Design Through the Decades: The 1940s
Midcentury designers turn their attention to household storage, family rooms, molded furniture and movie star glam
Victoria Villeneuve
May 1, 2019
Houzz contributor. Remodeling veteran, copy editor and reporter who enjoys writing about home and garden, especially when they intersect with travel, history, health, literature or the arts. Previously at Sunset magazine and the San Jose Mercury News
Houzz contributor. Remodeling veteran, copy editor and reporter who enjoys writing... More
This series looks at the stories behind iconic designs from each decade, starting in 1900. This installment covers works by such midcentury luminaries as George Nelson, Isamu Noguchi, Ray and Charles Eames and Paul Williams.
In the Jan. 22, 1945, issue of Life — after an article about the ongoing Battle of the Bulge and a picture of a seamstress finishing the ballgowns for Eleanor Roosevelt’s fourth inauguration, captioned with exactly how the first lady’s bust, waist and hip sizes had changed over a dozen years — the magazine devoted a nine-page photographic essay to an ingenious household storage solution.
Even though Depression belt-tightening wasn’t long past and World War II restrictions were in place, the magazine was anticipating a postwar building boom and a surge in consumer spending. So Life launched a series in association with sister publication Architectural Forum on how the American home could be improved. First up: where to find space to keep things.
“The average closet is really suitable only for hanging clothes. Other things are always put high out of reach on a shelf or in Stygian darkness on the floor. The large-sized closets are often too deep. Half of their contents must be plowed through to reach the things piled in the back,” lamented the author of the essay, which was accompanied by a picture of a woman kneeling in a sea of leisure-time stuff with an American flag behind her. “If a family ultimately had all the interior walls of its house built as storage walls it could buy all the clothes and gadgets and knickknacks it wanted without running out of space in which to keep all of them.”
Previous: Design Through the Decades: The 1930s
In the Jan. 22, 1945, issue of Life — after an article about the ongoing Battle of the Bulge and a picture of a seamstress finishing the ballgowns for Eleanor Roosevelt’s fourth inauguration, captioned with exactly how the first lady’s bust, waist and hip sizes had changed over a dozen years — the magazine devoted a nine-page photographic essay to an ingenious household storage solution.
Even though Depression belt-tightening wasn’t long past and World War II restrictions were in place, the magazine was anticipating a postwar building boom and a surge in consumer spending. So Life launched a series in association with sister publication Architectural Forum on how the American home could be improved. First up: where to find space to keep things.
“The average closet is really suitable only for hanging clothes. Other things are always put high out of reach on a shelf or in Stygian darkness on the floor. The large-sized closets are often too deep. Half of their contents must be plowed through to reach the things piled in the back,” lamented the author of the essay, which was accompanied by a picture of a woman kneeling in a sea of leisure-time stuff with an American flag behind her. “If a family ultimately had all the interior walls of its house built as storage walls it could buy all the clothes and gadgets and knickknacks it wanted without running out of space in which to keep all of them.”
Previous: Design Through the Decades: The 1930s
Nelson Ideas and Furnishings
Storage wall. The solution promoted by Life was the brainchild of U.S. architects George Nelson and Henry Wright. They designed for the magazine a monolithic storage wall 13 feet long by 8 feet high by 1 foot deep that was intended to take the place of a conventional wall between an entrance hall and a living room. The living room side contained a drop-down desk and shelves for books, knickknacks, a radio, a phonograph and records. The entrance side featured shallow cabinets for folding card tables, games and sports equipment. The rain gear cabinet even had waterproofing and rounded corners for easy cleaning. Life built a prototype for the article and had the real thing, finished in natural wood, installed in a family of five’s home in New Jersey.
Ammirato Construction built this airier version of a storage wall for its gut remodel of a midcentury modern house in California. The open cubbies and shorter-than-ceiling height allow light to permeate the entry.
Storage wall. The solution promoted by Life was the brainchild of U.S. architects George Nelson and Henry Wright. They designed for the magazine a monolithic storage wall 13 feet long by 8 feet high by 1 foot deep that was intended to take the place of a conventional wall between an entrance hall and a living room. The living room side contained a drop-down desk and shelves for books, knickknacks, a radio, a phonograph and records. The entrance side featured shallow cabinets for folding card tables, games and sports equipment. The rain gear cabinet even had waterproofing and rounded corners for easy cleaning. Life built a prototype for the article and had the real thing, finished in natural wood, installed in a family of five’s home in New Jersey.
Ammirato Construction built this airier version of a storage wall for its gut remodel of a midcentury modern house in California. The open cubbies and shorter-than-ceiling height allow light to permeate the entry.
