Zoe Monosson

During the first three weeks of my furniture design course, I dedicated my time to sketching, iterating, refining, and making models of possible designs.

I decided the chair would reside in my room. Because I would be the primary user of the chair, I made the dimensions of the seat fit the dimensions of my body. When I sit in a chair, I like to sit cross legged, which is difficult to do in narrow chairs. Because of this, I maximized the size of the seat of the chair.

In my room, I throw scarves, jackets, and bags onto my chairs. I added horizontal cuts to my design in order to slide bag straps, scarves, and jackets through them. These niches also make the chair easy to pick up and flexible when leaning back.

Lastly, this design was inspired by Danish furniture designers. Many famous Danish chairs, such as the egg and the seven chairs, contain beautifully sculpted curves. I wanted to focus my design and artistry on refining the curves in my chair. After visiting Fritz Hansen, a Danish furniture retailer, I became interested in how traditional chairs are resold in different colors every year. In particular, I noticed the fun, 70s, bright colors that the designers used and I wanted to incorporate those into my design. I wanted my chair to have a personality of it's own. When my friends enter my bedroom, I don’t have to point out my chair, but my chair speaks for itself saying, “Hey, I’m a chair! Look at me!”

After visiting Fritz Hansen and observing the elegant upholstery, I was passionate about making a cushion for my chair. However, there was not enough class time for me to both paint my chair and build a cushion for it. Because I was determined to finish both tasks, I carried my chair to and from my apartment multiple times in order to finish painting it at home. This allowed me to reach my goal by maximizing my class time to complete my cushion.

The seat cushion is not permanently attached to my chair. It is up to the user to decide to use it or not.