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Showing posts from 2012

Gift Ideas under $100!

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Now that you've properly realized that December is upon us and that the holidays are coming up more quickly than you thought, 'tis time to think about gifts! Some great Amsterdam Modern gifts for this season...but gifted with a budget under $100 (: Industrial Wire Baskets Vintage Fire Glazed Ceramic Ashtrays Little Hala Desk Lamp Mathieu Mattegot Style Perforated Metal Tray Hala Table Lamp Teak Wood Bowls and Accessories Teak Wood Bowls and Accessories Perforated Letter or Business Card Holder Industrial Task Stools For more gift ideas also check out our inspiration board for the holiday season on Pinterest!

Woah, Chairs as Side Tables?!

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After a long day of work and a good meal, all you really want to come home to is your bed - and maybe read a good book or catch up on a TV show you've been meaning to watch. But what if you have nothing to put your glasses or TV remote down on when it's finally time to turn off the lights and call it a day? There's a solution for that. A side table. However, if you're extremely choosy about the items that are going to be in your bedroom, like me, then you must know its hard to find THE right side table that matches your decor, color, wood type, etc. Solution #2? Use a cute chair! There are way more options in style, color, and add a casual but cool flair to any room. Additional benefits: 1. They can be more affordable than a regular side table or small set of drawers (of course, depends on what chair you choose). 2. They are often are sold in pairs or multiples that make it easier for you to get two, if you want to put one on both sides of th

"Hitchcock" Set Design - LA Times

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Coffee Table and Rattan Chair - Amsterdam Modern. LA Times looked at the set design of the movie "Hitchcock," released on Friday, and published the article " 'Hitchcock' home designs nail late-1950s style" featuring a peek into the interior design of the Hitchcocks' home in Beverly Hills as well their beach house. Striving for a relaxed but very California mid-century feel, production designer Judy Becker included pieces from Amsterdam Modern to the beach house to complete the look. On mid-century modern design and her inspiration for the "Hitchcock" set design, Becker said, " 'Today, most of us feel overwhelemed by clutter. Back then people didn't have as much stuff, and it was a period in which furniture design was simple but sophisticated, a period that has not been matched before or after', " ( LA Times ) and we find that we can't disagree.

Gae Aulenti (1927-2012)

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We just want to take a moment today to commemorate Gae Aulenti, influential Italian architect and designer who passed earlier this month on November 1st. Famous for her interior industrial design, she was commissioned to renovate the inside of Musée D'Orsay in Paris (pictured below), the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, and many other large interior spaces around Europe that have become public monuments or cultural centers today. "The conscious principle in this design has been to achieve forms that could create experiences, and that could at the same time welcome everyone's experiences with the serenity of an effortless development." - Gae Aulenti

Shout Out to Lovingly Simple

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Thank you to Christine at Lovinglysimple.com for doing the wonderful posting on our warehouse in Van Nuys !

Ice Cube & Eames

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If you haven't seen this video... "Ice Cube Celebrates the Eames" . This is possibly one of the best things ever. Happy Tuesday from Amsterdam Modern!

VOTE TODAY!

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AM Lamps & Greta Magnusson Grossman

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Lamps! We have a lot in stock in our Van Nuys warehouse, and it’s about time to reveal a few of the best…especially as the light starts to fade earlier outside, having a few extra lights indoors can make a world of difference.  In addition, we want to acknowledge Greta Magnusson Grossman, one of the most influential female designers of the 30’s-50’s. Pasadena Museum of California Art is having a retrospective exhibition on her work that just opened (October 28 to February 24, 2013), and an auction house in Van Nuys sold one of her lamps for over $35,000 earlier this month. Grossman is the most well known for her house designs, “floating back” chairs, the wooden knobs as feet in her credenzas and tables, and her grasshopper lamp. Key elements to her design also brought a certain timeless elegance in the contrast between heavy woods and metals and the floating backs and seats of chairs as well as desks and tables that appear balanced on delicate legs. These aspect
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  A shout out and thank you to Gijs van derMost , who is an old friend and does all our amazing photography for our site and blog. Specializing in portraiture, his work is highly involved in depicting people in their environment. In addition to showing and exhibiting, he does work for Esquire Magazine. Basically, awesome stuff.  http://vandermostphoto.com/ http://vanderthis.tumblr.com/

Why Do We Love Fall?

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Halloween, Thanksgiving, browns, oranges, dried leaves, hot chocolate, pumpkin spice…fall is coming, and although the weather in Los Angeles doesn’t reflect a change in the seasons (still a balmy 80 degrees), we have fun experimenting with the warm fall-esque colors of our newest collection. My personal favorite: the hand-carved teak chair upholstered with a striped wool blanket (featured above), that just makes me want to curl up on a cold day with a nice book and a cup of tea. Fall is about transition – from warm to cool, green to brown. And whether or not you realize it, winter will be upon us in no time – and then the real holiday fun can begin. In preparation for the hibernation I will be doing to stay out of the cold, I’ve chosen a few of our favorite items for this season:   Assorted ceramics: C ute Casala wood school c hair as a side table: Retro Brown High Back Swivel Chair :    Auping Sofa - Day Bed: Coen De Vries Original Wire Wall

Chairs are Architecture, Sofas are Bourgeois.

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- Le Corbusier Influenced by the dawn of the Age of the Machine and modern artists such as Le Corbusier, post World War II modern design began to lean towards the industrial. The result of factories being able to produce copious amounts of sheet and tubular metal from war manufacturing combined with sentiments expressed by artists/architects that the machine was to be revered as an aesthetic, social, and economic marvel produced a large amount of postwar innovation in modern design. A lot of architecture began to change dramatically as it became more streamlined and emphasized simplicity and open space. In conjunction, furniture design evolved to using many different materials such as steel, plastic, and plywood – merging the machine made and factory produced with a more traditional and natural artistic practice.  ‘Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light

New Container!

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We’re so excited to announce the arrival of a new container! After lots of hard work selecting a few great items in Amsterdam, they’ve finally arrived here in Los Angeles.