In the living room, the storage wall holds the media equipment. Objets d’art can be enjoyed from both sides.
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Find decorative objects in the Houzz Shop
As the Life article pointed out, the storage wall is a flexible device that can work almost anywhere. McCrum Interior Design used one in this London apartment to separate the living and sleeping areas. The square central section swivels to allow the TV to be viewed from either side.
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The Room Without a Name. Life’s storage wall article was a preview of Tomorrow’s House, Nelson and Wright’s bestselling guide to building or remodeling a postwar home for modern living. Besides advocating for energy efficiency in the form of insulated Thermopane glass and radiant floor heating, they championed a multipurpose, easy-to-maintain room that accommodates the activities of the whole family. The concept was so novel, they called it The Room Without a Name, but we would recognize it as the family room, great room or hub.
Peterssen/Keller Architecture, Eminent Interior Design and Streeter & Associates teamed up to create this hardworking hub for a Minneapolis family of six. It centers around the kitchen. Behind the red birch storage wall at left is an open living-dining room that is buffered from sound by a glass partition and a thick, 6-foot-wide pocket door. At right is a casual dining area and a 12-foot-wide folding door connecting to a porch and deck.
The aisle to the left of the refrigerator leads along a pantry wall to a mudroom that has a heated floor, charging stations and loads of storage. The aisle to the right of the fridge wall leads to a homework spot, complete with a pass-through for snacks. By digging into existing trusses, the builders created book and art display space accessible by a rolling library ladder.
Get more family room inspiration
Peterssen/Keller Architecture, Eminent Interior Design and Streeter & Associates teamed up to create this hardworking hub for a Minneapolis family of six. It centers around the kitchen. Behind the red birch storage wall at left is an open living-dining room that is buffered from sound by a glass partition and a thick, 6-foot-wide pocket door. At right is a casual dining area and a 12-foot-wide folding door connecting to a porch and deck.
The aisle to the left of the refrigerator leads along a pantry wall to a mudroom that has a heated floor, charging stations and loads of storage. The aisle to the right of the fridge wall leads to a homework spot, complete with a pass-through for snacks. By digging into existing trusses, the builders created book and art display space accessible by a rolling library ladder.
Get more family room inspiration
Opposite the display shelves is a casual seating area in front of a fireplace made over with textured stone, reclaimed wood and a steel bench.
The room’s other family-friendly materials include Brazilian cherry flooring, soapstone counters, leather bar stools and Scotchgard-treated commercial upholstery. Sustainable features such as geothermal heating-cooling and photovoltaic solar panels make for a nearly net-zero energy-use home.
Read about soapstone counters
The room’s other family-friendly materials include Brazilian cherry flooring, soapstone counters, leather bar stools and Scotchgard-treated commercial upholstery. Sustainable features such as geothermal heating-cooling and photovoltaic solar panels make for a nearly net-zero energy-use home.
Read about soapstone counters
Platform bench. Dirk Jan De Pree was so impressed by what he read in the Life article that he tapped Nelson to succeed Gilbert Rohde as the design director of Herman Miller, a small but growing furniture-manufacturing company he had started and named after his father-in-law — even though Nelson had no experience in this area. One of the first pieces that came out of the fruitful collaboration was Nelson’s Platform bench of 1946.
Enduringly popular and endlessly copied, the slatted wood bench today is available in three lengths and two finishes, and with polished chrome or ebonized wood legs. The versatile piece can serve as a seat or a base for the Basic Cabinet series, Nelson’s pioneering 1946 modular storage system. Or it can function as a coffee table, as it does in this 1940s California home, remodeled by Turnbull Griffin Haesloop.
Enduringly popular and endlessly copied, the slatted wood bench today is available in three lengths and two finishes, and with polished chrome or ebonized wood legs. The versatile piece can serve as a seat or a base for the Basic Cabinet series, Nelson’s pioneering 1946 modular storage system. Or it can function as a coffee table, as it does in this 1940s California home, remodeled by Turnbull Griffin Haesloop.
Ball clock. While working for Herman Miller, Nelson established his own architecture and design firm in 1947 and began designing wall clocks. Although often credited with the Ball clock design, Nelson recalled years later that the electric clock with balls standing in for numbers was the product of an alcohol-fueled evening of one-upmanship doodling with designer friends Isamu Noguchi, Buckminster Fuller and Irving Harper. “I don’t know to this day who cooked it up,” he said. “I know it wasn’t me.”
Two versions of the Ball clock are shown close up and in their setting with a Scandinavian-style armchair and a glass-topped table in this mid-1950s Joseph Eichler-built house in California.
