Marcia Sherrill
Trend Tracker
Marcia says: “Get the drift!”
BY
Marcia Sherrill
PHOTOGRAPHY
Steve Pomberg


Driftwood hanging chandelier, Berkshire Home and Antiques, (404) 644-9262.


Driftwood lamp, Pieces, (404) 869-2476.

Driftwood dining table, Pieces, (404) 869-2476. All driftwood pieces are available through 1stdibs.com.
When one of George Nakashima’s iconic driftwood tables sold for $150,000 last year at auction, normally prissy design mouths dropped. It was obvious even to the most dimwitted of designers that there was something woodsy afoot. Eschewing any power tools, Nakashima and his fellow woodsmen, early pioneers, worked like pre-industrial craftsmen with raw slabs of wood, falling head-over-heels in love with the innate beauty of diverse woods, doing little to realize that a half-century later actresses such as Rachel Griffiths would be signing up for their coveted pieces.

On 1stdibs.com there are many not-so-precious alternatives to the master artisans, but they have the requisite age and patina of well-loved wood. Driftwood is showing up not just in Manhattan penthouses nestled among the big-bucks artworks from the likes of Schnabel and Damien Hirst but also in the homes of Bel Air movie moguls with “art sofas” from the likes of that wild cat Karim Rashid. But the design world has also come up with stunning solutions at prices decent enough for us common folks, fast-tracking their way down factory conveyor belts and into retail stores at costs far below the heights these original pieces are fetching with the connoisseurs.

We all remember those early days at the redneck Riviera and the driftwood piles that scratched at our already sunburned limbs. But there is something infinitely soothing about natural materials. When it comes to our homes we do hunger for some nature. Who would have thought that our parents’ driftwood lamps lurking in their plywood-clad rec rooms would be worth more than the timber that was felled for them?

It does give one pause to think of a driftwood dining table looking more like half of Noah’s Ark fitting in with Meemaw’s Chippendale dining room chairs, but let’s not quibble. You don’t have to turn your house into a wigwam or modernist altar to achieve this very folksy, natural, eco look in your own home.

This is a trend that has staying power. Driftwood and other natural elements are part of our new hunger for nature in our lives. Florals that are contrived solid-color balls of orchids or topiaries that are pyramids of faux lemons are out! We would rather our florists serve up wildflowers in galvanized-steel pails and give up those picture-perfect Savonnaire and Aubusson rugs for sisal and sea grass. Mahogany and maple flooring have lost stride to bamboo; tricked-out chintzes and brocades are losing ground to linens and raw silks.

Even if you don’t want to turn the whole house into a paean to groovy natural fibers and rustic fixtures, then please do welcome a driftwood mirror instead of that dust-gathering, Glass Plus-needing Venetian one—a relic of your past.

Get the drift?