Good interior design is all about creating tension and visual interest. Here are 10 iconic examples of modern design that are sure to amp up your style, regardless of whether you define yourself as a traditionalist or modernist. 1. Eames® Lounge and Ottoman Fits like a glove—a baseball glove that is. Introduced byCharles and Ray Eames in 1956, this lounge chair and ottoman pairing is considered one of the most significant designs of the 20th Century, featuring molded plywood technology and supple leather. Designed by Phillip Starck and crafted of translucent injection-molded polycarbonate, this chair marries technology with the classic lines of a Louis XVI armchair. Good indoors or out. Round or oval dining, coffee or side, the original pedestal table designed by Eero Saarinen in 1956 was intended to “clear up the slum of legs in the U.S. home” (Time magazine, 1956). The sleek pedestal base is cast aluminum and can be paired with your choice of tabletop: marble, wood veneer or laminate.
Inspired by Ming Chairs, the Wishbone Chair was designed by Danish designer Hans Wegner in 1949 as a relief to the heavier chairs of the time. Its steam-bent, solid-wood frame and hand-woven paper-cord seat exemplify perfect craftsmanship. Available in a variety of colored lacquers or wood stains. Modern master Le Corbusier designed his “relaxing machine” in 1928 to mirror the body’s natural curves. Offering endless sitting angles, the moveable frame moves from upright to full recline. Crafted of chrome-finished tubular steel with leather or cowhide, the chaise is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. 6. Eileen Grey End Table Also included in the permanent collection of MoMA, this end table was created by architect Eileen Grey for a home she designed in France in 1927. Made of chromed tubular steel in Italy. See 11 of our favorite end tables here. One of the most recognized pieces in modern design, the Barcelona Chair was created by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1929 to furnish his German Pavilion at the International Exhibition in Barcelona.
Still built to original specifications with a chromed-steel frame and leather cushions, the chair was honored with the Museum of Modern Art Award in 1977. Introduced by George Nelson in 1947, these sculptural pendant lights are constructed of a steel-wire frame covered with translucent plastic. Produced in a variety of shapes and sizes, these lamps are also part of MoMA’s permanent collection. 9. Serge Mouille Three-Arm Floor Lamp Insect-like in simplicity and angularity, Serge Mouille lamps marry a unique sculptural aesthetic with functionality. Each arm can be adjusted and shades are still made to the original specifications from the 1950s. Eva Zeisel’s signature fluid porcelainware has had a lasting influence on modern forms, beginning with her first products designed for the Kispester-Granit factory in Budapest in 1926. Her most recent collection includes the Granit Dinnerware Collection, produced for Design Within Reach. She has also designed porcelain vases and pitchers for Room & Board.
ALL NEWS & EVENTS > By Scott Baldinger Imperialism, though hardly favored as a form of foreign policy by Western nations today, was often the mother of invention in previous eras, particularly when it came to the design of English furniture for the military in the late 18th and 19th centuries. As the island nation’s armies moved to bring a Pax Britannica to nearly a quarter of the globe during the late Georgian and throughout the Victorian eras, it led to the creation of what is now called Campaign Furniture, whose ingenious portability was a model of industrial-age ingenuity, the influence of which is evident in Mid-Century modernism and beyond, to new work being created now in the twenty-first century. While completely unsuited to the realities of modern-day warfare that began even before World War 1 — to the point that the Secretary of State for War in 1903, H. O. Arnold-Forster said that “The British Army is a social institution prepared for every emergency except that of war” — Campaign Furniture is, to this day, a model of functionality, comfort, and elegant design ideal for the contemporary home
, if not for war itself. For a commissioned officer of high social rank in the English army, it was absolutely essential to bring — even to the farthest and most inhospitable reaches of the world — high-quality chests, beds, chairs, and other accoutrements reminiscent of the comforts of home, including also large dining tables, sofas, cabinets, wardrobes, book shelves, and desks. Many of these were carefully designed to be of current fashion, making them commercial enough for purchase by the non-military public. Such “essential” components of a gentleman’s home life were usually folded up to a portable size with the use of brass caps to the tops of legs, hinges, and protruding bolts, and were carried through the wilds of Africa, South America, and Asia on camel or horseback. A handsome example is available at Stair Gallery’s auction of English, Continental & American Furniture, Fine Art and Decorations on June 28th. The description from the Stair catalogue itself is suggestive of the innovative combination of fine furniture workmanship and the nation’s burgeoning industrial might and innovation: Lot 523 is a “Victorian Mahogany Folding Campaign Bed, Robinson & Son’s, Ilkley, Yorkshire, with retractable backrest continuing to the foot rest, raised on turned legs with pierced brass wheels, fitted with a tufted mattress, on top of metal springs
, the brass hinges signed ‘Robinson’s Patent Ilkley.’ For a mid-level officer desiring to be comfortably recumbent under harsh conditions, the bed is of particular convenience; even with its attractively turned legging, it is far more pared down in design than other examples from the period, which included even four-poster beds – and an especially hardy dromedary to carry them. “You can see how twentieth-century designers from Eileen Gray to Edward Wormley to Kaare Klint were inspired by Campaign furniture such as this piece,” says David Petrovsky, an antiques dealer with a special interest in the British Colonial period. “Some even did lines named after it. Without the Campaign style precedent, perhaps it might not have even dawned on someone like Eileen Gray to create her chrome chaise lounge that could be turned into a cot.”The Irish designer and architect was neglected for most of her career before gaining international recognition after her death. She firstly conceived luxurious lacquered Art Deco pieces before turning herself towards the modernist aesthetics of the International Style.