All you need to know about Modern Furniture Designs
We take a look at what it’s all about and why you might want to furnish your home with modern furniture designs.
11/11/2021
If you are furnishing an apartment or house, you will have come across a number of different design trends. Across the years, design of furniture has changed from time to time but there’s one particular movement that has remained popular and pretty much unchanged. We’re talking about Modern Design, yet it’s not referring to modern as in today! In fact, the Modern Design movement began almost exactly 100 years ago. Let’s have a look at what it’s all about and why you might want to furnish your home this way.
Where Did Modern Furniture Originate?
Many present-day manufacturers have adopted the Modern ethos and produce what are effectively replicas of great designs from the movement. Sometimes they come with additional touches and minor changes that give them their own style. The company EQ3 is one such and it’s worth having a look at their range to get an idea of the style we are talking about.
Modern Design began at the Bauhaus School in Germany in around 1919, and involved a completely new approach to all areas of art and design. For those involved and at the forefront of the movement the distinction between art, for example, and furniture was removed: furniture became art. Essentially the Bauhaus movement eradicated the fussy decoration and traditional production methods of the Victorian and Edwardian periods that had gone before.
Hence ‘Modern’; modern design furniture was and is all about clean and sleek lines, minimalist design, and form and function as one. Not only were they interested in the design process but also these items were designed to be simple to manufacture. With right angles, straight lines and the use of metal and plastic in place of traditional materials in some cases, the Modern Design movement soon found imitators across the world.
Should I Buy Modern Furniture Designs?
It depends on personal taste but lately modern has been the way to go. There are many reasons why modern design is still popular – not least the fact that the simplistic design makes it easier to produce and it’s cheaper as a result – and the popularity of this school of furniture design simply does not wane. It is suitable for rooms of any size, for buildings of any type, but is it for you?
Think of this: a minimalist home may at first seem clinical and cold. However, that doesn’t need to be the case. A splash of colour here and a replica statement piece in the centre of a room is an inexpensive way of creating a talking point. The simple fact is that decluttering – which is effectively what the Bauhaus advocates did for furniture and design – is strangely satisfying, as you are left with blank spaces to do with as you wish.
The Bauhaus movement remained influential for a few decades and eventually merged in some ways with what we now know as ‘Mid-century Modern’ and left behind not a just a legacy of massive influential changes in the art and design world, but also a wealth of collectable and often valuable items.
What’s the Most Famous Item of Modern Furniture Design?
In 1929 one of the leading lights in the Bauhaus movement - a prolific designer by the name of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – debuted what is now known as the ‘Barcelona Chair’. A simple yet elegant design with a chrome frame, a back and lower cushion and no arms, it has become an icon. It is much reproduced – you can find a good quality example for a few hundred dollars – and is perhaps the ultimate expression of Modern Furniture Design.