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Hot or Not? Trompe-l'œil Wall Seating

8-5-wall-seat-1.jpg

Simple flip-out seating is hidden into elaborate Trompe-l'œil panels of fancy furniture by Dutch designer Egbert-Jan Lam. More examples and the survey below the jump...

8-5-wall-seat-2.jpg

8-5-wall-seat-3.jpg

Via: designmilk.

Tags

Hot or Not?, seating - misc., trompe l'oeil

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Comments (22)

Looks a little high off the ground and just stupid. Might be cuter for a kids' area if the chairs didn't look so uncomfortable.

posted by K T G on 2008-08-05 10:07:36
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Clever idea--but it should have stayed in his head. I think the execution is awful.

posted by madsarah on 2008-08-05 10:07:59
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I think it's one of those things that'd be really cool somewhere that's not my home... or if I lived in an ultra-modern house where it'd be seen as ironic rather than faux-opulent. My guess is that the price tag IS opulent, so the joke would be on me.

posted by Djluckyonline on 2008-08-05 10:14:18
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Well it saves space.

posted by Snugglitas on 2008-08-05 10:26:46
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It's a great concept for public spaces, but it's been done before (and better) by others, without those ridiculous images plastered to the walls.

posted by ChristopherB on 2008-08-05 10:31:48
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Gross!

posted by nikamarie on 2008-08-05 10:40:06
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I think these are funny enough to be worth it in the right space. I'd consider such an installation a passing amusement, though. And for crying out loud, I'd certainly mount it so the bottom of the legs were on the ground!

posted by Aulaire on 2008-08-05 10:48:56
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conceptionally interesting - horribly done.

posted by superchou on 2008-08-05 11:45:26
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Might have been cool if it wasn't just a white box above the chair/table... like, if the chair was painted behind it. Also, the chair part itself is really ugly and just looks super uncomfortable.

posted by -haley- on 2008-08-05 11:55:35
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At this point, almost anything NOT mid-century modern
is fine with me... ;)
it reminds me of those plastic Barbie cases that had fold out furniture.
I think it's fun, and I agree with ChristoperB--great idea for public spaces.

posted by baba yaga on 2008-08-05 11:56:10
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would be great at a restaurant waiting area. i think they are cool. and i second the remark about anything NOT mid-century modern being a nice change of scenery. if i see one more eames lounge chair i will literally vomit. get a grip people!!! the fifties are over. move on.

posted by mia kepia on 2008-08-05 12:59:35
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these are amazing

posted by hanako66 on 2008-08-05 13:15:20
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I love it. mainly the top photo, love the couch image. if they're not too far off the ground, it could be a lot of fun in public waiting places. outside buildings, airports, bus stations, stories. anywhere. in the home would be a little too much, unless you lived in the bauhaus.

posted by indiasoup on 2008-08-05 13:21:49
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might be fun for about twenty minutes …

posted by maike on 2008-08-05 14:49:22
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I can't think of a better way to say "I care more about superficial appearance than I do about your comfort. In fact, I'm going to prove how clever I am by going out of my way to USE superficial appearance to show just HOW LITTLE I care about your comfort!"

It almost looks like they went out of their way to make the seating as uncomfortable as possible, just for the ironic contrast to the pictured furniture that you don't get to sit in-- nya-nya nya!

Now, with seating that looked like it at least TRIED to be comfortable, I'd like it a lot more and find it genuinely clever. The images are neat, having an image of furnature open into actual furnature is kind of cool. But I have a hard time feeling any love for a chair I wouldn't want to sit in. Kinda misses the point of "chair".

posted by LindaJeanne on 2008-08-05 14:50:27
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that is just freaking me out..

posted by animalhouze on 2008-08-05 15:07:19
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The more I look at these pictures the more I hate them! Yuck.

posted by rainyday on 2008-08-05 15:10:04
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I would think they were cool in a gallery or airport or hotel... somewhere they would be a novelty, but nowhere in a realy house could i like them! If someone invited me over to their house and all they had was THIS to sit on, I would never come back!

posted by avallant on 2008-08-05 15:15:19
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Is that an actual table in the center? How can you eat on that? Your left arm, and the other person's right arm, bang against the wall! I couldn't imagine anything worse for eating or writing or anything you're supposed to do on a table for more than two minutes!

posted by Daniel Poitiers on 2008-08-05 16:09:32
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i wouldn't trust that to hold me up

posted by Kat1 on 2008-08-05 17:29:19
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I love all 3. But really as little tables, not chairs. I don't expect to be too comfortable in them but love the idea of them as benches in spaces too small and high-traffic to fit the actual seating pictured. It would be terribly fun for kids. kinda like a life-size pop-up book!

The only uncomfortable one of the three is the middle one simply because it seems leave no real shoulder room while facing the dining table. I wish there were pics of people using or standing next to them for scale.

And I'm fairly sure the designer would've factored in load bearing into the cantilevered designs.

posted by silvarga on 2008-08-05 17:48:12
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Just as annoying in a real house as it was in my childhood dollhouse. I hated those pictures of furniture on the wall! Who did they think they were fooling, anyway?

posted by farmhousemoderne on 2008-08-05 18:04:49
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