Mid Century Modern Furniture

4 Frequently Asked Questions About Mid Century Modern Furniture

Mid Century Modern Furniture is highly popular among people who prefer practical, classic looking furniture over modern styles. If you are planning on buying Mid Century modern furniture for your home, you may have questions such as what technically counts as midcentury modern, how to tell fakes from authentic pieces, and more. The following are 4 commonly asked questions about midcentury modern furniture along with answers that will help you on your furniture buying journey.

What does Midcentury Design Furniture look like?

As a general rule of thumb, Modern Midcentury design furniture is designed to look simple, functional, and fairly natural. Midcentury modern furniture emphasizes function over form, and it is specifically designed to be accessible to everyone. Some common design elements found in authentic midcentury modern pieces include thinner peg legs, functional drawers, as well as smooth and curved shapes.

Heywood Wakefield Furniture Company shows some of these design features in their Post WWII pieces.

Is Midcentury Modern Furniture high quality?

It can be. Midcentury modern furniture is not inherently high quality furniture. There were many makers from this period creating durable, high quality pieces that are highly sought after due to their craftsmanship. American of Martinsville, for instance, made solid wood furniture using incredible techniques.

Conversely, there were also companies churning out mass-produced pieces made with cheap materials that are not high quality or very desirable. The key to finding valuable and high quality midcentury modern furniture is to stick to pieces made by established makers, rather than factories, and to choose pieces that have good quality materials and durable craftsmanship. Of course, this may be easier said than done.

If you are shopping online, sometimes you just have to stick to the quality reputable brands, rather than focusing on look. Of course, a photo can be very deceiving.

Is my Midcentury Furniture fake?

Determining whether or not you have an authentic midcentury modern furniture piece on your hands or a fake can be difficult, but it is not impossible.

One of the best ways to determine if you have an authentic vintage piece compared to a modern replica is to look for signs of maker’s marks. Maker’s marks will help you determine if a piece was made by a specific company. Once you find the mark, look it up and see if the company was active during the Midcentury Modern era—from about 1935 through about 1965.

From there, you should research to make sure that the mark is authentic and not a forgery, although forgeries are not common for this type of furniture unless it is a very specific highly valued maker.

If you can’t find the maker’s label or you aren’t able to find enough information about the maker, you can also look for information about where the piece was made. Authentic midcentury modern furniture was typically made in America, Denmark, Italy, Yugoslavia and Japan. If the furniture was made in China or Taiwan, it is almost certainly not an authentic vintage piece.

Can you combine Mid Century Furniture with other styles?

Of course! In fact, most modern homeowners prefer to mix and match midcentury modern furniture with other styles in order to avoid design over saturation. Since midcentury modern furniture tends to be on the simpler side, adding more detailed pieces can really add texture to a room.

Traditional furniture often mixes well with MCM furniture, as long as it too is of good quality. Statton Furniture Company is one that made both traditional designs and sleek “modern” designs during this period. So you may wish to find vintage furniture by the same maker.

Drexel Furniture Company and Baker Furniture, too, made both traditional and historical desigs, and funky new ones during the mid 20th Century.
Remember to keep the answers to the above questions in mind when you are shopping for midcentury modern furniture.