One of the most widely renowned architects of the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright believed that architects should design the house as well as the furniture inside it. His works were uniquely designed as part of the aesthetics for the homes he built.

The Life Behind The Design

There are few names that evoke the Arts & Crafts style more than Frank Lloyd Wright. While he was primarily known for his stunning architecture, he was also a prolific furniture designer in his own right.

In 1887 Wright moved to Chicago to pursue his dream of becoming an architect. He worked for various design firms before eventually settling at Adler & Sullivan, where he eventually became the head draftsman for all of the firm’s residential work. He would soon open his own design firm in Oak Park after a contract dispute.

One of Wright’s biggest complaints about architecture in the U.S. at the time was that it wasn’t uniquely American. While others leaned on European architecture and trends, Wright looked to the flat landscape of the American west and the architecture of indigenous Americans for inspiration. His “Prairie style” produced homes that were low, flat and denoted by broad horizontal lines.

With his signature style established, Wright turned his attention to the interior. He believed that a home’s architecture and the furniture within it went hand in hand — and his work ethic was unmatched. For one particular home he designed desks, chairs, lighting, bookshelves, dressers, tables, sofas and stools for nearly every room.

Wright went on to found the Taliesin Fellowship school of architecture, where students also learned farming, gardening, cooking and the study of nature, music, art and dance. It’s clear that Wright’s various tastes inspired a new way of thinking about architecture and furniture design, and his uniquely American sensibilities are still cherished today.

Notable Works: Heritage-Henredon Collection

While Wright designed unique furniture for the houses he built, he also recognized that the average American home could benefit from his knack for furniture design. In 1955 he partnered with various companies to release the Taliesin Ensemble, a collection of furniture intended for homes he didn’t build himself.

The most prolific of those partnerships was with Henredon, operating as Heritage Henredon at the time. The collection was heralded as Wright applying “his visionary ability to designing a group of dining rooms, bedroom and living room furniture” for “ordinary, everyday people.”

In the Heritage Henredon collection, Wright began to explore a range of geometric shapes, including triangles, hexagons and honeycombs. Various pieces of furniture would “fit together” — for example, triangular seat tables that tuck neatly beneath a hexagonal coffee table.

While the collection wasn’t a major commercial success at the time, Wright’s pieces for Heritage Henredon are highly sought after by collectors. The timeless style of the collection looks stunning in any home, even 70 years later.

Liberty & 33rd & Frank Lloyd Wright

You don’t need to live in a Wright-designed home to benefit from his design sensibilities. Frank Lloyd Wright pieces are high in demand when they hit the Liberty & 33rd warehouse — shop our catalog for a chance to bring one home today.

Milo Baughman is the father of the California Modern aesthetic. He is most well known for his collaboration with Thayer Coggin, a manufacturer in North Carolina, that continues to produce his furniture to this day.

The Life Behind The Design

Although he was born in Kansas, Milo Baughman would go on to become one of the designers most closely associated with the California Modern aesthetic. After moving to Long Beach, Baughman’s family tasked him with designing their new home at the age of just 13.

By the time he was 24, Baughman’s passion and drive led him to open his own design studio. He took various jobs across the state and worked with other prolific designers who were on the cutting edge of the mid-century modern movement.

As with the entire California Modern aesthetic, Baughman’s design invites the outdoors inside. With spacious, open floor plans and large windows, Baughman made moving between interior and exterior spaces a seamless experience. It was a revolution for residential American architecture, and one that endures today.

While Baughman designed for a number of manufacturers, his longest-lasting collaboration was with Thayer Coggin out of North Carolina. For five decades, the partnership defined mid-century American furniture — simple, bold aesthetics with an emphasis on functionality.

Baughman’s design principles are still serving future generations at Brigham Young University, where he organized the Department of Environmental Design (now Interior Design). The department’s objective is to “train students in improving the condition of our natural environment” through the lens of urban, product, graphic and interior designs.

Notable Works: 825 Sectional

While he had an immaculate eye for design, Baughman knew that aesthetics aren’t the end-all-be-all for interior decor. “The structured environment,” he argued, “has to be good for the human inhabitants of that environment. It must offer significant social and emotional benefits; it cannot simply look good.”

The role of furniture in the American home, Baughman reasoned, was to strengthen the interpersonal connection between families and their guests. To that end, many of his pieces encourage bonding and social interaction. Nowhere is that philosophy more evident than in his 825 series of sectionals in collaboration with Thayer Coggin.

With its semi-circular design, the 825 sectional allows for eye contact between everyone sitting on the sofa. Even the people seated on the “far sides” can easily engage in conversation with one another, especially when compared to a traditional rectangular sofa. The shape also gives everyone equal access to a small circular table placed in the center.

While such considerations might be commonplace today, Baughman was one of the pioneers of human-first design. Naturally, many of his works have earned a spot on display in museums — but it’s only in a home that their true genius can be fully appreciated.

Liberty & 33rd & Milo Baughman

Strike the perfect balance between appearance and functionality with our Milo Baughman collection. We frequently carry pieces from Baughman’s collaboration with Thayer Coggin and other prolific mid-century modern brands.

