Fellow forumers: how did you get hooked on MCM design?  

I first became aware of Scandinavian
design in the 60s as a kid in Illinois when another (american) family moved nearby after living in Stockholm for four years. I vividly remember their rya rug on the wall. Danish Modern was popular at that time, too.
But as a young adult, I was madly in love with the golden oak furniture of the early 1900s! It was stylish back but fortunately I couldn't afford much of it, otherwise I'd have had a lot to unload later. Eventually I started visiting Denmark with my then-husband, then we lived there for a year. I still wasn't sold on it completely, but it definitely made a huge impression. When we came back to the US, I started going to local auctions and seeing it and was able to get a few things for cheap that needed a little fixing up. From there, it snowballed.
It appeals to me because it's unpretentious, comfortable and functional. Those are also words I'd use to describe myself. Also, the furniture is GORGEOUS. (Not a word I'd apply to myself, but whatever!)

I bought a house about 2 1/2...
I bought a house about 2 1/2 years ago after renting the same apartment for ~15 years. I set aside part of the house budget to buy some nice furniture. Although being an architect, I was never really into furniture design that much previously. However, I always admired the simple Shaker wood furniture designs.
Upon doing some "modern Shaker furniture" google searches, I came across some good cabinetmaker shops in Vermont that made good simple designs to order from solid maple, cherry, or walnut. I found almost everything I wanted except none of the dining chairs suited my eye.
Many google searches later for modern wood dining chairs, I stumbled across a design I instantly loved, which happened to be the Erik Buck floating seat chairs. That design led me to a few Danish Modern furniture websites, and I quickly became hooked.
Luckily I came across those websites just before I was about to place a large (monetary) order at one of the Vermont shops. Fast forward 2 1/2 years later and the house is now fully furnished with Danish and some other Mid Century Modern pieces for about the same price as only 6-7 Vermont items. By coincidence, when I moved in, I found out my neighbor just happened to be named Eric Buck.

For me it all started with...
For me it all started with My Mother. Shes an Interior Designer as well and actually grew up in an Eichler in Palo Alto Ca. So its in my blood so to speak. As I was growing up a thing my mom and I would do every year for my birthday was go to an Architecturally significant home tour, Being that I grew up in California ?California Modernism? was literally all around me and I was naturally drawn to Neutra, Schindler, Ain, May, etc? we would drive through the Eichler tracts near us (I still do to this day) and study every detail. As I grew I made the decision to go to school for design and it was there that my love of Mid Century Architecture was further fed by their amazing interiors. We had a course titled: The history of Furniture, This class exposed me to furniture from so many periods and the Mid century design hooked me from minute one. I have been known to get obsessive about things Im into (which can be good and bad depending on who you ask) so from there I soaked up everything I could about mid century design (still do). I buy pieces I like although my taste these days have been getting a little more on the expensive side (as my next purchase is going to be an Adrian Pearsall 2408-s sofa) but none the less if it appeals to me I go for it. I?m also a thrift/antique store addict and have found some amazing things browsing the local goodwill stores. To me the furniture is a perfect harmony of modern lines and naturalistic forms and materials as well as a real understanding of biomechanics. Ive had many discussions with people who look at some of my furniture and at a glance say ?well that doesn?t look very comfortable? typically after sitting in it they change their minds. What I love most is that Many (if not all) of the furniture designed then still holds relevance today and for a design to stand the test of time and become truly ?Timeless? is a feat rarely matched. Fads come and go but to me mid century design will always hold firm, a perfect marriage of sophistication and whimsy.

I Started
I started being interested in design at about aged 14/ 15.
Then, the mid 70's, Art Deco was overlooked and bargains were to be had, so I started collecting- with spells of selling and reinvesting in better stuff. Gradually the 50?s started to appeal as it began to hit the charity shops and jumble sales.
Our college day Saturday's were ruled by a round of jumble sales, where one could find the most fabulous pottery, glass and vintage clothing for pennies. My first, fairly significant, mid-century buys were 4 Jacobsen ant chairs for £10 and a couple of Robin Day Nimbus chairs for £5.
Pieces came and went- often on eBay- and about ten years ago I took a retail space in a shop in Hastings, on the seaside where I had a weekend place at the time. I enjoyed that for a few years but work commitments back in the big city took over.
During my time dealing I came across lots of great Danish stuff and particularly admired the France & Sons stuff of Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen.
Stuff has come and gone, but I still covet my Minerva pair of sofas, corner table, end table and coffee table.
My dining chairs are Mogens Kold - designed by Hovmand Olsen and are teamed with a British dining table, and my storage/ bookcases are all ladderax by Robert Heal. My furniture, therefore, pretty much dates to the year I was born.

I grew up in a cliff may tract house...
which was assembled on a slab foundation in about a month. (Or so I heard from my mom...)
I remember a wicker 60s egg shaped "pod" chair hanging from a long chain outside in the patio, and some low minimal benches in the yard with exposed aggregate.
The "poor man's Eichler" probably had a lot to do with my ongoing enjoyment of clean lines and light, open spaces that transition from indoor to outdoor.
In 1988, in my mid- 30s, I bought an unfinished shell of a house, and realized then that everything I had was pretty much particle-board storage cubes and cinder block shelves. College stuff. I liked the clean lines of those cubes and shelves, and still do. They were simple and humble, and could be re arranged as needed.
My first mid century purchase was for the house: a 1961 Malm "Fireduke" fireplace in soft turquoise blue enamel, with black trim.
That same year, at a local white elephant sale, I picked up a set of 4 Eames black wire chairs on eiffel bases. I was knocked out by the overload of complexity of all the "lines" in those chairs. The most radical chair I could ever imagine at the time. Like a "drawing" in 3-D.
Not long after that, I bought my first Eames seafoam green rope-edged Zenith shell chair-- for $45. (REDUCED from $55!)
Still have that chair 25 years later, along with about 35 other shells! I just like em... The house is not big, so I only can have about 3 or 4 "out" at any given time. I enjoy changing them up quite often. The "stackability" of the shells comes in quite handy.
A lot of other things that I have traded and sold off too. But I have held on to most all of my Eames stuff. Quite a few found Nelson clocks and lamps too. Used to be like shooting fish in a barrel to find a bubble lamp for $7.50 at the thrift shop. Not so much now.
As a rather burned out artist who has not made formal art for quite some time, I have found that I can enjoy design without any of the baggage that I seem to bring to looking at art.

We found a fantastic sofa in a dumpster
And I could not keep insisting that we not own any furniture. And the dumpster sofa was beatifully made so I wanted more like it. Wasted days trying to figure out who designed it. Still don't know, but in the course of that we discovered danish furniture.

great topic!
I figured I would join the conversation on this one. I've been a lurker here for a while but finally decided to join the club.
As a recent architecture graduate and obviously an enthusiast of good design, when I got my first job and moved into my first apartment I immediately looked to begin furnishing it. Initially I was attracted to Crate and Barrel / West Elm stuff for their clean lines, but quickly realized most of the furniture was inspired by mid-century designs.
At first, it started with an affection for all things Eames, but has now overflowed into basically anything mid-century. A little over a year later, nearly the entire apartment is furnished with mid century stuff - from Eames chairs, to Nelson tables, to danish stools, to Heywood Wakefield dressers, to glassware. It's really come together.
To me, it's very cool to open a design book and seeing a piece of furniture you own, and the fact that many of the pieces are incredibly historical in terms of industrial / furniture design.