Rob Gini’s passion for both modern and mid-century modern (MCM) design echoes the world’s fascination with a design style that will never go out of fashion. He and business partner Felipe Florez are bringing homeowners a new opportunity to shop both styles in one location.
The popular Direct Furniture Modern Home located in the West Midtown Design District has evolved into a new store format that brings more of Gini’s passion for MCM furniture to the area. Called The Modernist Design Collective, this multi-dealer store carries the widest range of furniture, lighting, home accents and found accessories in both new modern and vintage MCM styles than previously stocked in one location in the metro area.
Once an industrial hub of factories and warehouses, the West Midtown Design District draws design enthusiasts with its revitalized buildings that house art galleries, industrial loft apartments and artisan home furnishings retail shops.
While much of the world incorporated the MCM style into its homes during the post-World War II era, it was especially embraced in the United States when affluent families moved out of the cities and into the suburbs. MCM style featured sleek furniture lines, bold colors and muted earth tones, geometric shapes, minimal ornamentation and ergonomic design. It was a period when manufacturers fused never-before-used plastic, acrylic, fiberglass and Lucite into their wood furniture designs. Fabrics such as vinyl, polyester, wool, velvet and bouclé took center stage.
The furniture was a perfect fit for original MCM architecture, where low footprints, flat rooflines, floor-to-ceiling windows to take in nature’s views, exposed ceilings and beams, and open floor plans ruled the day. If this architectural description sounds a lot like today’s modern home styles, it certainly is. That’s why MCM furniture and today’s modern designs work so well together, according to Gini. “Our goal is to help homeowners blend original mid-century furniture with furniture from the post-modern resurgence of the 1980s and ’90s, as well as with modern furniture built today by reputable brands like Four Hands, BDI, Younger Furniture, Gus*, Blu Dot and Innovation Living. We carry all of the eras of modern furniture on the showroom floor of The Modernist Design Collective,” he says.
Two established companies—Direct Furniture Modern Home and Beaux Arts Home—anchor the showroom floor at The Modernist Design Collective, while 34 other dealers offer vintage furniture, clothing and accessories. Direct Furniture Modern Home and Beaux Arts Home offer cash-and-carry and immediate delivery straight from the sales floor. Vintage dealers are from across the Southeast and West, and they update their vintage finds in the store weekly. The showroom is divided into “neighborhoods” accessed by two separate entrances, one for new furniture and one for vintage finds. Shoppers can find new furniture in the Upper Westside and West Village parts of the store; vintage finds are located through a separate entrance that leads to the Uptown, Downtown and The Village neighborhoods. “We are very selective and vet our dealers to ensure we have the best of the best in modern furniture, lighting and accessories available in our store,” says Florez. “In the end, it means our Direct Furniture Modern Home customers now have more options to create one-of-a-kind homes.”
While Direct Furniture Modern Home has been serving customers by providing new modern furniture for 15 years, Gini and Florez launched The Modernist Design Collective just a year ago as they continue to expand their product offerings focused entirely on modern furniture. The new Collective’s “neighborhoods” encompass 30,000 square feet of modern looks for today’s homes.
“MCM furniture is not just for older homes built during the 1950s and ’60s,” Gini says. “Blending the new and the old works well in any style home. The lines of MCM furniture are so sleek and minimalistic that they blend beautifully into transitional and traditional homes, easily mixing with these different architectural styles. Because of their clean lines, MCM furnishings will always be in style.”
Shoppers can expect a wide range of vintage colors, such as the 1940s and ’50s bright teal and lime furnishings, and the more subdued earth tones of the ’60s, such as olive and brown. New furnishings encompass a variety of colorways but always have the sleek, organic shapes reflective of MCM’s focus on functionality, comfort and efficiency.
Gini joined Florez in 2017 after managing several furniture retail concepts in West Midtown. His fascination with mid-century design began in New York in the mid-1990s. “Before I moved to Atlanta, my wife and I started collecting mid-century modern furniture via the 26th Street Flea Market in New York City,” Gini says. “When I started working in Atlanta, we found a mid-century house in which to raise our kids. My passion shifted to blending vintage found objects with new modern pieces. That’s when I joined Felipe, and together we decided to update and expand the format of the store. Our goal is to become the preeminent local resource for all things modern, new and vintage.”
They saw a void in the marketplace, with some local stores closing. “I know a lot of mid-century dealers and wanted a place for them to have a home. Forming The Modernist Design Collective with Felipe was a chance to take my personal passion and bring together vintage modern dealers in one place that is easily shoppable and friendly for homeowners. The Modernist Design Collective is the perfect evolution of the Direct Furniture Modern Home brand,” Gini says.
Another group of customers besides homeowners and designers have become fans and shoppers at The Modernist Design Collective. Film and TV producers find the vintage furnishings are perfect for period-specific broadcast and movie sets to bring the authentic aura of the mid-20th century to their productions. Florez and Gini welcome all and are constantly working with their dealers to showcase new finds.
“A one-stop collective resource makes it easy for homeowners to find that one piece of modern furniture to complete a space or to update an entire home,” says Gini. “We love to help homeowners embellish their homes to create unique statements. Our trained staff is ready to assist in blending new modern and vintage modern furnishings to get the feel homeowners are looking for in their own homes.” *
Dana W. Todd is a professional writer specializing in interior design, real estate, luxury homebuilding, landscape design, architecture and fine art.