Floored
FLOR does the legendary Alexander Girard. Click the pic for more.
April 02, 2008
March 22, 2008
RAR! RAR! RAR!
I've been having a pretty good month, furniture-wise. Just yesterday I picked this puppy up at the Goodwill for ten bucks: A marked Eames RAR rocker with padded leather upholstery in fine vintage condition. The leather is a bit faded out in places, and has one or two very minor scuffs. I'm of two minds as to whether to re-dye the leather and fill the scuffs, or just leave it as is - it is, after all a vintage piece. If you want a piece that looks brand new, you should probably go to Design Within Reach and buy one.
Anyway, here's a pic:
Neat, huh?
January 22, 2008
Look, Florence, See Jane
Gus* Modern Jane Sofa and Chair Seating
If you're looking for a sofa with the look and feel of a Florence Knoll original, without being a perfect knockoff, this isn't a bad deal.
January 09, 2008
Photospread: MCM Furniture
Click the pic for a gorgeous page from Gordon International offering beautiful photos and specs on the large majority of iconic MCM pieces. Be sure to check out the quite rare Mies Tugenhadt chair, an interesting shot at melding the Brno and Barcelona chairs.
December 26, 2007
Vladimir Kagan
Kagan is about the last of the iconic mid-century designers still with us. Click the pic to visit his company website. Excellent photos of almost all his iconic pieces.
November 26, 2007
MCM Porn: Nelson Clocks
The rest of the room isn't bad, either.
November 24, 2007
Resource: What It Looks Like, What It's Worth
Rago Arts and Auction Center | Results | 2007
Especially for folks new to the mid-century modern world, and even for those somewhat knowledgeable, figuring out what something looks like from a written description, or what something is actually worth, may prove difficult. One way to increase your knowledge is to have in one hand the catalog of a good auction house holding a mid-century sale, and in the other hand, a "prices realized" report.
Or, in this day and age, you can turn to the internet and get it all in one place.
Click the lot numbers on the left of each entry for gorgeous pictures of each sale item.
November 04, 2007
The Eames 670 Lounge Chair
Eames Lounge Chair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman, correctly titled Eames Lounge (670) and Ottoman (671) were released in 1956 after years of development by designers Charles and Ray Eames for the Herman Miller furniture company. It was the first chair the Eames designed for a high-end market. These furnishings are made of molded plywood and leather. Examples of these furnishings are part of the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.The rest of the wiki will tell you pretty much everything there is to know about the most famous chair to come out of the mid-century modern design era.
November 02, 2007
Designers: Kurt Ostervig
DANISH.COM: Best of Breed Danish Furniture Designers - Pioneers
Kurt Østervig(b. 1912, d. 1986)Why bring up Kurt Ostervig? He's not the best known of the Scandinavian designers - Wegner or Henningsen or Jacobsen would probably fight it out for that honor. But he made beautiful furniture of the highest quality, and he does have a solid reputation among those MCM fans who favor beautiful wood shaped with both genius and loving care.
Kurt Østervig started his career as a ship building engineer at Odense Stålskibsværft. He was later hired as a furniture designer by E. Knudsen's Design Studio, one of the leading furniture producers 1930s & 40s.
He became a freelance furniture designer in 1947 working with some of the leading Scandinavian furniture manufacturers of his time.
Østervig?s constant search for new challenges resulted in many original design solutions for furniture used in rest homes, ships, hotels, and movie theaters. He was a master at combining oak with leather and his detailed and perfectly executed drawings were looked upon as works of art.
In the 1960s, one of Kurt Østervig's designs was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
So anyway, I'm in my local Goodwill store today, and I see these tucked away in a corner:
$5.99. Apiece.
Yes, they're marked Kurt Ostervig.
Of course I brought them home. I haven't decided whether to keep them, or put them on Craigslist. I really don't have room for them, but...they sure are pretty.
Remember when I told you one of the great things about MCM pieces was that you could still find a lot of it around, for astonishingly low prices? And to enjoy it while you still can?
Well, today I'm enjoying it.
November 01, 2007
Video: Todd Oldham on George Nakashima
October 30, 2007
Diamond In the Smooth
Click the image to learn more about Harry Bertoia, one of the most iconic of mid-century creative minds:
October 24, 2007
I Had No Idea....
News Democrat Journal - Life & Style -
Although construction of the Arch didn't begin until 1963, it was actually designed during a nationwide competition in 1947-1948 by architect Eero Saarinen.
Now that's what I call thinking big, Mid-Century-wise.
October 23, 2007
Video: Oldham on Eames
Bio: George Nelson
George Nelson (1908-1986) was one of the most powerful forces behind the development of this century's American design aesthetic.R Designs has some handy little thumbnail bios of the better-known mid-century design masters. Here's one for George Nelson.
Resource: George Nelson Fabric Designs
Not many people know this, but among George Nelson's many other talents, he was also a textile designer: And you can still buy his fabrics today!
Check out:
George Nelson Fabric » Mid-Century Modern Collection and Designer Fabric - J & O Fabrics: Products
This would be nice as a bedspread on a Nelson Thin-edge Bed.
October 22, 2007
MCM Midtown
Mid-Century Modernism wasn't - and isn't - just about furniture or architecture. Textiles played a huge role in the movement as well. Here's a nice rundown on one of the giants:
Multicultural Craftsman Jack Lenor Larsen - Design 2007 -- New York Magazine
The Tulip Turns Fifty
STLtoday - Life & Style - Home & Decor
Tulip is a modern classic
And like so much of the best MCM work, it remains enormously popular today.
