Trained as an artist in Boston before moving to New York in the late 1940s, Paul McCobb made his name designing retail displays and furniture. By the mid-‘50s, he was known as “America’s decorator” and his style — a combination of modern lines and forms with traditional details and motifs — was transforming the burgeoning communities of post-war suburbia
McCobb’s Planner Group — a low-cost, Shaker-inspired furniture line produced for Winchendon in 1950 — was the first modular design to be mass marketed and affordably priced. Using traditional proportions to complement the clean lines of modern plywood furniture, McCobb was able to appeal to a younger generation and their more conservative parents. But because the height of his popularity coincided with the post-war housing boom, his work was produced on a massive scale and went largely overlooked by collectors of mid-century design until a recent spike in interest due, in large part, to baby-boomer nostalgia.
Senn is the owner of Detroit-based R. Senn, Furnituremaker.
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