Appreciation vs. Application
Many modern pieces (contemporary or vintage) may be on the higher end of the relative price spectrum. It is your choice to employ them in your household, in the application that you see fit. If you have highly valued / valuable objects in your house, it makes sense that you probably would not want to risk them becoming damaged through heavy use, abuse, or accidents. This attitude is somewhat like a family which would not allow their kids to mess with their precious Ethan Allen "living" or "dining" room furniture... However, the latter makes much less sense to me since the "designs" are hideous.
Regardless, there are plenty of modern design options that can be fully functional in a family household. DSS chairs come to mind as just one example. After all, it was probably the most popular chair in grade schools, laundromats, and bus terminals at one point in time and for good reason.
I'm with Pegboard. Keep your precious stuff in storage. You can still enjoy "everyday modern" with a bit of care but not too much worry. If not, there may be a great business opportunity in slipcovers custom-made to fit modern designs. 🙂
My house is full of...
My house is full of Eames/Knoll/Nelson - I actually live alone and only really sit in my sofa so the majority furniture never has a hard life. I do find a lot of it scary to use though (breakage etc) so they are mainly viewed as 'art'! I can understand having a family/kids running around scares some people, when my girlfriend/her son are over I am always on edge when he is running around near some expensive bits. Then again I live with two Siamese cats so I could be asking for trouble....
I say enjoy design for what it is, of course be careful but don't let it rule your life. For the record, there are many things in life I had to have then sold on (mainly cars, not such a good investment as furniture!) but have to say most of the furniture I have wanted/got I will keep for life.
Not wanting to wander off the...
Not wanting to wander off the subject of the original thread here, but I was having very similar thoughts today on my attitude to the vintage design in my own home.
I had members of my family come to visit a few days ago and looking back on my behaviour whilst they were here I feel slightly embarassed.
My eyes were constantly scanning the room for stray drinks glasses placed inapropriatley on any wooden surfaces, I even [half jokingingly]asked my father not to rock so much in the Eames lounge chair, previous threads about catastrophic shock mount failure still causing major concern I`m afraid.
Anyway an article in an interiors section of a national newspaper recently featured a guy who had kitted out his whole house from recycled odds and ends he had found on the street, it looked amazing. Whats more if anything ever got damaged or broken he would just go out and scavange something else to replace it without a care in the world.
I`m not saying I am on the verge of relinquishing all of my treasured pieces.
I firmly believe that surrounding oneself with well designed beautiful things can have a very deep uplifting phsycological effect on your everyday life way beyond mere materialism in the same way that good architecture can improve the lives of those who live within it and around it, but it in a way it must be libirating to live without being shackled to to so many ojects.
The problem relates to application as much as anything...
I really hate the fact that I love so much of MCM design for the simple fact that it's just simply not possible(at least to me anyway) to make even a small fraction of it work together in the same space. As caulfield said, it's distracting. As much as I may obsess over a piece of Nelson's, once I plop it in the middle of a bunch of the like I am almost assured to be underwhelmed. It's very frustrating. For this reason, my interest in Danish and Scandinavian design is ever increasing. Seems the complete opposite of Cali mod. I don't even like alot of individual pieces of Kagan's or the like that much. But when I see a space furnished with it, I'm always pleasantly surprised.
That said, there've been quite a few instances in which I discovered design flaws(all relating to funciton) after the fact. That doesn't mean I disregard the designs or designers. Just means I(and my wife) refuse to live life owning sofas with little to no back support and so on... Pieces must function for me to really value their beauty. That's the simple fact of the matter. A piece of art is made to hang on a wall. A chair is made to hold you up, whilst hopefully not accelerating arthritic deterioration.
Cash
As Johnny Cash says: Every possession is just another stick you beat yourself with.
I was brought up with a respect of my possessions and of my surroundings. I was also raised in a family that was fairly handy at repairs. The purpose of objects is to function, and if they don't they become too much baggage to haul through life. For a while I went a little crazy and obtained as many pieces as I could. Which got ridiculous. So I began to trim.
Gone are the Evans production Eames chairs. Gone is the oh-so-cute Eames rocker. And then gone are all of the mediocre to poor pieces I had kicking around - grungy shell chairs, half polished contract bases, etc.
Precious was replaced by practical but stylish - the middle of the road "good" pieces. Which oddly are mostly Wegner pieces, echoing Lunchbox's newfound appreciation of the Danes. That being said I had a recent party before which I promised myself I wouldn't care about the furniture until the next day. And I thoroughly enjoyed the party!
H.moon--
If the article you referred to is available online, please post it-- I'd love to read it!
I remember a similar piece in the New York Times several years ago-- a guy who scavenged everything from the streets of NY, to very impressive effect! He knew when trash was picked up in each Manhattan neighborhood, so he knew where to search each night of the week. (If I can find it, I'll post it--)
.
The article I was referring to appeared in The Guardian from the UK about 6 weeks ago.
Sure, the guy who was featured had a particularly creative and artistic mind, not everyone who scavanges material from the streets would be able to produce the same results.
I remember a picture of his sofa which was made up from old pallets, fabrics and other odds and end, it looked amazing.
I`ll do some searching online, if I find it I will post it.
Here is
The Times article and slide show.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/09/02/garden/20090903-recycled-sli...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/garden/03recycle.html
Wow!
I respect the artistry and craftsmanship.
I applaud the motivation and dedication.
But there is NO way I could live in one of those houses without having a nervous breakdown! Much too much chaos and visual stimuli. I need my simple linear undecorated forms to retain sanity!
The wood countertops are cool though 😉
change is good.
I love and live with all mcm furniture it has become away of life for me.
My girlfriend who is a well known interior designer who has worked on some of the finest and most expensive homes
has been totally converted to my mid century design,
She said if her clients would go for the modern design she would design their homes with all MCM classics. It is so hard to change someones mind who is mind set. I find this furniture just as easy to live with as any other furniture. You just have to learn to live with.
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