Design Through the Decades: The 1920s
We salute Jazz Age style, from Art Deco to Bauhaus and beyond
This series looks at the stories behind iconic designs from each decade, starting in 1900.
Divergent design philosophies developed in the 1920s. Art Deco designers played with sensuous contours, exotic materials and bold colors for an elite clientele. Fascinated by the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s Egyptian tomb in 1922, they combined motifs from ancient civilizations with the faceted forms of cubist art. Art Deco celebrated ornament and conveyed optimism.
Designers trained by the Bauhaus school in Germany, meanwhile, worked with clean, simple lines; industrial materials; primary colors; and black and white. They strove for pieces that were elegantly simple, highly functional and capable of being mass-produced. For them, less was more. The influence of the art and design school, founded 100 years ago next month, is profound.
Previous: Design Through the Decades: The 1910s
Divergent design philosophies developed in the 1920s. Art Deco designers played with sensuous contours, exotic materials and bold colors for an elite clientele. Fascinated by the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s Egyptian tomb in 1922, they combined motifs from ancient civilizations with the faceted forms of cubist art. Art Deco celebrated ornament and conveyed optimism.
Designers trained by the Bauhaus school in Germany, meanwhile, worked with clean, simple lines; industrial materials; primary colors; and black and white. They strove for pieces that were elegantly simple, highly functional and capable of being mass-produced. For them, less was more. The influence of the art and design school, founded 100 years ago next month, is profound.
Previous: Design Through the Decades: The 1910s
Architect Steve Rugo and interior designers Heather Wells and Bruce Fox designed this Chicago condo to showcase the owners’ museum-worthy collection of French Art Deco furnishings. The living room features a Ruhlmann settee and a pair of Ruhlmann armchairs covered in a print designed by Lalique’s daughter Suzanne Lalique-Haviland.
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Get money-saving tips on buying Art Deco furniture
Lalique Glass
In the dining room, Ruhlmann’s Cannelée chairs encircle an oval table, also by Ruhlmann. The table has a Macassar ebony top and an amboyna base and was once owned by American pop artist Andy Warhol.
Overhead is Lalique’s Pineapples and Pomegranates ceiling lamp, designed circa 1928 for Prince Asaka’s Art Deco residence in Tokyo. The 400-pound fixture with its high-relief fruit design hangs from a steel structure that had to be built into the ceiling.
Originally a jeweler and an interior designer, Lalique today is acclaimed as the greatest glassmaker of the Art Deco era.
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In the dining room, Ruhlmann’s Cannelée chairs encircle an oval table, also by Ruhlmann. The table has a Macassar ebony top and an amboyna base and was once owned by American pop artist Andy Warhol.
Overhead is Lalique’s Pineapples and Pomegranates ceiling lamp, designed circa 1928 for Prince Asaka’s Art Deco residence in Tokyo. The 400-pound fixture with its high-relief fruit design hangs from a steel structure that had to be built into the ceiling.
Originally a jeweler and an interior designer, Lalique today is acclaimed as the greatest glassmaker of the Art Deco era.
Find an architect for your project in the Houzz pro directory
A circa 1924 Lalique chandelier hangs in the master bedroom. The chair and secretary desk, along with the vase on top of it, are by Ruhlmann.
The X-benches are by Diego Giacometti, younger brother of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti.
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The X-benches are by Diego Giacometti, younger brother of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti.
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Photo by Sarah Capone
Brandt Metalwork
The U.S. didn’t participate in the 1925 Paris exhibition because, according to then-Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, the country had no modern design to show for itself — something that undoubtedly was news to people like Frank Lloyd Wright. But an official U.S. delegation attended, as did hundreds of American designers, artists, journalists and buyers, who brought enthusiasm for Art Deco back home.
Brandt, the French ironsmith, designed weapons of destruction such as mortars and ammunition. He also forged decorative objects of great beauty. By the time Brandt created the 18 gateways to the exhibition — replete with geometric and natural motifs, including Egyptian fans, lotuses and papyruses — he was already somewhat known in America, thanks to his first U.S. commission a few years earlier from Detroit publisher and arts donor George Booth. His subsequent work on the 1925 Madison Belmont Building in New York — specifically his transom over the street number 181 on the door — inspired the range hood detail in the next photo.
