Ted Boerner didn’t set out to become a trendsetting furniture designer. After studying acting and dance, he changed “scripts,” so to speak, and received his BFA in theater design from the University of West Virginia. From there, he headed to New York University, where he continued his studies as a grad student. Not far into the program, Boerner tired of the “Great White Way” and moved back to his birthplace of Wisconsin to become the production designer for a classical repertory theater. Building fictional worlds for Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Chekov’s “Marriage Proposal,” and Rogers & Hammerstein’s “South Pacific,” among others, became Boerner’s life for the next five years.
Looking for a more stable career and home life, Boerner set his sights on California. “I left the East Coast and the theater, and headed for the West Coast,” says the 47-year-old designer. “I no longer wanted to design for fictional characters, but for actual people.”
His talent for stage design landed him a job at the San Francisco-based interior design firm of Candra Scott and Associates. There, Boerner applied the techniques he learned from theater production to devise unique design solutions for boutique hotels, fashionable restaurants, high-profile corporations and tony residences. “My theater background allowed me to view the design problem from a different perspective,” he says. “The only real difference is that interior design is less fantastic and more realistic than the stage.”
His endless search for the perfect piece drove the designer to the drawing board. “It took less time to design the piece from scratch — and it was much more rewarding,” he says.
Boerner launched his eponymous furniture studio, Ted Boerner, Inc., in San Francisco in 1988, added business partner Frank Pontes in 1993, and opened a namesake showroom in New York’s trendy SoHo district in 2003.
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Today, 45 pieces comprise his collection of seating, beds, tables, casegoods and more. Noted for their clean lines and sleek silhouettes, Boerner’s “classic contemporary” designs, as he describes them, illustrate his reverence for all styles. Influences from African and Japanese folk art, American rustic, Art Deco, and Shaker styles can be seen in his body of work.
Though these sources provide endless inspiration, it is the accidental encounter that most often arouses his creativity. For instance, a vacation to Turkey’s ancient ruins was the genesis for the “Block” table.
“The way in which the ruined columns had been reconstructed ‘out of register’ suggested both strength and randomness,” Boerner says. By alternating polished and rough-textured wood, he created a table base made of seemingly haphazardly stacked blocks and topped it with a white solid surface.
Gracing residences around the world, Boerner’s furniture can also be found in institutional, commercial and hospitality venues. His club chairs and barstools provide the seating in executive
boxes at the Baltimore Rave Seattle Mariners
stadiums, and his designs enhance the décor of restaurants such as Emeril’s in New Orleans and the Monkey Bar in New York. Ho-tels and resorts, including the W Hotel in Atlanta, Rex Hotel in San Francisco, and the Manhattan Hotel in Tokyo, also invite guests to take a seat in one of his designs. Celebrity Cruise Lines chose his “Spiral” chairs, one of the company’s best-selling pieces, to decorate its Miami headquarters.
Boerner’s complete line can be purchased at showrooms in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Boston, Seattle and Kansas City,
Mo. In Florida, J. Batchelor at the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach carries his pieces.
In addition, Boerner has licensing agreements with Design Within Reach, Brownstone, The Wicker Works, Morrison Lighting and The Gardener — all in California — as well as The Farmhouse Collection in Idaho and Directions in Atlanta.
For more information on Boerner, contact J. Batchelor at 954/926-1881 or the stu-dio directly at 415/487-0110. Or, visit the website at www.tedboerner.com.