hans wegner and papa bear

“The chair does not exist. The good chair is a task one is never completely done with.”

 

Hans Wegner (1914-2007) was one of the many iconic midcentury Scandinavian furniture designers. While he’s famous for a slew of chairs, probably his most well-known (and my personal favorite) is the Papa Bear armchair.

You can find Papa Bears in a dizzying array of fabrics and colors, with or without the matching ottoman. Here are a few of my favorite examples from the web, by themselves and in rooms. If you ever find one of these for a good price, snatch it up right quick!

 

toasty flex chair

With cozy winter weather soon to find its way to us in the northern hemisphere, wouldn’t it be lovely to keep your firewood close at hand? And I mean, really close at hand?
The Flex by Italian design firm Ak47 is nothing if not unique. Ak47 is known for their approach to “wood management” (i.e., finding aesthetically pleasing ways to store firewood), but with the Flex they take their concepts a step further. Crafted from a single sheet of hardened steel, the Flex has an appealing “fabric effect” and can mold itself to fit around any stack of objects, though it’s particularly well-suited to the likes of firewood and magazines. It comes in black, white, and covered in pony skin (with attached magazine rack)! But my real question is, is it at all comfortable to sit on? What do you think, gentle readers?

Breathing Chair

Ooooooooh, thanks to the folks at Crazy Junkyard for another cool chair concept!

Known as the “breathing chair“, this cool foam cube relaxes into an arm chair when someone sits in it. According to the designer, Yu-Ying Wu, it was inspired by plant cells, and it adjusts organically to the sitter’s weight and posture. Personally, I think it looks quite striking on its own, and really comfortable to sit in!

Strappy Stool

Seating Zone specializes in office, desk, and computer chairs, but you should know that’s not all we do!  We also have an array of really fun bar stools, perfect for outfitting a kitchen, home bar, restaurant, or any office space that requires higher than normal seating (not to mention a dose of flair!).

Today I want to spotlight the ModZ 0703, an elegant example featuring classic design and clean lines.  There’s nothing fussy, complicated, or show-y about this bar stool, but the woven leatherette strap back adds just a touch of interest — taking a utilitarian item and raising it to the level of design.

The chrome steel tube frame is also just slightly out of the ordinary here…  Look closely, and you’ll see the attention to detail: slim lines, the retro-chic sparkle of chrome, and the unusual detail of the arc cross bar.

All in all, this is one stool that’s definitely a cut above average.  Also available in white.

Stacking Rubber Bands

‘Tis the season for scrambling to get new supplies for the fall!  School will be back in session soon, of course, but even in the business world, life is going to start speeding up soon, with conferences and meetings and the like.

If you’ve been tasked with purchasing stackable chairs for a lecture or conference, you might consider these hyper-comfortable bungee seats from Seatability.

Following a brand new design, the S1179 Solice Bungee Stacker is sure to get noticed and talked about, and the springy support of the bungee cords is guaranteed to keep people from squirming in their seats, even through the longest of speeches.

Chair Punch!

Having a rough day? With this boxing glove chair, you can let the world know that you’ll be taking anything and everything as “fighting words”.

It actually looks oddly comfortable… all those bubbly padded gloves could really do wonders for your pressure points. And for the bosses and CEOs out there, it could be a useful way to send a message without saying a word.

Via Chair Blog

Leather Luxury

Got a call from a certain very snazzy hotel yesterday… They told me they were looking for something elegant, with “old world style”. I gave them quite a few options to look at, but I kind of hope they go with this full leather swivel chair by Marlan.

This is a great chair, and I just love the look of it — lots of warm leather and elegant curves. I could see really see it in some hotel lounge, next to a big bookshelf full of leatherbound classic and maybe a tiffany lamp on the side table.

Raven Chair

It’s a gloomy day here at the seatingzone offices in Providence, RI. We had a teeny bit of sun over July 4th weekend, but other than that it’s been a summer of violent storms broken up by occasional creeping mists. The whole thing is enough to put one in a rather morose, poetic mood. Maybe that’s why this Edgar Allan Poe chair is appealing to me, raven feathers and all.

Did you know Poe himself had a connection to Providence? Though he is most frequently associated with Baltimore, he used to come here frequently to attend sceances and court a local poetess named Sarah Helen Whitman.

Via Trendhunter

Walk/Don’t Walk Chair

Okay, this is too weird not to share. I suppose it’s like those kids you knew in college who decorated their dorm room walls with stolen street signs, or snagged a few traffic cones to strew artfully around the frat house… only taken to a whole new extreme.

If it’s beyond your resourcefulness to actually steal a couple of Walk/Don’t Walk signals to fashion into your own chair, you can buy a premade (and presumably legal?) version from artisan John Carter for $3,700 plus shipping. A perfect gift for the anarchist punk who has (stolen) everything!

Candy Colored Chairs!

Someone ordered this adorable chair the other day and I just had to gush about it. The OSP-S111 “student chair” comes in a range of candy-shell colors (see orange and purple as well as the sour-apple green), plus it features a brushed aluminum frame and snazzy translucent back.

Perfect for home or light office use, this stylish seat will definitely stand out in a kid’s room or creative office space.