Contemporary Furniture and Modern Style: The Name Game

Whether you’re a fan, aficionado, or outright collector of great furniture, when searching for timeless, well-designed, ergonomically contoured modern, international, or mid-century modern furniture, play the name game.

By this, we simply mean seek out furniture from the greatest designers of the genre and of the age. Some of these names, while not precisely household names, are still recognizable to even the budding furniture and home décor enthusiast. The most recognizable names associated with classic, mid-century modern style are Isamu Noguchi, Charles Eames, Ray Eames, Le Corbusier, George Nelson, Eero Saarinen, Reinhard Dienes, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Hans J. Wegner, Arne Jacobsen, Harry Bertoia, Knoll, Herman Miller, Verner Panton, and Marcel Breuer. These are all safe bets whether you are searching for investment-grade vintage furniture, Danish style furniture, or simply something special to set a cool contemporary furniture tone in your home or office.

Such famous pieces as the Barcelona series of chairs, the Wegner chair, the wishbone chair, the coconut chair, the DCM chair, the cyclone table, and the boomerang coffee table have set the standard for distinctive mid-century classic furniture designs. We know them and love them even if we don’t know them by name. We’ve seen them in countless places, from the silver screen to home design and décor magazines and websites. They are as much a part of our cultural heritage as the pop art designs of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

But while classic mid-century furniture can give us the same visual pleasure as a fine painting we can also enjoy it on a physical level as well. Chairs, ottomans, loungers, side tables, sofas and dining tables provide physical comfort as well as visual comfort. Features such as sleigh-style legs, laminated tops, architectural-style legs, contoured seats, premium full-grain leather upholstery, molded fiberglass bodies, flowing lines, sawhorse frames, waterfall seats, and most importantly a crisp, clean, retro style all add to their appeal in our minds and in our homes.

Re-issues and interpretations of classic designs from the great designers such as Le Corbusier, Charles and Ray Eames, and their ilk and can be found in places both expected and unexpected. A little diligence will pay great rewards when you at last find a Bauhaus or Danish classic to grace your home, office, or kitchen. Polished steel, chrome legs, sculpted contours, and bold, unique, distinctive designs are the hallmarks of modern décor of this classic era and elements that have made these revolutionary designs of the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s unforgettable and highly desirable in the contemporary home and contemporary lifestyle.