Sam Maloof Dead at 93

Sam Maloof dies at 93

James Erin de Jauregui/For the LA Times

Sam and Beverly Maloof at the Maloof Foundation gardens.

Sam Maloof, a designer and woodworker whose furniture was initially prized for its simplicity and practicality by Southern Californian homeowners in the 1950s and later valued for its beauty and timelessness by collectors, museum curators and U.S. presidents, has died. He was 93. Died, May 21, 2009

Maloof died Thursday at his home in the Alta Loma section of Rancho Cucamonga, his longtime business manager Roz Bock confirmed. No further details were given.

Maloof, whose career began six decades ago just as the American modernism movement was becoming popular, put usefulness before artistry and turned down multimillion-dollar offers to mass-produce his original designs. He worked out of his home workshop, shaping hardwood, one part at a time, into rocking chairs, cradles and hutches that were shorn of unnecessary adornments.

Even after Maloof was recognized as an influential pioneer of contemporary California decor, and even as his furniture was reselling for 100 times its original price, Maloof referred to himself simply as a "woodworker."

Instead of following plans, he matched an image in his head. He refined the shape with hand tools to make the finished piece of furniture comfortable, functional and beautiful. He carefully considered the appearance of every angle of the piece, even chair backs and cabinet interiors, as well as grain pattern and his innovative joinery.

Pieces were assembled without nails or metal hardware. Even hinges and underbracing were wood. Once, to test the strength of the joints for a set of chairs, he made a prototype and dropped it from the roof of his garage onto his driveway. The joints survived.

He didn't believe in keeping trade secrets and was eager to share knowledge earned through trial and error to save what he called "a struggling craftsman" hours of frustration. He turned his 1983 autobiography, "Sam Maloof: Woodworker," into a how-to book with more than 300 photographs. It was followed by a popular instructional video, "Sam Maloof: Woodworking Profile," by Taunton Press, which also publishes Fine Woodworking magazine.

He never wavered from his contemporary design, even when wood furniture lost favor in the plastic-and-chrome 1960s, '70s and '80s.

He said the coldness of factory-made furniture could not compare in warmth and character to wood that a craftsman worked on from start to finish.

Maloof became a furniture maker out of necessity. The newlyweds didn't have money to furnish their first small house in Ontario, so Maloof designed and built an efficient room divider with an attached table and benches. He used discarded fir plywood and oak shipping crates and borrowed tools. Soon friends asked for copies of his no-frills furniture.

Within two years of being self-employed, Better Homes and Gardens published photographs and plans of Maloof's furniture to show readers how to decorate economically.

He was described by the Smithsonian Institution as "America's most renowned contemporary furniture craftsman" and People magazine dubbed him "The Hemingway of Hardwood." But his business card always said "woodworker."