Furniture designer Maarten Baas doesn't subscribe to conformist notions of beauty and symmetry. He finds appeal in the character of aged patinas and wear from usage. As such, Baas doesn't seek to create furniture or decorative objects that are perfectly proportioned — for proof, look no further than to the unconventional cabinets of his Close Parity collection or the chairs with oddly shaped backrests he designed for Lensvelt.
Baas breaks unspoken rules, and his influential work is as much art as it is functional design — he’s garnered support from likeminded creatives in his field such as Phillippe Starck and Marcel Wanders, and explores how he might put unusual materials to work such as clay or charred wood in the construction of his chairs and table lamps.
Baas was born in Germany and grew up in the Netherlands. After graduating high school, he began his studies at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. Before he had even graduated, Baas made an impression on instructors and students alike with his graduation project.
Using pieces of secondhand furniture he had procured online — some of which was manufactured by IKEA — Baas scorched the wood all the way through with a blowtorch. He soon found a way to preserve the wood once it was burned through, and this led to his inaugural Smoke series. The chairs and a lighting fixture from this line were put into production by Moooi, a furniture brand Wanders cofounded with Revised’s Casper Vissers in 2001. Hospitality guru Ian Schrager got in touch, and a pool table from the collection was custom-made by Baas for the Gramercy Park Hotel.
Since Smoke, Baas has produced numerous pieces, with his best-known efforts involving the repurposing of existing furniture and modifying it to look the way he wants. Ever the innovator, Baas introduced a series of clock designs as part of an art installation that began to take shape in 2009 at the Salone Del Mobile in Milan.
The designer’s clocks see an incorporation of video and other technology. Each piece, such as the ten-foot tall model installed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in 2016, presents the illusion of human figures toiling to keep time behind its face by way of a 12-hour recorded performance.
Baas’s works are held in the collections of many notable museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
$9,175 / item
Contemporary Clay Table with Drawer by Maarten Baas
By Maarten Baas
Located in Warsaw, PL
These vibrant tables are from Maarten Baas’s iconic ‘Clay’ collection launched in 2006. The idiosyncratic childishness of this collection is created through Baas’s individual hand mo...
Metal
$9,175 / item
Contemporary Clay Table with Drawer by Maarten Baas
By Maarten Baas
Located in Warsaw, PL
These vibrant tables are from Maarten Baas’s iconic ‘Clay’ collection launched in 2006. The idiosyncratic childishness of this collection is created through Baas’s individual hand mo...
Metal
$23,054 / item
Contemporary Clay Bookshelves by Maarten Baas
By Maarten Baas
Located in Warsaw, PL
These vibrant Bookshelves are from Maarten Baas’s iconic ‘Clay’ collection launched in 2006. The idiosyncratic childishness of this collection is created through Baas’s individual ha...
Metal
White Surfer Bookcase, Bookshelves, Design object
By kontra
Located in İstanbul, İstanbul
"Add a Touch of Contemporary Artistry to Your Space with the White Surfer Bookcase Bookshelves Design Object Elevate your interior decor with the White...
Oak
Black Lacquer Side Table with Svarowski Stones
Located in Berlin, DE
Nice side table with two drawers, on the sides and front ornamented with svarowski stones, crystals.
Beech
$3,769
H 112.01 in W 64.77 in D 15.56 in
Italian Teak, Black Metal and Brass Midcentury Bookshelves Roomdivider
By Poggi, Franco Albini and Franca Helg
Located in Varese, Lombardia
This bookshelves was produced in Italy by SELEX in the 1960s. Thanks to its adjustable height ( 278 - 284,5 /285 cm max) it can be placed against a wall or anywhere in a room, used ...
Brass, Metal
$358Sale Price / item|20% Off
H 7.9 in Dm 11.8 in
Contemporary Terracotta Side Table Made of Clay Handcrafted by the Potter Houda
Located in Marseille, FR
- Handbuilt terracotta side tables - made of clay collected from the potter's surroundings. - made in the Moroccan Rif mountains by the potter Houda. - co-created by the potter Houda...
Clay, Earthenware
Bamboo Bedside Table with Drawer
Located in Krefeld, DE
Bedside Bamboo table with one drawer. Normal signs of using it. Price for one side table.
Wood
$500
H 23.63 in W 24.81 in D 15.36 in
Small Side Table With Drawer Made In Teak, Danish Design From 1960s
Located in Lejre, DK
Small side table with drawer in teak of Danish design from the 1960s. The chest is in great vintage condition. This product will be insp...
