Homes are furnished in more traditional furniture of the 1950s

Tag : modern furniture
Amy Wells, set decorator for "Mad Men," is responsible for theeye-catching furniture, textiles, lamps, ashtrays and otheraccessories that grace the show's sets. The mid-century look isstill attractive, she says, because "it's well designed,clean-looking. And it's warm modern, not the cold modern" of somecontemporary furniture, which is often characterized by severelines.

Wells says she typically does not use replicas or reproductionsfrom the period — "I'm looking for the real thing" —but the pieces she is after have become harder to find and moreexpensive in the past several years.

"Mad Men," nominated for 16 Emmys , uses mid-century pieces in most of the executives' offices andmore recently in the home of one of the main characters, DonDraper, whose living room is furnished with a lovely sweepingsectional sofa that swoops in front of the fireplace.

There's plenty of older stuff on the set as well, because noteverybody was caught up in the movement at the time. As Wellsexplains, some scenes take place in bars or restaurants that werebuilt in the 1920s and many of the homes of the characters aref urnished in more traditional furniture of the 1950s. Think rumpusroom with walls in knotty pine.

But for guys on the go who were going to change the world, modernwas the style that suited them best.

Fluid Longevity

Richard Ott, one of the owners of DesignSourceCT in Hartford, callsthe mid-century look "classic design." Like Wells, Ott agrees that"it doesn't have the hard edge of contemporary" styles.

What's more, he says, "it's easy to mix in with other pieces. It'sfluid and blends well. It has longevity."

Ott says younger clients want modern, transitional pieces.

"Designers are updating vintage styles and re-coloring them fortoday," he says, adding that the market for traditional antiques isjust not as robust as it once was.

Bette Kahn, spokeswoman for Crate & Barrel, credits the popularityof the mid-century look to nostalgia for the era.

"It's a throwback," she says. "It's the simplest [design]. It fitsin an apartment, unlike a big overstuffed chair."

Creating The Look

If you're interested in the well-defined look of mid-centurymodern, you don't have to go far to fulfill your '50s fantasy.Stores abound with reproductions and re-interpretations of theperiod.

A good place to start is Design Within Reach , a San Francisco-based retailer with showrooms in Westport and Greenwich, which specializes in mid-century classics byrenowned designers of the 20th century such as Eero Saarinen and the husband and wife team of Ray and Charles Eames. TheTheatre sofa, upholstered in a fabric called smoke, is the epitomeof streamlined '60s refinement with strong lines and steel legs($2,800, www.dwr.com ). The accompanying armchair ($1,900) is a perfectly sleekcompanion.