Rest and be Alternatively Seated

A posting about chairs, you ask, but just how interesting can a chair be? Frankly, I can see where you are coming from and if I had ever imagined that I’d write a post on Thoughts from the Sidelines concerning chairs then I would not have looked for the green man before crossing the road this morning to get my paper and be insulted by the newsagent (as is tradition).

And yet, here it is – a posting concerning chairs. However, these are not any ordinary chairs. These are chairs that are just that little bit different in their own special ways. These are chairs to be reckoned with – chairs that go beyond the sole function of being simply sat on. These are chairs that make normal chairs step aside and become quivering wrecks in the corner as they enter a room. These are chairs that make bog standard chairs throw themselves out of windows from the tenth floor, and take hacksaws to their own limbs in scenes of ritual furnishing suicide.

These are chairs that know all the dance moves to YMCA and aren’t afraid to show it.

The Hairy Chair

Created by the recycling conscious designer Charles Kaisin, the Hairy Chair is created from thousands upon thousands of fine strips of paper that have been intricately sewn into a chair to result in a rather unique piece of furniture that genuinely appears as if it may spring into life and consume you at any minute.

Just don’t let your fail grandmother or a small child sit in it, as you’ll need crampons and a climbing rope to get them back out.

Key Uses: Scare all children under 10 to death.

The Hand Truck Chair

As much as we may like the company of friends and family, there invariably comes a time when they have outstayed their welcome – in Thoughts from the Sidelines Towers, that’s usually by the fourth cup of tea – and this is where the Hand Truck Chair could prove itself to be an extremely handy device.

With this chair from designer Philippe Peyridieu in your front room, and duly nominated as the guest’s chair, no longer will you have to drop those often used hints about having a busy day tomorrow or having a prior engagement to go to, you can simply take charge of the situation, tilt your guest back and wheel them out of the house.

Key Uses: Reclaim your house from visitors with the minimum of fuss.

The Electric Plug Chair

A concept chair by Nahoko Koyama and Alexander Garnett of Mixko Design Studios, the electric plug chair is bound to become the centre of attention in any front room – finding replacement fuses may be a problem though.

Key Uses: The ultimate plug-in?

The Grass Chair

Whilst hardly cheap at $235.00 (which, I should add, does not include the required grass seeds!) this chair from Fitzsu.com is strictly for those who like to feel at one with nature, though it would no doubt prove rather taxing on your lawn mower.

All you need with one of these is a television in the trunk of a tree and beer cooler in a plant pot and I am sure most of us would feel right at home.

Key Uses: Dress like a garden gnome and feel right at home.

[etv]

The Robot Chair

How about a robot chair that is able to collapse and reconstruct itself? Never would I have thought that I would find myself posting a video of a chair on Thoughts from the Sidelines, but now I find myself doing exactly that. What next I wonder – a video of a cup, a PowerPoint presentation of a table cloth or perhaps a downloadable PDF of a napkin? (Let’s never say never, shall we?).

Regardless of the above, this video is well worth viewing as I strongly suspect that this chair is very much a one of a kind and is actually extremely impressive.

Key Uses: Just wait until the cat/mother-in-law is comfortable and then press the switch.

The Cooker Chair

With lack of space being a concern for many of us – certainly those held up in modern inner-city flats – this cooker chair from Vestal Design could prove to be extremely practical as, whilst it appears to be a standard run-of-the-mill chair it actually folds out to be a cooker with two hobs and a working surface.

A marvellous invention though could prove interesting if you convert it back to a chair and have forgotten to turn the cooker off – I won’t make any wise cracks about hot seats, though it’s most tempting.

Key Uses: Don’t ever clean the cooker - just hide it.

The Chair Bag

The Chair Bag by PS.Labs was inspired by sea buoys and bean bags and the result is an inflatable, modern designer chair that can be called into action either inside or out at the drop of a hat. Not only that, but it also offers the benefit of being water resistant.

Key Uses: If your house is prone to flooding, drift past the neighbours who never thought you had any taste and smile at them inanely - how good do you feel?

The Porsche 917 Chair

If you have ever fancied owning a Porsche 917 then this may well be the closest you will ever get, though at £4500.00 each this could hardly be considered cheap. Still, seated on this chair from Inspired Design you could always imagine that you are screaming to victory in the 1970 Le Mans 24hr race when, in fact, you are actually eating a micro-zapped meal in front of the TV whilst your dog plays with himself on the floor (which isn’t quite as romantic).

Key Uses: Sit behind it and play your favourite driving game as you peer through the glass headrest and feel really cool, or not.

The Pyramat Sound Rocker Chair

Incorporating three full range ARX speakers and a powerful 5.5 inch subwoofer, the Pyramat chair, available from The Gadget Shop, will not only let you hear your music, the TV or your games in a particularly close up and personal fashion but it will also offer the vibrations to match – so if you buy this, keep it away from your partner who will no doubt take an instant liking to it.

As well as featuring a headphone socket – which surely defeats the object somewhat - the chair will connect directly to most audio sources as well as to your iPod or MP3 player and it also folds up for easy storage.

Key Uses: Convince your partner that banging house or drum ‘n’ bass is not that bad - after an hour on this with the volume ranked up they are bound to agree with you.

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