Modern Italian Furniture

Modern furniture is furniture that has been produced since the 19th century, and is influenced by principles of the modernist movement. Simplicity, geometric design and the use of new materials all feature heavily in this style, as well as a visual sense of lightness and cleanness.

Previous to the modernist style, furniture had been very similar in design across the western world, with rich, ornate wood and richly patterned fabrics. Furniture was often expensive and heavy, taking a long time to craft by master furniture makers and was often handed down through the family. During the last half of the 19th Century attitudes began to change and the emphasis started shifting towards practicality. Large, heavy pieces of furniture were often just not functional, crowding rooms and blocking out light.

People began to look for designs that were more useful and accessible, and could be bought to suit a room, rather than designing the room around the furniture. New materials and technical innovations in the early 20th Century meant that cheaper, lighter furniture could be made and furniture could be moved around and easily replaced when new fashions demanded it. Modern furniture design looked to creating visual impacts and used steel, molded plywood and the new pioneering plastics to create original and powerful statements. Influences came from all over the world particularly Italy, from orientalism to Art Nouvea and designers embraced materials that could be mass produced, making their work accessible to as many people as possible. Modern leather sofa set and contemporary platform bed were a big hit soon.

Not all Italian furniture made since the late 19th Century was modernist of course, and traditional furniture design remained a successful industry. There were also those designs that combined the two influences, both traditional and modern and these are referred to as transitional designs. These styles sought to blend both the simplicity and new materials of the modern, with the classical luxury and flamboyance of the traditional.
Contemporary furniture design still looks to evolving and revitalising style, incorporating new technological advances to perfect simplicity and lightness of form, combined with elegance and sophistication.