and floor lamps to provide warm, ambient light. Rather than going out and buying a classic that everyone knows, we quite like, say, finding an old brass light and giving it a new life.
Chan + Eayrs transform an 18th-century house in East London, combining contemporary furnishings with historic objects—including a hefty antique table in the dining area.
We're very much into giving things a second lease on life, and we prefer buying quality things that last a long time. You bond with those objects because you have a history together. We like the idea that you might buy only one dining table, keep it forever, and pass it down.
Dwell’s Picks: Drawing Attention
Think of them as the opposite of a crystal chandelier. Monochrome lighting can artfully anchor a table with a graphic pen-and-ink silhouette.
"Layered lighting is very important—it shouldn't feel like there is one specific light source coming from above," explain the husband-and-wife duo.
The designers at Ladies & Gentlemen Studio created this fixture as part chandelier and part room divider. Featuring glowing globes suspended between thin metal bars, it comes with a standard set of five elements, but it can be customized.
Cedar & Moss riff on a traditional lantern with a birch-and-brass fixture. Its name indicates a profound and mysterious sense of beauty and impermanence. Shown in a matte black finish, it suggests all the poetics of moonrise over a ghostly wood structure.
Even a classic from Louis Poulsen can go back to the drawing board. As of 2020, Poul Henningsen's artichoke has a grisaille update. Its laser-cut leaves now come in black.
The idea for Lambert & Fils's new collection of pendants, was, uh, kickstarted by midcentury industrial design. Specifically, its rectangular lighting elements were inspired by the pedals of Motobécane mopeds of the 1960s.
Call if confounding, call it Calderesque, but don't call it boring. James Dieter's newest piece won this year's NYCxDesign award for best chandelier. Shown in black aluminum, it has defined lines that mark a striking pattern by day and all but disappear in the dark.
Korean lighting company AGO worked with designer Jinsik Kim to create a pendant that looks like a star trapped in a basket. The orb-like core casts shadows through coated metal rings.
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