Brandt Metalwork
The U.S. didn’t participate in the 1925 Paris exhibition because, according to then-Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, the country had no modern design to show for itself — something that undoubtedly was news to people like Frank Lloyd Wright. But an official U.S. delegation attended, as did hundreds of American designers, artists, journalists and buyers, who brought enthusiasm for Art Deco back home.
Brandt, the French ironsmith, designed weapons of destruction such as mortars and ammunition. He also forged decorative objects of great beauty. By the time Brandt created the 18 gateways to the exhibition — replete with geometric and natural motifs, including Egyptian fans, lotuses and papyruses — he was already somewhat known in America, thanks to his first U.S. commission a few years earlier from Detroit publisher and arts donor George Booth. His subsequent work on the 1925 Madison Belmont Building in New York — specifically his transom over the street number 181 on the door — inspired the range hood detail in the next photo.
Rachel Sa and Bruce Kirkland, the owners of a 1923 Toronto home, ordered a chimney-style hood for their remodeled kitchen so they would have room to hang their collection of Mauviel cookware on either side of the stove — but the stainless steel model left something to be desired.
When Francesco Giampietro and Cassandra Brandow of Chestnut Grove Design Studio suggested embellishing it with a motif from the Madison Belmont Building, it felt like destiny: Kirkland loved the building and knew the exact detail he wanted to replicate. Fabricated from medium-density fiberboard, the hood cover has an epoxy coating color-matched to the copper cookware with automotive paint.
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When Francesco Giampietro and Cassandra Brandow of Chestnut Grove Design Studio suggested embellishing it with a motif from the Madison Belmont Building, it felt like destiny: Kirkland loved the building and knew the exact detail he wanted to replicate. Fabricated from medium-density fiberboard, the hood cover has an epoxy coating color-matched to the copper cookware with automotive paint.
Shop for Mauviel cookware on Houzz
The designers made the pot racks from hammered black iron with an oil-rubbed bronze patina to complement the cookware.
The stepped detail on the valances over the sink and the pass-through is another nod to Art Deco.
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The stepped detail on the valances over the sink and the pass-through is another nod to Art Deco.
Read more about this kitchen
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Photo from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Skyscraper Furniture
Steel-frame construction and other technological advances gave rise to the first skyscrapers in Chicago and New York in the late 19th century. By 1915, the Equitable Building climbed 40 stories high and cast a 7-acre shadow on Lower Manhattan. Public outcry led the city in 1916 to set height limits and setback requirements — zoning that resulted in the city’s distinctive skyline of stepped pyramids reminiscent of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia.
Captivated by the look and feel of New York, architect Paul Frankl, a young immigrant from Vienna, made it his mission to advocate for modern design. His successful Skyscraper line of furniture was born out of his admiration for his adopted home and a pressing need to store his towering pile of books in a small urban space.
This 1928 Skyscraper bookcase desk is made of California redwood and black lacquer.
Skyscraper Furniture
Steel-frame construction and other technological advances gave rise to the first skyscrapers in Chicago and New York in the late 19th century. By 1915, the Equitable Building climbed 40 stories high and cast a 7-acre shadow on Lower Manhattan. Public outcry led the city in 1916 to set height limits and setback requirements — zoning that resulted in the city’s distinctive skyline of stepped pyramids reminiscent of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia.
Captivated by the look and feel of New York, architect Paul Frankl, a young immigrant from Vienna, made it his mission to advocate for modern design. His successful Skyscraper line of furniture was born out of his admiration for his adopted home and a pressing need to store his towering pile of books in a small urban space.
This 1928 Skyscraper bookcase desk is made of California redwood and black lacquer.
Interior designer Robin Muto worked on a preservation district home with many distinctive architectural features in Brighton, New York. She had the most fun giving the master bathroom Art Deco style with a skyscraper tile motif on the walls of the new two-person shower and a reproduction of a Deco-era travel poster above the toilet.
