WTF - What the Flock?!
Photo credit: Peter Funch for Christie’s Magazine
Enough About the Pandemic, Let’s Get Out of Here!
Typically, Ernie and I like to travel to his home country of Scotland about once every other year. Yet, COVID-19 has spoiled our plans this year, as it has for many others! I could wax poetic about Scotland’s beautiful countryside, friendly people, and great pubs. Nothing beats sitting in a Scottish pub enjoying a pint with your fish and chips (haddock, not cod!).
We usually try to plan our trips around the Edinburgh Fringe Festival -- a city-wide festival that happens every year in August, except this year of course. This is an event that should be on everybody’s bucket list. It is endless fun and entertainment.
Edinburgh is stunning from every angle.
Part of the Fringe!
A quick study in contrasts…
Classic entertainment on every corner!
How could I not love this food booth?!
Back To Nature
Because the Fringe Festival has been canceled this year and we aren’t making our biannual trek across the pond, I think I spent the entire month of August thinking about Scotland and its inherent beauty. Did I mention the breathtaking country landscapes yet?
These vistas take my breath away every time.
Let’s Chat All Things Sheep!
One facet of those landscapes that makes them so mesmerizing is the omnipresent Scottish sheep grazing on rolling hillsides.
Just a sampling of the many sheep photos I have taken on my Scottish trips!
Naturally, all of these sheep thoughts led me to begin thinking about sheep as an interior design trend that has stuck around for quite a bit. Not only sheepskin rugs, upholstery, etc. but also multipurpose sheep sculptures!
Photo credit: Peter Funch for Christie’s Magazine
Sheep Lesson
During my research for this blog post, I was so pleased to discover another personal link to these now-famous sheep sculptures: the original artist is French! (See my post about Art Deco design to read about why this is significant for me.)
In short, the French artist François-Xavier Lalanne was in Paris at the 1965 Salon de la Jeune Peinture (literally the “Young Painter’s Living Room”), which was created as a response to a growing shortage of exhibition space for a movement of young artists whose style was more realistic (or figurative) than abstract.
Apparently, during this time in Paris, artists and art lovers debated whether this figurative art belonged in the well-known galleries in Paris, which typically mostly featured abstract art. More and more well-known artists began working in the figurative movement and urging the art world to pay attention -- hence the 1965 Salon de la Jeune Peinture. Lalanne aimed to make a splash when he unveiled his contribution to the Salon. He felt he was making a statement by doing something he described as “immodest and slightly embarrassing.” His thinking behind the creation of his flock of sheep? To quote:
“I thought that it would be funny to invade that big living room with a flock of sheep.” It is, after all, easier to have a sculpture in an apartment than to have a real sheep. ”
This is what led him to the now-famous 24 sheep. There is nothing abstract about these sculptures!
Photo by Willy Rizzo. François-Xavier Lalanne and his wife, Claude, 1965
This article from Architectural Digest explains in fantastic detail everything about the history of these sheep sculptures. I dug out the original Architectural Digest from my many stacks (see how I use those magazine stacks here), and the photos are beautiful. Love this story!
These pieces of “art furniture” (love it!) were an immediate hit within the art and design community. This was the effect Lalanne was hoping for with these seemingly-out-of-left-field sculptures: “If you come with a snail as big as a thumb, nobody notices.” They have certainly been noticed and have withstood the test of time as not only classic but unique and fun, touches for any room. I absolutely love how they look, but the originals are also entirely functional with casters on the legs for easy movement and a wide and solid back to double as a seat. Readers of my blog know how much I value function and style!
François and his wife Claude were an iconic artistic couple who became known as Les Lalanne collectively (what are the chances you would marry someone with the same last name as you?!). Take some time to look them up and read about their work (start by googling “Les Lalanne rhino desk”!). I could easily go down that rabbit hole here, but I’d like to stay focused on our woolly friends.
Sheep Cropping up in Modern Design
The sheep of François Lalanne were an immediate hit and, in the years following the initial debut in 1965, started appearing in the homes of big-name designers like Yves Saint Laurent and others.
Yves Saint Laurent with his personal flock (and some lazy sheepherders?!).Photo by Lukas Wassman for Architectural Digest.
Now, about 55 years later, I’m still seeing sheep in modern home designs. And I don’t just mean sheepskin -- I mean replicas of the sheep sculptures, or even Lalanne’s original sheep art furniture, in modern homes today. It’s become a new “game” of mine when I’m browsing design and architecture magazines for inspiration to spot sheep hiding in the background or standing proudly as the main attraction of a space.
Here are a few recent ones I’ve spotted:
Rug & furniture designer Ben Soleimani at home. Photo by Simon Watson. Source.
This truly gorgeous room might be enough to distract you, but if you look closely you’ll find a sheep friend in the corner. I could stare at this room all day! Source. Photography by Stephen Kent Johnson
A recent story from Architectural Digest with another modern interpretation of Lalanne sheep in the Raleigh Gardens, Miami Beach. It’s no surprise that the architect, Peter Marino, commissioned these outdoor pieces as he has the largest collection of Lalanne sculptures in the United States! (Les Lalanne and Marino were close friends).