When Finnish architect Eero Saarinen developed his landmark pedestal collection, his goal was "clear up the slum of legs" that characterized the American dining experience. The inspiration was a drop of liquid, the result was the Tulip table, a curvy aluminum base with a swiveling laminate top.
October 20, 2007
Video: Todd Oldham on Isamu Noguchi
A short look at some of the iconic work of the legendary Isamu Noguchi.
More on the PH-5 Pendant Lamp by Poul Henningsen
Story behind the product:And it most certainly does. I have a CFL in mine right now.The pendant is designed to hang low above a table while at the same time giving a moderate light to the surroundings. In Denmark you will see that approximately one in every two homes has a PH5 pendant.
This is what PH wrote about this product:“After 33 years of more or less Christian behavior, I have converted to Islam - in my relation to the manufacturer of incandescent bulbs. For a whole lifetime I believed that consideration for the consumer and good sense would triumph but now I have become a fatalist. I accept fate and have, with Louis Poulsen’s permission, constructed a PH fixture in which you can put anything - glowworms, Christmas lights and 100 watt metal filament bulbs. A fluorescent tube would however be too long in its present shape!”
The difference between this fixture and previous PH fixtures was that he no longer drew the vizier lines from the filament of the light source, but from the socket itself. The advantage was that the point the vizier lines now led to was a part of the fixture and not the actual center of the light source - as had previously been the case. Regardless of how the lamp was installed and no matter which incandescent bulb it was furnished with, the PH 5 was and is completely glare-free.
Because the diameter of the top shade is 50 cm, this fixture is called a PH 5. The number “5” refers to 5 dm=50 cm. The PH 5 consists of three reflecting shades, a cone and two smaller colored shades (red and blue) designed to improve the light source’s color rendering properties. Red and blue was a natural choice because these two colors belong to the spectrum of which the human eye is least sensitive, and at the same time they weaken the yellow/green spectrum where the eye is most sensitive.
In 1980 the construction of the PH 5 was altered due to the size of the incandescent lamps all becoming the same. Today it is also possible to get a PH 5 using a compact fluorescent light source, so PH was right - it could work.
October 19, 2007
My "Scandinavian" Dining Nook
Henningsen, Saarinen, Jacobsen....
I found the four Jacobsen Series Seven chairs (complete with a tattered piece of a Fritz Hansen label on the underside of one seat) at a sidewalk sale in the Castro, painted flat-mud brown by, apparently, somebody using a toothbrush to smear on the paint. Sixty bucks and some elbow grease later....
Which brings up another nice thing about MCM furniture: There's quite a bit of it still around, and there are quite a few people who regard it as junk. That won't always be the case, so enjoy it - and take advantage of it - while you can.
How To Build a George Nelson-style Thin Edge Platform Bed
What with prices for even a single (did they make any other kind, back in the day?) Nelson Thin-Edge bed going for upwards of $5000, and being very difficult to find in the first place, having one of these babies is pretty much out of reach for most people. Still, I really liked that look of the bed floating above the floor on spindly white pipe legs, with a minimal headboard and footboard.
So I built my own.
No, it doesn't look exactly like the Nelson example, but it gives the same general feeling of minimal "floatiness," and it's quite solid. Best of all, it cost about $150 bucks.
I bought everything in one trip to Lowes (an SUV or pickup helps).
The support frame is made of 3/4 black iron pipe - available in the plumbing department. For a queen-size mattress I made a square using 4-ft lengths of pipe. Use the appropriate pipe connectors to put everything together. The pipe is quite greasy, so you might want to wear gloves while handling. I used two 4" lengths with a crossbar connector for each leg - bringing the height of each leg from the top of the frame to about 14". Once you've got it all put together, wash everything with a good grease-cutter, and then paint it. I used a can of white acrylic appliance spray paint.
For the platform I bought a pair of hollow-core undrilled doors, 32"X80", and screwed them together using three metal strap connectors on each side. Then screw the frame to the bottom of the platform using U-straps on all four sides. Flip it over upright and attach a 3" or 4" wide length of finished oak board cut to 64" length (stock at Lowes) using angle-braces. I used four of them. The headboard is a piece of plywood cut to shape, covered with batting and suede fabric, and attached to the wall behind the bed. This one stands on two wooden support legs screwed to the back. If I figure out a simple, cheap way to attach a headboard bent at an angle backwards, I'll let you know, and update this post, with another picture, too.
Here's what the underside with the frame looks like:
Okay, it's not really Nelson, but it doesn't look bad, and it ought to hold you until you've got that spare ten grand to buy a couple of the genuine article to push together beneath your queen mattress.
October 18, 2007
Musical Chairs
One good way to stir controversy among MCM aficionados is to proclaim your choice for the "best" of anything.
Chairs, for some reason, are especially contentious. Here is my pick for the best of the MCM lounge chairs: the Saarinen Womb Chair, reportedly designed for Florence Knoll, who told Saarinen to create a chair "she could curl up in." Far more than the Eames 670 lounger, the Womb Chair embodied the MCM tenets of simplicity, new materials, biomorphic shapes, and ergonomic design.
What would be your pick? Let us know in the comments.
The Eames House
Charles and Ray Eames lived what they expounded - in particular, in Case Study House #8, the Eames' personal dwelling for much of their lives. Click the link or on this great pic for a comprehensive look at the home of MCM's greatest designer-duo from the Library of Congress.
UPDATE: Here is the official Eames Office site, maintained by the Eames family: Eames Gallery. The family still owns and uses the house, but permits interior tours on one day a year only. Check here for further details.
October 17, 2007
Yes, I Really Really Really Want One of These
October 16, 2007
Enjoy This Video
From YouTube comes this nicely done introductory video to the basics of mid-century modernism.
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