Founders Nick Sheridan, Bret Englander, and Dan Wacholder.

Check out their popular Lamp fixtures available to ship.

The Cubo Bed Side Lamp is LED Award for Best Luminaire for Public Use Interior

Available in Left or Right side

Silva LED table lamp is made up of a wood body, aluminum leg & knob, bent shade.

Sero desk lamp is made up of Aluminum. Available in black and brushed aluminum

Onus LED lamp aluminum body and arms, solid block weight

In collaboration with fashion designer Jesse Kamm, Cerno presents a set of limited edition Silva LED shades

Finally, the Silva LED floor lamp version

Noémie and Manuel Desrochers are the young entrepreneurs behind the AQUAOVO company. They are part of a well-known family of Quebec entrepreneurs, the Desrochers. The family first gained renown for HydroSerre Mirabel, the world’s largest producer of hydroponic lettuce. Luc Desrochers, Noémie and Manuel’s father, went on to found HydroNov, which markets its unique hydroponic growing technology all over the world. The company developed a revolutionary deep-water-bed hydroponic process. Noémie and Manuel gained their initial business experience working for the family firm, in China as well as at the parent facility in Mirabel, Quebec, which is today run by their uncle, Martin Desrochers.

After spending many years studying water and the intricate processes by which it contributes to biosphere equilibrium, Manuel hit upon the idea for the OVOPUR© filtration unit, and the product became a reality after more than three years of research and development. Within the new company, Manuel mainly handles the design, technical development and production side of things, while Noémie is responsible for marketing, visibility and management.

Now available at our store. In stock and ready to ship – http://www.metropolitandecor.com/Aquaovo.html

David Trubridge graduated from Newcastle University in Northern England in 1972 with a degree in Naval Architecture (boat design).

For the next ten years he lived and worked in rural Northumberland. He taught himself furniture making while working part-time as a forester on a private estate. He went on to develop his own designs which were exhibited around Britain. Many commissions followed, most notably from the Victoria and Albert Museum, St Mary’s Cathedral Edinburgh and the Shipley Gallery Newcastle.

During this time he married Linda, a Fine Arts graduate, and they had two sons, Sam and Billy. In 1981 they sold everything they had, bought the yacht ‘Hornpipe’ and set out on an open ended adventure around the world. For five years they sailed through the Caribbean and Pacific, stopping to work for a while in the Virgin Islands and Tahiti. David made whole house lots of furniture for expatriates on Tortola and Moorea.

They arrived in New Zealand in late 1985 basing themselves in the Bay of Islands from where they continued to sail on ‘Hornpipe’. David started to make furniture influenced by their Pacific travels. A series of chairs were made like outrigger canoes : light flexible structures fastened with string lashings held graceful canoe forms as seats. Canoe Chair is in the entrance foyer of the New Zealand embassy in Tokyo.

When Sam and Billy entered High School they sold ‘Hornpipe’ and moved to Hawkes Bay. David was Artist-in-Residence at Hawkes Bay Polytechnic (now EIT). He developed a series of works derived from the East Coast landscape and its fractured friable rocks. They built a house in Havelock North, which David designed. This led on to further architectural commissions.

Taking inspiration from their much loved boat, the colourful Hornpipe Bench was made for a national Design competition using Radiata Pine, which it won as well as a number of other awards. It was exhibited in Hannover at ‘Ligna’ and London, and was included in the International Design Yearbook. The prize for the design competition was a trip to Japan. David combined this with a short residency at Kyoto College of Art.

In the last few years he has exhibited at 100% Design in London, nine times at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, and four times at ICFF in New York. His ‘Body Raft’ design is currently being manufactured by Cappellini, and was voted ‘an iconic New Zealand design’ by Urbis readers. His design ‘Raft’ was the only piece of furniture in the finals of the Japan Design Foundation’s International Competition 2001, and was also selected for the International Design Yearbook (IDYB). Snowflake light won a Silver Leaf at ISDA Japan. He has been selected for five IDYB entries.

In New Zealand he has set up his own manufacturing workshop and an incubator for design graduates. He has designed a number of large scale public sculptures and many masonry houses in the Hawkes Bay area. He was one of the Antarctic Arts Fellows who were selected to go to Antarctica in the austral summer of 2004/5, which has led to a whole new emphasis on sustainable design in his work, and an awareness of both the moral responsibilities and the enormous opportunities for today’s designers.

