'The Ordinary Family' is a furniture collection by product and interior designer Ka-Lai Chan. This collection currently consisting of five pieces, is a carefully selected and modified group of used furniture and is partly inspired by stories of the designer’s own family or observations of families around her. The furniture family includes a rocking horse, a coffee-table, a praying chair, a classical side table and the ‘No Sign of Design’ chair; a basic practical chair by the influential Dutch designer Richard Hutten.

Chan creates frozen moments that can be interpreted as points in the personal lives of members of a family. For example, the classical side table, in which golden colored pearls have created a hole in the wood, refers to a young girl’s obsession with external psychical beauty. The spectacle of recycled plastic on the coffee-table melting through the tabletop was inspired by a parent, who cannot resist the temptation of alcohol and drugs, which ‘drag’ him down into a colorful, almost psychedelic depth.

The Ordinary Family represents a common human family. However, what we do not know is as with real families, each family itself has their own secrets and taboos...

'The Ordinary Family' collection is first presented by Galerie Judy Straten at Object Rotterdam 2012 expo, exhibited from February 8 - February 12 2012.

Product Design: Ka-Lai Chan, www.kalaichan.nl
Photography: Jay Tang | VISUAL CREATURE, www.visualcreature.nl
Special Thanks: De Geertekerk, Utrecht