Read about amazing remodels of Joseph Eichler homes
Two versions of the Ball clock are shown close up and in their setting with a Scandinavian-style armchair and a glass-topped table in this mid-1950s Joseph Eichler-built house in California.
Read about amazing remodels of Joseph Eichler homes
Over the years, Nelson and his associates designed more than 150 clocks for Howard Miller (founded as a division of Herman Miller and then given by De Pree to his brother-in-law, Howard). Most came in several finishes.
The clocks decorating the kitchen wall of this San Francisco pied-à-terre by Blutter Shiff Design Associates are named, clockwise from top left, Eye, Sunburst, Spindle and Block. The Eye and Spindle designs today are attributed to Lucia DeRespinis, a Pratt Institute industrial design professor also known for creating the pink-and-orange Dunkin’ Donuts logo.
Read more about George Nelson clocks
Shop for midcentury-style wall clocks on Houzz
The clocks decorating the kitchen wall of this San Francisco pied-à-terre by Blutter Shiff Design Associates are named, clockwise from top left, Eye, Sunburst, Spindle and Block. The Eye and Spindle designs today are attributed to Lucia DeRespinis, a Pratt Institute industrial design professor also known for creating the pink-and-orange Dunkin’ Donuts logo.
Read more about George Nelson clocks
Shop for midcentury-style wall clocks on Houzz
Noguchi Table
Noguchi was a sculptor who considered everything sculpture. In the 1930s, he designed a few public projects, stage sets for modern dance choreographer Martha Graham and the first electronic baby monitor (Zenith’s Radio Nurse). During the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was in Los Angeles, making ends meet by sculpting busts for Hollywood stars such as Ginger Rogers. “With a flash, I realized I was no longer the sculptor alone,” he recalled in his autobiography. “I was not just American but Nisei. A Japanese-American.”
As a legal resident of New York, Noguchi wasn’t subject to internment, which he lobbied to halt. When his efforts failed, he voluntarily entered an Arizona camp with the goal of improving internees’ lives. But his budget requests weren’t met and his release paperwork got lost, confining him for seven miserable months. Afterward, he believed that the FBI continued to track his activity for years.
That experience was still fresh when he developed his table for Nelson and Herman Miller. Advertised as “sculpture-for-use,” its free-form glass top balances on two wooden legs, one an inverted image of the other. The table is the centerpiece of the living room in this 1950s Dallas home of architect Rick Hibbs and his family.
Read more about this Ju-Nel-built house
Buy the Noguchi table on Houzz
Noguchi was a sculptor who considered everything sculpture. In the 1930s, he designed a few public projects, stage sets for modern dance choreographer Martha Graham and the first electronic baby monitor (Zenith’s Radio Nurse). During the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was in Los Angeles, making ends meet by sculpting busts for Hollywood stars such as Ginger Rogers. “With a flash, I realized I was no longer the sculptor alone,” he recalled in his autobiography. “I was not just American but Nisei. A Japanese-American.”
As a legal resident of New York, Noguchi wasn’t subject to internment, which he lobbied to halt. When his efforts failed, he voluntarily entered an Arizona camp with the goal of improving internees’ lives. But his budget requests weren’t met and his release paperwork got lost, confining him for seven miserable months. Afterward, he believed that the FBI continued to track his activity for years.
That experience was still fresh when he developed his table for Nelson and Herman Miller. Advertised as “sculpture-for-use,” its free-form glass top balances on two wooden legs, one an inverted image of the other. The table is the centerpiece of the living room in this 1950s Dallas home of architect Rick Hibbs and his family.
Read more about this Ju-Nel-built house
Buy the Noguchi table on Houzz
A Low Chair Wood in the bedroom of interior decorator Jessica Hasten’s 1930s Dallas home
Eames Chairs and House
Molded plywood chairs. Noguchi’s table and Nelson’s bench appeared in Nelson’s first Herman Miller catalog, which came out in 1948. So did furniture by Charles and Ray Eames, including their revolutionary molded plywood chairs.
Architect-draughtsman Charles and expressionist artist Ray met in 1940 at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, founded by George Booth — the newspaper publisher who introduced French ironworker Edgar Brandt to the U.S. in the 1920s — and designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen. The couple married a year later and moved to Los Angeles.
Eames Chairs and House
Molded plywood chairs. Noguchi’s table and Nelson’s bench appeared in Nelson’s first Herman Miller catalog, which came out in 1948. So did furniture by Charles and Ray Eames, including their revolutionary molded plywood chairs.
