Amalfi Credenza

Family-owned and -operated furniture company Modshop not only specializes in creating what the founders call “home furnishings and accessories for your soul,” but it is also turning heads among Hollywood’s elite. The brand’s eclectic designs draw on Scandinavian modernism, 1960s flamboyance and Hollywood Regency as much as they do industrial and urban lofts-style decor — and almost everything else in between.

Founded by husband-and-wife team John and Taryn Bernard in Los Angeles, California, Modshop — which began with a single retail location in 2000 — is fueled by the Bernards’ background in fashion design. The owners create unique, on-trend modern furniture such as plush ottomans with polished brass frames, patterned credenzas in the Art Deco style and sleek lucite dining tables that appeal to a comfortable and relaxed lifestyle. Custom furniture is also a Modshop speciality, as the brand frequently consults with clients to create personalized furniture designs.

Over the years, Modshop has counted Hollywood’s hottest celebrities among their clientele. Music moguls Jay-Z and Beyoncé outfitted their New York City offices with 14 pieces of Modshop-created artwork, while the brand created custom furniture for talk show host Ellen Degeneres’s Hollywood Hills home as well as for the homes of media personalities and models Paris and Nicky Hilton.

Modshop has also taken on interior design projects for notable restaurants, hotels and retailers throughout the United States, such as Nordstrom and Valentino. Sushi restaurant Katsuya features numerous Modshop designs in its downtown Los Angeles location, and the company designed the interiors and guest rooms of the Palm Springs Hotel. In recent years, Modshop collaborated with interior design firm Davis Ink Ltd to create furniture and decor for numerous Southern California nightclubs.

Modshop has showrooms in Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Miami and Chicago. The company's vibrant and fun designs are favorites of interior decorators and furniture collectors around the world.

On 1stDibs, discover an extraordinary range of Modshop seating, case pieces and storage cabinets, tables and more.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”

Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.

Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.

It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.

Antique and vintage credenzas can add an understated touch of grace to your home. These long and sophisticated cabinet-style pieces of furniture can serve a variety of purposes, and they look great too.

In Italy, the credenza was originally a small side table used in religious services. Appropriately, credere in Italian means “to believe.” Credenzas were a place to not only set the food ready for meals, they were also a place to test and taste prepared food for poison before a dish was served to a member of the ruling class. Later, credenza was used to describe a type of versatile narrow side table, typically used for serving food in the home. In form, a credenza has much in common with a sideboard — in fact, the terms credenza and sideboard are used almost interchangeably today.

Credenzas usually have short legs or no legs at all, and can feature drawers and cabinets. And all kinds of iterations of the credenza have seen the light of day over the years, from ornately carved walnut credenzas originating in 16th-century Tuscany to the wealth of Art Deco credenzas — with their polished surfaces and geometric patterns — to the array of innovative modernist interpretations that American furniture maker Milo Baughman created for Directional and Thayer Coggin.

The credenza’s blend of style and functionality led to its widespread use in the 20th century. Mid-century modern credenzas are particularly popular — take a look at Danish furniture designer Arne Vodder’s classic Model 29, for instance, with its reversible sliding doors and elegant drawer pulls. Hans Wegner, another Danish modernist, produced strikingly minimalist credenzas in the 1950s and ’60s, as did influential designer Florence Knoll. Designers continue to explore new and exciting ways to update this long-loved furnishing.

Owing to its versatility and familiar low-profile form, the credenza remains popular in contemporary homes. Unlike many larger case pieces, credenzas can be placed under windows and in irregularly shaped rooms, such as foyers and entryways. This renders it a useful storage solution. In living rooms, for example, a credenza can be a sleek media console topped with plants and the rare art monographs you’ve been planning to show off. In homes with open floor plans, a credenza can help define multiple living spaces, making it ideal for loft apartments.

Browse a variety of antique, new and vintage credenzas on 1stDibs to find the perfect fit for your home today.