1980s Post Modern Cabinet
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Cabinets
Mirror, Lacquer
20th Century Danish Post-Modern Cabinets
Rosewood
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Bookcases
Marble
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Sideboards
Mirror, Lacquer
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Sideboards
Wood
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Credenzas
Laminate
Vintage 1980s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Chrome
Late 20th Century European Post-Modern Credenzas
Laminate
Vintage 1980s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Chrome
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Cabinets
Brass
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Credenzas
Metal
Vintage 1970s Italian Post-Modern Dry Bars
Steel, Chrome
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Cabinets
Laminate, Wood
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Sideboards
Metal
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Shelves
Metal
Late 20th Century Canadian Post-Modern Wardrobes and Armoires
Rubber, Lacquer
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Credenzas
Laminate, Wood
Late 20th Century Dutch Post-Modern Cabinets
Metal
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dressers
Laminate
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dressers
Laminate, Plywood
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Credenzas
Wood, Laminate
Vintage 1980s German Post-Modern Cabinets
Metal
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Cabinets
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Post-Modern Dressers
Nickel
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Shelves and Wall Cabinets
Brass
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dressers
Plywood, Mirror, Laminate
Vintage 1980s North American Post-Modern Wardrobes and Armoires
Wood, Paint
Vintage 1980s Austrian Post-Modern Bookcases
Metal
Vintage 1980s American Mid-Century Modern Wardrobes and Armoires
Chrome
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Credenzas
Laminate, Plywood
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Sideboards
Lambskin, Suede, Glass, Wood
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Cabinets
Fruitwood, Maple
Vintage 1980s German Post-Modern Shelves
Ash, Lacquer
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dressers
Laminate, Plywood
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Shelves
Laminate, Plywood
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Dressers
Formica, Laminate, Wood
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Cabinets
Glass, Plastic, Wood, Lacquer
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dry Bars
Laminate, Mirror
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Shelves
Metal, Chrome
Vintage 1980s Austrian Post-Modern Cabinets
Metal
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Shelves
Laminate, Plywood
Vintage 1980s Modern Dressers
Lacquer
20th Century Italian Post-Modern Bookcases
Metal, Enamel, Iron
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Credenzas
Brass
Vintage 1980s Post-Modern Credenzas
Wood, Lacquer
Vintage 1970s Italian Post-Modern Bookcases
Travertine, Stainless Steel
Vintage 1980s German Post-Modern Cabinets
Metal, Brass
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
Chrome
Vintage 1980s Post-Modern Shelves
Glass, Lucite
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dressers
Lacquer
Vintage 1980s American Hollywood Regency Credenzas
Stone
Vintage 1980s Post-Modern Shelves
Metal
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Dry Bars
Wood
20th Century American Post-Modern Cabinets
Wood
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Cabinets
Wood
Mid-20th Century Post-Modern Dressers
Brass
Vintage 1980s German Post-Modern Cabinets
Glass, Wood
20th Century American Post-Modern Cabinets
Wood
Vintage 1980s Belgian Post-Modern Sideboards
Wood
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Dressers
Laminate
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1980s Post Modern Cabinet For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a 1980s Post Modern Cabinet?
A Close Look at post-modern Furniture
Postmodern design was a short-lived movement that manifested itself chiefly in Italy and the United States in the early 1980s. The characteristics of vintage postmodern furniture and other postmodern objects and decor for the home included loud-patterned, usually plastic surfaces; strange proportions, vibrant colors and weird angles; and a vague-at-best relationship between form and function.
ORIGINS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Emerges during the 1960s; popularity explodes during the ’80s
- A reaction to prevailing conventions of modernism by mainly American architects
- Architect Robert Venturi critiques modern architecture in his Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966)
- Theorist Charles Jencks, who championed architecture filled with allusions and cultural references, writes The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1977)
- Italian design collective the Memphis Group, also known as Memphis Milano, meets for the first time (1980)
- Memphis collective debuts more than 50 objects and furnishings at Salone del Milano (1981)
- Interest in style declines, minimalism gains steam
CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Dizzying graphic patterns and an emphasis on loud, off-the-wall colors
- Use of plastic and laminates, glass, metal and marble; lacquered and painted wood
- Unconventional proportions and abundant ornamentation
- Playful nods to Art Deco and Pop art
POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
- Ettore Sottsass
- Robert Venturi
- Alessandro Mendini
- Michele de Lucchi
- Michael Graves
- Nathalie du Pasquier
VINTAGE POSTMODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
Critics derided postmodern design as a grandstanding bid for attention and nothing of consequence. Decades later, the fact that postmodernism still has the power to provoke thoughts, along with other reactions, proves they were not entirely correct.
