Sonrisa Furniture

Kim Cooper

Citysearch

The Scene
Clean lines and bright surfaces delight the eye inside this handsome showroom, where metal fetishists caress the tops of mid-century desks and dream of dragging them home.

The Goods
Sonrisa's Spanish name reflects the shop's 1970s origins as a showcase for Mexican folk art. Since the early '90s, the focus has switched to the neglected art of 1930s-1950s industrial furniture. The owners, Burke and Peggy Byrnes, scour the country rescuing obsolete desks, office chairs and shelving from schools, factories and scrap-metal yards. Stripping off years of caked-on paint and then making judicious use of the electric buffer, they reveal the bright steel, which gleams out from classic anonymous designs. They've also introduced several original lines of metal furniture inspired by historical pieces, including David Barth's racy aluminum Beat Modern and Square1 designs.