Archive for December 2011
Kudzu – A MidCentury Mecca
Posted on: December 28, 2011
Those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s can remember a much simpler world. No cell phones. No internet. No Kardashians.
The furnishings of that time, while not technically ‘antiques’, have nonetheless created their own avid following of collectors, and are now popularly called “mid-century”. The popularity of shows like ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Pan Am’ have helped fueled the craze for midcentury; if you have any doubts about what that design style means, just check out the Emmy Award winning art design for those shows. Sleek lines, abstract design motifs, those classic ‘oranges’ and ‘greens’, imbued with a post-war California moderinism all help to define the classic midcentury look.
So what are some hallmarks of furniture from this period? Heavily influenced by ‘Scandinavian’ design, the lines are clean and balanced, with teak or walnut often the wood of choice. The look is a classic marriage of form and function — at home in almost any contemporary style of décor. Part of the beauty of mid-century is you don’t have to stop with the furniture. Glassware, kitchen items, wall ornamentation, small vintage items . . . your whole house can go completely Lucy and Ricky….and you!
Kudzu has evolved into one of Georgia’s major mid-century furniture meccas, featuring dozens of dealers in its 25,000 sq.ft. who not only feature great midcentury furniture, lighting, and home décor, but at prices far below what you’ll find at ‘midcentury’ shops elsewhere. And Kudzu has just landed a container from Europe partially filled with some of the best Scandinavian midcentury furniture you’ll find anywhere.
So if you’re ‘hip’ to midcentury, groove on in to Kudzu. Flashing a peace sign is optional.
Christmas came early to the ‘Zu this year . . . delivered not by eight reindeer, but by eighteen wheels.
A little history (since, ya know, we are an antique shop): For years Kudzu has been known for good stuff at great prices, but the good stuff has gotten harder and harder to find. So we decided to go straight to the source (or one of them), packed our bags and headed to the ‘old country’. Not only would that afford us the opportunity to hand select unique items, but we’d get them at the best possible price. And hey – it’s a trip to Europe!
This was, however, no vacation. “Antiquing in Europe” sounds all dreamy and cool, right? Leisurely strolls through quaint little shoppes. Matronly owners with clipped British accents. An unending supply of valuable finds and delicate treasures.
Not exactly.
Our trip was largely spent walking endlessly in windy fields and crawling through dark, dirty warehouses. More grueling than glamorous. We shopped some of England’s largest antique fairs – fairs held not in bucolic village squares but in big, huge open fields with thousands of vendors and tens of thousands of items. Think a dozen Sam’s Clubs with no roof. And as for the leisurely strolling . . . have you ever seen one of those contests where the winner goes careening through a store with 5 minutes to fill up a cart with as much stuff as possible? Well, spread that over 5 days, competing against thousands of other buyers, with a 40-foot container to fill up. Do the math.
The good news? It was fun, in an exhausting sort of way. But what was best were the hundreds of items with unique histories we discovered. Victorian signs, English oak furniture, Danish midcentury, Dutch flower buckets, German beer garden tables. A snapshot reflecting the universal language of antique lovers worldwide.
Now it’s all here in Decatur! And we can’t wait for you to come in and experience some of your own joy of discovery. We won’t even make you stand in a field.
kudzuantiques.com
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