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.
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.
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."
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."