Header: Courtesy of Knoll
Knoll Chermayeff Storage is a collection of five pieces for the home, including a bookcase, a bar cabinet, a console table, a coffee table and a side table, all made from frames of polished chrome steel. Designed by Sam Chermayeff for Knoll, the pieces are based on the credenza Florence Knoll designed in 1961, with each new one taking the same materials and way of building but giving it a different shape and size.
The 1961 credenza
A credenza is a long, low cabinet, and Florence Knoll drew hers while running the Knoll Planning Unit, the company’s own team of interior designers. Private offices at the time all shared the same layout, which means that they all needed better storage. She then designed a cabinet that could be matched to both the desk and the room itself.
The design follows the ideas of her former mentor, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, with a chrome steel frame, a flat, flush front in wood veneer or lacquer, and a top in wood or marble. It is still made today, 65 cm high and 46 cm deep, in a small version 95 cm wide and a large one 190 cm wide.
“I did it because I needed the piece of furniture for a job and it wasn’t there… so I designed it.”
Florence Knoll
From the office to the home
Chermayeff’s starting point was that the credenza had long since left the office. In his view, Knoll herself would have redesigned her piece for the home if she were still around. “Back then, people didn’t put their socks in a Florence Knoll credenza, but she would’ve been like, Of course people do that now”, the designer has since commented.
“By creating new scals and typologies for Florence Knoll’s Credenzas, Chermayeff does more than restore an icon, he reinterprets it through Knoll’s construction logic of steel, veneer, and marble. The result introduces a new third category: adaptive reuse.”
Jonathan Olivares, Creative Director of Knoll
Five new pieces
The tallest piece is the bookcase, 183 cm high, 107 cm wide and 38 cm deep, with open shelves in clear glass. The bar cabinet is 145 cm high and keeps the 46 cm depth of the original credenza, with a mirrored upper half and a glass rack.
The three tables are lower, with the console table being 152 cm long and 75 cm high, the coffee table measuring 102 by 61 cm and standing 37 cm off the floor, and the side table being a 45 cm square, 48 cm high. All three have built-in drawers, which open with a push on the console table. Every piece is finished on all four sides, so it can be added to the middle of a room with no wall behind it.
Lacquer, wood and marble
The cases come in wood veneers such as white oak and Oxford walnut, but they can also be purchased in the lacquers Dark Red Ultra, Dark Python and Iris. To complement these, the tops can be veneer, lacquer or marble. While buyers have complete power in deciding how they want their pieces to look, Chermayeff has his own preferences for combining them.
“Florence Knoll was a genius in how she used materials. I like to follow her way, and I think it’s best when the top is lighter and the body is darker… but not too dark. In my mind, the most classic combination is chrome, maple veneer, and white marble.”
Sam Chermayeff
Product information
Design Company: Knoll
Lead Designer: Sam Chermayeff
Date: 2026
