I am loving mid century modern chairs. The designs are so sleek and sophisticated looking. Here are a few of my favorites: Kartell Masters dining chair~ $225 for TWO of these chairs! This chair is almost half off, one of my all time favorites. I have a friend who has a pair of these and I love them. They are super comfortable too. And Target even has this wishbone style chair with faux fur, so fun! Aren't these all so fun? BLU DOT Clad 6 Drawer Dresser BLU DOT Clyde Leather Sofa BLU DOT Dandy Lounge Chair BLU DOT Neat Lounge Chair BLU DOT Perimeter Table Lamp BLU DOT Dang Long and Low Sideboard BLU DOT Clutch Lounge Chair BLU DOT Lock Lounge Chair In business 15 years, Mod Livin' has become the Rocky Mountain region's premier outlet for contemporary and modern furniture designs and mid-century furniture and accessories. With 10,000 feet of showroom space in Denver, our selection of new and vintage modern items cover a broad selection of price points to accommodate every budget.
We are proud to represent the products of such contemporary manufacturers as Bensen, Modernica, Blu Dot, Mash Studios, Gus* Modern, and more. Mod Livin' sells to customers world-wide, offering designs of such prevailing icons as Vernor Panton, Arne Jacobsen, Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson. Modern design is our passion, coupled with a commitment to service that is unparalleled in today's retail environment. Looking for modern furniture in Denver or Boulder? We would love to help with all of your design needs!It's been a few years since midcentury-modern became everyone's new old favorite aesthetic, but the trend is still going strong. Whether in vintage pieces or the contemporary designs they inspire, the sleek silhouettes and light woods of the era have become nearly ubiquitous in homes the world over today. Designer Michael Berman is an apt collector of styles from this time period. The Los Angeles–based talent is known to deftly work midcentury silhouettes into many of his interiors projects, incorporating them alongside antiques from other eras in a manner that always feels both polished and fresh, presenting midcentury designs in a thoroughly original way.
Berman also looks to midcentury designs as inspiration for his own Michael Berman Limited furniture line and sells some of his original finds at his Los Angeles shop, Bronze Studio. Since we always value originality in design, AD caught up with Berman to hear his tips on sourcing vintage furniture, making it personal, and discovering lesser-known designers. Architectural Digest: How did you first begin collecting midcentury designs?Michael Berman: About 15 years ago I purchased a weekend home in Palm Springs. When I started furnishing my own home, I began shopping estate sales and auctions all over Palm Springs and Los Angeles and realized the passion that I had for that genre. The first piece I bought for my home was a curved Milo Baughman chaise in chocolate brown velvet with a polished stainless-steel base. It became the platform upon which I built the decor for that house. There is a nostalgia that many feel toward the '50s and '60s, not just the furniture but the culture overall. From auto design to Motown to politics to architecture, the era conjures up a feeling that’s exciting, tumultuous, and innovative.
AD: What draws you to the era? MB: One of the things that has resonated with me from the very beginning about the styling of this era is the amorphic, free-form, curvilinear shapes. Vladimir Kagan is my all-time favorite designer and a huge inspiration to me. AD: What are your go-to sources?MB: I’m all about discovery, and the thrill of the hunt, so I’m not afraid to root around in vintage shops looking for a unique piece. I travel extensively, and I am a scavenger by nature when it comes to searching out the remote little antique stores all over the world. Around my home in Palm Springs, there is a plethora of antique and vintage stores, like Hedge and the Palm Canyon Galleria. I recently purchased a pair of Moroccan-inspired cube tables from the early 1970s that belonged to Ginger Rogers at Bon Vivant, another favorite Palm Springs store. This area offers a treasure trove of midcentury-modern furniture, because the desert was a mecca for Hollywood celebrities and people looking for resort homes in the 1950s through the 1980s.