Architect-draughtsman Charles and expressionist artist Ray met in 1940 at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, founded by George Booth — the newspaper publisher who introduced French ironworker Edgar Brandt to the U.S. in the 1920s — and designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen. The couple married a year later and moved to Los Angeles.
A Dining Chair Metal set in the new wing added to an Australian home by Austin Design Associates
Like Finnish architect-designer Alvar Aalto in the 1930s, the newlyweds were fascinated by plywood’s malleability and sought a way to mold it into complex curves. They built and set up their “Kazam! machine” in their apartment’s guest bedroom. Before turning their attention to furniture, however, they contributed to the war effort by using the machine to make splints and stretchers for wounded soldiers, and fuselages, tail stabilizers and pilot seats for airplanes.
That experimentation — and inspiration from the gentle bend of the potato chip — resulted in their low chairs and dining chairs with wooden or metal legs (hence the acronyms LCW, LCM, DCW and DCM).
Shop for Eames furniture by Herman Miller on Houzz
Like Finnish architect-designer Alvar Aalto in the 1930s, the newlyweds were fascinated by plywood’s malleability and sought a way to mold it into complex curves. They built and set up their “Kazam! machine” in their apartment’s guest bedroom. Before turning their attention to furniture, however, they contributed to the war effort by using the machine to make splints and stretchers for wounded soldiers, and fuselages, tail stabilizers and pilot seats for airplanes.
That experimentation — and inspiration from the gentle bend of the potato chip — resulted in their low chairs and dining chairs with wooden or metal legs (hence the acronyms LCW, LCM, DCW and DCM).
Shop for Eames furniture by Herman Miller on Houzz
Molded fiberglass chairs. As the aviation industry transitioned from plywood to fiberglass, so did the Eameses, who refashioned earlier designs with the new material. The laminated plywood shell chairs with aluminum legs they had designed with Saarinen’s son, Eero, for the Museum of Modern Art’s 1940 Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition got reworked in the fiber-reinforced plastic for MoMA’s 1948 Low-Cost Furniture Design competition.
The Eameses also entered La Chaise in that 1948 contest, playfully naming it after the French word for chair and the French-born artist Gaston Lachaise, whose Floating Figure sculpture gave them the idea for its undulating shape. The chair was deemed too costly to produce during their lifetime, but in response to public interest, Vitra put it on the market in 1996. Today’s version has a white-lacquered polyurethane seat atop a base of chrome-plated tubular steel and natural oak.
La Chaise joins the Platform bench and a trio of walnut stools, designed by the Eameses in 1960, in the living room of this California house. Ferguson Ettinger Architects and Allen Construction greatly enhanced the now-1,586-square-foot home’s style and indoor-outdoor connection with an addition of only 300 square feet.
Shop for plastic and acrylic midcentury-style chairs
The Eameses also entered La Chaise in that 1948 contest, playfully naming it after the French word for chair and the French-born artist Gaston Lachaise, whose Floating Figure sculpture gave them the idea for its undulating shape. The chair was deemed too costly to produce during their lifetime, but in response to public interest, Vitra put it on the market in 1996. Today’s version has a white-lacquered polyurethane seat atop a base of chrome-plated tubular steel and natural oak.
La Chaise joins the Platform bench and a trio of walnut stools, designed by the Eameses in 1960, in the living room of this California house. Ferguson Ettinger Architects and Allen Construction greatly enhanced the now-1,586-square-foot home’s style and indoor-outdoor connection with an addition of only 300 square feet.
Shop for plastic and acrylic midcentury-style chairs
Case Study House No. 8. Nelson and Wright weren’t the only people interested in postwar housing in the 1940s. Using the automotive industry’s assembly-line techniques, Levitt & Sons built a large community of affordable and nearly identical single-family houses for veterans on suburban Long Island, New York. Levittown included curved, landscaped roads and a pool for every 1,000 homes, but it infamously excluded people who weren’t white — racially restrictive housing covenants that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 1948.
On the West Coast, Arts & Architecture magazine in 1945 initiated its Case Study House program, asking major modern architects — the Eameses, Eero Saarinen, Richard Neutra and Pierre Koenig among them — to design and build inexpensive, efficient model homes that used materials and technology developed during the war. Of the 36 buildings commissioned by the program’s end in 1966, 23 were built, mostly in the L.A. area.
The Eameses designed Case Study House No. 8, pictured, to serve as their home and studio. They moved in on Christmas Eve 1949 and stayed the rest of their lives. Nestled into a Los Angeles hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the complex consists of two double-height steel-framed boxes whose gridded facades are inset with solid or transparent panels in different sizes and colors. Filled with light, wood, plants and the couple’s collections, the interior exudes a natural warmth.
