Top 10 lounge chairs
When you want to curl up with your favourite book or watch your favourite movie, where do you turn? For most of us, it’s the lounge chair. They’re the perfect place for stretching out, getting cosy and indulging in a little ‘me time’.
Whether you’re looking for a design classic or a modern masterpiece, you’ll find something in our curated collection.
Vitra Eames Lounge Chair
Where else would we begin our top 10 other than with the Eames Lounge Chair? Designed by husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames, this chair is the prime example of what it means to lounge.
It was inspired by the welcoming shape of a worn baseball glove and created with comfort firmly in mind – just one of the reasons it’s been so popular for so long. It has a moulded plywood frame, which carefully follows the contours of the body, an angled seat and irresistibly soft leather upholstery.
Cuero Design Leather Butterfly Chair – Pampa Mariposa
If you think you’ve seen this chair before, well, that’s probably because you have. The Butterfly Chair is regularly found in the lobby of five-star hotels, on the cover of luxury design magazines, and in the most fashionable homes.
Redesigned by Cuero to be longer, wider and more comfortable than the original, the Swedish designers also added a 4mm thick leather hide over the top. The result is a timeless piece of furniture that is as equally functional as it is stylish.
Magis Spun Rotating Chair
While there are many reasons Thomas Heatherwick’s Spun Rotating Chair made it into our top 10, the primary one is that its jolly good fun!
Large enough to seat one person comfortably on its sunken top, it allows users to swivel in a circular rocking motion, or even complete a full rotation. And when it’s not in use (though if we had one, we’re not sure when that would be), it rests daintily on its side.
&Tradition VB1 Little Petra Lounge Chair
Since the Little Petra was first released in 1938, it has gone on to achieve near-mythical status. Created by reclusive designer Viggo Boesen, the chair won awards at major exhibitions in Berlin and New York. But due to the complex nature of the design, only 30 units were ever made.
Relaunched in 2018 by &Tradition, the new version closely follows Boesen’s original hand-drawn vision. Petite, open and inviting, this (very) low lounge chair effortlessly brings a design classic back into modern view.
Carl Hansen CH25 Lounge Chair
Quality craftsmanship and attention to detail are what makes Hans J. Wegner’s CH25 Lounge Chair so special. Its intricately woven seat and back takes a skilled weaver up to 10 hours to complete using over 400m of paper cord. It has a lightweight, sculptural presence and brings a sense of elegance to wherever it is placed.
Knoll Studio Wassily Lounge Chair
We could just mention the word ‘Bauhaus’ and leave it there, but that would be doing a disservice to this icon of modernist design. Marcel Breuer was a Bauhaus apprentice when he first started experimenting with furniture inspired by the functional bicycle frame. The most memorable result of his experimentation was the Wassily Lounge Chair, released in 1925.
Now recognised as a modernist classic, the Wassily is the ultimate expression of form and function. Avant-garde, simplistic, modernist – however you want to describe it, the Wassily lounge chair won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
HAY Chisel Lounge Chair
As elegant and precise as the carpenter’s tool that it’s named after, the HAY Chisel Lounge Chair is a modern take on the classic curved plywood chair. Featuring an ergonomic design and impeccable workmanship, it’s a prime example of Scandinavian design excellence.
The Chisel Lounge Chair is also available with a sheepskin covering or an upholstered front. Either option provides an added level of comfort and luxury to a design that already has plenty of both.
Fritz Hansen Egg Lounge Chair
Currently celebrating its 60th anniversary, the Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen is as iconic now as it was when it was first unveiled in 1958. It was designed specifically for the lobby of the SAS Royal Hotel where its high back and curved shell provided privacy for the sitter. Every Egg Chair is stitched by hand at the Fritz Hansen factory in Denmark using a distinctive wave pattern – it takes over 500 stitches to make a fabric Egg Chair and over 1,100 to make a leather one!
You can read more about Arne Jacobsen’s SAS Royal Hotel and the quality and craftsmanship of this classic design in our journal.
Audo Copenhagen Brasilia Lounge Chair
Two worlds collide in this triumph in hybrid design by Audo Copenhagen. Combining the best of Scandinavian minimalism with Brazilian modernism, this lounge chair-meets-arm chair is elegance personified.
Featuring eye-catching legs, exaggerated armrests and ultra-thick cushions, there’s simply no matching the Brasilia when it comes to comfort. Also available in a low-back version for a more ergonomic experience, you would be hard-pressed to find a more embracing lounge chair than this.
House of Finn Juhl France Chair
The final chair in our top 10 is the France Chair by House of Finn Juhl. This mid-century classic was first produced in 1958, featuring gorgeous upholstery in prestige cognac leather. Designed for the American market in the late 1950s, the France Chair is a homage to C.W.F France, an English businessman whose manufacturing company France & Son partnered with Finn Juhl.
To browse even more classic and contemporary lounge chair designs, head over to our Lounge Chair & Ottomans page.
Alternatively, if you’d like a little help then why not read our Lounge Chair Buying Guide or if you have any questions, then please get in touch. Email info@nest.co.uk, call 0114 243 3000 or catch us on Live Chat.
Image credit: Max Hawley.
