Think about ready-to-assemble design. What comes to mind?
(Be honest.)
Three things usually pop up: box-shaped furniture that’s one generation removed from wooden crates, instructions so difficult to follow that a list of contractors should be included, and wobbly furniture that needs a folded napkin under one leg to keep it on an even keel.
Sound familiar? For many people, any one or all three of these scenarios hit close to home when it comes to furniture tagged with “some assembly required.”
But Blu Dot’s ready-to-assemble pieces put a modern, good-looking spin on mass-produced, assembly-required designs. Instead of bland, complicated and wobbly furniture, Blu Dot delivers pieces made of steel, sandblasted glass and wood that rock with the creative energy of two architects–Maurice Blanks, 32, and Charlie Lazor, 33–and a sculptor with an MBA, John Christakos, 33.
The three met 14 years ago as underclassmen at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and were united by their love of modern design. After their post-graduate studies, the trio found their appreciation for modern design had deepened and grown–unfortunately, beyond their ability to buy the kinds of styles they admired.
Their solution was to make their own furniture. And that is what led to the birth of Blu Dot–a company that produces “modernist-inspired and affordable furniture that’s elegant and well-made.”
“We don’t see ourselves as only ready-to-assemble,” Blanks says. “It just happens to be the way that we manufacture the pieces that put us in that category.”
“We’re designing for longevity, looking for elemental solutions to everyday needs,” adds Lazor.
Blu Dot has an eye-catching and identifiable style. Introduced last year at furniture design shows in High Point, N.C., and New York, it quickly caught the attention of the Minneapolis-based furniture chain Room & Board; Inner View, a furniture store on Chicago’s North Side; and people behind the scenes of NBC-TV’s popular sitcom “Friends.”
The company’s fun, hip Uptown Cocktail Table and Uptown Sideboard now can be spotted Thursday nights in Joey and Chandler’s apartment.
“This is the group we’re targeting . . . the kind of people who watch this show, those in their 20s and 30s who are setting up new homes and want the modern, good looks without the expensive prices,” says Christakos, the company’s president. “We were pleased to find out that the designers from the show purchased Uptown for the set. It’s a humorous show and is a good fit for us.
“We don’t want to take ourselves too seriously, and try to put humor in the work we do and make our designs both fun and functional.”
That kind of thinking is what led to the company’s name.
“We had a bunch of names and they all sounded a little too trendy–like a microbrewery or snowboarding company. Iron Dot Design–goofy names like that,” says Christakos, a dad-to-be who soon will be having to decide on a baby’s name. “I don’t know how we came to Blu Dot, but graphically it lent itself well to a logo and brand. And the low-brow connotations–to blue collar and blue-plate special–that connotation was good.”
As for the simple monikers for Blu Dot pieces (among them Chicago, Detroit and Uptown): Thank the threesome’s love of the Midwest and its “basic, straightforward” affect, Christakos says.
The jazzy Uptown pieces that have made friends with the TV crowd actually are named for a section of Minneapolis, where the firm is based. (New Yorkers, don’t flatter yourselves.) And what could be more fitting for Blu Dot’s all-steel, industrial-looking pieces than the name Detroit?
And then there’s Chicago.
It’s the name given to the simple and boxy pieces made of cherry veneer or Baltic birch and tubular steel. And it’s also what designer Blanks and his namesake architectural firm call home.
Like their furniture, the Blu Dot principals are also ready-to-assemble.
Blanks, who earned a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago, heads up to Minneapolis once a month for “design get-togethers” with Christakos and Lazor, who only recently relocated from Phoenix. There the trio tosses around stockpiled ideas.
“We design collaboratively, so none of our pieces has been designed solely by any one,” Christakos says. “We find ourselves together enough to keep the dialogue going.”
The dialogue keeps things simple with clean, geometric forms, warm woods and sandblasted glass that soften the strictness of the geometry, and lend sensuality and texture to the company’s cool, fashion-forward style.
It keeps things affordable by creating furniture components in multiples, using mass-production methods, and shipping flat (eliminating the need for large storage facilities). Prices start at $49 for the Perf Magazine Rack and top out at $1,599 for the Chicago 8 Box Wall Unit; the average retail price is around $400.
And the dialogue keeps new pieces coming–all with the same emphasis on versatility, good design, affordability and easy assemblage.
Since its debut last year, several new pieces have been added to Blu Dot’s original 15-piece collection. The new designs, which include a metal and wood bed and a media unit, will be unveiled at the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, N.C., in April.
“The assembly is as easy as before,” Christakos says. “That’s as important to us as the design. Simple, clean, good looks is what we’re about.”
This isn’t just talk. The ready-to-assemble instructions are so easy that Blu Dot begins some with “Close your eyes.” The instructions for the Detroit Cocktail Table begin with “This is too easy.” There’s no more than three lines and a three-picture diagram.
And it really is easy. Assembly takes only a few minutes, even for the not-ready-to-assemble assembler, and the end result is a sturdy table that has a cool, steady style.
Clever is as clever does
The standout looks, use of natural materials and clever design elements are things that attracted Room & Board to Blu Dot’s style, says Beth Brewer, merchandise manager at Minneapolis-based Room & Board, which has sold Blu Dot furnishings almost from the company’s start.
On the Uptown Sideboard and Uptown Cocktail Table, sandblasted glass tops create mini-display cases for decorative tableware, collectibles, art.
The Squeeze Top Table (“We’d run out of cities by that point,” quips Christakos) makes use of the flex of steel for easy assembly: Just pull the two steel sides open and drop the wood top in. Likewise with the Clip Top Cocktail Table.
Neither requires any hardware to assemble.
“In the beginning, we were defensive about being called a ready-to-assemble company because you generally don’t think good things when you think of the designs,” Christakos says.
But now, he says, “we don’t try to explain ourselves in this category. We know our style separates us from others.”
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Blu Dot pieces are available at Inner View, 906 W. Belmont Ave., 773-871-2456.
The company’s Perf Magazine Rack, Stackable File, CD Holder and Clip Table are sold at Room & Board stores.