Postmodern design began as an architectural critique. Starting in the 1960s, a small cadre of mainly American architects began to argue that modernism, once high-minded and even noble in its goals, had become stale, stagnant and blandly corporate. Later, in Milan, a cohort of creators led by Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini — a onetime mentor to Sottsass and a key figure in the Italian Radical movement — brought the discussion to bear on design.
Sottsass, an industrial designer, philosopher and provocateur, gathered a core group of young designers into a collective in 1980 they called Memphis. Members of the Memphis Group, which would come to include Martine Bedin, Michael Graves, Marco Zanini, Shiro Kuramata, Michele de Lucchi and Matteo Thun, saw design as a means of communication, and they wanted it to shout. That it did: The first Memphis collection appeared in 1981 in Milan and broke all the modernist taboos, embracing irony, kitsch, wild ornamentation and bad taste.
Memphis works remain icons of postmodernism: the Sottsass Casablanca bookcase, with its leopard-print plastic veneer; de Lucchi’s First chair, which has been described as having the look of an electronics component; Martine Bedin’s Super lamp: a pull-toy puppy on a power-cord leash. Even though it preceded the Memphis Group’s formal launch, Sottsass’s iconic Ultrafragola mirror — in its conspicuously curved plastic shell with radical pops of pink neon — proves striking in any space and embodies many of the collective’s postmodern ideals.
After the initial Memphis show caused an uproar, the postmodern movement within furniture and interior design quickly took off in America. (Memphis fell out of fashion when the Reagan era gave way to cool 1990’s minimalism.) The architect Robert Venturi had by then already begun a series of plywood chairs for Knoll Inc., with beefy, exaggerated silhouettes of traditional styles such as Queen Anne and Chippendale. In 1982, the new firm Swid Powell enlisted a group of top American architects, including Frank Gehry, Richard Meier, Stanley Tigerman and Venturi to create postmodern tableware in silver, ceramic and glass.
On 1stDibs, the vintage postmodern furniture collection includes chairs, coffee tables, sofas, decorative objects, table lamps and more.
Finding the Right storage-case-pieces for You
Of all the antique and vintage case pieces and storage cabinets that have become popular in modern interiors over the years, dressers, credenzas and cabinets have long been home staples, perfect for routine storage or protection of personal items.
In the mid-19th century, cabinetmakers would mimic styles originating in the Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI eras for their dressers, bookshelves and other structures, and, later, simpler, streamlined wood designs allowed these “case pieces” or “case goods” — any furnishing that is unupholstered and has some semblance of a storage component — to blend into the background of any interior.
Mid-century modern furniture enthusiasts will cite the tall modular wall units crafted in teak and other sought-after woods of the era by the likes of George Nelson, Poul Cadovius and Finn Juhl. For these highly customizable furnishings, designers of the day delivered an alternative to big, heavy bookcases by considering the use of space — and, in particular, walls — in new and innovative ways. Mid-century modern credenzas, which, long and low, evolved from tables that were built as early as the 14th century in Italy, typically have no legs or very short legs and have grown in popularity as an alluring storage option over time.
Although the name immediately invokes images of clothing, dressers were initially created in Europe for a much different purpose. This furnishing was initially a flat-surfaced, low-profile side table equipped with a few drawers — a common fixture used to dress and prepare meats in English kitchens throughout the Tudor period. The drawers served as perfect utensil storage. It wasn’t until the design made its way to North America that it became enlarged and equipped with enough space to hold clothing and cosmetics. The very history of storage case pieces is a testament to their versatility and well-earned place in any room.
In the spirit of positioning your case goods center stage, decluttering can now be design-minded.
A contemporary case piece with open shelving and painted wood details can prove functional as a storage unit as easily as it can a room divider. Whether you’re seeking a playful sideboard made of colored glass and metals, an antique Italian hand-carved storage cabinet or a glass-door vitrine to store and show off your collectibles, there are options for you on 1stDibs.