AFFORDABLE ACCENT TABLE ROUND-UP: MID CENTURY MEETS ORGANIC MODERN

We're getting ready to have my Little Tokyo loft project photographed, which means adding a couple of finishing touches.  One thing we're in need of is an interesting accent table.

Here's a round-up of some great affordable ones all priced between $75-$160.  I love all these little guys!  I mean sure you could pay a lot more ... but why??

Here's the breakdown:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4

 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 

 9 // 10 // 11 // 12

xo,

THE ICONIC PRETZEL CHAIR (AND THE WHOLE SCANDALOUS BACK STORY)

So if you follow my instagram feed maybe you picked up on my current debate with myself about buying a set of pretzel chairs that I found recently in one of my usual junk store haunts.  I'm still totally going back and forth on this and haven't made a decision yet!!  

I did find out that the chairs are not the mid-century originals I thought they were, and looking into it has sent me way, way down the rabbit hole ... turns out there's a whole scandalous back story to the iconic pretzel chair.  There were a number of versions made by a number of different designers and hence this chair is quite often confused with other versions and mistakenly attributed to the wrong designer and even the wrong decade!

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So here's the story ...

The first pretzel chair was inspired the classic bentwood designs of Thonet, and was designed in 1952 by George Nelson for Herman Miller and it is truly a study in beauty and simplicity.  

George Nelson

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Nelson's pretzel chair was fragile though, and costly to produce, so it was only made by furniture manufacturer Plycraft for a short time before Herman Miller sacked the project.  They are rare and highly prized by collectors now.

But the Plycraft factory was now all tooled up to construct bent plywood furniture and they wanted to continue experimenting with it, so they hired designer Norman Cherner to design a different, sturdier version of the original pretzel chair (with George Nelson's blessing ... he was in fact the one who recommended Cherner to Plycraft.)  And so the Cherner pretzel chair was born ...

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Not without a bit of scandal though.  When Cherner originally submitted his designs to Paul Goldman, the owner of Plycraft, he was told that the project had been abandoned.  Soon after he spied his exact chairs in a furniture showroom with a Plycraft label saying they were designed by "Bernardo."  He sued Goldman and Plycraft who admitted that "Bernardo" was a fictitious name, and Cherner won the rights to royalties and the correct attribution of his pretzel chair design.

Cherner's pretzel chair remains one of the most lovely, sculptural, iconic chairs in mid-century design.

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Norman Cherner

But the saga continues!  Plycraft made yet another version of the pretzel chairs in the 1980s, this time re-imagined by a designer named Lou App.  These are the ones that I happened upon and am having a fierce debate with myself buying.  It's a slightly less elegant version in my opinion, thicker at the base of the chair back to make it stronger (a weak spot for the Cherner chairs) and with more bowing at legs.

As far as I can tell the Cherner mid-century chairs were made a couple different ways, both with and without the thin padded seat and back cushions.  The 80's Lou App version seems to have only been made with padded seats and backs. 

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And here they are in a seriously 80s color scheme for ya ...

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So that's whole long story!  All that is why you'll sometimes find pretzel chairs attributed to Cherner, sometimes mis-attributed to the dubious "Bernardo," sometimes even to Goldman, and sometimes to Lou App.  At times you'll see them just called Plycraft pretzel chairs (which could mean anything, as we now know!)  

Vintage Cherner chairs fetch $800-1200 apiece, and in the past decade his sons re-licensed his designs so you can buy sanctioned reproductions at stores like Design Within Reach for $2000 a pop.  Of course you can also get inexpensive knock-offs for around $400.  

It seems that almost nobody knows about the Lou App version, so they regularly show up on ebay and 1st Dibs attributed as original Cherners and fetch the same price because of the confusion.  The set I found is selling for $425 apiece and I would have to refinish them for about $100 each.  They currently have a scratched up black finish with black vinyl padding.  I kind of like the walnut with white leather combo that's pictured up above and I'd consider going in that direction ... or a warm danish wood tone with caramel leather ... or ...?

