I will admit it… I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to furniture design.   I guess I get it from my mother, also an interior designer.  The two of us almost got ourselves kicked out of The Getty Museum for examining too closely the inlaid detail of a commode.  Well, the incident was almost repeated when my mother & I visited The Huntington Library to check out the visiting Charles Rolhfs exhibit.

Unfortunately for the people of Southern California, the exhibit has just moved on, but I strongly suggest you check to see if it’s coming to a museum near you.  It’s headed to New York’s  Metropolitan Museum of Art next.  Anyway, having grown up in Chicago – where the dark & linear designs of Frank Lloyd Wright still rule, the work of Charles Rohlfs (of which I wasn’t at all familiar until this exhibit) was a revelation!

Though Charles Rohlfs only designed furniture for about a decade due to lack of sales of and interest in his work at the time, he has been named as an influence by everyone from Gustav Stickley to Philippe Starck and is considered to be one of the first Modernist furniture designers.

One of my favorite pieces – a coal bin on loan on loan from LACMA

Another favorite of mine, a chafing dish.  (I’m a sucker for entertaining pieces.)

If you do find yourself near the Met between mid-October and mid-January and like to nerd out on well-designed furniture… get thee there!