Unique Contemporary Furniture
Today’s furniture buyers can take their pick from a wide range of styles as well as prices to choose from. There’s the right design for every home, as well as for every budget. Because of this, however, some consumers might be easily overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices they’re confronted with. Likewise, consumers are sometimes confused as to what designates a true modern, contemporary style design in home and office furnishings. This confusion is increased when design schools overlap each other, as is the case with some contemporary styles.
Contemporary Furniture Styles: Danish Modern and Urban Loft
Although contemporary and modern furniture styles can be categorized into various subcategories, the roots of contemporary and modern furniture can be found in the Bauhaus school of design, which was created in Weimar, Germany in 1919. Founded by architect Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus style emphasized a minimalist approach, stressing sleek, geometric designs echoed in the Art Deco Furniture movement of the era. The Bauhaus style became prevalent not only in architectural design, but also in art, graphic design and interior design, and was a leading inspiration behind the style, which, a few decades later, became known as Danish Modern.
First developed before the Second World War, Danish Modern truly came into its own as a mainstream popular design trend during the post-war decades of the 1950s and 1960s, and has since been contemporized over the ensuing years. While Danish Modern is a distinctive design ethic all its own, when many people think of modern furniture, this is actually the style they’re referring to.
Danish Modern is characterized by geometric shapes that are pure and streamlined, such as the sharply-angled squares and rectangles used in tables and cabinets. Other Danish Modern styles have a touch of the whimsical and fanciful; these elements can be found in the ovoid and kidney shapes used in classic Danish Modern chairs which are usually placed atop a stainless steel or aluminum base or frame. Danish Modern chairs are often upholstered in bright, solid-color fabrics, with oranges, reds and yellows being particularly popular.
Danish Modern furniture designs are created to be minimalist in ornamentation; gone is the ornate carving of the previous generations. Designers of Danish Modern also favor looks that emphasize the beauty of the natural wood; toward that end, they often use lightly-stained or natural teak and other light-colored woods.
Modern furniture today is also epitomized, for many people, in the look known as Urban Loft style, a design born of the need to make the most of limited space. During the 1980s, architects began redesigning abandoned loft structures in large urban areas, renovating them into apartments and condominiums. These lofts are characterized by having high ceilings, but are usually limited in size, so the Urban Loft style focuses on convenience and compactness within a contemporary design frame.
Today’s Contemporary Styles
Modern and contemporary furniture have their own distinguishing characteristics, some originating from the Danish Modern and Urban Loft looks, and others originating from current trends. For example, sofa and chair fabrics of choice usually include leathers or high-grade synthetics, as well as solid color fabrics in either bright or neutral shades.
Likewise, chair frames are often light-colored teaks and bamboos, but may also be aluminum and stainless steel. As in earlier contemporary styles, the absence of carving and other decorative flourishes is apparent; the beauty and attractiveness is rather in the purity and simplicity of the design shapes as well as the materials themselves.
The style continues to strive for a minimalist effect, just as it did decades ago during the early years of Danish Modern. However, with more materials available than ever before, both in natural and synthetic leathers and fabrics, designers are able to stay within the minimalist design scheme and still create memorable looks in unusual shades such as butternut and copper, in addition to the more usual neutral schemes.
Accessories, too, are playful and whimsical rather than ornate. Today’s contemporary designers particularly favor lamps with dramatic geometric shapes, in intensely vivid colors that are capable of toning in with the color scheme of the room. For those who want a more monochromatic scheme, black and steel-colored lamps and accessories are also a popular choice. Designs range from the mobile-styled hanging lampshades, inspired by the mobile sculptures created by American artist Alexander Calder during the mid-20th century, to the simplistic geometric styles made popular by both European and American designers.
Environmental Sustainability and Green Designers
Today’s furniture designers are incorporating environmentally-sustainable elements into the fabric and construction of their pieces. This ethic includes a strong trend towards using sustainable woods, such as bamboo and other hardwoods harvested from sustainable sources, as well as reclaimed woods.
