Every week (although the timing isn’t particularly fixed), I see a chair sketch on my Instagram feed, and after having seen and liked dozens of them, my mind can almost instantly recognize @nickpbaker’s style and brand of creativity anywhere.

Given the hashtag of #nickschairsketches, Baker uploads unusual conceptual chair designs almost every week. The chairs showcase inventiveness that one rarely sees in furniture design, as concepts take inspiration from quite literally anywhere. Scroll down to see a few of our favorites.

Designer: Nicholas Baker

Highly appropriate, given the season we’re in, this chair takes direct inspiration from Santa’s sled, and isn’t ashamed of it too! In fact, it ditches the chair legs for sled-skis too! Don’t go pushing this chair downhill though!

A result of Weekly Design Challenge’s 99th design brief (Plant Pot), Nick combined the two challenges to make a full-scale terracotta seat with planters integrated into its sides, so you can smell the roses as you sit outdoors!

Made of six pieces of wood and a felt cushion, this concept chair turns into a lounger when you pull the cushion outwards (almost like a cabinet drawer). Pull it further and you’ve got yourself an extra Ottoman stool to sit on, as one chair magically transforms into two!

Guaranteed to bring the child out in you, this chair literally has some bounce. Part trampoline, part seat, this concept keeps you active while you’re seated, although your productivity may take a slight hit as you bounce up and down in childlike glee through the day!

This chair’s build is what makes it interesting. Multiple pieces of felt are stacked together, giving the 2D sheets a 3D mass. After a point, the sheets become longer, and bam! You’ve got yourself a backrest. The sheets of felt are held together by brass rivets at the bottom.

This visually delightful chair may have one of the most simple constructions yet. A transparent sheet of acrylic is thermoformed into the shape of the seat, while a routing machine carves notches into two pieces of wood that allow the acrylic sheet to fit in. Voila! Instant chair!

The beauty of this chair is in its DIY assembly. Two cushions and four pieces of wood are flat-packed and shipped to your home. Putting them together is as simple as plugging the wood pieces in, resting the cushion on top of the X, and gluing or nailing the backrest in place.

This chair comes with the additional option of cocooning yourself into your own private little space. The chair comes with a draping of felt around the back and sides. Keep the draping open for regular seating, or lift the drapes up and button them together and you’ve got a completely enclosed (and even sound-absorbing) enclosure that lets you work or relax in peace.

A single bent piece of pipe forms this seat’s structure while a leather sheet gives you a hammock-like seating area. Sit regularly or sideways, this chair is comfortable, and adds a touch of simplicity to its surroundings.

Literally a definition of bilateral symmetry, this chair comes in two identical halves, fastened together at the center. Made out of bent sheet-steel (cheap, reliable, and long-lasting), the two modules can be mixed and matched to give you color combinations that suit your space well. The colors are brought about by simply powder-coating the steel, preventing it from rusting and giving it a nice, glossy color finish. Finally, the two mirrored pieces are riveted together at the base, giving you a chair that’s unusual but comfortable!
__
Click Here to check out the rest in the Nicholas Baker’s Chair Sketch Challenge series

Every week (although the timing isn’t particularly fixed), I see a chair sketch on my Instagram feed, and after having seen and liked dozens of them, my mind can almost instantly recognize @nickpbaker’s style and brand of creativity anywhere.

Given the hashtag of #nickschairsketches, Baker uploads unusual conceptual chair designs almost every week. The chairs showcase inventiveness that one rarely sees in furniture design, as concepts take inspiration from quite literally anywhere. Scroll down to see a few of our favorites.

Designer: Nicholas Baker

Both a regular sofa and a rocking sofa, this chair can be flipped 180° depending on which feature you want. The reversible sofa can be sat on both ways, and the handles come with a flat side that gives you a stable sofa when you need, and a rocking sofa when you’re in the mood for some fun!

A different kind of DIY chair, this one requires some concrete and a hard-hat. The chair comes as a mold that also transforms into a backrest as the mold cavity allows you to craft the seating area of the chair. Ingenious!

A simple chair made out of a single material, this concept showcases minimalism along with creativity. The bent tubing forms the legs as well as a wide seating area and backrest. You’d probably need a cushion though.

There’s something just wonderful about how the elastic strap adds punctuation to the chair’s design, giving it definition as well as its form. Without the strap, the chair’s almost like a hammock that you can’t really sit on. Introduce the strap and you’ve got a detail that catches eyes and derrières!

Inspired by the Bellow, this chair’s cushion effect comes from its unusual design! The roto-molded chair is sturdy, but its accordion- construction gives it a little flexibility as you sit down on it. The seat and backrest flex in their own directions, giving you a seating that’s hard yet soft!

