Discover Some Iconic Interior Design Pieces

Over the years, designers have created iconic interior design pieces that have become timeless, objects of desire, and benchmarks of industrial design. Although you surely know some of them, you may not know their names or history. Read this article to become an expert on them!

Decorate your home with iconic interior design pieces

Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen designed this chair between 1955 and 1957. He made it with a cast aluminum base and fiberglass seat.

To this day, it’s still one of the representative pieces of mid-century design. Its a timeless and functional piece of furniture with a novel design.

When Saarinen created this piece, he made sure that it was:

• Comfortable for people of all shapes and sizes.
• Built with contemporary materials.
• Impersonal to suit different decorative styles, as it was to be mass-produced.
• Also, he wanted to avoid the visual chaos chair legs caused. And this was quite a challenge for him!

Years later, Saarinen created the Tulip table to accompany the chair and complete his design of fluid pieces that mimic the movement of water.

Iconic interior design pieces – the Chesterfield sofa

It seems that this typical British sofa was named after Lord Philip Stanhope (1694-1773), the fourth Earl of Chesterfield. This is because he ordered a leather Chesterfield sofa with buttoned and padded upholstery and a low base.

But at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the English bourgeoisie started to imitate the aristocracy. This is why this piece began to be industrially manufactured. Firstly, designers resorted to these sofas to decorate the exclusive and elitist social male clubs in London. Eventually, socialites opted for decorating their living rooms with Chesterfield sofas.

Today, experts consider it one of the iconic interior design pieces. Although it’s classic, it also manages to fit into more modern and avant-garde decorative styles. Also, it’s the best-selling sofa in history. Does this fact surprise you?

Panton chair

Verner Panton designed this chair in 1960. Currently, it’s on display at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). With it, the first Danish designers broke the Scandinavian tradition of making handmade wooden furniture and paved the way for new construction and materials.

One of its peculiarities is that it was the first chair to be built from a continuous piece of material. In 1968, furniture manufacturer Vitra started mass producing the final version under the label Herman Miller Furniture Co. It’s a pop-art icon!

Another interesting fact is that the S-Chair inspired the Panton chair. In this regard, Verner Panton invented this S-shaped chair for furniture manufacturer Thonet in 1955.

The España Bunching Chest

Dorothy Draper designed this piece of furniture in 1950. The Spanish government asked her to design it because they wanted a collection that highlighted Spanish design.

It’s rectangular, made of cherry wood, and features three drawers decorated with a pattern. Solid brass ring pulls adorn the centers of the nine drawers. In short, it’s elegant and most definitely an iconic interior design piece.

Iconic interior design pieces – the Barcelona chair

Created for the International Exposition of 1929, hosted by Spain this chair is the work of Bauhaus director Mies van der Rohe, with the collaboration of architect Lilly Reich.

It consists of two rectangular cushions over a narrow thin stainless steel frame. The back and seat are made of leather. Despite the antiquity of its design, many people still use it nowadays to create modern environments.

Arco lamp

This lamp stemmed from a simple idea – the creation of an overhead light without the hassle of wiring. The result is the perfect combination of shape and functionality.

Brothers Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni designed it with a thick marble base, an aluminum pendant, and a stainless steel arching arm. The Arco lamp was inspired by street lamps and has become one of the most imitated pieces.

People continue using these iconic interior design pieces, even though some of them are approximately 90 years old. Their timelessness is definitely due to the innovation and functionality that characterize them, among other factors.

Would you like to delve deeper into the world of industrial design? If so, you should learn the history of the new pieces that are here to stay!