Restaurant Bar Stools

This must be the hardest chair to sit on , ever. Constructed from either mild steel and acetal or stainless steel and polycarbonate, this is one hard chair to stomach. Unless your a serious design aficionado, your bums just won’t take the potential soreness that raw steel will offer.

About the 5-Minute Dining chair, Adam Simha, the devious mastermind behind the conception has this to say: “ The design of a chair should address the reality of the experience of sitting: inherently one of changing needs and desires, a free and unselfconscious mix of fact, function, wit and whimsy” he muses.

Well, for those willing to ignore the hard surface, there is plenty of potential for the design. It’s so spartan and unadorned that it has already reached the Buddhist state of Nirvana in it’s quest for nothingness.

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The Black Eagle of Prussia

Everyone knows the importance of good interior design in a bar, how certain elements encourage people interaction, how the furniture and general placement affect the ‘feel’ of the place. One good way to change the ‘feel’ of the place without expensive hacking and renovation would be to throw in some prints and paintings; they liven up a plain wall and can give new life to a place.

Today I’d like to introduce you to the Master of mood paintings, Gustave Dore. I shall not bore you with details of his background, but instead show you his works and let them speak for themselves. One of the art world’s best kept secrets, he has illustrated classics such as Dante’s Inferno and the Holy Bible leaving readers awed and inspired by the words given shape in his extraordinary works. Due to the rarity of his art, I had to go to some lengths to get the few pictures for this article for which I hope will give you a taste, a small appetizer if you will of his work. Above you find one of his masterpieces, The Black Eagle of Prussia, which is now on permanent display at the Dahesh Musuem of Art, New York.

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After staring at it for 10 minutes, I still can’t figure out what they used to lacquer this thing with, coloured polyurethane , nope. Clear acrylic ? Nope. I just don’t know. Maybe they somehow suspended an oil in between 2 layers of laminate to create that shimmery shiny effect you sometimes see on spilt oil when it reflects the light. Apparently beneath this psychedilic color combination is a beechwood top , and steel base mounted on a combination beech/steel pedestal.

I beg to differ, there must be some alien technology hidden somewhere but oh well, whatever. As long as its not from China and made of lead/mercury laden materials, who cares what it’s made off.

Somehow the pedestal of this very very interesting contract bar table looks to me like a over-sized baseball bat , connected to 2 alien spaceships, the craft of the future perhaps. Looking to set up a new religion with new meditation techniques or an Alien abduction support group ? Get this. The surface itself will inspire new visions of space and the universe. Stare into the swirls and be mesmerized, drift off into another world.

 Model : OndulationModel : Ying & Yang

When Henry Massonnet designed the Tam Tam stool in 1968, the world took notice to the tune of over 12 million stools sold. The image of Bridgette Bardot looking stylish while sitting on the chair quickly elevated it to the cult status it still holds today.

Today, the Tam Tam has been completely reinvented and given a new dash of color in keeping with the new concept of Zen which is popular among the new-age crowd. Placed in fundamental black and white, the direct opposites echo in perfect harmony.  

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The MC P670 is a throwback to a bygone era of Victorian elegance with a touch of the modern. Constructed of quality Beech wood, the warm colors just invite you to sit down and touch and feel it for yourself.  Unconventional angled legs and handrests make for interesting viewing unlike the too staid and blocky designs nowadays.  

Virginal white in color ,plain and simple. The cushioned unadorned cushioned seat just acts to emphasize the other dominant features without being overdone. The warm tones of the Beech wood contrast nicely with the purity of the cushion to form a harmony to the eyes.  

But the main feature making this fit to be considered contemporary hotel furniture is surely the ornate backrest. From the front, the sun itself seems to have been placed right in the center of the chair to shine forth it’s brilliant light unto the surroundings. The wavy sun beams penetrate into the sides of the chair providing both support to the back and beauty to the design.

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The 3D Daiquire by Jarkko Maikkula appears to have been timewarped right out of an 80’s show. The shimmery silver tinted fabric just brings back the halcyon days of the swinging 80’s , the shinny disco ball dancerooms, the dresses with all the sparkle power glued onto it, ahh those were the days indeed.

The conical top and 4 spreading legs appear to have been heavily inspired by the Apollo MoonLander albeit an alien version of one, maybe the War of the World’s deluxe edition.

I expect an alien to come clambering out of it sometime soon. Given the rather large tolerances of eccentric fashion nowadays, I believe that given enough time, the concept of the 3D Daiquire will become somewhat integrated into modern hotel furniturearound the world. As the world turns back to the past for inspiration on the present, the electrik mix of past and present will serve the 3D Daiquire well for some time to come.

Modern Furniture takes a lot of wood which in turn is heavily harvested in countries like Brazil and Indonesia among others. Trees help the earth by taking in more carbon dioxide then they give out. Deforestation will inevitably result in the buzz word of the season, global warming.

Plastics present in modern furniture threaten to overwhelm our waste recycling centres and plastics can last for thousands of years.

Jasper Morrison’s Cork family buck the trend. Made of cock, they are environmentally friendly to the max. Cock is harvested by making a vertical cut on the bark of the Cork Oak tree, or Quercus suber and peeling it off in a single sheet. The tree is then left to recover for 6 – 9 years before the next harvesting. No trees are ‘killed’ in the production of cork. Unlike plastics, cork is also biodegradable leaving no traces after a few decades.   

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