When we got back home after two months away, there was a lot of snail mail. Anything that didn’t look like a real letter or that didn’t have to do with the bank, money owed, or the government probably got tossed. We recycled a lot of catalogs from stores that we barely patronize.

But there are two direct mail pieces I always pull out of the recycle pile. (Paul is more aggressive about tossing out mail than I am.) One is the MoMA catalog. I don’t order much, despite my membership discount, but somebody is curating that store, and I don’t want to miss any new design object! The other is my favorite catalog these days, from Design Within Reach.

I know everybody scoffs and calls it Design Out of Reach. But the catalogs have always featured furniture that I either own or desire. If you only have to buy a piece of furniture once, then maybe you save money over the long term. Or so I tell myself. I’ve been nervous the last two times the company has been sold. I worried it would go too mass market and lose the quality. But two recent catalogs are worth looking at. They use design stories to sell the modernist furnishings.

As I have said before, Design Research, the modern emporium founded by architect Ben Thompson, was the beginning of my education in design. Now, Design Within Reach is more like visual comfort food, but I do learn about furniture design from the catalogs from time to time. For example, Knoll is producing a piece by Florence Knoll from 1948 called the Hairpin Stacking Table. It is only $199. As soon as I have a wee breakfast room, I’ll buy some. 

If you want to spend a bit more, the catalog has some Arne Jacobsen stools from 1954 called Dot Stools. They are really sleek and reasonably priced at $245 to $275.

More clunky but tougher are the Aalto Stool 60s designed by Alvar Aalto. They range from $275 to $295.

Another oldie but goodie that has been reintroduced is the Eames Coffee Table from 1949. Not as elegant as a Saarinen tulip coffee table, perhaps, but not as expensive either. 

Another rare piece of furniture that Design Within Reach has brought back to market is Russell Woodard’s Sculptura Occasional Chair from 1956. I want a few of those when we eventually move to Palm Springs. 

A lamp that I predict will enter the design canon is Michael Anastassiades’s Captain Flint Lamp for FLOS (2015). It’s so obvious, I can’t believe that somebody has not thought of it before!

Another recent Design Within Reach catalog reinforces what I am always telling my architect clients: “What’s  your story?” The issue entitled “California Dreaming” features spreads of beautifully designed houses. It has been a long time since I saw contemporary images of Craig Ellwood’s Hunt House in Malibu.

The photos are not overly staged. I only wish there were more. Several pages are devoted to a Hollywood Hills house by Joey Shimoda that I had never seen before.

And who doesn’t want to see more photos of Julius Shulman’s Hollywood Hills house? Originally designed by Raphael Soriano in 1950 with a recent renovation by Lorcan O’Herlihy, the home looks even better than I remember it when I visited Julius there several times in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Architect Barbara Bestor crossed my screen when someone gave me a copy of her book, Bohemian Modern: Living in Silver Lake. I first selected the Silver Lake neighborhood when I moved to LA because I could walk to architectural landmarks by R. M. Schindler, Richard Neutra, Gregory Ain, and John Lautner. I was at least a decade too early. Bestor’s design continues the innovative tradition that took hold in Silver Lake. And when I relocate to the desert, I am also getting one of the round sunshades she has in the house she designed for herself. 

In this catalog, I also found out that the Kevi Chair by Jørgen Rasmussen (1965) is available again. I first saw this chair in Design Research. And that brings us full circle. 

More stories, please!