Walking down Fillmore Street a couple of years ago, we stumbled on a shop window that was showcasing several spare and beautiful pieces of handcrafted furniture. With classic mid-century proportions they felt oddly familiar, but they were also refreshingly new.
They turned out to be the work of David Pierce of OHIO Design. Pierce is a Bay Area furniture maker with a streamlined style that evokes the organic modernism and fine craftsmanship of George Nakashima.
OHIO's quality is comparable to De La Espada or DWR but prices are in the Room & Board range, starting at $190 for the versatile and sculptural "Blocky" and ranging up to about $1700 for a queen bed.
Flash forward to Fall '07. OHIO's moved to a space in the Mission, and Pierce is seeing customers on an appointment basis only. Not only is he prepping a 6,000-square foot retail showroom (scheduled to open this fall), he's working on an exciting project that's going to rock the hospitality world -- but that we can't tell you about yet.
The new store will stock the entire line, including plywood pieces wittily embellished with photographic images. These pieces use OHIO's proprietary "PrintFurniture" process to make some poetic and tongue-in-cheek statements about their provenance. Some are branded with images of their source trees (complete with taxonomic descriptions), others with hyper-scaled termites. (Custom furniture-tattooing is possible, but Pierce encourages customers to work "through the OHIO filter.") The printed line was a big hit at ICFF in 2005.
Stay tuned to AT:SF for news of the big opening, and the big project. In the meantime, Pierce's furniture can be viewed online and ordered by phone or e-mail. He'll also be at Dwell on Design this coming weekend.
(Edited from a post originally published 05.02.06)
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Wow, this sounds quite exciting. I look forward to the store opening :)
David's furniture is cool. It has BDDW aesthetic at a better price, and he has a green attitude to materials used. You can custom the print image pieces w/ a photo of your own, which makes for a piece of furniture w/ your own imprint & special meaning rather than being just another pretty piece for the home.
Anybody know if he'll customize the size of the Nakashima-esque natural bench? (Or maybe the wood slabs he uses are already pre-cut and finished?) Love it, would want it wider to use as a coffee table. And the price is fan-frickin'-tastic!
$190 for a bedside table that is a big piece of wood...
I can't get past that.
view thursday's profile
I am in love with blocky!!!
view Keisha Kornbread's profile
I purchased a custom bed (sort of a mix of their two bed designs) and two shelving units from OHIO last winter. Very happy with all of the purchases. I'm looking forward to visiting the new showroom that next time I'm up in the bay area.
view Brian's profile