Read more about this house
See how midcentury styles respond to modern life
On the West Coast, Arts & Architecture magazine in 1945 initiated its Case Study House program, asking major modern architects — the Eameses, Eero Saarinen, Richard Neutra and Pierre Koenig among them — to design and build inexpensive, efficient model homes that used materials and technology developed during the war. Of the 36 buildings commissioned by the program’s end in 1966, 23 were built, mostly in the L.A. area.
The Eameses designed Case Study House No. 8, pictured, to serve as their home and studio. They moved in on Christmas Eve 1949 and stayed the rest of their lives. Nestled into a Los Angeles hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the complex consists of two double-height steel-framed boxes whose gridded facades are inset with solid or transparent panels in different sizes and colors. Filled with light, wood, plants and the couple’s collections, the interior exudes a natural warmth.
Read more about this house
See how midcentury styles respond to modern life
Womb Chair
The Eameses’ friend Eero Saarinen immigrated to the U.S. with his Finnish parents and studied sculpture before joining his father’s architecture practice. He made only a few pieces of furniture, but they were invariably successful.
His Womb chair was a response to a challenge by his Cranbrook Academy friend Florence Knoll to design a chair that was like a basket full of pillows she could curl up in. Knoll, a U.S. architect and protégé of German architect Mies van der Rohe, had recently joined her husband in founding a furniture company. Like Herman Miller, it became a key player in modern American furniture design. Knoll passed away in January at age 101.
The Womb chair’s molded fiberglass shell is lightly covered with foam and fabric, and it rests on a chromed steel-rod base. Knoll released the Womb chair in 1948. That same year, Eero Saarinen won a design competition for a monument commemorating Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase in St. Louis. His Gateway Arch beat out entries from, among others, the Eameses, Bauhaus school founder Walter Gropius and his dad, Eliel Saarinen.
Claire Taylor Design paired the Womb chair with its matching ottoman in the living room of this remodeled California house.
The Eameses’ friend Eero Saarinen immigrated to the U.S. with his Finnish parents and studied sculpture before joining his father’s architecture practice. He made only a few pieces of furniture, but they were invariably successful.
His Womb chair was a response to a challenge by his Cranbrook Academy friend Florence Knoll to design a chair that was like a basket full of pillows she could curl up in. Knoll, a U.S. architect and protégé of German architect Mies van der Rohe, had recently joined her husband in founding a furniture company. Like Herman Miller, it became a key player in modern American furniture design. Knoll passed away in January at age 101.
The Womb chair’s molded fiberglass shell is lightly covered with foam and fabric, and it rests on a chromed steel-rod base. Knoll released the Womb chair in 1948. That same year, Eero Saarinen won a design competition for a monument commemorating Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase in St. Louis. His Gateway Arch beat out entries from, among others, the Eameses, Bauhaus school founder Walter Gropius and his dad, Eliel Saarinen.
Claire Taylor Design paired the Womb chair with its matching ottoman in the living room of this remodeled California house.
1006 Chair (aka Navy Chair)
When MoMA displayed the Eameses’ molded plywood chairs in a show in 1946, a drum tumbled them around to show their durability. Emeco created its 1006 chair in 1944 expressly to withstand a torpedo blast. After Emeco proved the piece’s indestructibility to the U.S. Navy by throwing it off the eighth floor of a Chicago hotel, the fireproof, waterproof, 7-pound chair made out of scrap aluminum became standard issue for all warships. Eames Demetrios, the grandson of Ray and Charles, documented the 77 steps that go into making a 1006 chair in a short video released in 2000.
The 1006 chairs seen here are used by a young family that hired Specht Architects to design the interior of a New York City loft in a former printing house. The molded rocking chair in the corner is an Eames design.
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When MoMA displayed the Eameses’ molded plywood chairs in a show in 1946, a drum tumbled them around to show their durability. Emeco created its 1006 chair in 1944 expressly to withstand a torpedo blast. After Emeco proved the piece’s indestructibility to the U.S. Navy by throwing it off the eighth floor of a Chicago hotel, the fireproof, waterproof, 7-pound chair made out of scrap aluminum became standard issue for all warships. Eames Demetrios, the grandson of Ray and Charles, documented the 77 steps that go into making a 1006 chair in a short video released in 2000.
The 1006 chairs seen here are used by a young family that hired Specht Architects to design the interior of a New York City loft in a former printing house. The molded rocking chair in the corner is an Eames design.
