Developed between 1991 and 1992, Searstyle grew from Constantin and Laurene Boym's fascination with the overlooked visual language of everyday American interiors. While staying in a modest house on Vinalhaven, Maine, they became captivated by what they later described as the powerful strangeness of the interior. Rather than dismissing this environment as ordinary or outdated, they recognized it as a uniquely American vernacular that had largely been ignored by contemporary design.

The project took shape after the Boyms began experimenting with Sears furniture replacement parts through its mail-order catalog. Instead of using these pieces for repair, they ordered backs, seats, arms, cushions, and frames directly from the catalog, recombining them into entirely new forms supported by custom built wooden structures. The resulting furniture felt simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar - built from recognizable parts, yet unlike anything Sears had ever produced.

As the Boyms wrote, the altered proportions and unexpected juxtapositions brought "the Sears aesthetics back into the present, with a knowing wink to and warm embrace of the familiar." Rather than parodying American domestic taste, Searstyle treated it as a rich cultural archive, demonstrating that innovation can emerge not only through new forms, but through looking differently at the ones that already surround us.

Visiting Maine:

"In the summer of 1991 we spent a week on the island of Vinalhaven, Maine... The nondescript domestic interior of that Maine house, complete with wood grain paneling, brown shag carpeting, and traditional furniture, suddenly revealed its powerful strangeness. We realized with amazement how this uniquely American vernacular has failed to find any reflection in contemporary design language."

THE CATALOG AS MATERIAL:

Sears promoted replacement parts as an economic and practical way to repair worn furniture. Boym Partners disrupted that logic by ordering components without their intended wholes. A back no longer had to correspond to its original seat, an arm could migrate to another structure, a cushion could determine the proportions of an entirely new piece.

This act of separation made each component newly visible. Parts ordinarily subordinated to a finished product became independent forms with their own shapes, textures, and cultural identities. Through recombination, the Boyms exposed the hidden modularity of mass-produced furniture while creating objects that could not be found on any catalog page.

Searstyle takes seriously a visual world that contemporary design had largely ignored. Its wood tones, patterned fabrics, padded arms, and catalog-selected finishes belong to the interiors of family homes, waiting rooms and suburban living rooms rather than the conventional history of avant-garde design.

The Boyms recognized that this perceived sense of ordinary was itself culturally meaningful. Sears furniture had shaped how countless Americans understood comfort, respectability, and the appearance of their home. By returning these components to view, Searstyle preserved a domestic history by reframing it. 

The work neither celebrates nor condemns this design language outright. Instead, it allows affection and irony to coexist. The combinations feel uncanny and new, yet the furniture remains inviting because every component carries the memory of something familiar.

“Initially, Boym’s undertaking may seem merely amusing, but it really is extremely subtle. It takes its place among the most cultured analyses of American Life.”

- Luca Forno, Domus

SEARSTYLE EXHIBITIONS:

In 1994 on the site of the world’s largest furniture fair, German design impresario Mattias Dietz and famed Barcelona retailer Fernando Amat exhibited the Searstyle collection. Pieces from the collection were presented around a special pedestal which displayed a copy of the Sears catalog for the public to peruse. In Frankfurt the collection was surrounded with formica flags and a large sign that read “Everything Must Go,” while the other in Barcelona was a more introverted and moodier setting within an enclosed room. 

“Husband” Chair

A conceptual and functional piece made up of an upholstered chair cushion commonly called “husband” attached to a stark, rectilinear wooden seat and four-legged frame. The abrupt meeting of plush comfort and rigid structure makes the object appear simultaneously finished and incomplete. This is the true meeting point of irony and affection and quickly became one of the most popular pieces of Searstyle. Philippe Starck requested a set of sofas and chairs for the lounge of his restaurant “Theatron” in Mexico City.

Mr. Chaise

Two sets of catalog-sourced upholstered cushions are distributed across a newly constructed wooden framework based on the proportions of a corbusier lounge. The work borrows the promise of leisure associated with bauhaus lounge furniture while exposing the independent parts from which that promise is constructed decades later through the American & Sears perspective.

Chair and Footstool

Components with different colors, materials, and intended uses are placed together as a coordinated seating group. The leather, chrome, and wood in their mismatched appearances resembles the gradual accumulation of furniture within a real home, where objects rarely arrive as a perfectly unified composition. 

“Husband” Loveseat

A sofa upholstered with a choice of material that resembles woodgrain formica more than upholstery. Simplistic yet uncanny - matching “husband” cushions meant for the floor are placed onto the seat. Expectations and associations are altered, producing a piece of furniture that is familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. 

Coffee Table Book Table

In a world where books are placed on top of tables, Constantin Boym fused the two to create a meta-table which uses a book as the top. In this case, a book of all the presidents of the United States (Washington to Bush). The presidents are a direct metaphor of American culture, now used as a means of functional support and stability. Sketches of Searstyle included other concepts for tables with books as their tops, for example the Holy Bible and also the Sears catalog. 

Woodgrain Formica Table

Woodgrain Formica is a familiar material that combines technological sophistication, economic benefits, and cultural values of the traditional American home. The Boyms investigated these relationships alongside Freud’s theory of connection between the grain of wood and the idea of the woman and the mother. Although simple in construction, this table uses the Formica woodgrain as a way to frame this connection to domesticity.

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