Walnut and white lacquer- once again, what’s old is now new again. A past trend from the 50s-60s, walnut and white lacquer furniture is now making a comeback in furniture and consumer products, and was recently seen at this past season’s modern trade shows – Dwell on Design in Los Angeles and ICFF in New York. In addition, modern stores are starting to stock their warehouses with walnut and white lacquer pieces and judging by the crowd’s reaction and what I have overheard on Twitter, the demand for walnut furniture is on a rise and will continue.
Today’s furniture designers are looking back to the 60s and are changing very little to the silhouettes other than modernizing the hardware mechanisms and adding modern day amenities such as audio and wifi capabilities. I’m sure that if I mixed up the old and the new pictures of furniture below, that many would mistake the old for the new and vice versa.
Most modern rooms tend to look cold and stark. The beauty and appeal of walnut and white lacquer is that it looks modern, but the wood tones provides instant warmth to a room. I love it best when the walnut looks natural – unvarnished but only sealed to protect it from stains.
In addition, I recently finished an install in Los Angeles on a custom high gloss white lacquer desk with a mitered walnut top and solid walnut bookshelves that I designed. Once everything is styled, I’ll share a pic – it looks great!
