MCM is this permanent? Am I the only one who hates it?

[Anonymous]

I personally really like MCM furniture in particular, though it only accounts for some of my home furnishing - I think it's more attractive to mix furniture from a wide range of styles. I think there will always be people who like MCM, because it is so clean and simply and unfussy, and it works well in small urban apartments/condos. But it will become less popular in terms of design trends for a couple of reasons - it goes without saying trends change, and higher quality/higher end mainstream stores like Room and Board will change their offerings as trends change (you can already see it). A main source for good quality vintage MCM are vintage shops who get their stock from aging baby boomers who are downsizing. At some point, that source will be tapped out, and MCM won't be as readily available until the current buyers are ready to part with their furniture. The lower quality stuff now available at Target and similar stores will not last, of course. And I also always personally think once design trickles down to lower quality stores for the masses like Target, design trends higher up the chain have already started shifting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCM furniture always looks too small to me and the rooms rarely look filled out enough.

MCM isn't really my style either, but it's similar to "modern" decor which if you look at modern designs, is even more sparse. Also, keep in mind that things start to get very cluttered/busy with the open nature of MCM and being able to see all the adjacent rooms if you fill every nook and cranny with stuff. MCM homes are unique in the sense that if you start using more traditional furniture or designs, they will look out of place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I refuse to admit it's a thing. I think it's a joke being foisted upon us.

No, the joke is the rebirth of "French Country". I blame Joanna Gaines for the renaissance of this old style. Making new kitchens look old; it's like when millennials spend a fortune to buy new "distressed" clothes with designer tears, rips and holes. The latest is faux mud and paint stains.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, that is my point. It's been around since the 1950s. Therefore, it is not a fad.

Of course it has been around that long, but it's only been fashionable for ten years or so. No one was making their houses look that way on purpose in the 80s or 90s.

Yes, it was popular from the 50s until the early 70s and then was very much out of style for decades. The same thing will happen again.

Kind of like bell bottoms/flared pants. They were big in the 60s and 70s, went away for a long time, came back and are gone again.

Except some things don't stay a trend and won't come back. furniture/decor was butt ugly in the 80s and no one tries to recreate it or preserve it:
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/children-of-the-80s-will-remember-these-home-trends

Mcm has it's roots in Art Deco which came from art nouveau--these are beautiful styles.

MCM is pretty far from Art Nouveau. MCM is very bare bones and that was the whole point. Art Nouveau was about craftsmanship while MCM took an industrial approach to design and style and cut away all the craftsmanship from design.

Your link is neat. I remember a lot of those interiors. I still consider some of them tasteful and nice. Many of them aren't that different from other more recent styles either. I'm not sure why you call it butt ugly. In the 1980s we thought the 1960s-1970s was genuinely "butt ugly" and a lot of it had to do with the quality of furniture made, which went through a depressing low.

Most styles come in and out of fashion as trends come and go. MCM is a perfect example. Some styles seem to have longer staying power, the classical "georgian/colonial" furniture has been consistently around for the past 120 years in varying guises and incorporated into different styles. MCM's flaw is that it's a fairly rigid style requiring adherence to one set of design principles and it's not so easy to mix with other styles. Unlike Georgian, which is flexible and adaptable.

Art nouveau was about using nature as inspiration. Art Deco was a nod to the rise of greater industrialization--mid century modern sprung from that.

You can see the transitions in the furniture as well as buildings. Midcentury modern borrows from both:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/art-deco-vs-art-nouveau-whats-the-difference-227508
https://www.curbed.com/2015/4/8/9973300/why-everyone-is-obsessed-with-midcentury-modern-design

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, that is my point. It's been around since the 1950s. Therefore, it is not a fad.

Of course it has been around that long, but it's only been fashionable for ten years or so. No one was making their houses look that way on purpose in the 80s or 90s.

Yes, it was popular from the 50s until the early 70s and then was very much out of style for decades. The same thing will happen again.

Kind of like bell bottoms/flared pants. They were big in the 60s and 70s, went away for a long time, came back and are gone again.

Except some things don't stay a trend and won't come back. furniture/decor was butt ugly in the 80s and no one tries to recreate it or preserve it:
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/children-of-the-80s-will-remember-these-home-trends

Mcm has it's roots in Art Deco which came from art nouveau--these are beautiful styles.

MCM is pretty far from Art Nouveau. MCM is very bare bones and that was the whole point. Art Nouveau was about craftsmanship while MCM took an industrial approach to design and style and cut away all the craftsmanship from design.

Your link is neat. I remember a lot of those interiors. I still consider some of them tasteful and nice. Many of them aren't that different from other more recent styles either. I'm not sure why you call it butt ugly. In the 1980s we thought the 1960s-1970s was genuinely "butt ugly" and a lot of it had to do with the quality of furniture made, which went through a depressing low.

Most styles come in and out of fashion as trends come and go. MCM is a perfect example. Some styles seem to have longer staying power, the classical "georgian/colonial" furniture has been consistently around for the past 120 years in varying guises and incorporated into different styles. MCM's flaw is that it's a fairly rigid style requiring adherence to one set of design principles and it's not so easy to mix with other styles. Unlike Georgian, which is flexible and adaptable.

Art nouveau was about using nature as inspiration. Art Deco was a nod to the rise of greater industrialization--mid century modern sprung from that.

