American Modern.

Prewar furnishings did not work in postwar homes. Young people married earlier, had more babies, and moved to suburbia, where the homes were different from town houses or city apartments. Increased building costs shrank room sizes, lowered ceilings, and reduced the number of rooms and closets. Double- duty living areas, more open and spacious rooms, and fewer walls were also the style of the day.

Modern Furniture for the Modern House.

Lower, more simple furniture was needed, and talented architects and designers were more than willing to oblige. Indeed, many of the most influential designers of furniture and home furnishings in the 1950s were architects, for they designed the modern houses that could not be furnished with what was on the market. Today, one refers to 1950s furniture as "American modern" — austere, functional, mass-produced, often of synthetic materials...