Top 5 Inspirational Furniture Designs​

Top 5 Inspirational Furniture Designs​

Inspirational furniture. Where do we begin? There is so much to talk about in this subject and it’s such a vast area too! Inspirational furniture has come a long way over the years and it’s like fashion, what is hot and on-trend. Here are the top 10 inspirational furniture designs to give you some ideas of what to have in your new home. Let’s check them out!

Great Alternatives To Habitat, Next, John Lewis & M&S Armchairs

1. The Eames Lounge Chair

Charles & Ray Eames (Charles, 1907-1978; Ray, 1912-1988) America’s quintessential husband and wife creative team worked in just about every medium imaginable. Over a 40-year career, they, more than any other designer, helped shape California and American Modernism in the early 1950s. Their most popular creations include the Eames Lounge Chair, DLR chair and Tandem Sling. They are perhaps most well known for the Eames Lounge and Ottoman and their moulded fibreglass lounge chairs. 

If you want to own a piece of iconic designer history and you love design, then one must owe an Eames Lounge Chair. The Eames Lounge chair was originally designed by Charles & Ray Eames in 1956 and became instantly one of the most valuable pieces of furniture across the world. You’ll recognise the Eames Lounge Chair from Frasier Crane’s luxury apartment or maybe you have spotted Hugh Laurie’s prickly character, Dr Gregory House, kicking back in an off-white corduroy version. Early examples of this furniture can be viewed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art where they are part of the permanent collection.

This chair was originally designed as a birthday present for Director Billy Wilder. They were close friends with director Billy Wilder (an Austrian-born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist whose career spanned more than five decades). He was Hollywood classics included Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot. Wilder would nap on set using a narrow makeshift lounger. This inspired Charles and Ray to design the famous Eames Lounge Chair for the director’s use who both had a philosophy of taking traditional materials and using them in industrial processes. The couple also assisted Wilder in making his films. Charles sometimes operated the camera while Ray designed lettering for title sequences.

So why is the Eames Lounge Chair still so popular today? Well, this iconic leather and bent plywood recliner has become a symbol of good taste and often has an affluent owner! When first unveiled in 1956 it cost $300 to buy, something not everyone could afford. But it’s not just the symbolism of this chair that ensures its popularity, it is also designed to be really comfortable. The tipping seat releases pressure from your spine and there is plenty of lumbar support from the back panel. A further back panel helps support your chest making this the perfect seat to relax in whether you are working, watching the telly or taking a nap.

The Ottoman also takes relaxation to another level by increasing blood flow to the rest of your body and increasing circulation. The chairs and ottomans are available in various combinations of wood, leather and fabric.

The Eames lounge chair and ottoman are one of the beautifully designed pieces of furniture without question. This chair is supremely comfortable with its luxuriously cushioned leather seat pads. Although this chair is beautifully made and extremely comfortable, it’s the design which makes is such an iconic item of furniture. It is still relevant today as when it was created in 1956. A timeless classic! Charles and Ray Eames were undoubtedly 20th century’s most iconic architecture and designs.

The Famous Eames Lounge Chair
“Eventually everything connects — people, ideas, objects… the quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.” Charles Eames

2. Eames Fiberglass Armchair and Chair

Eames Fiberglass Armchair was the original 1950 design by Charles and Ray Eames. Epitomising the playful, functionality of mid-century American design feels as fresh today as when it was first introduced over 60 years ago. A design to suit every home, this colourful, plastic moulded side chair is available in a range of tones that rest on an innovative chromed wire base. The iconic Eames Fiberglass Chair was seen in homes, schools, offices and public spaces throughout the world. Because of their rigidity, fibreglass chairs have also been popular in sports stadiums.

Fibreglass was a material that was entirely new to the furniture industry and originally developed by the US Army. The durable, inexpensive and mouldable fibreglass enabled a completely new way to design and manufacture furniture. 

It is now later known as the DSR Chair stand for Dining (height) Side (chair) Rod (base). The DSR has a distinctive chrome base, giving it the nickname the “Eiffel” chair. It was one of a series, all with the same seat shell, made at first from fibreglass and now, less satisfyingly, from polypropylene. The DSW has a wooden base, the DAW and DAR are armchairs (either with a wooden or rod base) and the RAR (my favourite) is a rocking armchair with a rod base. The original colours were greige, elephant hide grey, parchment and seafoam green. An iconic mid-century style is available in multiple combinations. Moulded plastic seat resting on chrome legs. Modern construction made from environmentally friendly materials.

