Retro Mid Century Modern Furniture Decorating Ideas

Are you into mid century modern style, design, soul? Does mid century modern retro furniture scream awesome to you? Do you find yourself engrossed in conversations where names like Eames, Nelson, Eichler, Saarinen and Jensen roll of everyone's tongues like butter? A yes to any or all of these questions may mean you are a connoisseur of high quality, incredibly creative style and design in furniture and architectural thought.

Decorating a mid century modern home can be an act of passion, adoration and love, if the names above are a part of your everyday vernacular. If you are a purist, decorating your home will not be cheap unless you are as patient as a saint and haunt estate and garage sales in the right parts of the city or have a close relative who passed away and had not changed anything in their home since the middle of the century.

If you are not patient, nor have a deceased relative, you have two choices: pay a lot of money and love everything you buy or buy artifacts of the mid century that are not signed by the famous names above. None of the choices above are wrong. They all are able to meet a level of need, passion and pocketbook.

There is one particular piece of home décor from the mid century era that has such an impact that no one can walk into a home and not take notice of it. This piece of home décor is a free standing cone fireplace. These fireplaces are incredible in their style, design and ability to send a message about the mid century period. Preway, Majestic, Firehood and Malm are all names that are just as famous as the designer names listed above but for a different reason. They are the coolest free standing fireplaces manufacturers ever.

Put a red, orange, black, yellow, green, purple or white freestanding fireplace in the corner of a room and it becomes the focal point of that room and all other furniture pales by comparison These freestanding conical fireplaces are not made any longer. Only one company continues to produce freestanding fireplaces but not with the same verve and pizzazz, at least in this author's opinion.

Most of the freestanding fireplaces and the stove pipe that went them were coated in fired-on porcelain enamel in the brilliant colors listed above. They had a heavy cast iron floor. The floors were sometimes covered in concrete to help maintain heat and durability. They also were sold with several piece of stove pipe to accommodate ceiling height. Sometimes, it was necessary for these fireplaces to be vented out an exterior wall rather than the ceiling so, elbow joints were also available.

Although you typically see or read about cone shaped or conical freestanding fireplaces, there were other shapes manufactured as well. There were also different bases on the fireplaces. Some stood on legs, other stood on a pedestal base. Some had no legs or base and sat flush on a hearth.

The variety of styles, colors and designs of the freestanding fireplaces made from the 1950 through 1980s is spectacular. New style, colors and designs crop up every once in awhile and this brings joy to those mid century modern addicts who are on a quest of discovering all there is to know about the almost extinct freestanding cone fireplace.

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