Find an architect on Houzz
Emeco was barely staying afloat when Gregg Buchbinder took over the Pennsylvania company in 1998. The 1006 chair’s estimated 150-year life span wasn’t leading to a lot of new government contracts. But after noticing that Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani was a customer, Buchbinder began pursuing other avenues of business.
These Hudson counter stools are part of a 2000 collection that Philippe Starck designed for Emeco — the company’s first new silhouette in more than 50 years. They’re in a kitchen reconfigured for a Seattle homeowner by interior designer Michelle Dirske.
Since then, Emeco has collaborated with designers around the world, including Frank Gehry, Ettore Sottsass and Norman Foster. With sustainability part of its ethos from the get-go, Emeco also partnered with Coca-Cola to develop a chair, counter stool and bar stool made from recycled plastic bottles. It comes in seven colors.
Read more about this kitchen
These Hudson counter stools are part of a 2000 collection that Philippe Starck designed for Emeco — the company’s first new silhouette in more than 50 years. They’re in a kitchen reconfigured for a Seattle homeowner by interior designer Michelle Dirske.
Since then, Emeco has collaborated with designers around the world, including Frank Gehry, Ettore Sottsass and Norman Foster. With sustainability part of its ethos from the get-go, Emeco also partnered with Coca-Cola to develop a chair, counter stool and bar stool made from recycled plastic bottles. It comes in seven colors.
Read more about this kitchen
Williams Architecture
Legend has it that the distinctive curves of the 1006 chair’s seat were patterned after Betty Grable’s derriere. The popular WWII pinup was at the height of her movie stardom in 1943, when she and her husband bought the Beverly Hills estate that L.A. architect Paul Revere Williams had designed two years earlier for Bert “The Cowardly Lion” Lahr.
Williams got his architecture license in 1921 and became the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects in 1923. In the ensuing five decades, he designed affordable small homes, public housing and civic, commercial and institutional buildings. But he is perhaps best known as the architect to the stars who could comfortably design any period revival style they desired.
Williams’ sense of elegance and proportion is evident in the entry hall staircase and parquet floor of this Beverly Hills home he designed in the 1940s. Lori Teacher worked on its restoration.
Learn more about Paul Revere Williams
Legend has it that the distinctive curves of the 1006 chair’s seat were patterned after Betty Grable’s derriere. The popular WWII pinup was at the height of her movie stardom in 1943, when she and her husband bought the Beverly Hills estate that L.A. architect Paul Revere Williams had designed two years earlier for Bert “The Cowardly Lion” Lahr.
Williams got his architecture license in 1921 and became the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects in 1923. In the ensuing five decades, he designed affordable small homes, public housing and civic, commercial and institutional buildings. But he is perhaps best known as the architect to the stars who could comfortably design any period revival style they desired.
Williams’ sense of elegance and proportion is evident in the entry hall staircase and parquet floor of this Beverly Hills home he designed in the 1940s. Lori Teacher worked on its restoration.
Learn more about Paul Revere Williams
The Draper Touch
In addition to creating movie stars’ private estates, Williams also worked on their public playgrounds. With Gordon Kaufmann, he designed the Arrowhead Springs Hotel, a hot springs resort in the mountains above L.A. From its grand opening in December 1939 until its conversion to a military hospital in 1944, it was a getaway for the likes of Judy Garland and Howard Hughes.
Dorothy Draper handled the hotel’s interiors. The New York socialite and cousin of Eleanor Roosevelt’s, who had established the first U.S. interior design company in the early 1920s, is now associated with the modern-baroque style called Hollywood Regency.
The Draper touch entailed an exuberant mix of colorful florals (especially big cabbage roses), bold stripes and dramatic contrasts, along with Chinese fretwork, lacquered doors and ornate applied-plaster moldings. “Dorothy thought Bauhaus was another word for boring,” recalled Carleton Varney, Draper’s biographer and president of Dorothy Draper & Co., in The Globe and Mail.
Kindel Furniture’s licensed Dorothy Draper collection includes this Chinese Chippendale curio and console set, styled by Madcap Cottage. Draper designed it for one of her best-known projects, the 1946-48 renovation of The Greenbrier hotel in West Virginia, and Kindel adapted the scale for residential use.
In addition to creating movie stars’ private estates, Williams also worked on their public playgrounds. With Gordon Kaufmann, he designed the Arrowhead Springs Hotel, a hot springs resort in the mountains above L.A. From its grand opening in December 1939 until its conversion to a military hospital in 1944, it was a getaway for the likes of Judy Garland and Howard Hughes.
Dorothy Draper handled the hotel’s interiors. The New York socialite and cousin of Eleanor Roosevelt’s, who had established the first U.S. interior design company in the early 1920s, is now associated with the modern-baroque style called Hollywood Regency.
