50 Years of Furniture Design

By Dena A. Edwards,         

Interior Design Consultant

The Brady Bunch living room … Austin Powers’ pad … the houses of Wisteria Lane. These Hollywood sets bring crystal clear images to mind – images of homes and furniture true to the time periods they represent, and as diverse as the characters that inhabit them.

Over the past five decades, furniture styles have gone through a vast array of changes in design, materials and colors, all of which reflected not only the trends of the time, but society as a whole.

Jeff Burt, owner and buyer for Suburban Contemporary Furniture on Portland Ave., has witnessed most of those trends firsthand. He was 4 years old when his parents, Jack and Pat, opened the furniture store in 1959. One of the first contemporary furniture stores in Oklahoma City, Suburban was a risk for the Burts.

“We were square pegs in a round hole here,” Burt said, “but my parents loved contemporary style. They were way ahead of their time.” Throughout their years in business, the Burt family has watched furniture design evolve.

“It ebbs and flows with the fashions of the time,” Burt said. “There are few new styles, mostly existing styles that have been re-engineered.”

Much re-working of furniture design is driven by the need for more functional furniture. This often varies by nation, by region, and even by state. In Europe, where living spaces tend to be smaller than the open spaces of the United States, contemporary furniture is designed on a smaller scale.

“In the Midwest, we have land and space; our homes tend to have more living area and vaulted ceilings, so the furniture is designed with that in mind,” Burt said.

With the new development of urban lofts in downtown Oklahoma City, that need has changed, so furniture designs have again adapted to fill the need for larger homes, as well as provide smaller scale pieces for tighter spaces.

Gina Bruno-Dunn, buyer for Bruno’s Furniture and Accessories on Western Ave., said the majority of design changes in traditional style furnishings are an attempt to keep up with modern day living.

“In traditional furniture, there aren’t as many trends (as with contemporary furniture),” she said. “The styles are mainly those that were created in the 18^th Century – classic styles that have been carried down. Other than updating them with new finishes and hardware, the major design changes are modernizing pieces to make them compatible with today, or creating new pieces to accommodate modern needs.”

A good example is dealing with televisions. Designers spent years trying to build pieces to hide TVs, she said. “Now, suddenly that’s flipped and everyone wants to display their 52” plasma TV, so designers have to scramble.”

Technological advances in TVs themselves have caused design issues as well. Cabinets originally built to house what were then large, box-style sets are now functionally ineffectual with the invention of flat-screen TVs.

Like Burt, Bruno-Dunn has been a part of the Oklahoma City furniture market since she was a young girl. Her parents, Frank and Xochitl Bruno, opened Bruno’s in 1951 as predominately a mattress and appliance store. She remembers at age 5 cleaning window sills and ashtrays to contribute to the family business. Bruno-Dunn agrees with Burt that differences exist in furniture design in our state versus other parts of the country.

“For one thing, the sheen of finishes goes up and down, but even when finishes elsewhere are shiny, in Oklahoma and Texas, we tend to prefer matte finishes, dark woods and distressed looks.” she said.

These preferences are a result of our state’s western heritage as well as our desire for function, she said. “Distressed finishes wear better, matte surfaces clean better, and Oklahomans tend to be practical. We want our furniture to be practical, as well.”

Burt shares this view, but added that our practical nature adjusts and changes with the economic times, a phenomenon he dubs “consumer confidence.”

“When times are tough, people get more conservative,” he said. “You can just feel it.”

During periods of economic stability and growth, people are willing to take more chances, to be bold with their choices, Burt said. “They will jump into color and not worry if (an item of furniture) is going to last the next 30 years.”

However, Burt has observed that during economic recession, everyone tends to go conservative, looking for long lasting furniture, neutral in design and colors.

“Over the past year, people suddenly started looking for comfort. Everyone went brown, a real comfort color, and wanted deeper, softer furniture in dark woods,” he said. “They want to snuggle with the kids and dog on the sofa.”

