Conversations with Nicki Huggins

Hi Nicki, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m an outdoor furniture historian and manufacturer. I started as a collector in the 1990s when I purchased outdoor metal chairs from the Rose Bowl show. I had worked at Sci-Arc, Southern California Institute of Architecture, and taken furniture design classes there, so I knew these chairs were special the second I saw them. At the time, I was working as a television producer. I would often have chairs on the back of my truck that my crew would watch in sketchy neighborhoods. They treated those old chairs with kid gloves. I flew all over the country researching my “finds” on work vacations. Then, I created a website called RetroPatio dedicated to this furniture and offered it for sale, restored.

At that time, in the early aughts, most people wanted what they recognized, the classic American glider sofas. The modern tubular American outdoor pieces that originally caught my eye were not on people’s radar. So, as a side gig, I sold many refinished American gliders, often in powder-coated candy colors, to delighted collectors all over the country. My story was published in over 35 publications, like Coastal Living, Renovation Style, Met Home, and others, even in Belgium. I continued to collect the tubular aluminum pieces originally produced in the US, many on the West Coast, in the Thirties and Forties. People asked me to design their outdoor rooms which was just beginning to be a concept, and then interiors, as well. In time, pickers, who brought me the vintage furniture, hinted that gliders were becoming scarce to find. Modern furniture was finally getting its due, just as I went on television as a designer in a syndicated TV renovation show, Fix It or Finish It.

To be honest, being on camera was never an interest of mine, but being on the other side of it was the best teacher. The TV show was rigorous and demanding and helped me clarify how important it was to tell the story of early modern American design by producing these exceptional outdoor chairs. Today, I have prototypes and one small run of a design, but I’m still working to bring my “problem child,” my favorite chair, out into the world.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Manufacturing in the US today, especially in the tube bending industry, is not for the faint-hearted. The US is not well-equipped and lacks the craftsmanship that is often handed down through generations. “Too hard,” “too complex,” I hear this on a daily basis. But, I steadfastly believe that if we made it before, eighty years ago, we can make it today. And, better.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am both a designer and an artist. I have an art degree with an emphasis on photography. In school, I learned alternative printing methods, the first photographic printing from the 1800s, like gum bichromate, cyanotype, and others. My current image-making practice combines in-camera multiple exposures with historic printing processes. In this way, every photo-based print is unique and shows the artist’s hand. People often say there’s a theme here with you and history. And I can’t deny that or really explain it. But, it’s also a dichotomy that I never dwell on my own past, my own history, but, instead, am always looking to what’s ahead, even as I’m inspired by what came before.

How do you define success?
Success is loving as hard as we can. All the rest is just how we spend our time. But, I do have a sort of mantra or way of being that I live by. I try to do my best no matter what I’m doing, sweeping the kitchen floor or painstakingly pruning roses, or, designing. It’s a practice that will be there, like a muscle, when you need it most.