The Draper touch entailed an exuberant mix of colorful florals (especially big cabbage roses), bold stripes and dramatic contrasts, along with Chinese fretwork, lacquered doors and ornate applied-plaster moldings. “Dorothy thought Bauhaus was another word for boring,” recalled Carleton Varney, Draper’s biographer and president of Dorothy Draper & Co., in The Globe and Mail.
Kindel Furniture’s licensed Dorothy Draper collection includes this Chinese Chippendale curio and console set, styled by Madcap Cottage. Draper designed it for one of her best-known projects, the 1946-48 renovation of The Greenbrier hotel in West Virginia, and Kindel adapted the scale for residential use.
Brazilliance Wallpaper
Draper designed this vibrant banana-leaf wallpaper, Brazilliance, for Arrowhead Springs and used it again in the mid-1940s when she worked on the luxurious casino hotel Palácio Quitandinha near Rio de Janeiro, another magnet for the jet set. And Varney added it to The Greenbrier during a 2009 renovation. Here, it brightens the powder room of a Chicago home by Dan Rak Design.
Draper designed this vibrant banana-leaf wallpaper, Brazilliance, for Arrowhead Springs and used it again in the mid-1940s when she worked on the luxurious casino hotel Palácio Quitandinha near Rio de Janeiro, another magnet for the jet set. And Varney added it to The Greenbrier during a 2009 renovation. Here, it brightens the powder room of a Chicago home by Dan Rak Design.
Martinique Wallpaper
Throughout the 1940s, Williams also renovated The Beverly Hills Hotel, building the Crescent Wing, redesigning the Polo Lounge and Fountain Coffee Room, and establishing the general aesthetic that exists to this day. The script logo; the pink, green and white palette; and its banana-leaf wallpaper — CW Stockwell’s Martinique, a bit more muted than Draper’s and with banana clusters instead of dangling sea grapes — date to this time.
South Carolinians Kirk and Katie Shields decorated their master bedroom with the hand-printed 1941 pattern, which Katie fondly remembered from her grandmother’s home.
Read more about this house
Throughout the 1940s, Williams also renovated The Beverly Hills Hotel, building the Crescent Wing, redesigning the Polo Lounge and Fountain Coffee Room, and establishing the general aesthetic that exists to this day. The script logo; the pink, green and white palette; and its banana-leaf wallpaper — CW Stockwell’s Martinique, a bit more muted than Draper’s and with banana clusters instead of dangling sea grapes — date to this time.
South Carolinians Kirk and Katie Shields decorated their master bedroom with the hand-printed 1941 pattern, which Katie fondly remembered from her grandmother’s home.
Read more about this house
Frank Textiles
Josef Frank’s Brazil fabric, displayed behind glass in this New York City apartment by INC Architecture & Design, has a tropical theme too. The architect, who in 1933 fled Nazism in his native Austria for a job with interiors firm Svenskt Tenn in Sweden, spent much of WWII in New York before returning to Sweden. His textiles from this especially creative period of self-imposed exile display an escapist quality on top of his already joyful folkloric style. In all, Frank created more than 2,000 furniture sketches and 160 textile patterns for Svenskt Tenn. Although he was disappointed that he was never able to resume his architecture career once he left Austria, he helped define Scandinavian modern design.
Josef Frank’s Brazil fabric, displayed behind glass in this New York City apartment by INC Architecture & Design, has a tropical theme too. The architect, who in 1933 fled Nazism in his native Austria for a job with interiors firm Svenskt Tenn in Sweden, spent much of WWII in New York before returning to Sweden. His textiles from this especially creative period of self-imposed exile display an escapist quality on top of his already joyful folkloric style. In all, Frank created more than 2,000 furniture sketches and 160 textile patterns for Svenskt Tenn. Although he was disappointed that he was never able to resume his architecture career once he left Austria, he helped define Scandinavian modern design.
Photo by Joe Wolf
Kaufmann House
Palm Springs, California, was another destination for the rich and famous. After commissioning Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s to build Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, the Edgar J. Kaufmann family hired Viennese-born architect Neutra in the 1940s to build this International Style winter retreat of steel, glass and stone in the desert town.
Subsequent decades weren’t kind to the house, which changed hands a few times and was altered. By the early 1990s, it had been for sale for at least 3½ years and risked being torn down. But an architecture-loving couple bought it and hired Marmol Radziner to restore it. The design-build firm and the owners dug through archival material, sought out the providers of the original paints and fixtures, and persuaded legendary architectural photographer Julius Shulman to let them see his unpublished pictures of the interior. They returned the home to its original form, size and aesthetic and helped increase public awareness of midcentury modern architecture.