So what do you think!?  While it's not quite as pretty as the Cherner chair, and certainly not as elegant as the Nelson chair, it's still a really sculptural and beautiful chair, don't you think?  What would YOU do?  Help me out of my design decision inertia!

MID-CENTURY TRADITIONALIST DINING ROOM

I have a husband and wife pair of clients who have somewhat different design sensibilities from each other.  It often happens this way, and the fun challenge is finding the right combination of styles that not only mesh well together, but also make both people happy.
In this case the husband leans toward mid-century designs, and the wife is more of a traditionalist.  As this process unfolded and their predilections became clear, went back and forth a bit with the design of their dining room.  You might remember the first dining room design I posted here.  Our jumping off point was their fabulous blue Hermes china pattern, and I built a breezy but elegant room that combined a rustic reclaimed wood table and wood bead chandelier with more traditional chippendale chairs and mirrored buffet.

ROSA BELTRAN DESIGN

But as we went it became clear that they wanted to incorporate a bit more mid-century modern style into their home, so back to the drawing board we went.  My clients themselves came across this dining room by Nate Berkus and absolutely fell in love with it.  It blends a very traditional table and chandelier with those groovy mid-century chairs and modern art.  And how about that emerald green velvet!?!?

NATE BERKUS

They set their hearts upon having chairs just like that....emerald velvet and all.  And that's not something you see everyday.  So this is the solution we all came up with:

DINING CHAIRS

These Saarinen style side chairs and two arms chairs for either end of the table:

(All found for a pretty great price on overstock.com)

All the chairs are currently being re-upholstered with this sumptuous  emerald green velvet by Pindler & Pindler:  


And all the chair bases were powder-coated in a matte brass finish that emulate the inspiration chairs: 
How's that for some creativity!?  Believe me, it took more than a little research and chasing my tail to source the exact shade of emerald velvet (I think I went through about 30 swatches from all over the known universe before I found the right one) AND to research the right coating process for the chrome chair legs.  Turns out that electroplating them in brass would have been far too costly at a couple hundred dollars per chair, and I had no confidence in simply spray painting them...I was afraid the finish wouldn't hold up, and it wouldn't look enough like real brass.  Powdercoating turned out the be the right solution...cost effective and supposed to be bomb-proof.

TABLE This weathered wood dining table by Restoration Hardware:


CHANDELIER And this scissor-arm brass chandelier with black linen shades: SIDEBOARD
One more addition to the space is this beautiful metal-work sideboard by Aidan Gray. Can you see it??  Completed with some sort of large scale piece of contemporary wall art to tie the whole look together, I think my clients will have the dining room they are dreaming of.

MID-CENTURY MODERN MEETS SOUTHWEST

I've been busy pinning images for a project close to home...a childhood friend who bought a spanish-style casita here in Silver Lake.  He's a dude, so it needed to be somewhat masculine, and the direction I'm loving is an amalgam of mid-century and updated southwest.  
We're both from New Mexico, by the way, so the latest design craze for southwest style is not completely lost on me, but neither is my intense distaste for it when it is overdone.  
I think the key to making this vibe feel fresh is keeping it pretty sparse, with stark white walls contrasted against a very edited decor.  Observe...

VIA PINTEREST

EMILY HENDERSON

VIA WIT & DELIGHT TUMBLR

VIA VIM AND VINTAGE

EMILY HENDERSON

EMILY HENDERSON

NATE BERKUS

VIA THE BRICK HOUSE

VIA THE BRICK HOUSE

VIA THE BRICK HOUSE

VIA THE BRICK HOUSE

VIA THE BRICK HOUSE

As you can see, Morgan Satterfield of The Brick House, does a brilliant interpretation of this style...thanks for all the inspiration Morgan!  
Luckily for us, LA is a mecca for mid-century vintage furniture and decor, and being so close to Mexico (it once was Mexico, but you knew that) we're not so lacking in the southwest department either.  This look is one that is really achievable, so have at it!