Art Deco Lucite Picture Frame

Arguably the world’s most ubiquitous man-made material, plastic has impacted nearly every industry. In contemporary spaces, new and vintage plastic furniture is quite popular and its use pairs well with a range of design styles.

From the Italian lighting artisans at Fontana Arte to venturesome Scandinavian modernists such as Verner Panton, who created groundbreaking interiors as much as he did seating — see his revolutionary Panton chair — to contemporary multidisciplinary artists like Faye Toogood, furniture designers have been pushing the boundaries of plastic forever.

When The Graduate's Mr. McGuire proclaimed, “There’s a great future in plastics,” it was more than a laugh line. The iconic quote is an allusion both to society’s reliance on and its love affair with plastic. Before the material became an integral part of our lives — used in everything from clothing to storage to beauty and beyond — people relied on earthly elements for manufacturing, a process as time-consuming as it was costly.

Soon after American inventor John Wesley Hyatt created celluloid, which could mimic luxury products like tortoiseshell and ivory, production hit fever pitch, and the floodgates opened for others to explore plastic’s full potential. The material altered the history of design — mid-century modern legends Charles and Ray Eames, Joe Colombo and Eero Saarinen regularly experimented with plastics in the development of tables and chairs, and today plastic furnishings and decorative objects are seen as often indoors as they are outside.

Find vintage plastic lounge chairs, outdoor furniture, lighting and more on 1stDibs.

Picture frames have the distinct role of presenting artwork in your home. A good frame can elevate the appearance of a fine oil painting or provocative fine-art photograph. From ornate handcrafted designs to streamlined wooden styles, some antique, new and vintage picture frames have become stand-alone pieces of art on their own.

Frames were originally a part of paintings themselves before they were separate structures carved from walnut and other woods for use with items like portrait paintings and mirrors. The design of frames evolved in Renaissance-era Italy, where an artist might create his own gilded or painted frame. Today, there are all kinds of picture frames made from a variety of materials, including silver, bronze and acrylic.

Displaying art in the home is an art in and of itself, and trends and new art movements have dictated how picture frames have been integrated into home interiors over the years. When Abstract Expressionist art emerged during the 1930s, for example, collectors utilized minimalist frames to hang abstract works or dispensed with frames entirely. Today, mixing mediums and frame designs make for endless combinations, but knowing how to arrange wall art can help even if you’re feeling adventurous.

Whether it’s a dark wood frame for your landscape paintings, a sleek chrome mid-century modern frame to show off your black-and-white photography or a bold Art Deco frame that might completely outshine its subject, find an extensive collection of antique, new and vintage picture frames on 1stDibs.