You can see the transitions in the furniture as well as buildings. Midcentury modern borrows from both:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/art-deco-vs-art-nouveau-whats-the-difference-227508
https://www.curbed.com/2015/4/8/9973300/why-everyone-is-obsessed-with-midcentury-modern-design

Neither of the links supports the theory that MCM can be traced back to Art Nouveau or was influenced by it. They don't even talk about it. I still don't buy your argument because Art Nouveau was very much a product of the late Victorian interest in decorative fine arts and building on a long history of decorative arts incorporated into architectural design in the Western World that went back centuries. MCM was a rejection of that ideology in architecture, stripping away all the decorative fine arts from building designs. It was very much a reaction against the excesses of the 19th century as well as part of an emerging ideological belief in architecture that since we lived in a very different world and a world based on industrialism and efficiency and rapidly advancing technology, architecture should reflect that as well as showcase the new technological advancements in building constructions rather than hiding it underneath cloaks of historical styles or unnecessary craftsmanship.

Art Deco, however, can be argued to be not necessarily a bridge between the old architectural styles and the modernist era but a style that attempted to incorporate elements of both schools of architectural understandings. I don't call it a bridge because it is a dead-end style as it didn't leave successors for the next generation of architects and designers firmly swung to modernism. Frank Lloyd Wright's designs also fall into this category, Wright was often rejected by the pure modernists themselves. MCM is really very much the polar opposite of Art Nouveau and strove to reject the principles underlying Art Nouveau.

[Anonymous]

I love MCM, and Danish-Sacndi/organic style with lots of light, curves, and natural wood--but, I'm from the West Coast, so grew up with a different sensibility.

[Anonymous]

The last picture is stunning!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love MCM, and Danish-Sacndi/organic style with lots of light, curves, and natural wood--but, I'm from the West Coast, so grew up with a different sensibility.

Oh I looooove these. Where can I find some bedroom ideas in this style?

[Anonymous]

I live art nouveau, hope that cones around again sometime.

In my adult life time, I've seen the "country" style, the Craftsman style (which I like), and MCM become popular. At some point MCM will lessen in popularity and something else will take over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh I looooove these. Where can I find some bedroom ideas in this style?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh I looooove these. Where can I find some bedroom ideas in this style?

Love MCM and it matches our west coast home. But man, I would sure stub the hell out of my toes on the legs of those two bedroom ottomans in the second photo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, that is my point. It's been around since the 1950s. Therefore, it is not a fad.

Of course it has been around that long, but it's only been fashionable for ten years or so. No one was making their houses look that way on purpose in the 80s or 90s.

Yes, it was popular from the 50s until the early 70s and then was very much out of style for decades. The same thing will happen again.

Kind of like bell bottoms/flared pants. They were big in the 60s and 70s, went away for a long time, came back and are gone again.

Except some things don't stay a trend and won't come back. furniture/decor was butt ugly in the 80s and no one tries to recreate it or preserve it:
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/children-of-the-80s-will-remember-these-home-trends

Mcm has it's roots in Art Deco which came from art nouveau--these are beautiful styles.

I disagree with several points in the above post.

First, MCM does not have roots in art deco/art nouveau. Early art deco was still quite ornamental and only towards the end became more minimalist. MCM is rooted in Bauhaus. It's funny that you mention this because art deco influenced 80s style much more than it did MCM.

Second, if you pay attention to design, 80s influences are coming back into style now in interior design.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I disagree with several points in the above post.

First, MCM does not have roots in art deco/art nouveau. Early art deco was still quite ornamental and only towards the end became more minimalist. MCM is rooted in Bauhaus. It's funny that you mention this because art deco influenced 80s style much more than it did MCM.

Second, if you pay attention to design, 80s influences are coming back into style now in interior design.

80s stuff is TOTALLY hot right now. I buy and sell vintage furniture as a side job and 80s furniture and home decor are being requested very frequently, especially by gay couples.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I disagree with several points in the above post.

First, MCM does not have roots in art deco/art nouveau. Early art deco was still quite ornamental and only towards the end became more minimalist. MCM is rooted in Bauhaus. It's funny that you mention this because art deco influenced 80s style much more than it did MCM.

Second, if you pay attention to design, 80s influences are coming back into style now in interior design.

80s stuff is TOTALLY hot right now. I buy and sell vintage furniture as a side job and 80s furniture and home decor are being requested very frequently, especially by gay couples.

Curious - what are the key words one would search for on etsy, etc if you were looking for trendy 80s stuff? Searching for "mid century" or "bauhaus" is easy. Not sure if there are key words for 80s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Curious - what are the key words one would search for on etsy, etc if you were looking for trendy 80s stuff? Searching for "mid century" or "bauhaus" is easy. Not sure if there are key words for 80s.

Deco Revival should bring up stuff from the late 70s / 80s. Things like:

https://www.chairish.com/product/702430/hollywood-regency-art-deco-revival-cloverleaf-top-green-velvet-parson-style-dining-chairs-set-of-fo
https://www.etsy.com/listing/529074485/vintage-80s-deco-glass-top-coffee-table


Also black lacquer was very popular in the 80s, so you can search that too:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/519834888/2-black-constantini-pietro-chairs
https://www.etsy.com/listing/546644564/set-of-6-80s-black-lacquer-italian