MID-CENTURY MODERN

LOCAL SHOP BUYS AND SELLS UNIQUE MID-CENTURY FURNITURE PIECES

Mid-century modern style has been making a strong comeback when it comes to home furnishings. Recently some of the original companies that first produced the work decades ago are starting to reproduce pieces from their original collections.

whats old is new again

Utilizing sleek, futuristic designs has interested local business owner Larry Zambello for some time. “I studied art and design in college,” said Zambello, who owns and operates Form Gallery in Morningside Shopping Plaza. “I lived in the Midwest and I’d make a Mecca to the Herman Miller factory in Zeeland, Michigan. “I’d buy seconds from the factory, go to yard sales at people’s summer homes along Lake Michigan. I became more obsessed with the style. As the original buyers grow old and retired and downsized, the pieces would appear on the second-hand market.” It quickly became a niche that Zambello and others strove to fill. “As the trend grew, there were more stores buying and selling this furniture,” he said. “It’s been selling online and eBay for 20 years. It just exploded. Now there’s a great appreciation, chat rooms, groups everywhere through Facebook, and other areas online to talk about collecting, buying and selling this furniture.”

The style evolved as an offshoot of the modernism that emerged in the 1920s following the Industrial Revolution. Mid-century modern design, including textiles, furniture and architecture, often softened earlier modern looks. Styles moved from angular shapes and harsh materials like glass and steel to softer lines and materials. Designs also embraced comfort and open floor plans that brought the outside in. Zambello credits the 1995 Cara Greenberg book "Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s," with truly unleashing the ongoing interest in the look. According to the book, modern designs were available before the 1950s, but never before had Americans had a sudden, voracious hunger for curves that were swoopy, parabolic, amoeboid; lines that were long and narrow; ornament that was absent; materials that, until recently, had only been found in aircraft factories."

architectural inspiration

Indeed, many of the designers were classically trained as architects, Zambello said, like Charles, Ames, George Nelson and Paula Cobb. “A lot of the furniture was based on architecture,” he said. “They started out as architects and industrial designers.” One actually designed autos, another designed industrial projects, and even household items like a toaster, Zambello said. The furniture designs were eclectic but had their base in form and function, he added. “It was functional and comfortable. Some of it has a real futuristic in the period of the ‘60s television like the cartoon ‘Jetsons’ and Star Trek. Those showcased some of the great, futuristic designs of the time,”

Mid-century modern design, including textiles, furniture and architecture, often softened earlier modern looks. Styles moved from angular shapes and harsh materials like glass and steel to softer lines and materials.

Zambello said. It was a time of trying out new ideas and alternative materials.

“There was experimentation with plastics, bent plywood chairs, plastic chairs, chairs that were blown up, polyurethane contours that formed to your body,” he said. “Some would take wood and stack it and bond it together then take a band saw and cut out organic forms. There are so many labels for the design and execution.” While Zambello has had his store in Albuquerque for 20 years, he’s starting to face more competition locally. “It’s definitely picked up since I began,” he said. “There are several antique malls where a good portion of the mall is allotted to dealers to sell that kind of furniture. I sell a higher end in the mid-century echelon and these are lower end, more retro end that is more affordable to younger collectors.”

selling out of state

In addition, most of Zambello’s sales go out of state, he said. “My new store is 3,200 square feet, but I have an Internet following,” Zambello added. “I have more of an online store than a local store. But I still have a wide base of customers in Albuquerque where I’ve furnished their homes.” The New Mexico style home isn’t always the easiest to decorate in this manner, Zambello said, but he’s seen it work in traditional, local styles. “I think you can always mix and match and have an eclectic style,” he said. “Some of these pieces look better in architect-designed homes, but if you had an architect-designed home with soaring ceilings, that sort of things, you may want primarily this type of furniture. The kind of homes with stucco and vigas, you can throw in a mix of 19th and 20th century along with very modern things.”

Now with established companies bringing back their old lines, the style is moving forward even more, Zambello said. “Herman Miller has a new line for the home where they’ve reproduced all of the classics and are being made by the company that produced them originally,” he said. “They’re still authentic and they’re licensed to produce their own work. Knoll Studio also is reproducing some of the original designs it did. With a lot of these, they’re designed to be in reach of more people.”