George Nakashima changed the way that many designers worked with wood. He believed that wooden furniture takes on a life of its own, and encouraged designers to have more direct contact with the natural materials they use.

The Life Behind The Design

It should come as no surprise that one of the 20th century’s foremost woodworkers grew up surrounded by the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. George Nakashima was born in Spokane, Washington in 1905, and his fascination with wood began at an early age.

Along with studying forestry, Nakashima earned a Master’s in architecture at the University of Washington. With his degree in hand, he sold off his car and started a worldwide trip — during which he practiced and expanded his craft in Paris, Tokyo and India. 

Upon returning to the U.S. in 1942 in the midst of World War II, Nakashima and his family were imprisoned and forcibly relocated to a Japanese American internment camp in Idaho. There he learned traditional Japanese carpentry techniques from another detained man, refocusing him on the intimate connection between artist and material.

Blending such varied influences from American Modern styles to traditional Japanese woodworking, Nakashima ushered in a new wave of appreciation for wood in particular. He believed that natural materials had individuality that should be studied, understood and respected. Many of his tables, for instance, have natural, unfinished edges to preserve the wood’s individuality.

While Nakashima died in 1990, his home near New Hope, Pennsylvania still stands as a testament to his mastery of woodworking. The George Nakashima House, Studio and Workshop was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 2014, and is open to the public.

Notable Works: Altar for Peace

Aside from Nakashima’s timeless masterpieces, his legacy also includes the Nakashima Foundation for Peace. Nakashima considered himself a “Hindu Catholic Shaker Japanese American” — a man of many backgrounds striving for greater connection between humankind.

“A symbol is needed—something tangible like the toe of St. Peter’s statue in the Vatican,” Nakashima wrote. “It will be a symbol, a token of man’s aspirations for a creative and beautiful peace, free of political overtones; an expression of love for his fellow man.”

The symbol came to Nakashima in the form of a walnut tree, from which he fashioned a 12-foot-long table he named the Altar for Peace. The table was placed in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where it was blessed by holy people of all faiths in the company of diplomats from around the world.

Nakashima imagined a total of six Altars of Peace, one for each habitable continent, but he only completed one before his passing. Today there are three Sacred Peace Tables across the globe, each built in Nakashima’s workshop — Nakashima’s original in NYC for North America, one in Moscow for Europe, and one in Auroville, India for Asia. As of writing, there is a fourth table being planned in Cape Town for Africa.

Liberty & 33rd & George Nakashima

Nakashima’s unparalleled aptitude for woodworking is prevalent across his pieces in our collection. Find your next Nakashima piece at Liberty & 33rd, and admire the individuality of the natural form.

Established in 1890, Baker Furniture remains one of the highest quality furniture production companies in the industry with affiliated designers including Barbara Barry, Finn Juhl, T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, and Michael Taylor.

The Story Behind The Design

Siebe Baker was a Dutch immigrant who settled in Michigan in 1890. There, Baker founded a woodworking and door company, which would go on to become a three-generation family business. 

One of Baker’s earliest claims to fame was the Art Deco “Twentieth Century Shop” collection in 1925. This early exploration of Modernism laid the foundation for decades of collaborations with designers including Donald Deskey, Finn Juhl and T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, among others.

Key to Baker’s success was an appreciation of Old World furniture, and a knack for reproducing those works. Siebe Baker’s son Hollis S. Baker, Sr. was a frequent world traveler who collected furniture and books on European and Asian design as a source of inspiration for his company’s craft. 

In 1932 Baker Furniture launched their Manor House line, one of the first major programs to reproduce English antiques in the United States. Throughout the years Baker would go on to reproduce antique pieces from Colonial and Federal America, Italy, France and the Netherlands.

Outside of the company’s European and American sensibilities, Baker also had an admiration for Asian design. Baker introduced America to Chinese Modern furniture at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, and later introduced the Far East Collection in 1949. 

With their plethora of cultural influences, Baker Furniture truly injected the world’s best into the burgeoning Modern style. While Baker pieces from different decades may not share a common cultural inspiration, they all share a dedication to enduring quality that lasted three generations of the Baker family.

Notable Works: Stately Homes Collection

Baker Furniture’s affinity for reproducing historical European pieces continued well into the ‘80s. Some of the most sought-after pieces today are from the Stately Home Collection, a series of designs recreated from the castles and palaces of England, Ireland, Scotland and Russia.

Originally commissioned by royalty and aristocracy as far back as the 1600s, these pieces were hand-selected by Sir Humphry Wakefield, the leading authority on English antiques. Wakefield personally selected pieces from various noble homes for recreation by the craftsmen at Baker.

The scale and size of each piece were carefully adapted to 20th century sensibilities, so this esteemed collection looks right at home in the modern household. You’ll find several Stately Homes pieces in stock at all times at Liberty & 33rd.

Liberty & 33rd & Baker Furniture

When you bring a Baker piece into your space, you bring an appreciation for a diverse array of techniques, aesthetics and cultures. Our Baker Furniture collection is one of the largest you’ll find anywhere — we’re confident that you’ll find the perfect Baker piece for your home at Liberty & 33rd.