Nakashima Auction Blog in Men's Vogue

ABOUT
Samuel Moyer is out to change the way we look at modern furniture. He's built a shelf unit that presents the laws of physics as a design aesthetic and he's built a daybed whose aesthetic seems to break those laws. He takes minimalism, normally cold and standoffish, and gives it warmth. He takes 100-plus year old wood and introduces it to the 21st century. And he does it all by hand out of his Downtown L.A. furniture studio. Though Sam was born in the 70s, the strip mall boxiness and drab utilitarian cubes that are symbolic of the era were not really a part of his childhood backdrop. He was surrounded instead by the history and old architecture of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His grandfather owned a junkyard and it was there that Sam realized he had a natural aptitude for woodworking and a desire to do just that. During his childhood, Sam nurtured an in-depth, hands-on appreciation of his surroundings. “I've always been a 'dirty hands' guy,” he says.

As a teenager, Sam attended George School, a prep school established by Quakers in 1893. While there, under the tutelage of the Pennsylvania furniture maker Carter Sio, he began to hone his inherent skill into genuine craftsmanship and then learned to apply that craftsmanship to creative and original design. In the late 90s, after studying architecture at Brown University, Sam started working with the New Jersey Barn Company, a Princeton-based business that rescues buildings 100-250 years old and rebuilds them piece-by-piece in a new location. “I don't believe in dismembering historical buildings just to retrieve the wood.”
“Surplus lumber from restoration projects has been a primary source of material and inspiration for me,” Sam says. “A lot of my wood actually came from buildings I worked on.”
His first pieces were made from old wood-wood that had already lived one life-that was destined for the dumpster. The very first piece he made was a massive dining room table constructed from three huge white oak planks once used as ramps to get tractors on the backs of trucks. Since moving to Los Angeles, Sam has steadily built up a clientele and earned a reputation as a one-of-a-kind furniture designer. In L.A., New York and beyond, a cadre of artists, actors, clothing designers, producers, physicians, CEOs and writers eagerly await the next Samuel Moyer Furniture creation.
Until now, Sam had only done custom pieces for people lucky enough to know him. Recently, however, Samuel Moyer introduced his 'Hello Collection' at select locations in Los Angeles. The Scarlett Daybed, made from black walnut and white oak, is a study on how a mortise and tenon joint should be done. The platform, on which rests a one-piece, 4” thick, leather-upholstered cushion, appears to levitate over the legs, giving the daybed a light and somewhat minimal look without belying the piece's extreme sturdiness.
The 84” tall Inside/Out Shelves are a triumph of engineering and craftsmanship. The George Nakashima-inspired skeleton-style shelf unit features 4 black walnut shelves 'growing' from a 2” inner spine, also in black walnut. The piece is important and artistic-two adjectives sorely missing from descriptions of much of today's furniture.
From the front, the Evening Sideboard appears to rest on upright toothpicks. It is not until you look at the profile of the piece that you realize the thin, delicate legs are each actually one plank of walnut, honed and hand-planed to razor thinness. The grain of the doors runs uninterrupted across the sideboard's face; they easily slide open and closed with nothing more than a whisper of fingertips. Sam's Evening Sideboard measures 49” L x 12” D x 30” H and comes in black walnut and chestnut with ebony accents. It is also available in walnut and cherry or cherry and poplar.
Much of the wood that Sam is using today comes from his personal stock of antique timbers that he has kept from his days with the New Jersey Barn Company. “The wood leads,” Sam says, “If you study it long enough, it will reveal what it must become.” When you look at Sam's pieces in person, you can see the history of the wood; you can feel our history in the wood. This peculiar characteristic produces something close to a moment of Zen. There is a balance that can be struck between form and function; a balance between physics and art, and Samuel Moyer has found it.

STORES
Haven Interior Therapy 2416 Victory Park Lane Dallas, TX 75219 (214) 954-1515 website

MediaNoche 1200 N Alvarado Street Los Angeles, CA 90026 (213) 353-4995 website

Show 1722 N. Vermont Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90027 (323) 644-1960 website

Silho Furniture 142 N. La Brea Los Angeles, CA 90036 (323) 935-9955 website