Find a local design-build firm
Kaufmann House
Palm Springs, California, was another destination for the rich and famous. After commissioning Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s to build Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, the Edgar J. Kaufmann family hired Viennese-born architect Neutra in the 1940s to build this International Style winter retreat of steel, glass and stone in the desert town.
Subsequent decades weren’t kind to the house, which changed hands a few times and was altered. By the early 1990s, it had been for sale for at least 3½ years and risked being torn down. But an architecture-loving couple bought it and hired Marmol Radziner to restore it. The design-build firm and the owners dug through archival material, sought out the providers of the original paints and fixtures, and persuaded legendary architectural photographer Julius Shulman to let them see his unpublished pictures of the interior. They returned the home to its original form, size and aesthetic and helped increase public awareness of midcentury modern architecture.
Find a local design-build firm
Heywood-Wakefield Furniture
Middle-class Americans could marvel at the cutting-edge furniture of Herman Miller and Knoll, and the glamorous style of Draper, at MoMa exhibits, in magazines and on the big screen. For their own homes, however, they were more likely to choose pieces by Heywood-Wakefield. The company had been around since 1897, stayed relevant by hiring Art Deco and Streamline Moderne designers like Paul Frankl and Rohde, and courted newlyweds with solid maple and birch furniture — in every shade of blond — that walked the line between old-fashioned and out there.
Interest in Heywood-Wakefield furniture waned in the 1970s only to pick up again. Today, you can choose between vintage pieces or new reproductions from the revived brand. Andee Cooper of Austin, Texas, bought this chair, table, vanity and stool for her bedroom on Craigslist. When it came to her bed, however, she opted for a reproduction. That’s because the idea of queen- and king-size beds didn’t gain steam until the 1950s.
Read more about this house
Middle-class Americans could marvel at the cutting-edge furniture of Herman Miller and Knoll, and the glamorous style of Draper, at MoMa exhibits, in magazines and on the big screen. For their own homes, however, they were more likely to choose pieces by Heywood-Wakefield. The company had been around since 1897, stayed relevant by hiring Art Deco and Streamline Moderne designers like Paul Frankl and Rohde, and courted newlyweds with solid maple and birch furniture — in every shade of blond — that walked the line between old-fashioned and out there.
Interest in Heywood-Wakefield furniture waned in the 1970s only to pick up again. Today, you can choose between vintage pieces or new reproductions from the revived brand. Andee Cooper of Austin, Texas, bought this chair, table, vanity and stool for her bedroom on Craigslist. When it came to her bed, however, she opted for a reproduction. That’s because the idea of queen- and king-size beds didn’t gain steam until the 1950s.
Read more about this house
Tupperware
Ten years ago, MoMA revisited its Good Design initiatives of 1944-56. Alongside the Eameses’ molded plastic La Chaise were Earl Tupper’s molded plastic containers, pictured above in an old ad. The DuPont chemist figured out how to turn smelly polyethylene slag into prettily colored bowls and tumblers with airtight lids. Introduced in 1946 and sold via home-demonstration parties starting in 1948, Tupperware soon became another favorite tool in the household storage arsenal.
Read more about the invention of Tupperware
Share: What designs from the 1940s would you highlight? What are the standouts of the 1950s and the current decade? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments.
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Ten years ago, MoMA revisited its Good Design initiatives of 1944-56. Alongside the Eameses’ molded plastic La Chaise were Earl Tupper’s molded plastic containers, pictured above in an old ad. The DuPont chemist figured out how to turn smelly polyethylene slag into prettily colored bowls and tumblers with airtight lids. Introduced in 1946 and sold via home-demonstration parties starting in 1948, Tupperware soon became another favorite tool in the household storage arsenal.
Read more about the invention of Tupperware
Share: What designs from the 1940s would you highlight? What are the standouts of the 1950s and the current decade? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments.
More on Houzz
Get midcentury modern home ideas
Find a pro for your home project
Shop for home products
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Saving this article to study more in-depth. Noguchi Table and Internment during WWII. Case Study House 8 and racism. The original direction for the Womb Chair.
Fascinating article!
As an aside- the Womb Chair truly is comfortable. (I don’t own one, but I clean one regularly) The same cannot be said of much furniture with modern esthetic which, to me, renders them (perhaps lovely/cool, but) useless. How I want a Womb Chair!
I believe the Martinique wallpaper is featured in Blanche's bedroom (and bedspread and curtains) in The Golden Girls... how funny.
Outstanding article, thank you.