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Shop for vintage-looking travel posters
Dunand Lacquerware
Inverted ziggurat forms appear around the entryway ceiling and on the Dunand-style black lacquer screen leading to an office in this Los Angeles house designed by Anne Hauck.
Dunand, the Swiss lacquer artist, learned the painstaking and potentially toxic craft in 1912 from Seizo Sugawara, a Japanese master living in Paris. In the 1920s, it became the focus of his work, which also included sculpture, coppersmithing and interior design. Dunand combined traditional Asian production methods with Art Deco patterns and colors.
Traditional lacquer comes from the sap of the Chinese lacquer tree, which contains urushiol, the same allergenic oil as in poison ivy. The more urushiol in the sap, the higher quality the lacquer (and the greater likelihood of a nasty reaction). Producing lacquerware involves applying the refined, aged sap in a process that can take 100 steps. Proper curing makes it glossy, durable and unlikely to cause a rash.
Inverted ziggurat forms appear around the entryway ceiling and on the Dunand-style black lacquer screen leading to an office in this Los Angeles house designed by Anne Hauck.
Dunand, the Swiss lacquer artist, learned the painstaking and potentially toxic craft in 1912 from Seizo Sugawara, a Japanese master living in Paris. In the 1920s, it became the focus of his work, which also included sculpture, coppersmithing and interior design. Dunand combined traditional Asian production methods with Art Deco patterns and colors.
Traditional lacquer comes from the sap of the Chinese lacquer tree, which contains urushiol, the same allergenic oil as in poison ivy. The more urushiol in the sap, the higher quality the lacquer (and the greater likelihood of a nasty reaction). Producing lacquerware involves applying the refined, aged sap in a process that can take 100 steps. Proper curing makes it glossy, durable and unlikely to cause a rash.
Dunand found lacquer art endlessly fascinating, and he constantly experimented with new applications and techniques. His lacquerware embedded with tiny bits of eggshell was so popular that he kept a flock of chickens for a ready supply.
In the dining room of another L.A. house designed by Hauck, two Dunand bird panels decorate the wall above an Art Deco rosewood sideboard with original brass hardware. The interior designer shares her passion for Art Deco, and especially the work of Ruhlmann, through her L.A. gallery, where she sells period pieces as well as her eponymous collection of customizable Art Deco-style furniture, lighting, rugs and objets d’art.
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In the dining room of another L.A. house designed by Hauck, two Dunand bird panels decorate the wall above an Art Deco rosewood sideboard with original brass hardware. The interior designer shares her passion for Art Deco, and especially the work of Ruhlmann, through her L.A. gallery, where she sells period pieces as well as her eponymous collection of customizable Art Deco-style furniture, lighting, rugs and objets d’art.
Find an interior designer on Houzz who understands your style
On another wall, antique mirror panels visually enlarge the room. To each side, Hauck placed an Art Deco uplight lamp in a niche decorated in gold leaf, which ties in with the Atelier Petitot chandelier, the custom panel above the French doors and the silk taffeta curtains.
An Art Deco Chinese rug brings in more color beneath the Macassar ebony dining table and the matching gray leather chairs. On the table is a rare Bauhaus silver tea set.
An Art Deco Chinese rug brings in more color beneath the Macassar ebony dining table and the matching gray leather chairs. On the table is a rare Bauhaus silver tea set.
First Bauhaus House
With the hostilities of World War I not long past, Germany also skipped the 1925 Paris exhibition, saying it had received its invitation too late to prepare. It would have given France a run for its money thanks to the avant-garde Bauhaus school. Founded in 1919 by German architect Walter Gropius, the school sought to merge art, design and industry. Students took a general course in Bauhaus theories on color and materials, then entered specialized craft workshops.
In 1923, Bauhaus teachers and students built and furnished this house in Weimar, Germany, as a prototype for affordable housing that could be quickly mass-produced. The Haus am Horn’s floor plan consisted of a square living room with clerestory windows, ringed by a man’s room, lady’s room, children’s room, guest room, dining room, kitchen and work niche. The exterior was composed of layers of cement-bonded slag concrete blocks with insulation in between.
