Our top 10 picks for upcycled chairs
If you need a new chair for your house or office why opt for a boring run-of-the-mill chair that can be found in most homes. Rather look towards remarkable designers who are taking random items and upcycling them into retro, unique and sustainable pieces.
Here are just 10 of our favourites. Which of these would make them into your home or office?
The Beetle Club Chair
If you would like to reminisce about the good old days when you owned a classic VW Beetle, then this is the chair for you. The Rag and Bone Man designers create these fantastic chairs using the iconic VW Beetle bonnet. You can choose the fabric or leather to ensure your Beetle Club Chair matches your home or office. While you can even match your chair to the colour of your Beetle by providing them with the RAL colour.
The Beetle Club Chair does not come cheap and retails for £2,400 (approximately AU$4,500). You can pick up the Beetle Club Chair with matching ottoman for £3,500 (approximately AU$6,500)
Skateboard Lounge chair
Take the aesthetics of the classic Eames lounge chair and combine that with skateboards and you have a stunning piece of furniture that is stylish while at the same time doesn’t sacrifice comfort. Named the God Father lounge chair, designed by Skate Study House, the unique piece takes the skateboard to new limits. Including an ottoman, the lounge chair combines seven walnut, laminated skateboard decks with cushions on a metal frame to create a stunning piece of furniture for your home or office.
Price available on request.
Reused traffic signs
While traffic signs may make an appearance in a student’s room or on the wall of a pub, designer Boris Bally goes one step further. The old traffic signs see new life when they are recycled into funky-looking chairs.
Salami Chair
Italian artist. Luca Bornoffi upcyles parts of a chair to create a completely unique seating arrangement that combines both art and upcyling, while at the same time remaining functional. Bornoffi mounts two discarded seats onto an old oak beam, which is further mounted onto some wheels.
Recycled silk chair
If you want to add a splash of colour to your room, then these recycled silk chairs are the way to go. Colourful, recycled sari silk from Nepal are filled with sponge to create this stunning piece of furniture. Istanbul-based designer Meb Rure ensures fabric waste is lessened.
The recycled silk chair retails for $2,580 (approximately AU$3,400).
Curro Claret collection
Broken skateboards, fake designer handbags, salvaged timber planks come together to create some very unique pieces of furniture. Designer Curro Claret curated a collection of chairs made from materials often found on the street. The people behind the various pieces in the collection come from various backgrounds including a cleaning woman, a local skateboarder, and a car mechanic.
Runway chairs
“Preloved can be reloved,” is what Swedish design company Leftovers optimises. Made from a variety of mixed and matched materials normally found on the runway. These chairs from the Runway Collection will add a level of pure sophistication to your dining room.
The Runway chair retails for 6,500 SEK (approximately AU$1,050).
Offcut stool
These funky bar stools, designed by Edwards Moore, are made entirely from reclaimed materials. Discarded timber cuts, from a variety of sources, are bound together using an industrial ratchet, sanded down and finished off with linseed oil and wax.
Vespa Chair
I love vintage Vespas, and if I can’t be driving one around town, I could probably make due with a unique chair made from the chassis of one of these iconic machines. Created by Bel & Bel Chair, the Scooter Chair comes in a variety of funky colours that we come to associate with the vintage Vespa.
PET chair
Millions of PET bottles make it to landfills on a daily basis and is a huge problem facing the environment. One company that sells a lot of PET bottles containing their product is Coca-Cola. In 2006, they teamed up with Emeco to find a sustainable way to upcycle its PET bottles into something useful. 111 PET bottles are recycled and upcycled into a classic chair. In the first five years of the initiative, 15 million bottles were saved from landfills.
