Modern Cabinets
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
1930s Finnish Vintage Modern Cabinets
Birch
1930s Swiss Vintage Modern Cabinets
Pine
1940s Finnish Vintage Modern Cabinets
Birch, Paint
1950s Finnish Vintage Modern Cabinets
Birch, Teak
1930s Finnish Vintage Modern Cabinets
Mirror, Birch
Mid-20th Century German Modern Cabinets
Metal
1930s Hungarian Vintage Modern Cabinets
Pine
1950s Finnish Vintage Modern Cabinets
Birch
1930s Swedish Vintage Modern Cabinets
Mahogany
1960s Finnish Vintage Modern Cabinets
Birch
2010s Romanian Modern Cabinets
Cut Glass, Ash, Mahogany
21st Century and Contemporary Vietnamese Modern Cabinets
Acrylic, Wood
1930s Finnish Vintage Modern Cabinets
Birch
1930s Finnish Vintage Modern Cabinets
Birch
1930s French Vintage Modern Cabinets
Wood
1930s German Vintage Modern Cabinets
Hardwood
1930s Dutch Vintage Modern Cabinets
Chrome, Nickel
1930s Italian Vintage Modern Cabinets
Glass, Oak
1930s English Vintage Modern Cabinets
Wood, Walnut
1930s Czech Vintage Modern Cabinets
Metal, Chrome
1930s Danish Vintage Modern Cabinets
Iron