Aeron Chair Tips and Resources

It's been a long time since a new furniture design has grabbed as much attention and praise as Herman Miller's innovative Aeron chair. Designed by Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick and introduced in 2001, the radically different office chair replaces padded upholstery with a strong, shape-retaining mesh skin called Pellicle.

Aeron recently became the latest addition to the contemporary decorative arts collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston - a first for an office chair. Explaining its inclusion, curator Katherine Howe said, "The Aeron represents something completely new, something that will make a difference. (It) is a superb example of the marriage between innovative materials and sophisticated design that is so much a part of our late-20th-century world."

The chair is the first object selected through a collaboration of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers and the MFA. The joint effort will identify outstanding examples of contemporary design, which ASID then will acquire for the museum by purchase or donation. Harriet Coulson currently chairs the ASID committee.

Treece Tate and Russ Fabiani of Herman Miller were instrumental in getting their company to donate the Aeron to the museum. The chair is also in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Fabiani said that when Aeron debuted, it was so strikingly different that some people called it "a fly swatter on wheels."

Designer Michael Dale, a member of the MFA decorative arts subcommittee, called Aeron's design "representative of our times, the computer technology age."

From ornate and traditional to sleek and sexy, the stylistic mix includes authentic Chinese elements, colonial charm and modern Tiger economy. For anyone fascinated by this changing city, Private Hong Kong offers an armchair home tour to relish.

If you frown upon rustic, weathered tables and doors with paint peeling away to bare wood, you probably won't appreciate Austin authors Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr's exploration of the appeal of old furnishings from Mexico. But these two have spent years in small towns and country villages, sifting among utilitarian vessels and carved objects that reflect rich local history.

As importers, designers, antiques dealers and now authors, Witynski and Carr are at the forefront of the escalating Mexican antiques movement. Along with design ideas, their book includes information on identifying, buying, restoring and preserving Mexican antiques, plus a comprehensive resource guide.