Embracing an Industrial Aesthetic

Industrial Dining Table with Cast Iron Legs

With its 2” thick wood butcher block top and cast iron legs, this is one solid table. A bold statement for any eat-in kitchen. Also, it can be used for both prep and serving… freeing up some space by consolidating the prep table and the dining table. Or, prep and serving can happen simultaneously as you cook for your friends, pretending that you’re an Iron Chef, flipping finely chopped or julienned vegetables into the mouths of your impressed audience.

Fort Greene, Brooklyn, $1300
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/3222945268.html

Railroad Car Coffee Table

It doesn't get much more industrial than this repurposed railroad cart from the early 1900’s. Back in the day, railroad cars were used by railroad personnel for railroad inspection and maintenance. Now they can be used as a coffee table to display your tabloid magazine collection and as a sturdy place to put your Mai Tai. Man, modern life is good.

Bushwick, $200
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/for/3239871196.html

1940s Industrial Filing Card Cabinet

When taken completely out of their original context, vintage filing cabinets like this can look really great in an otherwise polished space. Now you have a really awesome looking set of 54 junk drawers. Or, if you’re Joan Rivers, more card cabinets to hold your alphabetized jokes.

*Note the interesting history on this piece of furniture: “…it was acquired from the NY estate of a noble peace prize winner for physics.”

East Village, $800

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/3240246905.html

Vintage Industrial Containers/ Wool Storage Unit

You’re probably not storing shorn wool in your Park Slope one bedroom apartment. (Unless you have some interesting page on Etsy where you’re selling some homemade wooly goods.) But you probably are storing lots of laundry in generic plastic baskets. Why not collect your laundry in style with these vintage containers?

Clinton Hill, $150

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/hsh/3234684402.html

1916 Moynat Antique Travel Steamer Trunk

Large vintage luggage pieces such as this make for great storage units and double as coffee tables (if they’re large enough.) And they give off a worldly image to boot – like you’re the type of person who can get up at any moment from watching reruns of 'Modern Family' and flee to Istanbul for the long weekend.

A note from the listing: “Today, Louis Vuitton is a household word. However, in France, there were other important malletiers (trunk-makers). The House of Moynat was founded by the malletier Jules Coulembier in 1849. Jules Coulembier patented his first inventions for packaging materials in 1854. In the 1870's, Moynat continued to pioneer innovations in the world of trunks and developed a wide range of cabin trunks, armoire trunks, linen trunks as well as a full range of automobile trunks. From 1900 onwards, Moynat became an undisputed specialist of automobile luggage for which it developed a number of registered designs. The House of Moynat was shut down in 1967."

Now you also have an annoying and snobby story to tell everyone who comes over.

Midwood, Brooklyn, $1600

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/atq/3240590709.html

Poul Kjearohlm 22 lounge chair

Poul Kjærholm is a designer notable for his use of industrial materials in furniture. In this very sexy example, the continuous steel frame is bent in a single piece without joints or connections. With the natural flag halyard and steel combination... did I mention how sexy this chair is?

Brooklyn, $2500

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/3186216006.html

1950s Industrial Drafting Lamp

You don’t have to be an architectural draftsman to enjoy this very cool drafting lamp. A relic from a time when architects still hand drafted, this piece will add antique interest to your work desk. Now you can place calculated sketches under this lamp, so when your friends come over and ask you what you’re drawing you can blithely look over at the charcoal beginnings of something and say, “You know, new works.”

Park Slope, $75

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/3241219840.html

Vintage Industrial Stools

There is something endearing and Pinocchio-like about this stools… like they’re looking up at you with sad eyes and asking you to make them into “real stools.” At the same time, there is something powerfully industrial about them, and they have this Edward Scissorhands fierceness, mixed with the tenderness of a seat cushion, which just somehow works. And, if you don’t like them, remember the scientist who made them, with all of his care and hope, from a misunderstood foundry on a stormy mountain above a town furnished by Ikea. Remember that sometimes the most  reliable things come in the most unlikely packages.

Somewhere in New Jersey, $200

http://newyork.craigslist.org/jsy/fuo/3240516619.html

Seeing Double

Mid-Century Danish Style Settee

Remember those two twins from The Shining, holding hands, eerie in their symmetry and blue dresses? "Come play with me, Danny..." They beckoned from a narrow corridor. Well, this settee sort of reminds me of those twins, so I wouldn't necessarily place it at the end of a long hall. But with the severely straight lines and sharp blue and white contrast, there is something strikingly minimal and beautiful about this ensemble. 

Midtown Manhattan East, $1250
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/3239764402.html


Mid-Century Orange & Blue Lounge Chairs

Something about this pairing of chairs suggests that they’re in conversation. For some reason, I can’t imagine one without the other. These great looking chairs with their strange bright colors suggest a certain confidence, and be sure that their ‘conversation’ is full of disparaging remarks and tawdry rumors of the rest of the furniture in the room.

New York, $400
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/3223921143.html


1950's Mid-Century Night Stands

If there were a spin-off of Toy Story about furniture, these two would represent Mid-Century modern. I mean, how cute? Each precious one, always at your side as you sleep, full of little lullabies and sweet nothings.