This chair reminds me a lot of the Red Dot Chair we wrote about earlier. It, however, comes with a cushion that gives you a clear indication of where to seat yourself! The elastic fabric also flexes to accommodate the shape of your body so you’re comfortable no matter what!

Inspired by the Anicorn and NASA collaboration over the limited edition watch commemorating NASA’s 60th anniversary, this chair is Nick’s hat-tip to NASA on their 60th birthday. It comes with an aluminum frame and a Tyvek cushion, both materials that are used in the aeronautical industry, and bent-sheet-metal legs that give you a feeling of weightlessness!

Taking a page from the Elastic Band chair from earlier in this series, this chair uses four parts. Two cushions and two bands that come together to form a soft chair with fabric-band armrests.

Another elastic-oriented concept, this chair comes with a hard wooden base and a soft quilt-like cushion secured around it using elastic straps. The quilt can easily be taken off and washed periodically, and you can even get your own quilt-cushions custom-made and draped over the chair!

This chair is made of two identical powder-coated sheet metal pieces that ship together stacked/nested within each other to save space. Assembling them involves simply sliding one piece into another to lock them into a chair formation. Nifty, eh?? You can practically ship dozens of units together by simply stacking the parts within each other to save up on space during shipping!

Every week (although the timing isn’t particularly fixed), I see a chair sketch on my Instagram feed, and after having seen and liked dozens of them, my mind can almost instantly recognize @nickpbaker’s style and brand of creativity anywhere.

Given the hashtag of #nickschairsketches, Baker uploads unusual conceptual chair designs almost every week. The chairs showcase inventiveness that one rarely sees in furniture design, as concepts take inspiration from quite literally anywhere. Scroll down to see a few of our favorites.

Designer: Nicholas Baker

I dub this chair the inside-out chair because of the way it’s built. With a hard, molded plywood outside, and a removable plush felt cushion inside, the chair can be used both as a hard seating device or a soft seating device, or even a lounging device by combining the two. Clever, isn’t it?!

Building on the idea of converting chairs into loungers, this design actually comes with a slatted construction and a hinge that allows the lounging module to fold right into the chair. Fold it in and you have a nice, sturdy chair. Fold it out and you’ve got a chair with a nifty leg-rest!

Here’s a third way of going about it. Stackability! The chair comes with the leg-rest right under it. Lift the chair up and flip the leg-rest over and you’ve got a chair that’s slightly shorter, but has a nice comfortable place to keep your outstretched legs… or maybe use the leg-rest as an ottoman stool or side-table.

I’d imagine a villain from a Pixar movie having this chair with piranhas inside it. Probably not the kind of chair you’d see in Peta’s headquarters, this one is actually an aquarium you can sit on. Made from thick glass, the aquarium is shaped like a chair and can actually accommodate a human on it, although I doubt if the fish would like that view.

However, if you’re going to combine chair and water, this is absolutely the way to do it. This chair/pool hybrid is perfect for people of all ages. Just fill the water in and beat the heat! Hey Nick, how about building a bottle-holder into this one.

Two likely materials and one unlikely material come together to make this chair. First, you’ve got a bent-metal base/framework, on which lies, secondly, the cushion that covers not just the seating area but the backrest too, and then right at the end, you’ve got rubber-bands that hold the cushion to the base! Quite unconventional, if you ask me…

Another metal+cushion combination that has my heart. This concept actually creates an enclosure for the beanbag, giving it a more defined structure than being a lumpy blob of leather on the floor. The beanbag sits in the metal framework, and can easily accommodate one human. Who knows, sitting on this sort of beanbag may actually be more comfortable!

Perfect for the person who wants to sit but gently swing too, this chair concept comes with a steel framework from which it hangs. Nothing too unoriginal here, but I actually love the form on this one, and the use, or rather overuse, of arcs and curved lines.

This concept challenges the very idea of packaging. Most products come packed in styrofoam to protect them from damage, but what if your product IS the styrofoam? Designed around a cuboidal form (because of shipping boxes) this chair comes with its own side-table. Made entirely from styrofoam (polystyrene), the chair practically weighs nothing, but can easily take the weight of one, or even two humans on it. And don’t worry if some of the styrofoam chips off a bit. It only adds to the chair’s unusual charm!

This concept is made from a singular form of marble, sliced into four pieces (quite like bread). The largest bit becomes the seating area, while the remaining three pieces become the two legs and the backrest. Aside from the scooped detail, this design doesn’t require much effort or time to put together, since it literally involves slicing and assembly (with no glue or fasteners involved either). The choice of marble gives the chair its premium appeal, and I’d love to see a variant made in granite!