For Becca, his third furniture collection for Bernhardt Design, actor, TV host, author, artist, and furniture designer Terry Crews melds sleek modernism with plush, inviting comfort. Named for Terry’s wife of 30 years, Rebecca, the collection has been crafted to address the complaints she often has about modern furniture: that it tends to be rigid and uncomfortable. The Becca collection includes an 8-foot sofa (starting at $5,000), a large, cozy club chair (starting at $2,400), and a 6-foot settee (starting at $4,000).
Before spending seven years in the NFL as a linebacker, Terry Crews studied art at Western Michigan University.
“The furniture should feel like a warm hug,” says Crews. “It’s voluptuous, it’s curvy, there are no hard lines to it, and it’s very comfortable, which is a new thing for a lot of modern furniture.
Crews, 51, attended Western Michigan University and majored in art before becoming a linebacker in the National Football League for seven years, where he enjoyed field time with the L.A. Rams, San Diego Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Washington Redskins before retiring and revving up his acting career. Current credits include television series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and films The Expendables and Deadpool 2. During his days in the NFL, Crews maintained a strong affinity for making art, often earning extra money by painting teammates’ portraits. Crews first partnered with Bernhardt Design in 2017 for Ibis, his debut furniture collection.
Each piece in the collection is meant to feel like a hug.
“As an artist, Terry understands the beauty of lines and shapes that can be captured by the human hand and are difficult to achieve with computer-based design,” says Jerry Helling, president of Bernhardt Design and a devoted Crews collaborator. “Due to its simplicity of form, Becca works well in many different architectural settings and blends well with other furniture and design objects.”
To create the new collection, Crews began by hand sketching the designs. The pieces’ softly sloping lines and sumptuous shapes were inspired by “transitional architecture,” which fuses classic and modern aesthetics to create a look that—much like Crews’ eclectic career—defies simplistic categorization. “At the end of the day, Terry is a storyteller who can move comfortably between styles,” says Helling.
Crews describes Becca as being “an encapsulation of the principle of transitional architecture because it blends soft curves that suggest emotion with modern lines that propose intellect.”
His new furnishings collection is called “Becca,” named after his wife.
The new Becca collection is available in any Bernhardt textile fabric, or a material of the client’s choosing. Crews’ material of choice for all Becca designs is a rich velvet, which he says looks good in any color. “My favorite piece in the Becca collection is the sofa—it’s the centerpiece of the home,” he says.
In addition to the trio of pieces available now, a collection of modular elements will be released later this year. bernhardtdesign.com
