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Designer Furniture

Style Buy: Liam Mooney

Based in Cape Town with a degree in Industrial design, Liam Mooney has been designing furniture and products under his own label since 2006. In 2008, he launched Proletariat, a range of limited edition smalls and accessories manufactured entirely from found, recycled or second hand materials.

Liam is also a one of the founders of the Whatiftheworld / Design Studio, which is an initiative focused on creating projects, outlets, events and platforms for emerging local designers.
To date, Liam has showcased his work is New York, London, Scandinavia and extensively around South Africa.

All products are proudly manufactured in South Africa, and are exclusively available at WITW / Design Studio.

City art hotel, Daddy Long Legs has been dipping into Cape Town’s creative talent pool again and the result is a new installation in the communal courtyard space in the hotel.

The Conservatory was commissioned to Liam Mooney and Christie Fels for Whatiftheworld / Design Studio, who saw the semi-outdoor space as an opportunity to contrast nostalgia and contemporary design in the form of a ‘Granny conservatory’, complete with concrete water feature and hanging garden. The eclectic pause point is available to guests of the hotel but also serves as an unusual meeting spot for Capetonians tired of coffee shops.

Mooney and Fels used colour and texture to offer a new take on the classic conservatory features. Granny’s cushions and knee blankets are made from avant-garde knits with help from clothing designer Richard de Jager and jangle with the fifties-style teal and off-white mosaic flooring. A bright yellow-coated canary cage hangs alongside a floating garden of suspended potted plants in the triple volume space with a retractable roof.

Old school TV trays nestle with stools by Xandre Kriel; a young local designer who houses his collections with Whatiftheworld Design Studio, of which Mooney is creative director. “We wanted to create a space that evoked nostalgia and humour but it was also a chance to showcase some exciting local design pieces,” says Mooney, “We hope everyone will recognise some part of their life in this space, whether its visiting aging relatives or stopping at a tea room in the middle of the Karoo.”

Daddy Long Legs owner, Jody Aufrichtig gave the designers his blessing and his trust after just one pitch and is thrilled with the results; “We felt that this communal space of the hotel was not expressing our image as an innovative, creative hotel. We wanted something that was both a functional place for arriving guests to enjoy a cool drink, and a teaser for the creative and humorous offering that our collection of rooms are. Liam and Christie have really interpreted the hotel’s offbeat mood, perfectly.”
The Conservatory is open to the public every day of the week for tea or gin and tonics.

For more information on Liam Mooney visit www.liammooney.co.za