The house an interior designer built
In 1947, California interior designer Marjorie Reese Carson could not find furniture worthy of her clients’ homes, so she began making her own. Eighty years on, every Marge Carson piece is still made to order.
Marge Carson is an American luxury design house founded in California in 1947 by interior designer Marjorie Reese Carson. The house makes fully customizable upholstered sofas, chairs, beds, and case goods, offering clients a choice of more than 750 fabrics, leathers, trims, and finishes, with hardware custom-designed for each individual piece. Designs are protected by U.S. patents and copyright registrations.
founded
& finishes
showroom
availability
What makes Marge Carson different
Marge Carson's defining characteristic is its level of customization within a luxury context. Unlike furniture brands that offer fabric swaps on a fixed frame, Marge Carson designs custom hardware for each individual piece and sources fabrics globally, many exclusive to the brand and unavailable elsewhere.
The aesthetic is "decidedly elegant yet casual": architecturally inspired silhouettes with generous proportions, hand-applied finishes, and intricate detail work. Every design is protected through U.S. patent and copyright registration.
- Custom hardware designed for each individual furniture piece
- Over 750 fabrics, leathers, and finishes, many globally exclusive to the brand
- All designs protected by U.S. patents and copyright registrations
- COM (Customer's Own Material) program available on select pieces
- Available through select luxury retailers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe
How a Marge Carson piece comes together
The frame
Each piece is bench-built, with a structure designed for generations of use. The work that happens beneath the upholstery is deliberate, and it is what allows a Marge Carson sofa to be reupholstered, restored, and inherited.
The finishes
Wood and metal finishes are applied by hand. No two pieces share an identical surface. This is what gives the brand its decidedly elegant yet casual character. Texture you can feel, depth you can read across a room.
The detail
Hardware is custom-designed for each individual piece. Trim, nailheads, fabrics, and embellishments are selected from a library of more than 750 options, many of them globally exclusive to the brand.
Original design since 1947
Each milestone is drawn from published sources: trade magazines, a U.S. patent and the industry press.
California interior designer Marjorie Reese Carson could not find furniture of sufficient quality for her clients' homes. Unwilling to compromise, she hired two upholsterers and converted an old chicken coop into a custom upholstery workshop. Within a few years, Marge Carson had become a trusted source for luxury furniture among discerning residential clients.
Source: Marge Carson company history
Demand outgrew the original workshop. Marge Carson moved into dedicated production facilities in California and made furniture there for almost seventy years.
Source: Marge Carson company history
Marjorie Carson develops a style of upholstery for the Pacific Coast's relaxed way of life and spacious houses: larger proportions, ample cushions and a neutral palette of rich textiles. The look comes to be known as California Casual, and spreads far beyond the West Coast.
Marge Carson, "70 Years of Design Leadership", October 2017
Widdicomb-Mueller of Grand Rapids adds Marge Carson to its designers, and Interiors shows her upholstered group: a sofa of luxurious 100-inch scale with loose back pillows covered in silk with an Oriental trapunto design.
Interiors, February 1960, pages 108 and 109 · View the original page
A 96-inch Marge Carson sofa from the 1960s, in its original yellow-and-green upholstery with the Marge Carson paper label intact, one of a pair. Measurements: 96 in. wide, 33 in. deep, 25½ in. high, seat 16 in.
Porter & Plunk, Palm Springs, item FSE-17-24 · View the listing
An 8,000 sq. ft. San Fernando Valley house by Palm Springs designer Arthur Elrod credits a chair from the Marge Carson Company in its gallery and living room.
Interiors, July 1969, page 65 · View the original page
U.S. Patent No. 3,695,690, invented by Robert M. Carson and assigned to Marge Carson, Inc., covers a removable covering system for upholstered furniture.
U.S. Patent 3,695,690, issued October 3, 1972
In the restoration of the Arizona Biltmore by Taliesin Associated Architects of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, with interior designer John deKoven Hill, the guest rooms' lounge chairs are credited to Marge Carson.
