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It Takes Two

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 11/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

The year 1995 has particular significance for Stéphane Pagani. Besides founding PaganiStudio—provider of custom lighting to Interior Design Hall of Fame members David Rockwell and Adam Tihany—Pagani met House Beautiful editor Frouwkje Gilkey. They married in 1999, and shared aesthetics convinced her to join the studio in 2001. But as the two partners hit 40 this year, so did the eight-year itch.

Adding new spice to the couple's design life, Baker Furniture has started delivering their lighting to a broader audience via the Pagani collection. Its 17 fixtures embody a "union of past and present," Frouwkje Pagani says: They're handmade in classical materials by family-owned Italian workshops, but the shapes are styled for a modernist viewpoint.

Rings of Murano glass, flecked with white gold, contrast with the satin-bronze finish of the Perla floor lamp, while the same glass completely encases the Perla table lamp's brass stem. Loops and holes characterize several designs. Loosest and most organic is the bronze base of the Mode floor lamp. Sharing the name Anneau, a plaster chandelier is evocative of the French surrealists, while a table lamp offered in plaster or bronze explores the open curves of a Barbara Hepworth sculpture. Then there's Sculpté, a pair of table lamps in black or white marble hand-carved from solid slabs to produce a circle or a square. All fixtures accept incandescent bulbs, and all shades are silk. 800-592-2537; bakerfurniture.com. circle 414