Claude Lalanne and Peter Marino at the book signing of The Garden of Peter Marino at Moulié Fleurs, Paris, 2017. Image Credit: Luc Castel
Last year we were lucky enough to make a Coastal California road trip (ah!.... those were the days, pre-COVID!). We ended our trip in the wine country, stopping at many wineries. We spent one memorable day in St. Helena at Hall Winery, which is known for its amazing artwork and garden sculptures. Including, you guessed it, some Les Lalanne sheep!
A request not totally out of place at a beautiful winery in the middle of Northern California’s wine country!
A Sheep For Ewe and Me
If you are desperate to add an authentic Les Lalanne sheep to your collection, get ready to shell out some big bucks! Designer Reed Krakoff, apparently paid $380,000-plus for a 1968 set of sheep and four bronze chairs by Claude Lalanne.
Not only are they stylish, functional, and unique, but they’re also cute! Maybe all of that will distract you from the price points. ;) Source.
However, there’s still hope! There are alternatives to the “real” thing that are much more affordable--- here are a few options:
You can “shop this flock” from Old Plank here.
This Lalanne lookalike can be yours for under $6,000 (or contact me for better pricing ;) )! This one has a good head of hair, doesn’t he?
For a truly affordable sheep, there’s always something on Etsy.
Of course, not everyone is yearning for their very own life-size sheep (I’m having a hard time seeing why, though!). However, most designers can get behind the use of a sheepskin for upholstery or rugs. I’ve seen this design run pretty steadily through room designs for years.
Take a look at these beautiful chairs:
From RH Ski House. These chairs add instant coziness to any room. Obviously, they look right at home here in this mountain lodge! But the clean lines of the legs and armrests keep this armchair modern and sleek.
This beautiful spread from Atlanta Homes magazine really highlights how sheepskin can work in every room of the house. The addition of the armchair in this bathroom suite brings the room a touch of additional cozy comfort not typically present in sleekly-tiled bathrooms like this one. Although, while I love the contrast of clean, sleek tile and warm fuzzy chairs, I’m not so sure about the placement of the chair right next to the bathtub. Might be a touch too woolly for wet bodies fresh out of a bath!!
Here’s Ernie testing out some sheepskin chairs I spotted at InterludeHome’s showroom during High Point Market a couple of years ago! Check out my blog post on Market trends for a peek at some more furry friends I spotted there!
What I love most about spotting the sheep in current trends is seeing the wide variety of rooms where the texture is used. It works just about anywhere!
Sheep In My Life
I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now, but I really enjoy bringing in a bit of whimsy to my designs, and functional sheep sculptures or sheepskin textures fit the bill. One of my favorite touches in both our Richmond home and our North Carolina beach house is including sheepskin rugs at each bedside (so wonderful to step out of bed into this softness). See, it really does work in every environment!
Like stepping from the bed onto a cloud. Extra luxurious when relaxing the days away at the beach! For my other favorite bedroom niceties check out my “Have You Made Your Bed?” blog post here.
Also from our beach house, I love how the textures of this stool work so well with the fuzziness of the sheepskin on top. A touch of cozy when curling up with a good book on a rainy beach day!
Of all the pieces of furniture I’ve found and we own, none of them create as many conversations as my very own sheep art furniture does!
Our very own sheep in our Richmond, VA home. His presence keeps the living room warm, and keeps the conversations interesting!
Still Thinking Sheep In Your Home Might Be A Baaaad Idea?…
I know that sheep sculptures and sheepskin upholstery are not the first things that come to everyone’s mind when they’re thinking about designing or redesigning a room. If all of this info hasn’t convinced you yet that it is a classic and timeless choice, I have one more story for you, wrapping up this post the way I started --- in Scotland!
Several years ago, Ernie and I were in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival and we happened upon a designer and her own flock of sheep for sale at her booth.
I can’t believe this is my only photo of her cute booth at The Fringe in 2015!
I wrote to Ali as I was working on the blog, and she kindly wrote back explaining how her original idea was to have one built for her daughter. She asked her brother, but he said she should do it herself! That is how Furniture Farm was born -- she has many other “beasts,” as she calls them, but it all started with the sheep which she says was “a natural instinctive creation”.
I picked up one of her postcards (and hope to one day take one of her “stylised beasts” -- her words!—-home to stay with me forever), and if her short sales pitch doesn’t convince you to have one of your own, I don’t know what will!
“Completely house trained
No fuss diet
Sponge clean and brush dry
No vet bills”
Next time you’re counting sheep while trying to fall asleep, think about where you could introduce a sheep into your own home. Then reach out to me and let’s talk about how to make those dreams a reality!
Subscribe to our blog to get all future posts straight to your inbox!