Read more about the Haus am Horn
With the hostilities of World War I not long past, Germany also skipped the 1925 Paris exhibition, saying it had received its invitation too late to prepare. It would have given France a run for its money thanks to the avant-garde Bauhaus school. Founded in 1919 by German architect Walter Gropius, the school sought to merge art, design and industry. Students took a general course in Bauhaus theories on color and materials, then entered specialized craft workshops.
In 1923, Bauhaus teachers and students built and furnished this house in Weimar, Germany, as a prototype for affordable housing that could be quickly mass-produced. The Haus am Horn’s floor plan consisted of a square living room with clerestory windows, ringed by a man’s room, lady’s room, children’s room, guest room, dining room, kitchen and work niche. The exterior was composed of layers of cement-bonded slag concrete blocks with insulation in between.
Read more about the Haus am Horn
Photo by Joe Wolf
Frankfurt Kitchen
The Haus am Horn’s kitchen, with wall-mounted cabinets over a continuous countertop, was rather radical for its time and helped inspire Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s Frankfurt kitchen three years later.
Schütte-Lihotzky, Austria’s first female architect, was hired by Frankfurt architect and city planner Ernst May, who was overseeing the construction of compact but well-appointed developments to alleviate the city’s postwar housing shortage.
Based on a railroad car galley, the Frankfurt kitchen had an efficient, integrated layout of built-in cabinets, labeled food bins, stain-resistant beech cutting surfaces, gas stove, swivel stool, fold-down ironing board, removable garbage drawer and adjustable ceiling light. With its small footprint and factory-fabricated components, it was inexpensive to build. This photo is of the Frankfurt kitchen acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
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Frankfurt Kitchen
The Haus am Horn’s kitchen, with wall-mounted cabinets over a continuous countertop, was rather radical for its time and helped inspire Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s Frankfurt kitchen three years later.
Schütte-Lihotzky, Austria’s first female architect, was hired by Frankfurt architect and city planner Ernst May, who was overseeing the construction of compact but well-appointed developments to alleviate the city’s postwar housing shortage.
Based on a railroad car galley, the Frankfurt kitchen had an efficient, integrated layout of built-in cabinets, labeled food bins, stain-resistant beech cutting surfaces, gas stove, swivel stool, fold-down ironing board, removable garbage drawer and adjustable ceiling light. With its small footprint and factory-fabricated components, it was inexpensive to build. This photo is of the Frankfurt kitchen acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
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German precision-built kitchen systems, which began with Poggenpohl in 1892, took off during the Bauhaus period with the likes of Alno in 1927, Leicht in 1928 and SieMatic in 1929 — all of which are still in operation.
Wm. H. Fry Construction remodeled and expanded a home in Saratoga, California, to include a SieMatic kitchen with two-tone cabinets and LeMans II blind corner pullouts by Häfele, a German hardware manufacturer founded in 1923.
Read more about German kitchen systems
Wm. H. Fry Construction remodeled and expanded a home in Saratoga, California, to include a SieMatic kitchen with two-tone cabinets and LeMans II blind corner pullouts by Häfele, a German hardware manufacturer founded in 1923.
Read more about German kitchen systems
Wassily Chair
Hungarian architect-designer Marcel Breuer made furniture for the Haus am Horn while still a Bauhaus student. (It was wood and looked a lot like Gerrit Rietveld’s Red Blue chair.) Then, as a teacher riding around town on his Adler bicycle, Breuer began to appreciate the strength, lightness and curvaceousness of its handlebars. That led to his Model B3 chair in 1925 and what the Museum of Modern Art in New York describes as “perhaps the single most important innovation in furniture design in the 20th century: the use of tubular steel.”
With the B3, Breuer reduced the traditional club chair to a shiny outline. Russian painter and fellow Bauhaus colleague Wassily Kandinsky liked it so much that Breuer made him one, which is how it came to be called the Wassily chair.