This timeless design classic was the world’s first mass-produced plastic chair. This is an ideal dining chair for any modern interior whether that be in the dining room or kitchen.

The Colourful Eames Fiberglass Armchairs
“What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts.” Ray Eames

Check out the video about the legendary design team Charles and Ray Eames

3. The Barcelona Chair

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) was a German-American most known for his minimalist architectural achievements. He was often called Mies (as he is often referred to). Regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s ‘less-is-more’ approach to design. His legendary career started humbly at his father’s stonemasonry business, giving him an early appreciation of material and structure. He also designed two of the most iconic (and widely copied) seating pieces of the 20th Century, the Barcelona Chair and the Brno Chair.

Mies was also famous for using the term “Less is more” when referring to the desirability of less visual clutter in the building of homes. The idea behind this expression is that it is possible to overdo something. He was not the first to use this term but it was often used by Mies in his work.

The Barcelona Chair was designed for the German Pavilion, Germany’s exhibition for the Barcelona World Fair of 1929. The design resulted from a collaboration between the famous Bauhaus architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his longtime partner and companion, architect and designer Lilly Reich. It was demolished at the end of the fair, but rebuilt on the same site in the Catalan capital in the 1980s.

The brief was to provide a space to welcome the Spanish king and queen and the form for the Barcelona Chair grew out of Rohe and Reich’s designs for white-kid upholstered thrones. It was described as “the chair of the century” by Rohe’s biographer Franz Schultz, who called it the architect’s greatest work. The frame was initially designed to be bolted together but was then re-designed in 1950 using stainless steel, which allowed the frame to be formed by a seamless piece of metal, giving it a smoother appearance. In 1953, six years after Reich’s death, the design went into commercial production and van der Rohe licensed the rights of reproduction to Knoll, the current licensed manufacturer and holder of all trademark rights.

The Beautiful Barcelona Chair
“I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good.” Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Take a closer look at how The Barcelona Chair was made in this video.

4. Le Corbusier Collection

Le Corbusier (1987-1965) Born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, Le Corbusier was the pioneer of modern architecture,  designer and writer. Born in Switzerland in 1887 (later to become a French citizen), he produced numerous designs and over a career that spanned fifty years. His buildings are still standing in cities across Europe, India and America. Once quoted as saying that ‘chairs are architecture, sofas are bourgeois”, Le Corbusier began experimenting with furniture design in 1928. 

His experiments with furniture began in 1928 (working with Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand) and found form in 1929 with the “Grand Confort.” Later known as the Le Corbusier Collection this chair solidified his legend in seating almost as strongly as in buildings. The LC4, a chaise lounge, is perhaps the most recognizable piece.

Many of his furniture designs feature in homes, offices and commercial spaces worldwide.

The Well Kown Le Corbusier Furniture
“The home should be the treasure chest of living.” Le Corbusier

This video show the 50 years of work of Le Corbusie.

5. Chaise Longue

Charlotte Perriand was born in Paris, France(1903-1999). After initially being denied a job at Le Corbussier’s studio, a persistent Charlotte Perriand continued developing her own work until she was eventually hired in 1927. She went on to become one of France’s most prolific and collected furniture designers of the 20th century. 

She was perhaps one of the most influential furniture designers of the early modern movement, Charlotte Perriand introduced the ‘machine age’ aesthetic to interiors in the steel, aluminium and glass furniture she created at Le Corbusier‘s architectural studio in the late 1920s and 1930s. Perriand also forged friendships with architects and designers from all over the world who, like her, had jumped at the chance to work for Le Corbusier as an unpaid or, if very lucky, poorly paid assistant. Charlotte Perriand began a decade-long collaboration with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Perriand developed a series of tubular steel chairs, which were then (and are still today) hailed as icons of the machine age. Famous for her tubular steel range of furniture designed for Le Corbusier in the 1920s and which were and are still today hailed as icons of the machine age.

The famous chaise longue is an upholstered chair on which you can lay back and recline allowing you to put your feet up. In other words, it is an upholstered chair long enough to allow you to put your feet up. It was also symbolise a new age of modernity, when women started to show their ankles and their sexuality.

Sleek and Curvy Chaise Longue ​by Charlotte Perriand
“She was always on to the next thing, looking for something new to do.”  Daughter Pernette Perriand.

This video describes Perriand’ work as a great female architect of the 20th century.

Designs to this day can be copied and can be made affordable for the consumer. Brands such as Made, Habitat, Heals and the Conran Shop have taken these inspirational designs and ideas to this modern age.

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