Bruno-Dunn sees the same reaction. Not long ago, theater rooms with individual recliners were popular. “Now everyone has jumped back to the basics. They want family rooms with a sofa that is multi-functional,” she says.

While the emotional buyer reaction to the economy affects furniture trends, Buffy Hughes, professor of the History of Interior Design classes at the University of Central Oklahoma, believes technology is the basis for furniture design.

“Furniture trends are what the public wants,” she said. “Actual furniture design comes from the designers themselves, and it’s through technology that we end up with new creations in furniture.”

Post-World War II advances brought furniture designs away from straight lines and introduced organic shapes. Molded plywood and fiberglass and the invention of stretchy fabrics allowed designers like Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen more freedom, giving them the ability to change the course of furniture design. Michael Thonet’s bent-wood rocking chair gained fame in the United States during this period.

“Although the market was still relatively conservative, designers began bringing in shapes and trying out new things,” Burt said. This spirit of innovation was the start of what became a free-for-all in design in the 1960s.

In that decade, youth emerged as a strong market force, influencing design, as did the new strides in space exploration and fantasy films. Tubular steel, plastics and glass hit the market, and suddenly furniture design wasn’t about function, but about form.

“This was the time of sculptural furniture, pieces that could be considered art itself,” Hughes said.

Color palettes were fun and bright – limes, lemon yellows, neon oranges.

“Oddball things were designed,” Burt said. “But everything in the ‘60s was anti-establishment. People wanted to be nothing like their parents. It was the true kick-off to contemporary furniture.”

The early 1970s continued in a similar mindset, but had shifted from psychedelia to pop art, with laminates, shiny plastics and velvet making their mark on furniture.

“(1970s pop art furniture designs) still were very sculptural, but with a whimsical feel,” Hughes said.

The neon colors of the ‘60s evolved into muted tones as the ‘70s continued – lemon yellow became harvest gold; lime became avocado; neon orange became burnt orange.

Those colors changed completely during the next decade. The ‘80s brought in eggplant purples, teal greens and royal blues, although mostly on the coasts, Burt said.

“Lots of colors and patterns were thrown together, things that were outrageous,” Hughes said. “Multiple patterns that you wouldn’t usually put together.”

Softer Chenille fabrics joined the furniture scene. Architects like Frank Lloyd Wright added their unique skills to furniture design, creating pieces out of metal, glass, and even cardboard.

As the ‘80s melted into the ‘90s, acrylic resin became a more common part of the open market, Hughes said. Designer Shiro Kuramata formed the seat and arms of the Miss Blanche chair out of this resin, embedded with artificial roses, inspired by a corsage worn by Vivien Leigh in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

One of the stars on the furniture design stage in the ‘90s was ultra suede – a manufactured fabric with triple the durability of natural suede and hundreds more color options.

Many of the furniture designs since that time have revolved around re-inventing the wheel.

“They took old styles, such as Art Deco or true Classics, and completely re-did them,” Burt said. “Put on a new spin, such as covering them with laminate or adding natural stones or modern colors.”

That was taken even a step further in the 2000s – playing on the 1990s with a new twist, like plug-in furniture and chairs that lit up, said Hughes.

Green Design, based on environmentally friendly principles, has had a drastic impact on furniture design in recent years, affecting everything from the fabrics and materials used in production to actual shipping methods.

So what’s in store for this decade’s furniture design?

Green Design will continue to be a major factor in future furniture creations, Hughes said. Beyond that, just look to the fashion world for cues.

“Art, design and fashion all follow hand in hand,” Hughes said. Color trends, design lines, the general feel of the new looks in furniture, can be found by searching fashion magazines and shows. One of the biggest trends of the past several years has been creating your own look.

“People are less worried about everything matching,” Bruno-Dunn said. Even within design styles, people are mixing traditional with contemporary and Asian, or whatever interests them. “It’s all about expressing your own personal tastes and individuality. Your furniture, your spaces, should reflect you.”