In this project by Philadelphia’s Studio of Metropolitan Design Architects, a pair of black Wassily chairs forms a seating group with two cowhide LC1 Sling chairs, designed in 1928 by Swiss architect-designer Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret.
Hungarian architect-designer Marcel Breuer made furniture for the Haus am Horn while still a Bauhaus student. (It was wood and looked a lot like Gerrit Rietveld’s Red Blue chair.) Then, as a teacher riding around town on his Adler bicycle, Breuer began to appreciate the strength, lightness and curvaceousness of its handlebars. That led to his Model B3 chair in 1925 and what the Museum of Modern Art in New York describes as “perhaps the single most important innovation in furniture design in the 20th century: the use of tubular steel.”
With the B3, Breuer reduced the traditional club chair to a shiny outline. Russian painter and fellow Bauhaus colleague Wassily Kandinsky liked it so much that Breuer made him one, which is how it came to be called the Wassily chair.
In this project by Philadelphia’s Studio of Metropolitan Design Architects, a pair of black Wassily chairs forms a seating group with two cowhide LC1 Sling chairs, designed in 1928 by Swiss architect-designer Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret.
Cesca Chair
Since other designers of the era were experimenting with tubular steel, there was a race of sorts to create the first cantilever chair — that is, a seat without back legs that seems to float off its curved or L-shaped front legs. Dutch architect-designer Mart Stam eventually won the European patent for his cantilever chair, but Breuer won lasting worldwide fame with his 1928 Cesca chair, aka the B32 chair. By combining a chrome-plated tubular steel frame with a wood-and-cane seat and back, he created a piece that works in both modern and traditional settings.
It’s shown here, with and without arms, in the dining room of a Las Vegas home by interior designer Derrell Parker.
Since other designers of the era were experimenting with tubular steel, there was a race of sorts to create the first cantilever chair — that is, a seat without back legs that seems to float off its curved or L-shaped front legs. Dutch architect-designer Mart Stam eventually won the European patent for his cantilever chair, but Breuer won lasting worldwide fame with his 1928 Cesca chair, aka the B32 chair. By combining a chrome-plated tubular steel frame with a wood-and-cane seat and back, he created a piece that works in both modern and traditional settings.
It’s shown here, with and without arms, in the dining room of a Las Vegas home by interior designer Derrell Parker.
Barcelona Chair
Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, German architect-designers and personal and professional companions, created the now-iconic Barcelona chair for their German pavilion at the 1929 L’Exposició Internacional de Barcelona in Spain. With a simple chrome-plated steel cross-frame cradling tufted ivory pigskin cushions, it perfectly illustrated Mies’ maxim that “less is more.”
A year later, Mies became the third and final director of the Bauhaus, while Reich headed up its new interior design department. The Nazi regime forced the school to close in 1933, viewing it as degenerate, subversive and too cosmopolitan. Gropius, Breuer, Mies and others fled the country, spreading Bauhaus ideas around the world, but Reich remained in Germany. Mies went on to become one of the world’s foremost architects, leaving furniture design behind. “A chair is a very difficult object,” he said. “A skyscraper is almost easier.”
This Barcelona chair anchors a corner of the serene master bedroom in a San Francisco house designed by architect David Marlatt and interior designer Doyle McCullar for a fan of Bauhaus and industrial design.
Read about the Massachusetts house Walter Gropius designed for himself
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Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, German architect-designers and personal and professional companions, created the now-iconic Barcelona chair for their German pavilion at the 1929 L’Exposició Internacional de Barcelona in Spain. With a simple chrome-plated steel cross-frame cradling tufted ivory pigskin cushions, it perfectly illustrated Mies’ maxim that “less is more.”
A year later, Mies became the third and final director of the Bauhaus, while Reich headed up its new interior design department. The Nazi regime forced the school to close in 1933, viewing it as degenerate, subversive and too cosmopolitan. Gropius, Breuer, Mies and others fled the country, spreading Bauhaus ideas around the world, but Reich remained in Germany. Mies went on to become one of the world’s foremost architects, leaving furniture design behind. “A chair is a very difficult object,” he said. “A skyscraper is almost easier.”