AD: It seems there’s been something of a midcentury craze over the past few years. What are some designs that have gotten less attention but you think are worthy of it?MB: I really love Belgian Brutalist furniture as well as Czech cubism from the '40s and '50s. I recently traveled through parts of Eastern Europe, and I found a strong influence of modernism in architecture and design that hasn’t been exploited yet in America. When I was there I saw some incredibly graphic and chunky strong statement furniture pieces that were designed in the late '40s and early '50s that felt modern and really different, and I think they have the potential to create a new category and a different dialogue for what we in America consider midcentury modern.AD: Any midcentury designs you’re sick of seeing?MB: There’s always a tipping point when a trend, no matter how long it’s been around, becomes so commercialized that it becomes a cliché (i.e., George Nelson lanterns, a Noguchi cocktail table, Saarinen tulip chairs).
They are beautiful, of course, but the market has been inundated with reproductions, and we’ve passed the saturation point. The homogenized version of midcentury has overexposed many excellent aspects of the style, but the fact is, it’s enjoyed longevity because it's good. AD: How do you go about mixing midcentury silhouettes with antiques from other eras?MB: The beauty of midcentury furniture is that it blends seamlessly with so many other time periods and styles. I love the look of Chippendale chairs around a Saarinen tulip table. A lot of traditional midcentury silhouettes are small-scaled, and often a lot of leggy, petite wood pieces in a room can feel frenetic if they aren’t balanced out with chunkier pieces from other eras. Ultimately, it’s all about scale and finding harmony and balance when it all comes together. I design in an eclectic style anyway, so I love the idea of mixing Hollywood swank with '60s kitsch. To create a space that’s entirely authentic to one era would be contrived.
AD: When you buy vintage furniture, do you refinish it, or do you like to keep it in its original state?MB: I prefer to keep things looking original, assuming they are in good condition. If I find a pair of amazing Harvey Probber lounge chairs covered in Jack Lenor Larsen printed velvet, I would be loath to change it no matter what the condition; however, as a general rule, I do like to recover upholstery pieces. I also collect vintage cars, and the prevailing theory for car collectors applies to quality vintage furniture. When you are investing in a vintage piece, it's often because you’re looking for something special that isn’t mass-produced or overexposed in the market today, so it’s important to keep its patina and maintain the qualities about the piece that make it authentic and special. AD: What are the most important things people should look for when purchasing vintage furniture? MB: The best thing you can do when shopping for vintage furniture is to really examine it. Turn it over, touch it, open the drawers, look at it from 360 degrees.
Look for manufacturer stamps or any identifiers that you could quickly search on your smartphone to get a sense of the piece’s provenance. A lot of pieces designed in the '50s and '60s are lower to the ground and have smaller or more narrow profiles, and they could look out of place once they integrate with our other belongings. With that said, a unique shape can often be just the thing to give your room a more collected feel. Always have a tape measure, and if you’re shopping for a big piece, bring the room specs with you so there’s no guesswork. A big deal-breaker for me is price. Furniture from this era can really run the gamut from low-quality, mass-produced pieces to benchmark- quality items that will stand the test of time. It’s important to look for quality, but you don’t have to overpay. If you are looking for something specific and you’re willing to make an investment for a name-brand piece, sites like 1stdibs or Chairish are great. AD: Do you think we’ll ever get tired of the midcentury look?
What exactly makes it so timeless? MB: Just like any time period, midcentury isn’t for everyone. It has staying power because many of the silhouettes are so versatile, and I’ve found a way to take inspiration from midcentury and apply it to my own designs in a way that reflects the current market for furniture. For example, I've created many pieces that are inspired by classic midcentury silhouettes that I rescale, remodel, and adapt for contemporary living. This may mean expanding the seat so a side chair has generous enough proportions to pull your legs up or snuggle comfortably with your pup. For me, midcentury is about more than the individual furniture pieces. I think of that era of manufacturing as particularly fertile and creative in terms of the materials used, like plastics, fiberglass, wood, metal, etc. It was a very rich period of time in our industry, and the pieces from that era will live on. The freedom with which they approached shapes and styles actually transformed furniture design, and it’s that spirit that resonates with me the most.