Bernhardt Salon Desk
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21st Century and Contemporary American Desks
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Bernhardt Salon Desk For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Bernhardt Salon Desk?
Bernhardt for sale on 1stDibs
While many great American furniture brands have come and gone, Bernhardt continues to thrive in its space. Spanning more than 130 years and four generations of family leadership, the company maintains an enduring presence in the modern era. It is a global manufacturer of furniture and home accessories and has garnered widespread acclaim for its signature high-quality craftsmanship. Today Bernhardt lounge chairs, coffee tables and dressers are reliable mainstays in living rooms, bedrooms, offices, school campuses and hospitality properties all over the world.
The company was founded in 1889 by John Bernhardt, a veteran of the sawmill trade who intended to produce durable furniture made of wood from the white oak trees that grew in his native North Carolina. Bernhardt quickly earned a reputation for his exceptionally strong, sturdy, striking pieces and eventually gained competitors in the likes of Broyhill and Kent-Coffey, two Lenoir companies that were established in the early 1900s. Bernhardt created fruitful relationships for distributing his furniture all over the country, and as the business gained steam, the company was able to survive the trials and tribulations of World War I and the Great Depression.
While World War II yielded labor and material shortages, demand for furniture took shape in the postwar years as new homeowners looked to furnish their spaces. Expansion followed for Bernhardt, and in 1958, the company added upholstered furniture to its growing catalog. As often as you can find boxy club chairs in Bernhardt’s inventory that are inspired by iconic designs by Le Corbusier or Milo Baughman, the brand has introduced reproductions of furnishings in period styles such as Chippendale, Hollywood Regency and chinoiserie.
Bernhardt continued to expand over time and, in 1981, added the Bernhardt Design division, which focuses on furnishing offices and public spaces. It entered the new millennium by announcing a licensed furniture partnership with Martha Stewart in 2001. Bernhardt and Stewart have since collaborated on several additional collections. In 2008 and 2009, the company launched two more divisions: Bernhardt Interiors for customizable and high-design furniture and Bernhardt Hospitality to cater to the needs of the hospitality market.
Bernhardt has garnered many prestigious awards over its long history, including multiple Pinnacle Design Achievement Awards from the American Society of Furniture Designers. The company is also a leader in sustainable manufacturing and works with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council.
In 2019, Bernhardt introduced the Bernhardt Exteriors division for high-quality and innovative outdoor furniture. Today, the company operates eight manufacturing facilities and continues to be a leader and trendsetter in the growing worldwide oak furniture market.
On 1stDibs, find Bernhardt seating, tables, case pieces and more.
Finding the Right Desks for You
There’s no reason that the corner of your home you’ve dedicated to work shouldn’t also reflect your personality and sense of style. A collection of unique vintage and antique desks can be found on 1stDibs today.
The right desk can be a good fit for your space and help keep you organized when you need it most. For many, the word “desk” can have a negative connotation. Derived from the Latin desca, meaning “table to write on,” the word can understandably evoke memories of stuffy classrooms or monotonous workdays.
As working from home has become more widespread for part of the workforce, many professionals who work remotely park themselves at the dining-room table or at the kitchen countertop to do so. If you’ve got the space, it's healthy to set aside an area in your home designated for work. A good desk can keep you on track and keep your newly minted home office free of clutter and distractions.
Within your own walls, an office area can be both personal and productive, decorated exactly to your taste or just an unobtrusive addition that aligns with the energy of the space as is. When shopping for a desk, keep height, space and specs in mind. It’s helpful to know if you’ll need the desk to offer storage, such as drawers or a hutch, or if it should fit alongside your bedroom wall as cleanly as possible.
An antique writing desk, for example, will offer a spacious, streamlined work experience with a desktop that affords real estate for your notebooks, pens, laptop and research materials. Secretary desks reveal small inner storage compartments — pigeonholes, cubbies, recesses or drawers — when their hinged leaves are folded out.
Maybe you'd prefer a vintage mid-century modern desk that seamlessly incorporates drawers for storage.
Nebraska-born designer Don S. Shoemaker became inspired by Mexico’s tropical woods, such as cocobolo, a Mexican rosewood, and he decided to work with the material in the postwar years to create desks and other furnishings. Elsewhere, made according to the same high standards as the company’s chairs, celebrated mid-century manufacturer Herman Miller produced desks over the years in a number of versions, created by designers like George Nelson, Gilbert Rohde and Bruce Burdick.
Whether you want a dramatic rolltop-style furnishing akin to the 18th-century secretary commissioned by Louis XVI or a contemporary piece made of everything from linoleum to fallen trees, a new desk and clever arrangement of desktop accessories can brighten the workday in any home.
For every passion project, year-end report or spontaneous million-dollar app idea, find the desk you need on 1stDibs.