This Barcelona chair anchors a corner of the serene master bedroom in a San Francisco house designed by architect David Marlatt and interior designer Doyle McCullar for a fan of Bauhaus and industrial design.
Read about the Massachusetts house Walter Gropius designed for himself
Shop for modern chairs with metal frames
Bauhaus Lamp
The lamp on the nightstand in the guest room embodies the school’s functionalist principles so thoroughly that it’s now known simply as the Bauhaus lamp. Conceived by German industrial designer Wilhelm Wagenfeld while he was a student in the metal workshop in the early 1920s, it comprises a round base, a cylindrical stem and a hemispherical shade of opal glass. Tecnolumen’s authorized models come with nickel, black lacquer or glass bases and nickel or glass stems.
The lamp on the nightstand in the guest room embodies the school’s functionalist principles so thoroughly that it’s now known simply as the Bauhaus lamp. Conceived by German industrial designer Wilhelm Wagenfeld while he was a student in the metal workshop in the early 1920s, it comprises a round base, a cylindrical stem and a hemispherical shade of opal glass. Tecnolumen’s authorized models come with nickel, black lacquer or glass bases and nickel or glass stems.
LC6 Table and Herbst Dining Chair
The home’s dining room features Le Corbusier’s LC6 table (another collaboration with Perriand and Jeanneret) and French furniture designer René Herbst’s Sandows dining chairs. The ethereal steel-and-glass table and the chair with elastic straps hooked to a tubular steel frame wowed the art world when they were exhibited at the 1929 Salon d’Automne in Paris.
Like Breuer’s Wassily chair, the Sandows chair is said to have taken its inspiration from a bicycle — this time the elastic bands used to strap cargo to the rack.
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The home’s dining room features Le Corbusier’s LC6 table (another collaboration with Perriand and Jeanneret) and French furniture designer René Herbst’s Sandows dining chairs. The ethereal steel-and-glass table and the chair with elastic straps hooked to a tubular steel frame wowed the art world when they were exhibited at the 1929 Salon d’Automne in Paris.
Like Breuer’s Wassily chair, the Sandows chair is said to have taken its inspiration from a bicycle — this time the elastic bands used to strap cargo to the rack.
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Villa Savoye
Le Corbusier was not a member of the Bauhaus, but he shared some of the group’s ideas. He did participate in the 1925 Paris exhibition, and his white box of a pavilion with a tree coming through its roof — so different from Ruhlmann’s — horrified the organizers to such an extent that they tried to hide it behind a fence.
That same year, Le Corbusier spelled out his five keys to a new architecture that became known as International Style: slender support columns, a free facade, ribbon windows, an open floor plan and a roof garden. They’re in evidence in this photo of his 1929-31 Villa Savoye in France.
Read more about Villa Savoye
See how ribbon windows are being used today
Le Corbusier was not a member of the Bauhaus, but he shared some of the group’s ideas. He did participate in the 1925 Paris exhibition, and his white box of a pavilion with a tree coming through its roof — so different from Ruhlmann’s — horrified the organizers to such an extent that they tried to hide it behind a fence.
That same year, Le Corbusier spelled out his five keys to a new architecture that became known as International Style: slender support columns, a free facade, ribbon windows, an open floor plan and a roof garden. They’re in evidence in this photo of his 1929-31 Villa Savoye in France.
Read more about Villa Savoye
See how ribbon windows are being used today
LC4 Chaise
If a house is, as Le Corbusier famously said, “a machine for living in,” the LC4 chaise he designed with Perriand and Jeanneret is a machine for relaxing in. Adjustable from upright to fully reclined, it reinterpreted the 18th-century daybed to make it better conform to the human body.
This LC4 chaise occupies a prime spot in a new reading lounge created by New York architect James Wagman.
Read more about this house
If a house is, as Le Corbusier famously said, “a machine for living in,” the LC4 chaise he designed with Perriand and Jeanneret is a machine for relaxing in. Adjustable from upright to fully reclined, it reinterpreted the 18th-century daybed to make it better conform to the human body.
