When Scott + Cooner first opened, founder Lloyd Scott liked to say that modern design could be found in Dallas; you just had to poke around to find it. Decades later, you need far less searching.
Dallas has developed a modern design language of its own, one that Scott + Cooner sees as distinct from the harder-edged iterations associated with cities like New York or Los Angeles. Here, clean lines are more likely to meet natural stone and wood, tactile textiles, art and furniture designed as much for living as looking.
“The most exciting modern design isn’t about creating something that feels stark or overly minimal,” Amanda Taylor says. “It’s about creating an environment that feels timeless, sophisticated, and incredibly comfortable.”
That evolution reflects a larger shift in what luxury at home and in everyday life means. Increasingly, Scott + Cooner sees modernism becoming intertwined with wellness, nature, and the individual ways people aspire to live. A pristine yet sterile interior is no longer enough. The room has to work and feel lived in.
That may be why some of modernism’s most enduring designs remain so relevant. The Cassina LC series, Eero Saarinen’s tables and Womb Chair for Knoll, and Mario Bellini’s Cab chair remain showroom standards precisely because they have survived the revolving door of trends. “These classic pieces are forever modern,” Taylor says.
Bellini’s Cab chair is particularly emblematic of the kind of investment the showroom advocates. Introduced for Cassina in the late 1970s, its saddle-leather skin is stretched over a steel skeleton in a design conceived almost anatomically, like skin over bone. Built to age rather than expire, it is the sort of object Scott + Cooner believes can move from one generation to the next.
But longevity does not necessarily mean rigidity. If one idea emerges repeatedly in the showroom’s outlook on contemporary design, it has to be adaptability. The current fixation is the Standard Sofa by Edra, a design whose movable backrests and armrests allow its configuration to change with the person sitting in it. When Scott + Cooner asked its sales team which single piece they would recommend if a client could leave the showroom with only one, the answer was unanimous.
“The Standard represents the ultimate luxury item,” Taylor says. “It brings together comfort, craftsmanship, tactile materials and thoughtful design in a way that puts the user at the center.”
That emphasis on the user is shaping entire rooms. Younger homeowners may arrive more informed than previous generations, having researched products, designers and prices online before setting foot inside a showroom. Still, Scott + Cooner remains an evangelist for seeing furniture in person. Scale can be deceptive on a screen, and no amount of digital research can replicate what she calls the “sit test.”
The same attention to how something actually feels to live with informs the showroom’s approach to sourcing. Rather than novelty for novelty’s sake, Scott + Cooner looks for designers capable of resolving aesthetics and utility at the smallest level: proportions, seat depth, height, material, and touch.
Faye Toogood remains a particular favorite. Known for furniture that frequently slips between functional object and sculpture, the British designer represents the kind of work Taylor finds most compelling now: “unexpected, sculptural, feminine and beautifully considered. Truly livable art.” Her Lielow bed and night table for Poltrona Frau, presented at Salone del Mobile, stood out for their combination of softness and form. Those same qualities are appearing through layers rather than extra ornament. Clean profiles can coexist with color-drenched textiles, plush rugs, and warmer lighting. In fact, this fall, Taylor sees particular attention shifting toward the primary bedroom, with homeowners approaching it as a more intimate and enveloping space.
Organization, too, has entered the luxury conversation. After recently moving homes, the Scott + Cooner team has developed a new appreciation for Poliform’s kitchen and closet systems and the calm that can come from a home functioning exactly as intended. “I’m discovering that there’s a whole new kind of luxury in the peacefulness of an organized home,” they say.
Less romantic forces are reshaping the design business as well. Tariffs have complicated the economics of importing furniture, particularly for showrooms built around European manufacturers. Scott + Cooner sees no meaningful workaround. Instead, the company has concentrated on understanding the changing costs and explaining them openly to clients. That education has also opened conversations about where furniture comes from and why certain pieces cost what they do. If tariffs are prompting the questions, Scott + Cooner sees an opportunity to explain the labor, materials, craftsmanship, and production standards behind pieces intended to last for decades. That distinction between expense and value may become increasingly important as ideas about luxury continue to shift.
Five years from now, Taylor predicts the defining luxury in a home may not be another piece of technology but the ability to escape it. Natural materials, responsibly sourced fabrics, craftsmanship, and spaces conducive to rest are already moving toward the center of conversations about interiors. As consumers have become more attentive to what they eat and put on their bodies, the company believes that consciousness is extending outward to the environments they inhabit.
“The future of luxury is less about excess and more about intention,” she says.
Scott + Cooner connects this idea to the Italian expression dolce far niente, or the pleasure of doing nothing. Where American culture tends to optimize every available hour, the European model of living well has historically left more room for leisure, nature, meals, and time with friends or loved ones.
Perhaps the next phase of modernism will borrow some of that restraint. Homes will still need to accommodate work, entertaining, technology and the constant churn of everyday life. But the most desirable spaces may increasingly be those capable of quieting all of it.
If Lloyd Scott once believed modern design in Dallas required some searching, today the harder thing to find may be silence. Scott + Cooner’s vision of the modern home suggests that design can help create it.