There are few great markers of success than walking into your living room and flopping down into an Eames Lounge Chair.
The most iconic creation from Charles and Ray Eames, the chair was originally seen as a fairly economic option when it was first introduced in 1956. But any whiff of post-war affordability has long since dissipated, with the Lounge and its many four-legged Eames brethren among the most highly sought after (and highly knocked off) objects in home design.
But Design Within Reach just relaunched their exclusive 15% off sale on all Herman Miller goods, an American company that owns the exclusive rights to some of most recognizable chair designs of the last century — including those by sweethearts Charles and Ray Eames, an abridged survey of whose greats you’ll find below.
Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman (1956)
The goal for this piece? To mimic “the warm, receptive look of a well-used first baseman’s mitt.” Achievement unlocked. Today the chair is available in a “tall” size, because — fun fact courtesy the Design Within Reach site — “Herman Miller and the Eames Office, still run by the Eames family, developed the taller size in response to the fact that the average height of people worldwide has increased about an inch since the chair was designed.”
Eames Molded Fiberglass 4-Leg Side Chair (1950)
The earliest version of the ubiquitous molded fiberglass chair, nicknamed the DFSX, was made from metal as part of a 1948 MoMA competition for low-cost furniture. Soon after the Eameses began manufacturing in fiberglass … and in the ‘80s Herman Miller began to use less toxic, recyclable materials. DFSX stands for “dining-height fiberglass side chair with an X-base.”
Eames Aluminum Management Chair (1958)
The product of a special commision from Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and his colleagues for a sturdy, mobile indoor-outdoor chair. Aluminum was popular in this post-war era for its price point and flexibility, and indeed the material was the namesake of the collection this chair appears in, the Eames Aluminum Group Collection, which has never gone out of production since its initial release.
Eames Sofa (1967)
Part of their Soft Pad collection, this sofa was the last piece of furniture produced by the office. Comes as a two- or three-seater, with a walnut or teak frame. It has been in continuous production since 1984.
Eames Molded Plastic Rocker (1950)
An evolution of the fiberglass chair that is now produced in recyclable polypropylene. It’s reported that since 1955, every Herman Miller employee who is a parent-to-be is offered one of these chairs as an heirloom.
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This article was updated on November 21, 2018, It was originally published May 4, 2018.
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