Designer Rob Kennedy with The Palm lamp. Barrel chair, Ainsworth-Noah, ADAC, (404) 231-8787. Acrylic table, Pacific Showrooms West, ADAC, (404) 239-0019.
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Lamps and Limelight
Lamps are to interiors what the perfect pair of earrings is to a simple outfit.


The Dollop lamp in hand-blown glass

The Pastille lamp
So says Rob Kennedy, designer, local theater advocate, all-around wacky guy—and now creative force behind Coalition Society, a new Atlanta-based lighting design firm.

“Lamps are an addiction to me,” he says. “I think they’re the jewelry for a room.”

Yet far too many mass-produced blahs are used to light even the grandest of spaces, he says. So Kennedy and business partner Mary Beth Simpson have set out to create lamps that also function as works of art. Each design is one of a kind, produced in limited editions of 100 and numbered.

Kennedy designs each base, and for some pieces works with artists throughout the country to create components. Most lamps feature a mix of materials, including clay, leather, metal, wood, acrylic, glass, and even felt. “I love to mix something hard with something soft,” he says. “I like the juxtaposition of materials as well as pairing different textures and finishes.”

A best seller for Coalition Society—so named for the collaboration of artists and marriage of materials—is the Pastille, which features stoneware vessels stacked among alternating solid disks of felt and African wenge.

All of the lamps contain adjustable double-socket clusters in nickel or antique brass finishes, and some designs are available in floor lamp sizes, such as ones made from natural or chocolate-brown stained bubinga.

And for that signature Kennedy touch, there’s the Corset lamp, a solid walnut form covered in laced leather that’s more curvaceous than a Mammy-dressed Scarlett O’Hara.

 Now there’s an accessory that no fashion-conscious wardrobe—or room—should be without.

Available to the trade through Ainsworth-Noah, ADAC; (404) 231-8787, coalitionsociety.com.