First Look at our Thin Edge Bed and homage to George Nelson (1908-1986)

Nelson bed made by Greg Aanes Furniture

​Our Lizzie Bed owes its heritage to George Nelson also. At this point I see yet another design on the horizon based on this theme.

Lizzie bed by Greg Aanes Furniture

It was 1954 when George Nelson created his Thin Edge group of designs for Herman Miller Furniture Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dirk DePree, the Chairman of Herman Miller, had selected Nelson to be the company's Director of Design despite Nelson having no experience designing furniture.  DePree was more interested in Nelson’s insight into the best way to make furniture innovative and useful. Nelson was offered a contract that allowed him the freedom to work outside of Herman Miller, and to use designs from other architects that Nelson had worked with. His Thin Edge Group is still sold today by Herman Miller. It is also being made by nummerous offshore manufacturers and sold through Design Within Reach and Hive and takeoffs of this design may be found at West Elm and HedgeHouse. I have observed a few things regarding these takeoffs and the mass manufactured versions. The price seems nice, but once all the boxes arrive on your doorstep and you are assembling the bed the construction might seem minimalist. In other words lots of lightweight fasteners between the pieces allow for loosening and movement.  They are a good value given what you pay, but bed joints not immutably fastened only become more and more loose. And with the weight of a few people the stress on the joints multiplies.

But back to the designer. In his time George Nelson seemed not only unconventional and tastefully noncommercial, but at times negative. "...the career of an architect who advocated the end of architecture, a furniture designer who imagined rooms without furniture, an urban designer who contemplated the hidden city, an industrial designer who questioned the future of the object and hated the obsession with products."