Now available at our store. In stock and ready to ship – http://www.metropolitandecor.com/David-Trubridge.html

The lamps at Best & Lloyd always played an important role in the life of Robert Dudley Best (1892-1984). Throughout his childhood, Robert Dudley spent much of his time playing at the lamp factory, he was friends with the families that worked there, and in Birmingham he was well known as the heir to Best & Lloyd. It was therefore not surprising when Robert Dudley Best decided to study industrial and interior design, specialising in lamps, in Düsseldorf and Paris.

In 1928 Best travelled to Düsseldorf and then to Paris. Here he was strongly influenced by the Bauhaus movement, which was taking Europe by storm with its stringent lines and clean style. His immersion in the creative milieu inspired Robert Dudley so much that, during his studies in 1928-29, he designed the lamp collection which subsequently became synonymous with his name.

Best was bursting with enthusiasm and ideas for how his groundbreaking designs would take the factory, which his grandfather and father had headed for 70 years, into a new epoch. Best wanted the factory’s collection to symbolise the spirit of the times, appealing to avant garde architects and setting the agenda for lamp design. Bestlite was the vehicle to achieve these aims.

After his inspiring studies and back home in Birmingham, Best showed his drawings to his father. However, Best senior took some persuading before the lamp was put into production in 1930. His father, who was the second generation of the family to run Best & Lloyd, doubted whether his son’s modern lamp – with its clean design – would tie in with the company’s existing collection and the fashions of the times. And initially, the first examples did not appeal to the company’s regular customers, who wanted decorated lamps. It was the industrial sector that first saw the possibilities inherent in Bestlite’s functionality, quality and durable design.

After an article in the renowned Architects’ Journal, the English architectural community embraced the lamp, and declared it the first example of a Bauhaus-inspired product in the UK. Winston Churchill also fell for the Bestlite. In addition to sitting on his desk in Whitehall, he also took the lamp with him on his countless trips around the world. The lamp had achieved its breakthrough.

Robert Dudley Best continued to develop the collection until the late 1930s. Today, ten of his lamps are in production.

Best & Lloyd – a family dynasty

In 1840, Robert Dudley Best’s grandfather, Robert Best, started a candlestick factory. The factory had its major breakthrough when Robert Best invented a special safety wick, which could reduce the risk of fires. The safety wick sold extremely well, and the foundation for the company’s financial success was laid.

In 1868, Robert Best went into partnership with a banker, Harry Lloyd. They continued to develop the business together, which was now called Best & Lloyd. The company grew in record time, with the factory being enlarged several times. After just a few years, the factory occupied 1.6 hectares (4 acres), and was the world’s biggest lamp manufacturer.

Robert Dudley Best took over the world’s biggest lighting empire from his father. In 1979 – five years before he died – he handed over the company to his son John Best. In its heyday, Best & Lloyd had 1,000 employees and was a purveyor to the British royal family.

The Bestlite Logo

In 1880, Best & Lloyd switched production from candlesticks to gaslights. The gaslight technology had just been developed as a new light source. Until then, gas had been regarded as dangerous because of its explosive properties. The company’s employees therefore found it difficult to believe that the new gas technology was suitable for lighting. However, when the gas technology was incorporated into the company’s products, the workforce enthusiastically welcomed the development. They could see the huge difference the gaslight technology made, and the technological advance it represented. The employees’ reaction was captured in a drawing that was subsequently engraved on all the Bestlite’s bolts together with the UK serial number.

The logo shows a delighted man with his arms raised in the air, and also guarantees that it is a genuine Bestlite from 1930.

A Bauhaus Lamp

Bestlite is a textbook example of the revolutionary development and innovation within design and architecture which swept through Germany between 1919 and 1933. Known as the Bauhaus period, it was a reaction within design and architecture to the exuberant decoration and trimmings that were a feature of the time. The Bauhaus school focused instead on simplicity and functionality.

Bauhaus was highly innovative, and a rebellion against tradition, seeking to break down the barriers between art on the one hand and industry and functionality on the other. Bauhaus is one of the movements which has had the greatest significance for the development of design and architecture in the 20th and 21st centuries.

England’s Jewel

Bestlite saw the light of day in Birmingham in 1930. Today, the lamp is regarded as a jewel in the English design tradition.

The first Bauhaus product product in England

When Robert Dudley Best launched his Bestlite lamp in 1930, its functionality first made it a hit with the industrial sector. The lamp had its real breakthrough in 1932 with the English architectural community after being described in the prominent architectural magazine Architects’ Journal as the first example in the country of a Bauhaus product.

No. 10 Downingowning Street

The British prime minister had his official residence fitted out with Bestlite. This has made Bestlite one of the most famous lamps in the country.

Victoria & Albert Museum

The largest museum in the world for art and design, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, exhibits and presents Bestlite as an English design classic.