Wood-and-Steel Furniture Designer Tries His Hand at Leather

As such, the 38-year-old is drawn to wood, glass, metal, and steel. Lurie, who grew up in Southern California and has spent three years working in Tokyo, is a well-seasoned traveler constantly inspired by his surroundings. Currently, he finds illumination in the Windy City’s industrial past: “Chicago has a strong history of manufacturing, and steel and glass are two big elements of the buildings here. Those materials certainty influence my current aesthetic.” Lurie’s best-selling piece is his easy-to-assemble, flat-pack Primo shelving system, which does away with hardware and fasteners. While the designer is accustomed to creating clean, uncomplicated pieces made of wood and steel, he is now trying his hand at leather in his new experimental pieces debuting in Miami this moth at the first-ever Maison & Objet Americas fair (May 12-15). Of the stools, Lurie says, “They’re taking me in a new direction. They’re quite upright, and feature a frame that the loose slung leather gets stretched around, sort of in the way that a canvas is stretched.