Bedroom Set

For most of my undergrad, I spent my time on smaller consumer products. By the time my senior project came, I wanted to do something more permanent, more significant: furniture.

While I love the simplicity and rawness of abstract modern design, it can alienate a lot of people. I wanted to make something inoffensive and easy for more people to live with. To do something modern, I felt I had to really soften the details.

No visible hardware; hardware turns things into machines.
No hard edges; it had to look pleasant to touch.

I decided on a bedroom set. Everyone is familiar with bedroom furniture, and a bedroom is where people want to feel the safest. It would be a good place to evaluate if it still felt safe and welcoming, despite it's minimalism.

I usually hate built-in furniture. Past the veneer, it's utilitarian without the utility. They are not space efficient despite their mating to walls, and they become part of a house instead of an heirloom you can invest sentiment in. Built-in closets are the worst culprits (they don't even try to be anything), so I started with a scale model of closet/wardrobe.

A few things that turned out well:

It's completely static. No doors or hinges. Nothing needs to be hid. Clothing is a wonderfully interesting kit of items that builds over. Displaying them can be a small window into the wearer.

Every major joint is a logical material change (except the back of the shoe pegs). This gives reason for the joints to be exact and simple. I could argue that if they were the same material, shouldn't they be one piece? Obviously construction purposes dictate otherwise, but those are just our present making limitations, irrespective of pure design.

There are no hard edges. The edges of the planes and the dowels have the same radius.

I made the rest of the bedroom set to match. Note:

The bottom mattress on the bed is a scaled US twin.
The chair includes a foot rest.
The desk has no hidden spaces.
The basket on the bookshelf was needed to visually anchor the shelves and make it feel like a piece comfortable standing on its own.

The set turned out nice. However, scaling it up has potential problems. The bars become large, heavy, and difficult to work with. Attachment is an issue. And it seems to lose some of that cute friendliness that is easy with tiny things.

The feedback on these models has been positive, with suggestions to fully develop the project. We’ll see.