Westchester, $150
http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/fuo/3225994748.html

McCobb Corner Table

This corner table is serving up some mod realness. It will hold your cocktail and maybe a small plate of hors d'oeuvres, but, be careful - it'll cut you.

New York, $695
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/3240047840.html

Your Splashy New Bachelor Pad

Vintage Mid Century Modern Bar

It’s the 1960s suburban domestic fantasy of offering your guests afternoon highballs from your living room bar brought right to your Brooklyn apartment, wrapped in a sexy Mid-Century Danish outfit. This portable bar car is indisputably sexy and can turn your otherwise bland bachelor / bachelorette pad into a place you’re proud to entertain in.

And, while we’re at, why not add these vintage cocktail glasses to really complete the scene:

Bar, Park Slope, $250

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/3239146583.html

Glasses, Park Slope, $30

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/3239150456.html

Vintage Marcel Breuer Cesca Tubular Cantilever Chairs

Running out of seating space to accommodate all of your cool new friends who are coming over for afternoon cocktails, served from your new Mid-Century modern portable bar? These light and cheery chairs will work well for a casual living room social setting, or out on a terrace (if you're lucky enough to have one in the city!) Also, they are small enough to be stored away in a closet when you're not hosting your cocktail soiree.

New York, $360

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/3234547127.html

Danish Sofa by Hvidt

This Danish sofa has a lot of character and looks to be in very good condition. And should your friends’ visit get a little more confessional, the comfortable sofa can quickly turn into a psychotherapist patient chair. 

Yonkers, $2300

http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/fuo/3178428710.html

c.1930s. Wyeth Bimini Rolling Chaise Hotel Deck Chair

Roll into 1960s Hollywood with this charmingly clinical looking outdoor lounge chair. You can daydream from your studio apartment that you’re poolside at the Chateau Marmont in a decade past. Kick back with a blended drink in your hand and you just might forget that you’re in Windsor Terrace.

Williamsburg, $100

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/3202701204.html

Mid-Century Hide-Away Dining Table

Despairing the fact that your New York apartment lacks a proper dining room, or any room for a table and chairs at all? Well, join 90% of the city – but instead of wallowing in a shortage of square footage, celebrate innovative solutions such as this ‘hideaway’ table – giving you Mid-Century charm and the ability to have a makeshift dinner party with your favorite neighborhood couple. After your convivial dinner, tuck this bad boy away in a closet for the next hurrah.

Yonkers, $785

http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/fuo/3219199359.html

Mid-Century Modern Valet Chair

This handsome valet chair is the pinnacle of form meeting function. Imagine how this chair can elevate your ‘getting ready’ routine in the morning: you pick your outfit out the night before and hang it (along with your tie or any other accessory) delicately on the hanger atop this chair. As you’re clipping your toenails in a bathrobe, seated on the luxurious faux-alligator cushion, you can muse about your day to come, all the while knowing that the outfit you picked out the night before is hanging above you, ready to clothe you in your fantasy day. You will emerge from your apartment with confidence of James Stewart before a day at Paramount.

Park Slope, $65

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/3239180788.html

Mid-Century Mini Armrest Chair

You don't have to have mini arms to enjoy this stylish mini armrest chair. What a great accent piece...

East Village, $210

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fuo/3203685203.html

Chairs for Waiting

Herman Miller Waiting Room Chairs

Originally chairs from a hospital waiting room, this ensemble would make a great color accent to a bare wall and provide extra seating. These would look great against a crisp white wall. There's a little bit of irony and also a 70s retro factor to this piece that I enjoy. With these chairs, asking your friends to wait while you finish getting ready takes on a whole new meaning.

Brooklyn, $225
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/3213334389.html

Danish Modern Chair Set

This set of four chairs from the 1950's have an slightly awkward but endearing quality, and I like the cobalt / egg white color combination of the cushions.

Manhattan, $475
http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/fuo/3236839577.html

Mid-Century Modern Headboard

This may seem like a strange headboard with slightly peculiar proportions, but think of the possibilities! You can slide open the drawers to display small objets d'art, or use the drawers for storing bedside items and use the top for display. The top could also be used for very small reading lamps. For a narrow New York bedroom, this appears to be a good solution. 

Westchester, $95
http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/fuo/3225993913.html

Vintage Teak Wall Unit

Perhaps slightly cuckoo, this wall unit is very versatile and provides a plethora of storage opportunities. Books, vases, pictures, files - anything can be stored in this unit. With items displayed in the right way, this piece of furniture can become the scaffolding of greatness.

Manhattan, $4000
http://newyork.craigslist.org/lgi/fuo/3237256533.html

Mid-Century Phone Chair

Who do you know that actually owns something like this? Antiquated in more than looks, this piece of furniture may seem to serve no use in contemporary times when people communicate in a more mobile fashion. Reupholstered, this chair and table duet could make for a modern television dinner companion or a small work / art desk for a space that is too small to accommodate an office. Technology may have evolved, but waiting for your boyfriend to call is timeless.

Queens, $100
http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/fuo/3236952189.html