Likewise, green designers favor fabrics that are either all-natural, or are made from recycled synthetic materials. This applies to leathers as well; green designers use leathers from specially-harvested, sustainable sources, or else use synthetic leathers made of low VOC materials that don’t contain hazardous toxins.
Where to Buy the Best in Modern Furnishings
While many home furnishings retailers offer a limited range of contemporary styles, the home furnishing store Viesso specializes in offering the finest modern furniture designs on the market today. Viesso is able to guarantee quality control on all of its home furnishings because everything in the inventory is either made by Viesso or produced by manufacturers specially contracted to produce items according to Viesso’s standards. Because of company model, Viesso is able to offer more customized designs than other home furnishings retailers.
Viesso prides itself on its ability to offer a full range of contemporary designer furnishings for every room in the home and office. Likewise, Viesso also offers a full complement of accent accessories, bedding, rugs and lighting fixtures.
Viesso’s dining room product line includes full dining suites and bistro sets, sideboards and bar furnishings, as well as flatware, barware, dinnerware and glasses, all in sleek, dramatic contemporary styles. The Viesso range of living room furnishings includes sofas and sofa beds, coffee and end tables, media centers and trendy functional storage units, as well as accent pieces such as mirrors and even indoor fireplaces. Likewise, Viesso also offers the full line of attractive modern bedroom furnishings, many with space-saving storage capabilities.
Viesso: An Eco-Friendly Furniture Company
Because Viesso only offers its own product line or products from specially-sourced contractors, there is complete quality control over exactly how eco-friendly the materials and construction are. Viesso’s eco-friendly products include a full range of sofas and beds, as well as living room, dining room and bedroom furnishings.
Viesso’s eco-friendly hardwood furnishings are made of bamboo, reclaimed woods or FSC-certified woods. In addition, they’re finished with either natural linseed or low VOC oils. All of these are made in a classic modern style, with design touches that harken back to some of the sleek, angular shapes of Danish Modern, yet have their own contemporary characteristics.
Sofas and chairs are made using environmentally sustainable elements, including locally-sourced, all-hardwood frames, wool decks and webbings of natural jute, with fillers made entirely of latex and fabrics that are either recycled or all-natural. An example of a high quality fabric used for some of Viesso’s product lines is Stamskin, a synthetic fabric developed in France. Stamskin is as soft as the highest quality velvets, but is more versatile and durable and is also completely synthetically-produced, making it a perfect covering for chairs and sofas.
In addition, Viesso also offers a line of natural latex mattresses that are made in the country’s only large-scale, completely organic bedding factory. A full line of eco-friendly bedding products, including natural latex and goose down pillows and eco-wool and flannel mattress pads are also available, as well as sustainable wool and goose down duvets in a full range of styles and sizes.
Viesso also offers eco-friendly designer fireplaces that are not only portable but also environmentally safe; they have no dangerous emissions because they use safe-burning, domestically-produced ethanol fuels.
If you’re looking to furnish a patio or deck, and you want to keep things as green as possible, Viesso can help with its full line of eco-friendly outdoor furniture made from recycled synthetic materials and reclaimed woods. Examples include outdoor coffee tables and dining sets made of teak, as well as steel-framed fabric armchairs and loungers. All of these are available in classic contemporary designs that can be customized to any outside living space, no matter how large or small.
If you can’t visit Vessio’s famous Los Angeles showroom, its extensive inventory is also available on its website. Vessio’s site provides client amenities such as an online consultation service, where you can email your room photos for design and product advice. Viesso also offers its showroom and online customers samples of woods and wallpapers, as well as swatches of rugs and upholstery fabrics.
If you’re looking to furnish your home or your office space, you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for at Viesso. Whether you visit its Los Angeles showroom or the Viesso website, you’ll find hundreds of customized designer product lines to choose from, all made from the highest quality materials. Once you discover Viesso’s showroom and website, you’ll find yourself returning again and again.