You don't often think of scrolled arms and contoured backs as features of modern design, but Thonet's classic "cafe" chairs were light years ahead of their time. Their novelty lay, in part, with Thonet's innovative production methods, which pioneered the use of heat to bend wood into improbable shapes. The resulting chairs were graceful, comfortable and durable. Such lightweight and sculptural designs were entirely novel in the mid-1800s, and a total departure from other bulky, heavy furniture in vogue at the time.
Even past Thonet's death, his family company continued to produce millions of his iconic chairs, along with their own bentwood and tubular steel creations. Still going strong today, Thonet's designs get continually tweaked and revisited, keeping them fresh and timeless. They look equally at home in a rural farmhouse as a contemporary loft.
TOP ROW:
1. Another great mismatched set of chairs and colors, in a rustic setting. from Homelife Magazine, photographed by Sharyn Cairns
2. A workaday Thonet chair used in the craft studio of Caitlin Betsy Bell as shown on Paper N Stitch.
3. A literal twist on an old classic in a room designed by Malcolm Patterson.
4. Natural curves against a sleek white backdrop, as seen in these two architects' home in Denmark.
5. This chair doubles as sculpture in a dramatic and sophisticated black office in Lonny Magazine.
BOTTOM ROW:
6. How beautiful and elegant is this curved settee? Room designed by Tom Scheerer and seen in House Beautiful.
7. A Thonet chair in a restored Frank Lloyd Wright home office. from Houzz
8. Thonet produced the first cantilevered chair. Amazement ensued. Photo by Mark Gregory Peters.
9. This bentwood rocker and ottoman looks like a comfy spot to soothe a fussy baby. from Apartment Therapy reader Kari
10. Homeowner Lotte Jensen put baby in a corner.
MORE BENTWOOD CHAIRS ON APARTMENT THERAPY:
• Thonet Style Chairs
• Bentwood Chairs of Thonet
• Thonet Bentwood Chairs for Every Room
(Images: Top Image: Petra Bindel for Swedish Elle, all others: as credited above)
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I totally want that bench at the end of the bed...sigh.
I love that first, uncredited photo. The soft greens and whites are lovely!
Love these. Have always loved these. Will always love these. And, yet, I do not own any variant.
I must remedy that.
My breakfast nook has two of the ones from photo #7, but with upholstered seats and backs. They have neough give to be comfortable for reading the Sunday paper. I love the look of the ones shown in photo #1, but my partner found them too hard for long periods of sitting.
@SherryBinNH, I noticed the credit is at the bottom of the post.
These are all gorgeous! Great tribute to the bentwood chair!
My bentwood is my desk chair. There are probably more comfortable / ergonomic chairs out there for the desk space.. but none more charming. :)
My back hurts looking at them, but the bench is lovely. I, too, was more taken by the first kitchen photo. The color of the cabinets looks so fresh.
I've always found the café-style chairs rather hard and uncomfortable for long periods of sitting, though the molded plywood ones are deliciously comfortable. That pic of the molded plywood chair with the books surrounding it was taken in one of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses, I think. It totally suits its surroundings.
I have quite a few of them myself. I love them.
Oops, @wildlysimple, thanks for the heads up! Missed that entirely!
I have two B-9 chairs and they are super comfortable, if fragile. Everybody who comes to my house always want to seat on them! They have such beautiful lines.
I particularly do not like open-back chairs, they look unfinished, and feel weird if you lay back on them. But I love the scroll wood at the foot of the bed!