Cool Stuff: Iconic Furniture

I've written about B+N's Iconic Panel line before, but the Bay Area company has just expanded its stylish sunken-relief surface concept into a collection of striking modern furniture featuring a variety of subtle textural motifs and warm walnut accents that I couldn't resist sharing.

Screens

Dressers

Credenzas

Beds, Headboards, and Nightstands

Tables

Mirrors

Each piece is available in a choice of materials and surface patterns. See the entire collection right here.

eBay Find of the Day: Teak Credenza

If we hadn't finally snagged our long-sought Danish credenza recently, I'd be seriously tempted to bid on this one.

Super-long (almost 90 inches!) and low, this circa-1960 teak credenza is a real beauty. And I love those sexy legs.

Current bid: $355. (No, it's not cheap -- but this is a seriously collectible, covetable piece of furniture.)

House in Progress: Presto Chango

Nick and I have been hunting for a Danish teak credenza forever (on eBay and craigslist, and in what seems like every vintage store for miles around). But we could never find one locally with the exact look or the dimensions we were after or that wasn't way out of our budget.

I did spot some nice ones on eBay, but they always got bid up into the stratosphere -- and they all seemed to be located in Maine, Rhode Island, or some other distant province from which freighting would have cost more than the credenza itself.

Finally, though, the exact credenza we'd been dreaming about showed up on eBay, and it was local! We bid, won (it wasn't the total steal we'd been holding out for, but the price was very fair), and picked up our new credenza today.

(By the way, the seller has a great little shop called I Spy Vintage Decor & More on Market Street in San Francisco; I took a bunch of pictures of her other wares that I'll post here soon.)

I thought it might be fun to share "before" and "after" pix with you all, so here's the credenza in its new home. I think it's just right for this spot in our living room. What do you think?

(In case you're wondering what the heck else is going on with the room, the color scheme is sort of in transition. I got sick of the red and have been migrating in some lime green, but it hasn't all quite come together yet. The rather generic red-coral art is all wrong, for instance, as is the traditional red-and-camel area rug -- but I haven't yet figured out what to do instead. In fact, our entire aesthetic is sort of in transition right now, so the room probably looks a little schizophrenic. It's very much a work in progress, so if anyone out there has any suggestions, I'm all ears ... )

Trendspotting: Inspiration or Imitation?

The arrival the other day of the latest CB2 catalog, coupled with my recent post about West Elm's new offerings, got me thinking: At what point does furniture "inspired" by midcentury design classics cross the line to outright mimicry?

Consider these examples:


Top left: CB2's Odyssey Table ($149); top right: IKEA's Docksta Table ($149); bottom: Eero Saarinen's iconic 1956 Tulip Table ($3,150 at Design Within Reach).

Left: CB2's Tornado Table ($119); right: Warren Platner's 1966 Side Table ($662 at Highbrow Furniture).


Left: West Elm's Patterned Veneer Coffee Table ($349); right: Milo Baughman's Burl and Chrome Coffee Table ($3,400 at 1stdibs).


Top left: CB2's Hippie Arm Chair ($229); top right: West Elm's Round Back Chair ($199); bottom: Hans Wegner's 1949 Wishbone Chair ($499 at House of Copenhagen).

Left: CB2's Double Dip Lamp ($199); right: Achille Castiglioni's circa-1962 Arco Lamp ($2,448 at DWR).

Left: West Elm's Sphere Pendant ($99); right: George Nelson's 1947 Ball Lamp ($299 at Velocity Art and Design).

Left: West Elm's Molded Desk Chair ($149); right: Charles and Ray Eames' 1948 Molded Plastic Armchair ($279 at Highbrow Furniture).

Left: West Elm's Scoop Back Chair ($79); right: Arne Jacobsen's 1955 Series 7 Chair ($394 at Retro Modern).

Left: West Elm's Wire Mesh Occasional Chair ($229); right: Harry Bertoia's 1952 Side Chair ($483 at Hive Modern).

Left: West Elm's Modern Storage Console ($599); right: Paul McCobb's 1950 Planner Group Credenza ($1,000 on eBay).

Clearly, these mass-produced knockoffs are more than "inspired" by the originals. Is that theft, or flattery? Would you rather spend thousands of dollars for a vintage, signed original or a licensed repro, or a fraction of that for a decent (if somewhat dishonest) imitation?

Personally, I'm more in the gimme-the-knockoff camp than the nothing-but-the-real-stuff crowd. If I stumbled on a mint-condition Saarinen table at a garage sale for $100, I'd be all over it. But, barring that, I don't have $3,150 for a simple white table (and I'd think twice about dropping that kind of cash even if I did) -- so I own the $149 IKEA Docksta. I feel a tiny bit guilty about it, but I'm not losing sleep at night.

How about you?

Retail Therapy: Klassik by Lynne

If you've spent any time lately trolling our local craigslist outpost for Danish Modern furniture, you can't have missed Lynne's listings. She always has the mintiest pieces, which she culls on regular trips home to Denmark.

Now Lynne's opened a warehouse and showroom in Emeryville that's stocked with to-die-for teak credenzas, swanky armchairs, and sharp-looking midcentury dressers and tables by the likes of Hans Wegner, Clausen & Son, N.O. Moller, and other Danish design luminaries -- plus a drool-worthy selection of vintage modern objets, funky lighting, and contemporary art.

I stopped in on opening day today to check it out, and while I regrettably had to leave the $1,500 wall-length credenza behind, I did snag this totally cute trio of chartreuse apple bowls for just $5 a pop! Lynne couldn't have been nicer, and I know I'll be back again soon.

Visit the showroom Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1313 67th Street in Emeryville, right around the corner from Berkeley's famed Urban Ore salvage yard and just a quick jaunt up San Pablo from the equally fab Retro @ Home. You can also check out the Klassik by Lynne website here.