Interiors, October 1975, page 78 · View the original page
Marge Carson appears among the lines represented by United Business Interiors in Los Angeles, and Designers West features its Oriental-inspired chests and cabinetry.
Designers West, October 1976, page 91 · View the original page; December 1976, page 171 · View the original page
Bob Carson Sr., president of Marge Carson, Inc., is greeted at the San Francisco Winter Market by Kathy Leutzinger of Pacific Showrooms West.
Designers West, March 1984, page 42 · View the original page
Family owned since 1947, Marge Carson is acquired by Masco Corporation.
Marge Carson, "70 Years of Design Leadership", October 2017
Marge Carson opens at the Galleria in San Francisco, in a showroom designed by Lucile Fickett and celebrated with a cocktail party hosted by Bob and Carol Carson: the country's largest showing of Marge Carson's lines and finishes.
Designers West, March 1990, page 32 · View the original page
Jim LaBarge buys Marge Carson from Masco, and over the next two decades takes it from a West Coast upholstery specialist to a full line sold internationally.
Furniture Today; Marge Carson, October 2017
Janet Linly, entrepreneur and designer, acquires the brand in October 2022. Her Linly Designs had for more than a decade been one of Marge Carson’s largest accounts. Marge Carson Global, Inc. is headquartered in Clarendon Hills, Illinois, where its 11,000 sq. ft. showroom is open year-round. Jim LaBarge chose her out of many interested parties: “It feels that the brand has come full circle from its inception with Marjorie Carson.”
Furniture Today; Home News Now, October 17, 2022
Marge Carson introduces The Signature Edit.
Woodworking Network, October 2026
Marge Carson celebrates its 80th anniversary.
The history of Marge Carson
A short documentary on the house and its history, from Marge Carson’s own channel.
Four facts from the record
Believed to be the only major furniture manufacturer ever founded by an interior designer.
Furniture Today and Home News Now, October 2022
The “luxurious” scale of the silk sofa Marge Carson styled for Widdicomb-Mueller in 1960.
Interiors, February 1960, page 109
Marge Carson lounge chairs furnish the guest rooms of the restored Arizona Biltmore, by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin architects.
Interiors, October 1975, page 78
Square feet of the 1990 San Francisco showroom: the largest showing of Marge Carson in the country.
Designers West, March 1990, page 32
In the pages of the design press
For decades, the trade magazines that defined American interiors credited Marge Carson by name.
With Widdicomb-Mueller
Widdicomb-Mueller of Grand Rapids adds Marge Carson to its designers; her sofa is of "luxurious 100-inch scale with loose back pillows covered in silk with an Oriental trapunto design".
An Arthur Elrod home
A chair from the Marge Carson Company, credited in a San Fernando Valley house by one of California's most celebrated mid-century designers.
The Arizona Biltmore
Lounge chairs in the guest rooms of the landmark Phoenix hotel, restored by Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Associated Architects.
Chests and cabinetry
Chests in "a strong Oriental mood" on a long low base, evidence of a range well beyond upholstery.
Bob Carson Sr.
The company's president, photographed at the San Francisco Winter Market.
San Francisco, 11,500 sq. ft.
A new showroom at the Galleria, designed by Lucile Fickett, opened by Bob and Carol Carson.
Patented in 1972
Marge Carson did more than upholster beautifully. The company engineered how upholstery is made, and patented a removable covering system for upholstered furniture: a covering in two sections, held to the frame by releasable fasteners, with a removable skirt.
- Patent
- U.S. 3,695,690
- Inventor
- Robert M. Carson
- Assignee
- Marge Carson, Inc.
- Issued
- October 3, 1972
Sheet 1 of 3. Fig. 1, the finished sofa; Fig. 2, the covering, frame and skirt taken apart.
Under Janet Linly's direction
Marge Carson today operates from an 11,000 square foot showroom in Clarendon Hills, Illinois. Janet Linly, entrepreneur, designer and founder of Linly Designs, acquired the brand in October 2022.
Her commitment is to preserve what made Marge Carson distinctive for seventy-five years. The custom hardware. The 750+ fabrics, leathers, trims, and finishes. The way a piece is designed for the room it is going into.
