Blu Dot

Blu Dot was founded in 1997 by John Christakos, Charlie Lazor, and Maurice Blanks, three architects who had graduated from Harvard and who were frustrated by the gap they perceived between the design quality of modernist furniture and the price points at which it was available to the American consumer who was not a collector or a design professional. The company’s founding premise, that good modern design should be accessible rather than exclusive, has driven the product development across the nearly three decades since.

The Blu Dot product line uses the Scandinavian-influenced modern design tradition as its reference point, applying the principles of Scandinavian modernism, the honest use of materials, the functional form with simplified decoration, and the emphasis on the domestic scale rather than the statement piece, to products that are priced below the European luxury furniture brands that the Georgetown design district’s other showrooms represent. The resulting furniture occupies a position in the market between the mass-market furniture of IKEA and the luxury Italian design of B&B Italia.

The Georgetown M Street showroom at 3333 is across the street from the B&B Italia showroom at 3330 and adjacent to the Calligaris showroom at 3328, placing Blu Dot within the Georgetown design district that the M Street block and the adjacent Cady’s Alley have developed into the city’s concentration of furniture and interior design resources. For the Georgetown shopper who wants to compare the full range of the modern furniture market in a single afternoon, the M Street design block provides that comparison.

The showroom format allows the customer to experience the furniture at full scale before ordering, which is particularly important for sofas and beds.

Hours run from 10am most days and 11am Sunday. The Blu Dot Georgetown showroom at 3333 M Street provides the entry point into the M Street design district for the Georgetown customer who is not yet at the B&B Italia investment level but who wants the quality and design integrity that the mass-market furniture brands do not provide. The gap between the IKEA price point and the Italian luxury furniture price point is substantial, and Blu Dot fills this gap with quality-manufactured American modern furniture at a price range that the Georgetown professional can access without the interior design project budget. The Scandinavian-influenced design tradition that Blu Dot draws from is among the most enduring in the international furniture market: the Danish and Swedish modernists of the mid-twentieth century, whose furniture has remained in continuous production for sixty and seventy years, established the design principles of ergonomics, material honesty, and functional simplicity that Blu Dot continues in its contemporary product line. The showroom experience at the Georgetown M Street location allows the customer to see the furniture at full scale in a room setting that approximates the domestic interior, which is the most useful information for the furniture buyer who is trying to understand how the piece will work in their home. The online catalog shows the product; the showroom shows the product in context. Hours run from 10am most days and 11am Sunday.