Lately, I’ve been all over all things Mid Century Modern. Though my tastes are typically more ecclectic it’s high time to acknowledge the source of this renewed interest. Turns out, it was my 1960s childhood home and it really was a diamond in the rough which inspired me in so many ways that were easy to miss while growing up.
At the time, my parents didn’t have much money and their design choices were more Woolworth than Knoll or Saarinen, but I wish we had held onto those funky two-tiered tables on either side of the living room sofa and the oddly angled Encyclopedia Britannica bookcase, which I discovered was designed specifically, and only, for these giant books, as in everything else slips out the back. Impossible to repurpose for today’s reading material, I regrettably donated it a couple of summers ago to Big Brothers Big Sisters. Darn!
With tapered legs and a cool, minimalist style, these pieces defined my parents youth, their growing family and the hip, less-is-more mod lifestyle of our little up-and-coming beach community. Our neighbors were ambitious, handsome guys like my dad who were just starting their careers. One eventually became the President of Hermes and another became the Creative Director of Mademoiselle magazine.
My dad was working the other end of the fashion spectrum at an apparel manufacturing start-up that hit pay dirt supplying affordable American-made men’s shirts to an up and coming retailer called Walmart and other discount retailers. He spent most of my childhood in Arkansas, which back then, took a day and half to get to from New York.
Back then, my parents’ home, their taste and their purchasing power were about as glamorous as the lobster pots in our side yard. There was nothing ostentatious or particularly pretty about our home furnishings, but I was young and oblivious and thought life was perfect. These delicate workhorses clearly defined my parents less abundant years, yet today they fetch high prices. In fact, a little home design shop specializing in refurbished Mid Century Modern pieces recently opened near my home. After reupholstering, lacquering and shellacking, relics exactly like my parents’ old side tables, as well as more valuable items I would classify as the “real deal,” are transformed into stunning beauties and given new life for people like me who are drawn to these retro styles. If only my parents had held onto those early furnishings…if only I were a talented refurbisher…I could do the same! After all, I did just breathe new life into a 1940s bureau by painting it white. It looks fabulous, by the way, in my teenage daughter’s Jonathan Adler-inspired bedroom.
In the end, I was in the market for a new desk chair and couldn’t resist the little shop around the corner. Not surprisingly, I dropped some serious cash on a newly reupholstered, bright orange Saarinen chair. Saarinen purists would be appalled that anyone would dare replace the original fabric, but this chair has personality! It’s got just the right texture, just the right pop of color and just the right panache to give my new home office a cool vibe that says “this girl’s got style!”
In an odd way, that chair reminds me of the color block red, white and blue dresses with matching 3/4 length jackets my mom bought my sister and me, probably at Woolworth (was there any place else?), when I was nine and she was eight. All gussied up for our first family vacation, we flew in style to — where else? — Miami Beach! Everything back then was mod, only we didn’t know it. I’m glad I have the chance to relive that style (many) decades later. Now, where do you think that dress is?
–Jennifer Bebon