If you’ve seen the movie Please Give — in which a New York dealer in mid-century modern furniture loses sleep over sourcing her treasures from the deceased — you’ll know those who trade in mid-mod classics risk being subject to buyers’ remorse (or maybe that’s just if you live in Manhattan and are generally angst-ridden anyway).
Chris Howard doesn’t appear to be wracked with any doubts over his new project: a Berkeley store to showcase and sell his collection of mainly 1950s furniture. It will be called “Krismobler” and the storefront, on the corner of Adeline and Ashby in the Lorin furniture district (above), is alreay advertising its imminent arrival.
Howard already sells his furniture — which might include Danish classics such as Hans Wegner and American pieces by Paul Frankl — from his Friday and Saturday warehouse sales at his studio at 2007 Emerson Street. He also restores and upholsters mid-mod furniture. Customers are a mix of locals and a bridge and tunnel crowd from San Francisco.
Howard says to look for an August opening.
