Harmonica Coat Rack

Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe vintage mid-century modern furniture. The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living.

ORIGINS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

• Emerged during the mid-20th century 
• Informed by European modernism, Bauhaus, International style, Scandinavian modernism and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture
• A heyday of innovation in postwar America 
• Experimentation with new ideas, new materials and new forms flourished in Scandinavia, Italy, the former Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in Europe

CHARACTERISTICS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

• Simplicity, organic forms, clean lines  
• A blend of neutral and bold Pop art colors 
• Use of natural and man-made materials — alluring woods such as teak, rosewood and oak; steel, fiberglass and molded plywood 
• Light-filled spaces with colorful upholstery 
• Glass walls and an emphasis on the outdoors 
• Promotion of functionality

MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW

• Charles and Ray Eames
• Eero Saarinen
• Milo Baughman
• Florence Knoll
• Harry Bertoia 
• Isamu Noguchi 
• George Nelson 
• Danish modernists Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen, whose emphasis on natural materials and craftsmanship influenced American designers and vice versa

ICONIC MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS

• Eames lounge chair
• Nelson daybed
• Florence Knoll sofa
• Egg chair
• Womb chair
• Noguchi coffee table
• Barcelona chair

VINTAGE MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS

The mid-century modern era saw leagues of postwar American architects and designers animated by new ideas and new technology. The lean, functionalist International-style architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the 1930s by Philip Johnson and others. New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale in open-plan houses with long walls of glass.

Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair, respectively. 

Architect, writer and designer George Nelson created with his team shades for the Bubble lamp using a new translucent polymer skin and, as design director at Herman Miller, recruited the Eameses, Alexander Girard and others for projects at the legendary Michigan furniture manufacturer. 

Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts. Materials were repurposed too: The Danish-born designer Jens Risom created a line of chairs using surplus parachute straps for webbed seats and backrests.

The Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by legendary manufacturer Knoll, a chief influencer in the rise of modern design in the United States, thanks to the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneering architect and designer who made the firm a leader in its field. The seating that Knoll created for office spaces — as well as pieces designed by Florence initially for commercial clients — soon became desirable for the home.

As the demand for casual, uncluttered furnishings grew, more mid-century furniture designers caught the spirit.

Classically oriented creators such as Edward Wormley, house designer for Dunbar Inc., offered such pieces as the sinuous Listen to Me chaise; the British expatriate T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings switched gears, creating items such as the tiered, biomorphic Mesa table. There were Young Turks such as Paul McCobb, who designed holistic groups of sleek, blond wood furniture, and Milo Baughman, who espoused a West Coast aesthetic in minimalist teak dining tables and lushly upholstered chairs and sofas with angular steel frames.

As the collection of vintage mid-century modern chairs, dressers, coffee tables and other furniture for the living room, dining room, bedroom and elsewhere on 1stDibs demonstrates, this period saw one of the most delightful and dramatic flowerings of creativity in design history.

Your guests might have to endure all kinds of harsh climes to get to your housewarming party, so let’s make sure their trusty overcoats and umbrellas have a home. Shop the antique and vintage coat racks and stands on 1stDibs today.

Coat racks, umbrella stands, wall-mounted hooks for outerwear — they’ve long served a practical purpose. In the days of travel by horse or foot, a guest might arrive on your doorstep bedraggled, windblown and often dripping with rain. While transportation has thankfully improved since then, a coat rack in the entryway or foyer of your home is still the beacon it was back then: It says, “Come in, where it’s dry and warm. Hang up your coat and stay a while.”

Coat stands are among history’s fairly rudimentary ideas, so it’s difficult to point to the original inventor of this eternally functional fixture, but Thomas Jefferson was said to have fashioned one of his own at Monticello. Jefferson, who would’ve made a great interior designer, placed a long wooden pole in his closet that was adorned with spokes from which his coats and other garments could be hung. The simplicity of Jefferson’s coat-tree is echoed in designs from the 18th and 19th centuries.

The timeless convenience of a wooden coat rack has endured. While there are striking Art Deco coat stands made of oak and walnut that would meet your mudroom needs well, some of the product designers behind what we now call mid-century modern coat stands turned to materials other than wood, working frequently with plastic and chrome to create unconventional alternatives. Simpler and pared-down coat stands of the mid-20th century were occasionally so interesting in form that they could pass as minimalist sculptures when not in use. Some designers, such as Jacques Adnet, helped to redefine what these classic furnishings could look like, integrating saddle leather and brass and sometimes even horseshoes for his wall hooks and racks.

Although a coat rack is undoubtedly a practical investment, we know that fun comes along with functionality. There is plenty to explore in the collection of antique, vintage and contemporary coat racks and stands on 1stDibs, so go ahead — hang up your coat and stay a while.