"You should have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." That quote by William Morris are Zeke Leonard's words to live by. With those words, Zeke advocates a conscious decision-making. Everything about him and on him are there for a reason.
Wearing an Indiana Jones fedora hat, a tweed jacket with elbow patches and tan suspenders, Zeke seems to have stepped right out of the 1930s. It's not an act, said longtime friend Chris McCray, COLAB Executive Director at Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. "Some people they have a persona, but with Zeke it’s through and through."
Zeke's mode of dress is part of a carefully pondered set of values that show not just in his style, but in his work as a furniture designer. Zeke uses discarded wood and turns them into pieces of furniture that have gravitas, simply because they have been something else previously.
“All materials have a story. And my role is to bring them together in a piece of furniture that’s very simple, very clean, and combines those stories and brings them forward to somebody’s life,” said Zeke.
My favorite pieces are:
- High Chair, which transforms into a baby’s mealtime throne when placed upright, a rocking goat when placed on its back, or a child’s desk when turned over.
- Notirodack Chair, which is a re-imagining of the Adirondack chair design to suit his three favorite pastimes: playing the guitar, spending time with his wife and drinking a bottle of beer.
Take tour with Zeke as he tells you the story of his home in this video:
Find out more about Zeke on his Web site.
Video and photos by: Carren Jao
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2 comments:
I love his quote, something to live by especially when deciding what to have/keep in your house ;) -りん
Yeah, it's hard to follow though, I'm such a pack rat and everything seems to have sentimental value!
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