Actor Pitt turns his hand to furniture design

Actor Brad Pitt has turned his talents to creating furniture for a luxury design house with a high-end collection inspired by both art nouveau and art deco, according to Architectural Digest.

Pitt, who collaborated on the collection with American furniture designer Frank Pollaro, discussed his inspirations for the capsule collection in the December issue of the magazine.

“I’m drawn to furniture design as complete architecture on a minor scale. I am obsessively bent on quality, to an unhealthy degree.”

Pitt said it was his obsession that introduced him to Pollaro, who, he said, embodied the “same mad spirit of the craftsmen of yore, with their obsessive attention to detail”.

Brad Pitt a furniture designer?? I gotta see this

— Natasha (@Foxa_TASHA) November 7, 2012

The dozen-piece collection, which will be unveiled by the Pollaro furniture house in New York between Nov 13 and 15, will include tables, chairs, an elaborate bed, and a marble bathtub.

The 48-year-old Fight Club actor said he was influenced by Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow Rose, drawn with a continuous line. He designed his collection with the fluidity of a single line.

Pitt has previously worked with well-known architects for his Make It Right foundation to create affordable, quality housing for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. He also designed a diamond ring for his partner, Angelina Jolie, when the couple got engaged earlier this year.

The actor also became the latest and first male face of Chanel’s iconic women’s fragrance Chanel No 5 last month, mystifying critics and fashionistas with an enigmatic advertisement.

One of the first pieces Pitt and Pollaro created was an art-deco “ocean liner” of a bed, featuring a tropical hardwood frame that extends from its gently curved headboard, along the floor, to a graceful arc that ends in a cantilevered bench. The bed also features exposed nickel trusses to support the king-size mattress, integrated shagreen (a type of rawhide) foot-pads, and nickel side tables with silk-under-glass tops.

Other Pitt pieces include a cocktail table, some side tables, and club chairs, a bathtub for two in Statuario Venato marble, a 17ft-long wood dining table whose jagged base dramatically zigzags at unexpected angles, and a glass-topped side table with spiralling metal base finished in 24-carat gold.