Please Be Seated
The Simpsons’ C. Montgomery Burns once said, “Sitting—the great leveler. From the mightiest pharaoh to the lowliest peasant, who doesn’t enjoy a good sit?” As we discovered with television critic Tim Goodman, when it comes to sitting, the lounge chair is king.
The lounge chair is the furniture equivalent to the sports car. If you’re having a midlife crisis (and happen to be in the market for furniture and not, say, a convertible roadster), do you go out and buy yourself a dresser? No, but you might buy a sexy lounge chair. The reasons for this, however, have more to do with the history of furniture than with male-pattern baldness or marital anxiety. Up until the Renaissance, the chair, much like a Lamborghini Countach, was not the seat of the people—commoners were stuck with chests, benches, and stools. Today the lounge chair is the modern living room’s throne—a status symbol and upholstered isolation chamber rolled into one.
In the 20th century the lineage of the chair became inextricably linked with that of design itself. From Thonet to Pillet, to chart the course of the chair’s evolution is also to follow technological developments (like bent plywood and injection molding) and the ever-changing notion of what makes design modern, even when it’s postmodern. Chairs hold such weight that individual pieces have been elevated to cultural icons—hundreds of magazine covers, movies, and television shows later, Aarnio’s Ball chair is as ’60s as Sgt. Pepper.
When it came time for Dwell to evaluate lounge chairs, it seemed natural that we should somehow tie in another innovation that’s grown up right alongside (or in front of) the chair—the television. Although we certainly enjoy a good book and love to sift through the Sunday paper, the reality for most Americans (and sometimes, sadly, ourselves) is that time spent at home equals time watching TV. For Tim Goodman, the television critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, that’s not such a bad thing. “I watch about 30 hours a week,” he told us enthusiastically. “I have three televisions and three TiVos.” We recently spent an afternoon with Goodman talking about the ups and downs of a life centered on the small screen, and testing five lounge chairs to see how they would hold up to the new fall season.
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Womb Chair
Expert Opinion: This is perfect. Everything works. Every angle in your body is supported. It’s comfortable; it’s attractive. The arms are ideal for me—you could put your notebook on one and, if you’re careful, a drink on the other. You could go for hours in this—like a whole season of The Sopranos.
What We Think: Much of what we enjoy in chairs owes a great deal to Saarinen and his early collaborator Charles Eames and their explorations with molded plywood, fiberglass, and plastics. It’s hard to argue with the Womb chair. It’s a classic for a reason.
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J.J.
Expert Opinion: If I had just seen this I wouldn’t normally be attracted to it, but sitting in it is a different story. I like this a lot—there’s surprisingly good back support. It’s a lot more comfortable than you think just looking at it. I could do a movie in this, maybe even four hours of shows.
What We Think: We too were surprised with just how comfortable J.J. is. The arms angle out slightly, which helps us feel like we can simply relax. We also learned that the chair is upholstered only in leather to accommodate for the hidden lumbar support, which would bulge too much with fabric. Our only concern is that it’s very low to the ground.
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Facett
Expert Opinion: It’s weird; this is both comfortable and uptight. While the support is good, there’s a problem with the arms—they’re too sharp. With the ottoman helping out, you could ease yourself through a two-hour movie or some mini-marathon on HBO with no problem.
What We Think: While we agree that the arms are a bit too high to be comfortable for a sustained period, we’ve always been drawn to Facett’s unique stitching (the love seat cover features almost 700 feet of stitching and uses about 2,300 feet of thread).
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Take A Line for a Walk
Expert Opinion: I like the shape of this but I’m not sure I would be able to make it through six hours of a marathon, because you want some more comfort. I’m sort of split 50/50 on form and function. The sound is odd because you’re kind of in a little dome here—it’s going to block off my new surround-sound system. If I look at it in terms of episodic length, you could get through a couple shows max.
What We Think: Häberli’s chair has shades of the classic Danish Egg and Ox chairs, but the unusual base options are a point of innovation. We agree with Goodman that if you’re going to be sitting down for a while, you could use a bit more padding. With its oversize headrest blocking out the rest of the world, this might be a better chair for reading.
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Ola
Expert Opinion: This is very similar to a chair I have by OFFI. This one is probably better for my wife because she can curl up like a cat and put her legs under her, which I am incapable of doing because I’m inflexible. If there’s more than one person over, you can plop down in this one and let them have the couch. I think this is a one-episode chair.
What We Think: With our feet on Ola’s ottoman we would be happy watching David Brent blunder his way through a few hours of The Office (but then again, we could probably sit in a sandbox and enjoy David Brent). Ola could work if you’re strapped for space, but for pure comfort, look elsewhere.
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Comments
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A lounge chair review without the CB2? Though, I do love the Facett. Good review!
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