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Hot or Not?: Map Cabinet by Courtney Skott
Washington DC

MapCabinet.jpg

We love the sinuous lines of this bent plywood piece by Courtney Skott, but the $4500 price tag did make us reel a bit. This structure is obviously as much a work of art as it is a piece of furniture, but given its potential lack of function, we wonder if merely admiring its form is justification enough...

 
 

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Hot or Not?, shelving, Washington DC, bent plywood

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Comments (23)

I'm torn- I love the way it looks, but know I would never spend that kind of money on shelving (even if it was functional). Beautiful piece though!

posted by mcq on August 6th 2008 at 8:06am
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I love bent plywood. I don't love that it's 4500 bucks.

It does also somewhat resemble the insides of a MALM shelf (except THAT is made of "paper fiber"), if you've ever cut one open.

posted by btoddster on August 6th 2008 at 8:11am
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It looks awesome and I'm sure will be a great piece of furniture for many, many years...but 4500 is still too much. That, and I can't imagine having to move with that thing. All that ply must weight a ton.

posted by ChristopherB on August 6th 2008 at 8:31am
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An ugly, expensive, space-wasting dustcatcher.

posted by amed studio on August 6th 2008 at 8:35am
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I think this is gorgeous, but I don't actually think this is worth $4500. I'd love to see a picture of it in-use.

posted by rainyday on August 6th 2008 at 8:35am
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I have no idea what I would use this for.

posted by jooly on August 6th 2008 at 8:40am
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I'd like to know the exact size, is it for two house keys or can you place newspapers and magazines in the slots? However it's nice.

posted by Daniel Poitiers on August 6th 2008 at 8:56am
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If it's deep enough (and was cheaper) it would make a cool wine rack/bar. The square could hold your glasses, a decanter and tools.

posted by twoeightnine on August 6th 2008 at 9:01am
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Courtney's work is truly amazing. This piece is a one-off, hence the price. You can't just pick one up at the crate and barrel. It's actually a bargain... Her work is going to be worth much much more in the not to different future.

posted by snewlin on August 6th 2008 at 9:21am
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$4,500!!!!

posted by Nevis on August 6th 2008 at 9:22am
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not too distant... sorry.

posted by snewlin on August 6th 2008 at 9:26am
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According to the website it's 34" h x 45" w x 14" d (about 3'x4'). Not sure what I'd put on the curvy shelves (which have about 6"x9" openings), and the flat bit is about 18"x24". Not a lot of space for $4500.

Lovely, tho.

posted by rockypondgirl on August 6th 2008 at 9:59am
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It remainds me of fish skin.

posted by Snugglitas on August 6th 2008 at 10:02am
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There is no way I would spend that kind of money on something like that! Plus, once you put stuff on it, it will probably start to look messy IMO.

posted by suzy8track on August 6th 2008 at 11:51am
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It's really not for wine bottles?

posted by otis on August 6th 2008 at 12:24pm
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Could you give us some idea of the SCALE of this thing? What's a "map cabinet", anyhow? What would one store on these eccentrically shaped shelves-- balled-up socks and underpants?

posted by shirley-temple-of-doom on August 6th 2008 at 12:47pm
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Um, folks: "map cabinet"

Rolled maps go into each of the slots. The cabinet sits on something accessible from either side, which makes the window useful.

I think it's a great design solution for map storage. Maybe it's because I'm an archivist...

posted by Easyenough on August 6th 2008 at 12:50pm
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Pretty, but not at the price. And those curvy pointy-ended slots will be a real problem to keep dust-free!

posted by fjorlief on August 6th 2008 at 4:34pm
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I know you could use this piece in many ways, the one that it reminds me of though; our art teacher used to place many of our works in a shelved wardrobe like this one without ever having to crush, bundle or disorganizing it.

posted by Djluckyonline on August 6th 2008 at 4:34pm
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I think it's gorgeous and probably useful, but I also don't think there's a piece of furniture on the planet that's worth $4500 (including the sainted Eames), unless you're talking something unique, hundreds of years old or built by hand from extinct wood...

...which apparently this almost is.

posted by Cassis on August 6th 2008 at 7:13pm
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As someone said above, this is one-of-a-kind art furniture. It's not a production piece, and Skott's work has been shown in high-end galleries (one review: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/10/HOG619OP121.DTL&hw=bay area furniture art 2004&sn=001&sc=1000) and museum shows. If the piece were to go into production, you'd gain economies of scale (such as the cost of the custom jigs to produce the bent ply, and it would probably sell for significantly less.

posted by judith on August 16th 2008 at 10:32pm
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Right now I'm using it as a TV stand.

posted by Courtney S on August 18th 2008 at 6:31am
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I could really use something like this in an office area for storage of drafts (smaller ones, that is). It'd be a great way to store them for whenever you have a client or someone coming to look at your designs.

That said, there's no way I could ever afford this. It's just tooooo much.

But now I'm really wanting something similar.

posted by Avinony on September 7th 2008 at 9:29am
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