Teak
$2,842Sale Price / item|20% Off
H 19.7 in W 15.7 in D 15.7 in
"Scomodino" C-Shaped Side Table with Drawer by Dessie' Studio
By Dessie Studio
Located in Brooklyn, NY
"Scomodino" is a wooden C-shaped side table, designed by Dessie' Studio and manufactured by Dessie', provided with one drawer and adjustable feet and finished in natural oak, natural wenge, Santos rosewood or walnut. Indoor use only. DIMENSIONS: D. 15.7", W. 15.7", H. 19.7" DESSIE' company's mission is putting a contemporary spin on the old tradition of cabinet-making, in order to offer pieces of furniture ready to get people excited and to satisfy aesthetic and functional values of the contemporary way of living. Dessie' was started during 1990s and now proposes a collection of pieces of furniture inviting to discover a sophisticated and elegant design, an unique style where different influences merge, and to re-create a simple and refined design atmosphere for unconventional people who are freely looking for essential and high quality pieces. A collection, including tables, small tables, writing desks, console tables, bedside tables, chairs, bookcases, dressers, cabinets, cupboards, upholstered pieces of furniture and lamps, which was created having in mind an essential style and a careful attention to recent trends. Harmony of forms and care for high quality and rational design, attentively studying any detail, are some of key features of production by Dessie', which has been always reworking the legacy from the tradition by means of a strongly contemporary design language. The aim is to create a forward-looking style which anyway doesn't lose the value of the past as a main feature, in order to give any setting an original charme, indifferent to passing fads. Hence here's a formal language which uninterruptedly takes care of details and precious finishes, while experimenting expressive capabilities of the best materials: precious woods, steel, leather, natural fibers, etc. Flexibility and possibility of customizing any piece in order to offer a "tailor-made" production is one of key design criteria followed by Dessie'. Dessie' established a close cooperation with some famous international designers, like the Catalan Jaime Tresserra, who designed "Tecnica" collection. Besides its own production, Dessie' has been taking the assignment of selecting products by some Spanish companies (Andreu World, Carpyen, Dae, Indecasa, Mobles 114, Punt Mobles...
Wood, Oak, Rosewood, Walnut, Wenge
Italian Walnut Three-Drawer Chest
Located in San Francisco, CA
Walnut Renaissance three-drawer chest with raised panels on the drawer fronts and 17th century brass drawer pulls and escutheons. We believe this piece to be a modified prie dieu as ...
Brass
Bedside tables with front drawer by Silvio Cavatorta
By Silvio Cavatorta
Located in Milano, IT
COD-2770 Silvio Cavatorta (1887-1960) Pair of bedside tables with front drawer, walnut and goat skin. Manufacturer's label, Cavatorta Roma, 1950s. 47 x 47 h 84
Parchment Paper
'Gear Table' by Norr11, Low, Clay
By Norr11
Located in Paris, IDF
Gear Tables by Kristian Sofus Hansen & Tommy Hyldahl Gear is a collection of sculptural coffee tables, inspired by Ancient Greek columns. Gear is designed as a simplified block-like...
Concrete
Mahogany Side Table with a Drawer by Josef Frank
By Josef Frank, Svenskt Tenn
Located in Östermalm, Stockholms län
Beautiful, innovative side table by Josef Frank, made in mahogany. The upper section has a drawer with a brass handle. Lovely sculpted feet and rims framing the table tops.
Mahogany
$5,710
H 53 in W 94.5 in D 14.5 in
Contemporary Inori Glass Bookcase by Setsu & Shinobu Ito for Fiam Italia
By FIAM
Located in Chicago, IL
The Inori modular bookcase, designed for Fiam by Setsu & Shinobu Ito, is the first system in the furniture industry entirely made of glass, and composed of modular elements. Showr...
Glass
'Smoke' Chest of Drawers by Maarten Baas, 2004
By Maarten Baas
Located in London, England
Unique piece, 2004 An existing Louis XV bombé style chest scorched and charred and coated in epoxy resin. With two drawers with ormolu handles, raised on curved legs. From the series Baas deveioped for his graduation project at Design Academy Eindhoven in 2002 and which secured his Designer of the Year award at Design Miami 2009. A 2016 Forbes article 'Where There's Smoke' on Baas illustrating this model, described his iconoclastic process " metamorphosing found wooden objects...
Wood