KNOLL CHERMAYEFF STORAGE RESHAPES THE 1961 CREDENZA

KNOLL CHERMAYEFF STORAGE RESHAPES THE 1961 CREDENZA

Knoll Chermayeff Storage launched September 23, 2026, and none of its five pieces look like a credenza. Sam Chermayeff, the Berlin based architect behind it, took Florence Knoll's 1961 storage system out of the executive office for good. A bookcase, a bar cabinet, a console, a side table and a coffee table now carry her rigor into a living room, in finishes she never offered.

Chermayeff did not restyle Florence Knoll's credenza. He split it into five separate objects, and that split says more about where storage lives in a home now than any single new material choice would.

Sam Chermayeff Took the System on a Walk

Sam Chermayeff describes his own approach to Florence Knoll's system as adaptation, not replacement. "I love this system for being able to withstand a lot of different expressions," he said in Knoll's September 23 launch announcement. "It's generous in that way, and even though I took it on a little walk, it's still Florence's thing."

Chermayeff trained at the University of Texas at Austin and the Architectural Association in London, then worked at SANAA under Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, including on the 2009 Serpentine Pavilion. He now runs the Berlin studio Sam Chermayeff Office alongside the practice June14, which he co founded with Johannes Meyer Grohbrügge. Chermayeff Storage is his first furniture line for Knoll, and he told Wallpaper* that Florence Knoll herself would not have blinked at the update. "Back then, people didn't put their socks in a Florence Knoll credenza," he said, "but she would've been like, of course people do that now."

Five Pieces Replace One Credenza Shape

Florence Knoll solved office storage in 1961 with one form: the low 2544 credenza, kept apart from her table desk so the desk could double as a conference surface instead of a filing cabinet. Chermayeff split that single shape into five, a bookcase, a bar cabinet, a console, a side table and a coffee table, each sized for one room instead of one executive suite.

The console, the side table and the coffee table each hide a drawer inside a block that reads as solid until the face pulls open, the kind of detail that photographs clean and disappears entirely until someone needs it. Knoll lists the bookcase from $7,445 to $7,745 and the bar cabinet from $6,795 to $9,595 depending on finish; the console starts near $4,845. Knoll is not alone in resizing a heritage shape this month. Vitra made a similar bet with its Bascule chair at Tramshed days earlier, seesawing a single silhouette between two frames instead of splitting it into five.

Seven Finishes, Three of Them Lacquer

The collection ships in seven finishes across four wood options, Ebonized Oak, White Oak, Umber on Oak and Oxford Walnut, plus three lacquers, Iris, Dark Python and Dark Red Ultra. Tabletops add a separate run of seven marbles, each available gloss or satin coated, a palette the original 1961 credenza never touched since it answered to an office, not a living room.

The pieces are available in the United States now. Knoll has set the UK and EU release for November 2026, which means the version reaching European showrooms will already have a full American sales quarter behind it, a rare position for a brand new collection instead of a reissue.

Herman Miller Hired Its Own Outsiders in June

Herman Miller, Knoll's corporate sibling since the two merged into MillerKnoll in 2021, handed its own archive to outside designers this year too. It named Kim Colin and Sam Hecht as creative directors in June. MillerKnoll still sells the Aeron office chair, the seat that turned into such a symbol of the 1990s tech office boom that the Museum of Modern Art keeps one in its permanent collection. Chermayeff Storage reads as Knoll's version of that bet, a legacy modernist catalog handed to a living designer instead of run through another straight reissue.

Five pieces beat one credenza when the room is a living room instead of an executive suite, and $4,845 buys the cheapest way into a piece carrying Florence Knoll's 1961 name. The seven finishes matter less than what Chermayeff left alone: the hidden drawer fronts, the restraint that made the 2544 credenza disappear into a boardroom sixty five years ago. That is the part of her system he did not touch.