This New Frank Lloyd Wright–Inspired Furniture Is Surprisingly Affordable
Frank Lloyd Wright sought to inspire the American middle class to live a more beautiful life—and his Usonian homes and the furniture he designed for them supported his goal of making good design accessible to everyone.
While Wright’s architecture is well known, his textile and furniture designs are somewhat less exposed. Fortunately, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has teamed up with Inside Weather to launch Usonia—a capsule collection of affordable furnishings inspired by Wright’s Usonian designs, with special nods to Fallingwater, the Honeycomb House, and Taliesin West.
The Edgar Lounge Chair is an homage to the Edgar Kaufmann House, more commonly known as Fallingwater. The design is upholstered in shades favored by Wright, and it features cantilever construction and wooden slats underneath to store magazines.
The collection is manufactured in the USA by Inside Weather—a direct-to-consumer furniture brand that launched in December 2018. The company offers accessibly-priced pieces that are made in America, so they were a natural fit for the collaboration.
The collection’s simple design and accessible price point achieves one of Wright’s major goals: beautiful design at a moderate cost.
Inspired by Taliesin West, the West Ottoman honors Wright’s former home and fellowship headquarters.
"The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation reached out to us about a year ago, as they were looking to work with a US-based brand that had a similar ethos/mission—providing simple, effective, and beautiful designs at an accessible price point," explains Inside Weather’s CEO Ben Parsa. "We really hit the ground running with their team, and it’s been a collaborative process to design the Usonia collection."
The furniture is manufactured in California. Inside Weather offers free shipping and states that the pieces can be assembled in minutes.
The Hanna Side Table is inspired in part by Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1936 Hanna House, also known as the Honeycomb House for its hexagonal design.
Upholstery designs based on Wright’s 1955 textiles will be available later this spring.
To create the collection, the Foundation and Inside Weather dove into Frank Lloyd Wright’s product archives and architectural designs. Now, after a year of working through details, Usonia is launching—and according to the brand, this is just the beginning. "We’re very excited about the partnership, and there’s more to come," says Parsa. "Our product development team is currently working on more FLW-inspired designs that will launch over the next few months."
Three designs in the Usonia collection are currently available for preorder.
Select items from the collection are available in limited quantities for preorder starting April 10. In addition, 16 print upholstery options based on Wright’s 1955 textile designs will be available later this Spring, and additional silhouettes and categories will launch shortly thereafter.
Customers will be able to customize textile designs and choose from additional silhouettes.
Prices range from $29-$1048. See the full USONIA collection on Inside Weather.
Related Reading:
Shop 10 Brand-New Products From the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
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