Daystrom Furniture - Like, tubular.

So that's who made those chromed steel and aluminum kitchen sets with tubular legs. Daystrom. This stuff has been tarred and feathered with the stigma of lameness so that it's hard - even for me - to like it. But I still find a way. Shocking, huh?
In crime-type TV shows, the investigators generally track down an accomplice to his trailer home with three flat tires. I promise you that when the agents the startled perp will be in his kitchenette cooking a spoonful of crack, sitting at a daystrom dinette set. This is nice, because when you're strung out on drugs and hiding from johnny law, you don't have the time or energy to clean your furniture. That's where Daystrom's easy-to-care-for line of Masland Duran bright vinyl upholstery comes in.

The jpeg here is displaying really crapfully, but I promise that the file is much cleaner than it looks. If you don't believe me, go on and click through it. I'll wait right here.

There. Don't you feel like jerk now?

A quick search reveals that Daystrom still exists, but the vast majority of the images that pop up show their older stuff. This either means that they still make things like this, or the company was known for their modern designs and is now known for being mostly unknown. I suspect that Daystrom was mod in the fifties and sixties, groovy in the seventies, cocaine-y the eighties and anonymous in the present. It's just a feeling I get.

They do have a website, but as is so often the case, they're owned by a larger company called LADD, and it's furniture is marketed under the names American Drew, American of Martinsville, Barclay, Clayton Marcus, Design Horizons, Kenbridge, Lea, Pennsylvania House and Pilliod. I think I get it: the party's over. Here's a sad little statistic: Daystrom is alleged to currently employ 1-4 employees, according to this business profile.

One little ray of interestingness is that LADD is one of the biggest suppliers of institutional furniture to hotels, hospitals, and stuff. I've always wanted to find old furniture from a hospital or hotel super cheap at an auction or something. One hundred and six years ago, when I lived in California, I found four chairs from a doctor's waiting room at a thrift store, which found their way into my living room. I wish I'd brought them back with me.

Blah blah blah. yeah, whatever. Look how happy the lady is with her chair! The photographer caught her in a candid moment having a waltz with her beloved chair. "Wheeeee! Chair! I love chair! Tra-la- ha-ha-haaaa!" Man, that's great. She has a special relationship with chair and she doesn't care who knows it. File her under "overposed".