Stylish acrylic

Many people think of acrylic as just a cheap plastic, but craftsmen know better. They convert the thick transparent material into furniture and other items for domestic use.

These days, acrylic has become a high-end fashion item coveted by many interior designers and their clients.

Take, for example, the table custom-made for singer Elton John’s Atlanta home by Spectrum Ltd., a Washington firm founded by Pete Ross that is one of the largest companies of its kind in the country. Made of six pieces of acrylic 3 inches and 5 inches thick, it has a glass top 84 inches in diameter.

Or look at the sculptural lamps and tables designed by Allan Knight for Creations, a Dallas manufacturer, several of which will be on display at the Baltimore Symphony 2004 Decorators’ Show House when it opens for the public Sunday in the city’s historic English Tudor Manor known as Guilford House.

Creations is completing work on an acrylic-and-glass table for a client of Great Falls interior designer Betsy Stires. Mrs. Stires says her client opted for acrylic and glass in the kitchen of her traditional home so she could see clear through the table to the ceiling-high windows to the beautiful view outside.

The juxtaposition of modern materials and more conventional decor is telling. Whatever their size, such pieces add a dramatic element. Cheap, thin, acrylic, box-shaped tables are a thing of the past, however. Today’s version more likely has thick, curved or rounded legs and a base topped with wood, glass, brass, bamboo, antique mirror or marble. Lamps and vases are similarly configured for the sake of aesthetics.

Apartment Zero in Northwest sells an acrylic lamp fashioned by cutting-edge designer Philippe Starck. Where once acrylic nesting tables only came in clear plastic, now they can be found in colors at Theodore’s Contemporary Interiors, also in Northwest. Janice Kanter, Theodore’s vice president and buyer, identifies the trend of using acrylic as “a resurgence across the board

to the retro-modern look of the 1970s.”

“Such things [as acrylic] come around and go around, but it definitely is coming back,” says Ann Misurella, manager of the Niermann Weeks showroom in the Washington Design Center in Southwest, where the Modern Mix Design House is on view through June 19. (A small acrylic side table that sells for almost $1,800 retail was chosen by the Core Group architecture/design firm for the entry space of the center’s fictional nine-room house.)

“Accent pieces are definitely big news,” Mrs. Misurella confirms. “A lot of designers use them to bring sparkle and light to small spaces. Since acrylic is transparent, apartments or a small town house can be made to seem more spacious. In new, big homes — the ’McMansions’ — the material looks neat because there usually is a lot of light inside them.

“Lucite isn’t inexpensive. It can be far beyond the price of a wood table,” she warns. “Acrylic is a man-made material, but it is not as flexible as you might think. It is molded and bent in very specific ways.”

Theodore’s sells S-shaped dining room chairs for $1,349 each and a low, so-called occasional table for $799. Spectrum makes dining room tables costing upward of $10,000. The Elton John table — named the Bridgetown — is priced at $45,000.

“Acrylic is a generic name referring to a thicker, heavier plastic,” says Joey Robinson, product development head for Allan Knight and Associates, the sister company of Creations. “I have tons of people come in and ask about Lucite, but we don’t deal in it. We produce lines [in generic acrylic] we sell off of. Someone will see a cocktail table and want to change the basic design to make an end table. That is tricky because acrylic is clear and you can’t hide anything — you can’t put screws in it.”

Glue is the customary material used to assemble a piece. Both Creations and Spectrum boast of using a special glue application that helps make flawless seams and prevent bubbles.

Some designs work well in what Mr. Robinson calls fun places, such as an occasional table that can be used inside a bathtub.

“One time we did this really cool table level with the water in a swimming pool. You could be sitting in the pool with a drink by your side on the table. That was really sharp.”

Another intriguing bit of custom work he recalls was the reworking of an all-white Philippe Starck sofa with a high back. The designer asked the firm to cut the legs off the sofa, leaving a wood apron at the bottom that was painted ebony black. A Japanese-style acrylic base was installed under the sofa.

Some older pieces can be found in vintage stores. Kevin Isbell, design director for Repertoire, a home furnishings store in Manhattan’s Soho district, recently bought for himself a 1950s acrylic chaise in Palm Beach weighing, he guesses, about 400 pounds. High fashion acrylic is slowly creeping into consumer consciousness, he says.

“You see it in shops and stores, but not necessarily in Pottery Barn,” he notes.

Acrylic comes in large, thick sheets that are cut to the desired size. Creations imports sheets from Italy; Spectrum mainly uses acrylic from Connecticut. Cheap acrylic imported from Asia has a tendency to become discolored because it is not UV stabilized, Mr. Ross says. Acrylic first came on the market in the 1950s but lost popularity because the earlier versions were not UV stabilized, he notes.

“It came back in the late 1970s and early 1980s and then died,” he says. “Now it seems to have returned.” Trends are driven by magazines and by interior designer tastes.

Mr. Ross directs the design, manufacture and shipment of bases, tables and even beds in an array of shapes at Spectrum’s factory — the size of an airplane hanger in Jessup, Md. — and keeps some of his favorite items in his District home. Spectrum designs can be complicated to make, being composed of as many as 25 separate pieces and weighing between 150 and 300 pounds.

“They’re even bulletproof,” he laughs ruefully.

His best markets currently are Miami, Houston, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, and the most popular styles, he says, are modeled after classic designs like French wood tables. Most beds and other offbeat items are made to order, usually at the request of designers working for high-end clients.