Best known for his chairs and seating pieces — though a master of many furniture types like sofas and tables — Hans Wegner was a prolific designer whose elegant, often ebullient, forms and devotion to the finest methods in joinery made "Danish Modern" a popular byword for stylish, well-made furniture in the mid-20th century. Wegner considered himself a carpenter first and a furniture designer second. Like his peers Arne Jacobsen and Finn Juhl, Wegner believed that striking aesthetics in furniture were based on a foundation of practicality: a chair must be comfortable and sturdy before it is chic. In keeping with that tenet, several of Wegner’s best chair designs, seen in dealer listings below, have their roots in traditional seating forms. The “Peacock chair” (designed 1947) is a throne-like adaptation of the Windsor chair; pieces from the “China chair” series (begun in 1944) as well as the 1949 “Wishbone chair,” with its distinctive Y-shaped back splat, are derived from 17th-century Ming seating pieces, as is the upholstered “Ox chair” (1960).
Wegner’s comfy “Papa Bear chair” (1951) is an almost surreally re-scaled English wingback chair. Wegner’s most representative piece, the “Round chair” (1949), gained a footnote in political history when it was used on the TV stage of the first Kennedy-Nixon debate of 1960. That chair, along with Wegner’s more bravura designs, for example the 1963 “Shell chair,” with its curved surfboard-shaped seat, bring a quietly sculptural presence to a room. Wegner was a designer who revered his primary material — wood — and it shows. His wood gathers patina and character with age; every Hans Wegner piece testifies to the life it has led.A master woodworker and M.I.T.-trained architect, George Nakashima was the leading light of the American Studio furniture movement. Along with Wharton Esherick, Sam Maloof, and Wendell Castle, Nakashima was an artisan who disdained industrial methods and materials in favor of a personal, craft-based approach to the design. What sets Nakashima apart is the poetic style of his work, his reverence for wood and the belief that his furniture could evince — as he put it in the title of his 1981 memoir — “The Soul of a Tree.”
Born in Spokane, Washington, to Japanese immigrants, Nakashima traveled widely after college, working and studying in Paris, Japan and India, and at every stop he absorbed both modernist and traditional design influences. The turning point in Nakashima’s career development came in the United States in 1942, when he was placed in an internment camp for Asian-Americans in Idaho. There, Nakashima met a master woodcarver who tutored him in Japanese crafting techniques. A former employer won Nakashima’s release and brought him to bucolic New Hope, Pennsylvania, where Nakashima set up a studio and worked for the rest of his life. Nakashima’s singular aesthetic is best captured in his custom-made tables and benches — pieces that show off the grain, burls and whorls in a plank of wood. He left the “free edge,” or natural contour, of the slab un-planed, and reinforced fissures in the wood with “butterfly” joints. Almost all Nakashima seating pieces have smooth, milled edges.
Nakashima also contracted with large-scale manufacturers to produce carefully supervised editions of his designs. Knoll has offered his “Straight Chair” — a modern take on the spindle-backed Windsor chair — since 1946; the now-defunct firm Widdicomb-Mueller issued the Shaker-inspired “Origins” collection in the 1950s. Nelson Rockefeller in 1973 gave Nakashima his single largest commission: a 200-piece suite for his suburban New York estate. Today, Nakashima furniture is collected by both the staid and the fashionable: his work sits in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as in the homes of Stephen Spielberg, Brad Pitt, Diane von Furstenberg and the late Steve Jobs.Discover THE BEST interior Solutions Modern & Contemporary Furniture PLEASE VISIT IN-STORE FOR OUR CURRENT PROMOTIONS Our Story We bring your living space to life with luxury. Palma Brava Furniture provides the best interior decoration & luxury furniture solutions within the Toronto, Oakville & surrounding regions.
Our company has evolved through furniture trends over many years to satisfy our customers while creating a warm living space within their homes. We are dedicated and committed to your complete satisfaction. Our staff is committed, and strives to help you visualize and pick decor for the most perfect living space within your home. At Palma Brava we understand furniture tastes vary based on customers. We offer the best in quality Classic, Modern & Contemporary Furniture for all your home decor needs. We bring our best showcase products to our storefront to provide you with high-end decor for your living space. Our Location 427 Speers Rd, Suite 6, Oakville, ON L6K 3R9 MON - WED: 10am - 6pm THURSDAY : 10am - 7pm FRI - SAT : 10am - 6 pm SUNDAY : 11am - 4pmDining rooms can be more than just a place to enjoy delicious meals. Create a room in your home where you can indulge in meals but also form memories with family and friends that you can hold onto for years to come.
Your dining table can become the focal point of your dining room as the piece with the most style as well as the most use. If picking out separate table and chairs is intimidating, pick a set complete with a table and chairs that you already know will look great. Have an open concept home? Form a dining space off of your kitchen with a simple table to create a more casual space to gather with family and friends. Your dining room can be home to many items that need specific storage. Look for servers fitted with silverware trays and adjustable height shelves to safely store and organize platters, trays and silverware properly. A more traditional option includes a buffet or china cabinet with built-in lighting and plenty of storage, these pieces can become a beautiful way to show off antiques and special pieces in your collection. If you're looking for a more casual look, try a smaller table or pub height set. With a counter or gathering height table you can create a room that is easy to entertain larger groups and also easier for smaller groups to spend hours hanging out eating, playing cards or enjoying a drink.