Reagan Hayes New Furniture Line Captures the Best of Past and Present

"It’s hard to keep the line between the past and the present." – Little Edie Beale

Back in May, I wrote about a particularly perfect Matthew Hilton sofa, “One moment it’s traditional and tailored, the next time you look it’s modern.” As a starting point, the same can be said of the beautiful new pieces from L.A.–based designer Reagan Hayes — but there’s more. Hayes’ work is a skillful handling of a delicate connection between past and present. For example, the Charles Lounge, above, is a simplicity of forms — a cube and half-cylinder — given depth of interest with classic details — tapered legs, dark wood and a sweet nailhead trim. It seems so simple, but few designers succeed at this. (Barbara Barry and Michael Vanderbyl come to mind as masters of this approach.) Hayes obvious obsession with detail and evolved sense of form is enough to get even a committed modernist like your’s truly to start thinking about how Charles would look with my Paul Frankl cocktail table!

You can read more about Reagan Hayes at our sister mag, FurnitureToday.com.

The post about the Oscar sofa from designer Matthew Hilton is here.