What she is evolving is the experience of working with the brand. A trade program built around how designers actually specify. A showroom open year-round, not only during market. Direct access to the people behind every piece.
- The Marge Carson name and design heritage
- The full 750+ fabric, leather, and finish library
- Custom hardware designed for every piece
- Patent and copyright-protected designs
- Bench-built construction standards
Made by hand in Tijuana, Mexico. Usually ships in 4–6 weeks; the quote confirms it for each order.
Vintage Marge Carson, still in the room
Original Marge Carson pieces from the 1960s still surface with vintage dealers, often in their first upholstery.
Look for the label
Many vintage pieces carry an original Marge Carson paper label. It is the first thing dealers and appraisers look for.
Surviving 1960s sofas
Porter & Plunk of Palm Springs offered a pair of 96-inch sofas in their original yellow-and-green upholstery, paper labels intact; 1stDibs has listed a custom silk sofa with goose-down cushions. Both were dated by their sellers to the 1960s.
Dating a piece
Dealer dates are attributions, not certificates. Labels, construction and published catalog records are the best guides to a piece's era.
The words behind the craft
- California Casual
- The generous, relaxed look Marge Carson developed for West Coast living in the mid-twentieth century: larger proportions, ample cushions and a neutral palette of rich textiles.
- Trapunto
- A quilting technique in which parts of a design are padded from behind, so the pattern stands out in relief. Marge Carson’s 1960 silk sofa carried an Oriental trapunto design.
- Casegoods
- Furniture built as a case or frame of wood rather than upholstered: chests, cabinets, consoles, tables, beds and nightstands.
- COM
- Customer’s Own Material. A piece is made up in a fabric the client supplies, in place of one from the house library.
- Bench-built
- Made by hand at the workbench, piece by piece, rather than on a production line. It is what allows a frame to be restored and reupholstered for generations.
- Loose back pillows
- Back cushions that sit separately on the frame instead of being upholstered to it, as on the 100-inch sofa of 1960. They are easier to plump, turn and recover.
- Paper label
- The maker’s label fixed beneath a piece. On vintage Marge Carson it is the first thing dealers and appraisers look for.
- Market
- The trade fairs, such as High Point in North Carolina and the San Francisco Winter Market, where makers show new pieces to retailers and interior designers.
- To the trade
- Sold through interior designers and retailers rather than directly, so a designer can specify every detail of a piece for a client’s room.
- Showroom
- A maker’s own space for showing its range to designers and clients. Marge Carson’s include San Francisco (1990), High Point and, today, Clarendon Hills, Illinois.
Frequently asked
Available in
four countries
Marge Carson furniture is sold through select luxury retailers and interior designers across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. The brand's 11,000 square foot Illinois showroom is open to clients year-round.
- Interiors, February 1960, pages 108 and 109. Marge Carson with Widdicomb-Mueller. Original
- Interiors, July 1969, page 65. Arthur Elrod interior, San Fernando Valley. Original
- Interiors, October 1975, page 78. Arizona Biltmore guest rooms. Original
- Designers West, October 1976, page 91. United Business Interiors advertisement. Original
- Designers West, December 1976, page 171. Chests and cabinetry. Original
- Designers West, March 1984, page 42. Bob Carson Sr. Original
- Designers West, March 1990, page 32. San Francisco showroom. Original
- U.S. Patent 3,695,690, issued October 3, 1972.
- Smithsonian Institution, American Furniture Industries Survey, 1977 to 1980: Marge Carson, Inc. appears in the survey's records.
- Marge Carson, "Marge Carson Celebrates 70 Years of Design Leadership", October 2017.
- Furniture Today. Marge Carson acquired by Jim LaBarge from Masco, 1995.
- Furniture Today, October 17, 2022. Luxury Furniture Brand Marge Carson Acquired.
- Home News Now, October 17, 2022. Linly Designs acquires Marge Carson brand.
- Woodworking Network, October 22, 2026. The Signature Edit.