New Chair Design

This is a new chair I’ve been working on. My original motivation was to create a chair with very clean lines, but use natural materials (solid walnut) to warm the design. Plus, I figured using wood would be a bit more timeless. I’m thinking about trying it in oak or cherry, too. Unfortunately, there seem to be fewer and fewer companies who create carved wood furniture. Does anyone have a suggestion for companies who still do? Europe or elsewhere.

I did the fiberglass version with the thought that it might be easier to manufacture and more durable.

Then the last version has a fully upholstered shell, but keeps the solid walnut arms.

Any thoughts and feed back would be appreciated.

my portfolio: Alyssa Coletti, Furniture and Industrial Designer in Durham, NC



Can you put up some pics of the physical models, scaled or 1=1? Walnut is a little expensive, most of that stuff is veneered plywood. You could mill two hunks of the wood to that shape, join them and add padding, this is also very expensive. What does it look like from the worms eye view looking up from underneath it? Also an exploded view would be stellar as to see how it comes together, thanks.




Also, is bernhardt design a manufacturer? I see on their site they have the Go Chair by Ross Lovegrove (which is hell to sit on for a long duration) and the Hyde Chair from Fredrickson Stallard.

Oh goodness… I’m raised Bernhardt. I started there after college and I’m in my second round right now - yes, currently employed there. Unfortunately it puts me in a tough spot since we only work with outside designers. I asked if I could enter this chair in ICFF studio, but, since we sponsor it… no.

I’ve actually talked to a couple of very knowledgeable people about the structure and have had recommendations both ways. Actually the way I’ve been thinking of the structure is as follows:

Arms - 4 glued-up solid sections per arm , carved or CNC’d to shape.
Shell - plywood understructure with shaped walnut boards attached to outside. I’m thinking the boards would be about 3-4". You’d be lucky to find pieces of walnut or most any other wood that could cover that much area w/o being segmented. expensive, yes, but some things have to be that way. maybe the upholstery & foam could be attached directly to the plywood?

See the shell is just so tricky with the solid. Plywood probably would be the best way to go. Just tricky on the plywood, too since the seat is a curved in all directions.

Here’s an exploded view, but I haven’t really modeled much construction-wise.

I got yer go chair right here!

LOL, nice use of a go chair.

I like your first one a lot. The more Walnut intensive one.

I really like the handlebar shape of it. Reminds me of the shape of a leaf.

But i have to say that the one with wood legs(that you posted in another thread) catches my fancy a whole lot more then the steel legged one.To me it seems to be a bit more coherent in its design. Would it be a lot more difficult to produce compared to the steel legged one?

Really? Thanks! It was actually my original intention to do it in all wood, but when I did this one, I didn’t like it. I rediscovered the file yesterday, and thought it looked nice, so I rendered it. It probably would be more structurally sound with the wood legs. They would need some reinforcement where they meet the seat.

wood legs all the way. Way nicer in my opinion. It just feels more holistic.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

Nice simple design. One manufacturing detail you’d need to consider is gluing the upholstery to whatever foam cushion you use. Otherwise the fabric will bridge over the concave seat portion. Some chairs use a stitch detail to hold the fabric down.

Thanks for your feedback and good point. I’ve wondered if it would also be necessary to flatten the seat. I’d hate to take away that design detail, but it might be necessary. Do you know of any chairs that have pulled it off successfully? Well, actually, I do know some, but I still wonder what the life of the seat is. You can have really tough glue and foam but I do wonder how long it really lasts. Bernhardt Design’s Hyde chair doesn’t have the seam. It is flat, and actually, there’s enough foam there that the crown seems to seems to help that out. Gotta say I’m a little surprised they decided to upholster it that way, because when I was in PD, the bridging was a worry. Good glue and good foam, I suppose. Don’t think they would have done it if it was too risky. Perhaps I’ll inquire tomorrow…

I was thinking the same thing - either go all metal or all wood. I’d prefer wood.

Spray glues are common for lower end stuff, but pretty nasty in terms of environmental impact and disassembly for recycling. I worked on a chair and they they ended up using a heat activated sheet glue that kept everything stuck together. They did have some initial problems with lighter colored leather getting scorched in the heat activating process though.

What about the environmental aspect? Can the foam be recycled with the sheet glue applied? Sheet glue sounds really cool. I’ve never heard of it. Do you know who makes it?

wood would be nice. Also a little lite stitching might add something.

The visual weight of the solid arms against the super slim profile of the cantilever base is not quite working for me, especially in more profile and rear views (particularly with darker upper, wood here, but would extend to other dark colors as well I imagine). I am left wondering if the intent is to give the chair the sense that the seat is almost floating which could be nice, but otherwise the balance seems to be a bit off for me. You will also most likely need a taller (thicker in profile view) tube for the base as this is the dimension that will dictate the stiffness allowing the cantilever frame to support the weight that will be imposed on the chair.

There was a wooden leg version that seems to have disappeared?

[quote=“stellacorona”]This is a new chair I’ve been working on. My original motivation was to create a chair with very clean lines, but use natural materials (solid walnut) to warm the design. Plus, I figured using wood would be a bit more timeless. I’m thinking about trying it in oak or cherry, too. Unfortunately, there seem to be fewer and fewer companies who create carved wood furniture. Does anyone have a suggestion for companies who still do? Europe or elsewhere.

I did the fiberglass version with the thought that it might be easier to manufacture and more durable.

Then the last version has a fully upholstered shell, but keeps the solid walnut arms.

Any thoughts and feed back would be appreciated.

my portfolio: http://www.coroflot.com/coletti[/quote]

Nice design, StellaCorona. I’d actually put down my hard-earned money to purchase that. Very nice.