1. GLOBE TROTTER’S SEXY LEGS
Furniture is showing a lot of leg this season but the sexiest legs this winter belong to Globe Trotter, Roche Bobois's new collaboration with Marcel Wanders which features travel iconography of the cities of London, Paris and Istanbul. The city of light pieces channel Jules Verne and the cancan girls of Le Moulin Rouge, as visualised by Toulouse-Lautrec. Wanders pays them the ultimate compliment by selecting their form for the legs of his La Parisienne tables and Operette chairs. These pieces need to be touched to appreciate their tactile fishnet-stockinged supports, which are available in either a plain colour or one of the prints also used in the rugs in the range. Dining tables start from €5,130, occasion tables from €1,610 while the Operette chairs start from €930 each to order from the Beacon South Quarter store. Roche-bobois.com
2. CUSTOMISE WITH PRETTY LEGS
As a different pair of shoes can transform an outfit, a fresh set of legs on bog standard piece of furniture can elevate it to a new level. The Pretty Pegs enormous range of legs lets you customise any wood frame furniture finds; be it a sofa, a bed, a table or storage units like a chest of drawers or sideboard. The designs can also be used on Ikea's most popular pieces and the tantalising array includes hairpin legs, ball feet, needle-high chopsticks and a two-tone mid-century inspired look that emulates brass capping. Prices range from €59 upwards, ex delivery, for a set of four legs, mounting plates and screws. Prettypegs.com
3. HAIRPIN LEGS
As mid-century goes mainstream you are seeing more and more hairpin legs on sofas, sideboards, bedside and tables. The design is elegant and works really well in small spaces because it allows the furniture to seemingly float. It is the anthesis of the chunky, "beef-to-the-heel like a Mullingar heifer" wooden block leg. This ochre yellow armchair, by Nordal Interiors, plays with the mid-century form and works hairpins into its back legs only. These iron legs come in a patinated gold finish iron. The cotton velvet chair measures 91cm by 79cm by 90cm and costs €749 for a single or €1,399 for a pair to order from online concept store Home Lust. Home-lust.com
4. MODERNIST TWIST ON RUSTIC LOOK
The legs on Habitat's Ringo table, pictured, offers a natural forged steel look that is in complete contrast to the brushed pine finish of the tabletop. This is a very modernist way to rock a rustic look. In fact, the legs are almost sculptural and make this kitchen or dining room piece appear to look more like art furniture than a plain functional piece. The table, which measures 200cm by 95cm by 77cm, costs about €1,121, ex delivery. Habitat.co.uk
5. TRIPOD LEGS
Minima can supply several pieces with talking point pins including the bird-legged Traccia table by surrealist Meret Oppenheim. Made by Cassina, it is available in a yellow or white gold finish and costs from €3,150. But it is Mark Newson's Felt chair, a design he conceived in 1993 while working on studies for what would become his similar looking Orgone Chair, launched five years later, with its unusual tripod leg form that will really stand out. Its peg leg post to the rear is made from polished aluminium while the rest of the chair has a reinforced, polished fibreglass body. The standard design costs from €3,803 while a limited edition version, to mark this its 25th anniversary, is upholstered in leather and costs €6,141. Minimahome.com
6. FELINE GROOVY?
The Invisible Collection’s British-made Studio Ashby range plays with tropes that have been used to decorate antiques for centuries. This leopard foot dressing table has polished brass limbs, a honed marble top in a light Cippolino Classico colour and a base in white and dark green painted oak crown cut veneer. Made to order, the piece measures 180cm by 75cm by 68cm and costs €17,775 from The Invisible Collection.
7. PRETTY IN PINK
The new Jools collection for DFS is one place to go for inspiration as its Cambridge chair and sofa features a range of legs that come in washed stripes, or washed pink. Even a seemingly traditional walnut leg is given a little pink sock to add interest. This element of customisation is available at no extra cost. The printed velvet chair, pictured, costs €989.
One of the signatures of the Jools range is a single back leg that is painted pink with a silhouette of a tiny little rabbit on it. You could borrow this idea and implement it onto existing furniture using spray paint and a stencil in the shape of a rabbit or another of your own preference. Dfs.ie
8. PAINT EFFECTS
You can also use paint effects to jazz up the look of existing furniture legs. Masking tape and sample paint pots will also let you do all sorts. Take, for example, Annie Sloan's bright gold gilding wax, about €9.95. It's an easy peasy way to add a set of gilty, party-like "shoes" to the feet of straightforward – read boring-looking – legs and is available from most of the paint company's stockists. Contact distributor Twenty Six in Nenagh for further details. Read more at Anniesloan.com; Twentysix.ie
9. GIRAFFE LEGS STEAL THE SHOW
This elegant giraffe legged console is a design by And New, a UK-based furniture firm that has been lauded by style bibles such as Architectural Digest and Elle Decoration. The granite-topped table is pictured with a pink powder-coated frame but available in 10 other shades as well as a variety of nature's own coloured and patterned stone tops. It costs about €2,027 and is seen here with the A clothes rail. Pictured in blueberry, it too is available in a range of colours and costs about €601. Both prices quoted are ex delivery. Andnew.co.uk
