Marble Ping Pong Table

Lionel Jadot is as much an inventor as he is a designer. The Brussels-based furniture maker and tinkerer defies categorization with a body of work linked only by the use of repurposed materials. His one-of-a-kind chairs, statement-making tables and eclectic lamps overflow with personality and charm. Jadot is also an interior architect known for creating energetic spaces with a retro yet futuristic feel.

Jadot comes from a long line of custom furniture designers and was born in Belgium in an apartment above a design studio. As a child, he would walk through the family workshop every day after school, picking up the scrap material to experiment with in his room. He took over the family business when he was just 18, and the self-taught Jadot reveled in the freedom to create whatever designs he wanted.

At his eponymous atelier, Jadot works on projects for private homes as well as restaurants, bars and hotels. While his designs and interiors can look chaotic at first glance — with his stone chairs and imposing Organic Modern-style tables of marble and wood — the disparate elements come together in a harmonious balance underpinned by quality and craftsmanship.

In 2019, Jadot also established Zaventem Ateliers in the village of Zaventem outside of Brussels. The former industrial space has become a hub for a community of established and emerging designers and artists.

Jadot's creations are regularly exhibited at design fairs and events in Brussels and around Europe. In 2020, his Crushed Seat (2018) was presented by Todd Merrill Studio director Dallas Dunn at the Brussels Collectible Design Fair. His work was once again exhibited at the Collectible Design Fair 2021 with Antwerp-based Everyday Gallery. Jadot has also expanded into Milan, Italy, with a project called Baranzate Ateliers, which enjoyed a strong showing at Milan Design Week 2022.

On 1stDibs, find Lionel Jadot seating, tables, lighting and more.

Whether they are implemented as decorative accents or makeshift partitions to ensure privacy, antique and vintage folding screens and room dividers easily introduce sophistication and depth to any space in your home.

The earliest examples of folding screens are said to have originated in China and go back at least as far as the Han dynasty. Screens of the era were heavy structures made of wood and had hinges of cloth or leather. They were adorned with elaborate landscape paintings that were typically created on silk or paper canvases and applied directly to the screen’s panels afterward. Just as they had been in the 20th century and today, the folding screens then were recognized for both their practical and purely decorative properties.

Japanese room-divider screens were also decorated with paintings but constructed to be lightweight and mobile. They took on considerable event-based importance when the structures gained popularity in the East Asian country, as the folding screens were used in performing arts such as concerts, tea ceremonies and more. Later, artists elsewhere warmed to folding screens and sought to create their own.

In European countries such as France, where they were known as paravent, folding screens began to materialize in apartments in Paris, gaining favor with the likes of pioneering couturier Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, who is said to have accrued more than 30 and used them as a precursor to what we now know as wallpaper.

On 1stDibs, find a wide range of antique and vintage folding screens and room dividers, which, given their history, may do a better job of bringing people and cultures together in your home than sectioning off a space. Search by material to find options in metal, fabric or wood, or browse by style for mid-century modern designs and examples from the Art Deco era.