This LC4 chaise occupies a prime spot in a new reading lounge created by New York architect James Wagman.
Read more about this house
E1027 Side Table
Irish-born architect-designer Eileen Gray learned lacquerwork from Sugawara and initially was known for her luxurious Art Deco interiors with Japanese overtones. In the 1920s, she adopted a more industrial aesthetic and, with partner and fellow architect Jean Badovici, designed her first house, nicknamed E1027, on the French Riviera.
The furniture she created for the house included a height-adjustable side table with a glass top and a base of chrome-plated tubular steel. Used here as a nightstand in a project by Toronto Interior Design Group, it can slide over the comforter for breakfast in bed.
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Irish-born architect-designer Eileen Gray learned lacquerwork from Sugawara and initially was known for her luxurious Art Deco interiors with Japanese overtones. In the 1920s, she adopted a more industrial aesthetic and, with partner and fellow architect Jean Badovici, designed her first house, nicknamed E1027, on the French Riviera.
The furniture she created for the house included a height-adjustable side table with a glass top and a base of chrome-plated tubular steel. Used here as a nightstand in a project by Toronto Interior Design Group, it can slide over the comforter for breakfast in bed.
Shop for side tables
Bibendum Chair
E1027 also contained Gray’s earlier leather-and-steel Bibendum chair, whose name and looks were inspired by the Michelin mascot’s stacked-tire body. It’s shown in Michelin Man white in a home renovated by Toronto’s Core Architects.
After Gray and Badovici split, Le Corbusier co-opted E1027 for a time, famously painting over the white walls with provocative murals, which Gray considered an act of vandalism.
Read more about E1027 and the Gray-Le Corbusier feud
E1027 also contained Gray’s earlier leather-and-steel Bibendum chair, whose name and looks were inspired by the Michelin mascot’s stacked-tire body. It’s shown in Michelin Man white in a home renovated by Toronto’s Core Architects.
After Gray and Badovici split, Le Corbusier co-opted E1027 for a time, famously painting over the white walls with provocative murals, which Gray considered an act of vandalism.
Read more about E1027 and the Gray-Le Corbusier feud
Architect Luigi Rosselli referenced Gray’s Bibendum chair in this blue banquette for a Sydney row house. The design, he says, was easy to draw but difficult for the upholsterer to execute.
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Share: Which designs from the Roaring ’20s would you highlight? What are the standouts of the 1930s and the current decade? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
Next: Design Through the Decades: The 1930s
More on Houzz
Roots of Style: Art Deco and Art Moderne
Borrow From the Bauhaus for a Modernist Landscape Design
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Shop for home products
Find an upholsterer for a custom project
Share: Which designs from the Roaring ’20s would you highlight? What are the standouts of the 1930s and the current decade? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
Next: Design Through the Decades: The 1930s
More on Houzz
Roots of Style: Art Deco and Art Moderne
Borrow From the Bauhaus for a Modernist Landscape Design
Find a pro for your home project
Shop for home products
Ruhlmann Furniture
Furniture maker Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann epitomized French Art Deco. The pavilion he decorated for the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925 — which in the 1960s retroactively lent its name to the modern style — caused a sensation and made him an international figure.
Unlike at previous exhibitions, Ruhlmann displayed his work alongside that of his esteemed colleagues — including French glass artist René Lalique, French ironworker Edgar Brandt and Swiss lacquer artist Jean Dunand — as a suite of elegant rooms complete with textiles, accessories and artwork.
The oval grand salon, seen here, had a 20-foot ceiling from which hung a chandelier of concentric circles dripping with glass beads. A boldly patterned silk covered the walls and was topped by elaborate moldings. A Ruhlmann-designed grand piano in amboyna and Macassar ebony took pride of place. A Ruhlmann-Dunand black lacquered cabinet with a lighthearted inlaid illustration of an encounter between a donkey and a hedgehog by Polish painter Jean Lambert-Rucki (just out of view to the left) is considered an Art Deco icon. So is Jean Dupas’ colorful oil painting The Parakeets, above the fireplace on the right.