A Mid-Century sideboard occupies the left side of the frame in this scene from an episode of George Gently.
This Mid-Century sideboard caught my eye while we were watching “Gently With Honour” on Netlfix. Looks like four turned legs connected by minimal stretchers supports the overhanging case. An open compartment with shelves on the left and a closed cupboard on the right flank a central bank of drawers.
Call it a room divider or call it a display case, this piece has a delightful asymmetry.
Many dadoes and a few miters later, I finished the Mid-Century room divider. Oil, a few coats of shellac and some paste wax finish things off. Despite a frustrating assembly, the end result is fairly pleasing, and the basic concept–a case captured by two leg assemblies and divided by an asymmetrical grid of dividers–suggests possibilities for variations on the design.
Dadoes join the shelves and dividers of a Mid-Centruy Modern room divider/shelf by an unknown maker.
After what has been much procrastination and edgebanding of plywood, I’ve finally begun assembly of a Mid-Century Modern shelf. It’s an attractive design with simple joinery (read more about the design here), but there’s a lot of that joinery with eleven shelves to fit in the dividers and case pieces. Too, the design is a bit of a puzzle to assemble: normally I’d glue the case together first, then slide in the dividers and shelves. However, this design is has two show faces, so the dividers and shelves get assembled before being wrapped by the case pieces. I’m putting it together in stages, beginning with the left side and gluing a column of shelves together at a time. We’ll see how it goes.
A Nakashima bench features prominently in a scene from the last episode of Hannibal’s second season.
Danish modern featured prominently in a previous episode of Hannibal, but George Nakashima’s work is on display in a scene from the final episode of the show’s second season. Who knew the FBI budget covered famous designers?
George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom pose with their designs in a shot from the July, 1961 issue of Playboy. Image via The Selvedge Yard
In putting together a book on Mid-Century Modern Furniture, there were some materials I wanted to include but couldn’t for various reasons. One of the things I was most disappointed I couldn’t include was this image from the August, 1961 issue of Playboy. I especially like the Wormley and Risom chairs.
A Hans Wegner chair features prominently in this screen grab from episode 7 of Hannibal’s second season. Just visible in the foreground is the live edge of a Nakashima table. Image via imgur.
We’ve been catching up on season 2 of Hannibal. Usually it’s some murderous tableau or a sumptuous cannibal meal that causes my jaw to drop, but it was the furniture featured in episodes six and seven that caught my eye recently. It had special resonance after writing a book on Mid-Century Modern furniture. We see inside a character’s apartment, and the open-plan living space is practically jammed with Mid-Century furniture. In the living room Nakashima benches and a Hans Wegner chairs flank a live-edge table. In the dining nook stand Danish modern table and chairs I can’t place.
The L.A. Times had an article on Hannibal’s production design.
Hannibal creator Brian Fuller is a partner in L.A. design store Fuller + Roberts
The asymmetrical grid of this open-backed room divider defines a novel design.
While the open floor plan is not without its appeal, it tends to work better when divided into functional zones. The folding screen, a staple of Arts & Crafts catalogs at the turn of the 20th century, is one way to help define these zones, but an open shelf like this design by an unknown maker accomplishes much the same effect without creating a solid barrier. The asymmetrical grid and single drawer liven the design, while construction is relatively straightforward. The two side frames capture the mitered case while dadoes house the shelves and vertical dividers. Half-blind dovetails join the sides and ends of the drawer box, but simpler joinery would suffice.
This console variation turns a Mogensen design on its side. See more about the original here.
It’s only after building this variation on a Børge Mogensen design that I fully appreciated the original. Normally I like an apron set back from legs to vary the plane of a base, but here the legs are set flush with the base aprons, and the entire base is flush with sides of the case, presenting what should be a monolith, but the cove along the top of the base interrupts the facade. Too, Mogensen creates variation elsewhere, making the shelves thinner than the case stock and setting the edges of the shelves back from the plane of the case front.
Aside from the mitered case sides, construction was pretty straight forward. Mortise and tenons join the base, which is then coved, and dadoes house the dividers. To cut the miters, I used a large chamfer bit and clamped a fence to the edge of the board to guide the bearing–a simple setup that let me bring the tool to some large pieces of stock and also avoided fussing with a router table. I cut the miters in multiple passes, slowly easing into a finished cut. Sadly cutting the joints was the easy part; glue up proved a little more problematic. For such a large assembly, I couldn’t tape the edges and roll the case up after applying glue. Instead I glued the dividers to the case top and bottom, then glued one side at a time, clamping the side to a diver and using clamps to along the side to bring the miter together. After considering options for base attachment, I drilled some pocket holes in the aprons and screwed the base to the case. Shelf hole liners finish the raw shelf pin holes.
Koch’s square case can be oriented along either axis to adapt to storage needs. It can also be assembled into varying configurations. Image from Modern Danish Furniture.
Researching my latest book project, I cam across this modular shelf unit by Mogens Koch. The case can be oriented on either axis depending on storage need. And since the units are modular, they can be built up into multiple configurations. A stand and doors allow further customization. The cases are dovetailed, which surprised me a little, but it makes sense since these are made from solid stock. Here’s a group assembled as a wall unit at 1stdibs.
Finn Juhl designed this attractive wall unit in rosewood. Available from Wyeth via 1stdibs.
I’ve been looking at a lot of wall units as part of my latest book project, and my favorite has to be this one by Finn Juhl. I didn’t think shelf brackets could look so good. Part of it is the excellent staging and photography by Wyeth, but the piece itself shows good design coupled with capable manufacturing. Tt uses the rosewood grain to good effect, and I like the contrast of wood and reed. The piece is completely wrong for our space, but I’d love an excuse to build something like it. Not a situation very forgiving of mis-measurements, though . . .