10 chairs that have us at the edge of our seat

Eugène Gaillard was a trailblazing industrial designer and architect of the Art Nouveau period. Along with Siegfried (Samuel) Bing, who founded the Paris gallery L’Art Nouveau, he greatly shaped the artistic movement.

These ‘Aux Arums’ side chairs, produced by Bing, are highly emblematic of the Art Nouveau style, with their sinuous lines and meticulously carved detailing.

Josef Hoffman was one of the visionaries behind the Vienna Secession movement and the co-founder of the Wiener Werkstätte, a collective of artists and artisans that promoted the unification of many art forms in their designs. This elegant armchair design was first created by Hoffman for the Cabaret Fledermaus, the famous Vienna theatre founded in 1907.

While the bold vertical and horizontal lines imbue the chair with a robust quality, the playful balls provide both support and ornament, creating a delightful contrast.

Exemplifying the distinctive style of the Finnish designer Alvar Aalto, this cantilevered chair is a prime example of his experimental seating creations, with variations including side chairs and children’s chairs. The armchair is part of Aalto’s noteworthy portfolio, having been showcased at the Nordic Building Exhibition in Helsinki in 1932 and later gracing the Finnish Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair in 1937.

While the roots of bent plywood furniture trace back to the German-Austrian cabinet maker Michael Thonet’s 1836 patent, Aalto truly modernized the technique to produce sleek, modern designs.

Now here’s a chair you’ll want to sink right into. With these generously plush cushions and handy armrests, this armchair ticks all the boxes.

Designed by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, this model was originally created in 1938 for the Mill Run, Pennsylvania, office of Edgar J. Kaufmann, well known for having commissioned Fallingwater. With smooth mahogany and plush cushioning, the chair design continued to be used throughout Wright’s career, such as in the Rayward-Shepherd house, a masterpiece of his Usonian period.

Warren Platner’s steel wire furniture is an icon of 1960s modernism. Crafted by seamlessly welding curved steel rods to circular frames, this set of four armchairs is a testament to Platner’s ingenuity in structure and ornament. Initially produced by Knoll, this timeless design captures the decorative, gentle, and graceful quality that Platner was so beloved for.

The set pairs equally well with contemporary, modern, minimalist and industrial interiors.

What does this playful chair remind you of? Mushrooms, oysters, tongues and tulips were just some of the shapes that inspired the French designer Pierre Paulin. The sculptural design harkens back to Paulin’s training as a sculptor and epitomises the sleek and functional design of the 1960s.

The prototype for this Ribbon chair was shown at the Utrecht Furniture Exhibition in 1965, and then refined in 1966 for production by Artifort. However, this chair in particular is special — it was gifted from Pierre Paulin himself to the present owner.

The German multidisciplinary artist Stefan Wewerka was notorious for upending the ordinary. This is certainly the case with ‘Klassenraumstuhl’ (‘Classroom chair’). Flouting the chair’s functional requirements, Wewerka embarked on groundbreaking explorations of aesthetics, giving rise to radical designs that defied categorisation.

Designed in 1970, this model can be found in the permanent collection of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.

'The springs on the feet are to give a sense of insecurity,’ says the Italian designer Gaetano Pesce about these ‘Broadway’ Chairs from 1993. ‘When you sit you do not feel secure, that is like the reality of life.’

In keeping with Pesce’s penchant for industrial materials, this chair is created from resin, chrome-plated steel and plastic. The prolific designer’s playful post-modern creations can be found in museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Centre Pompidou.

A penny for your thoughts? This Half Dollar chair by American contemporary designer Johnny Swing is the perfect place to sit down and think.

If discovering change on the street is lucky, then owning this chair is like hitting the jackpot. Created from hundreds of half-dollar coins, the chair envelopes the sitter in a sinuous form, representative of currency’s ever-moving network. This armchair perfectly embodies Swing’s design ethos of being ‘entertaining, curiosity-sparking, and comfortable.’

Delve into the multifaceted realm of Forrest Myers, fondly known as Frosty. Influenced by Alexander Calder's mastery of metalwork and impeccable sense of colour, Myers infuses his sculptural furniture with vibrant hues, such as the captivating blue interiors of these 125 MPH chairs.

A combination of rigidity and looseness pervades this matching duo — from the sensuality of their continuous lines to the folded dimensionality he creates from a single sheet of metal.