Granted, some people find a mid-century style living room a bit too spartan or a little too out there. Consider those molded plastic chairs in wild colors or those sideboards with no hardware! But many aspects of mid-century design have made a big comeback in recent years.
Furniture
The furniture of the modern style was greatly determined by the fact that furniture could now be machine-made. This new technology not merely meant that furniture could be mass-produced, but they could be realized with new materials and produced in ways they had not been done before this period.
One very common modern style sofa is the Knoll sofa built with a sleek metal tubular frame, upholstered in leather or fabric with tufted detailing on the seats and back. Sectionals and modular seating also evolved during this period, as well as benches and chaise lounges. The popular Le Corbusier Chaise Lounge furnished in faux pony hide or the Mies van der Rohe Daybed bench in leather with chrome, are both great examples of iconic modern furniture creations.
The explosion of different sorts of modern style chairs was unprecedented. They ranged from conventional armchairs to cleverly engineered seating like the Joe Colombo’s Tube Chair, which could be disassembled and carried around in a duffel bag, or the beautifully structured Tulip Chair designed by Eero Saarinen. Having made an extremely popular return in today’s furniture market is the Charles and Rey Eames Chair designed for the Herman Miller company, which features a plastic molded seat and back, with wood spindle legs, it’s the epitome of mid-century invention.
Tables range from simple, brightly-colored cubes to more familiar side tables made of walnut or teak to trumpet based pedestal tables with round laminate tops, or free-form glass-tops with sculptural wood bases originated by Isamu Noguchi. One popular modern design is the nested tables created by scholars from the Parsons School of Design and appropriately named Parsons tables.
Colors
It was really a time to experiment with all the colors of the rainbow, and designers of the time certainly did, introducing to the mass market deep artichoke greens and tangerine oranges, bright reds, vivid blues, perky purples, shocking pinks, and pale yellows. Balanced with neutral browns, blacks, whites, and shades of greys.
The colors of modern style furniture experimentation were pushed beyond conventional limits, for example the Trundling Turk chair designed by Alison and Peter Smithson, contains pops of the primary colors.
Material/Fabrics
Thanks to technology, designers had a more extensive palette of materials and fabrics to select from than did their predecessors. The legs of tables and chairs could be built of steel tubing. The furniture itself could be made of composite woods with veneers of more expensive woods such as walnut or teak. Designers of course used traditional fabrics such as silk, linen, cotton, and wool, and woods like walnut, teak, birch, and cherry. In addition, they now had the ability to create truly groundbreaking products made of faux leather, metals, synthetic fabrics, laminates, acrylics, rubber, cork, vinyl and of course all those deliciously moldable plastics.
Decor
A mid-century style living room didn’t take in too many extraneous objects. Influenced by eastern and other global design styles, the décor was typically oversized making for a striking visual impact. A teardrop shaped table lamp made of ceramic or colored glass topped with extra-large linen covered drum shade, or extra tall vases composed of metal, glass, or ceramic, along with abstract art on display were the primary accents in a mid-century living room.
Thanks to these pioneers in furniture design and engineering , we continue to enjoy decorating our homes in mid-century style today.
