Tag Archives: inflatable chair

Here’s What You Get When You Combine A Beanbag With An Inflatable Chair

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As a millennial with lower back issues, my biggest complaint with a beanbag is that it doesn’t provide enough stability. And my complaint with inflatable furniture is that it’s never looked classy. Carlo Livaja managed to hit two birds with one stone with his Sonnet Chair.

With the aura of a beanbag and the inner workings of an inflatable chair, the Sonnet is just a clever bit of furniture design, relying on an inflatable fabric ball that’s restrained/shaped by a bent stainless steel pipe. The result is something eye-catching and intriguing enough to make you want to sit down, while the Sonnet supports you perfectly in all the right places.

Designer: Carlo Livaja

You get the lower support from the fact that the Sonnet’s base is a defined tongue-shaped seating element, while the backrest inflates into you, giving you enough “lean-back resistance” (I coined that term) just like an inflatable would. All this, while looking like a beanbag went and did a Masters in Design from Milan. It has the spiritual appeal of a beanbag without any of the collapsibility.

One’s immediate question is whether the metal pipe actually obstructs your seating, and my gut reaction is that it probably won’t. As long as you don’t jump into the chair, the Sonnet respects you back. Don’t lean back like you would in a recliner and your neck won’t hit the pipe at the back. It’s a chair built on clever compromise… clever being the more operative term there.

The beauty of the Sonnet (especially if you see its video on Instagram) lies entirely in its transformation. The fabric cover sits like a heap, gaining shape as air is blown into it. Immediately as it hits the frame restraining it, the chair begins taking its true shape, and stops once it can’t accept any more air. In essence, it’s a lot like IKEA’s inflatable chair showcased at Milan this year – rely on a rigid element to restrict the inflatability of your design and you’ve got something that’s constrained yet comfortable.

The post Here’s What You Get When You Combine A Beanbag With An Inflatable Chair first appeared on Yanko Design.

IKEA Waited 12 Years to Show This Inflatable Chair at Milan Design Week

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Air has always been free. IKEA designer Mikael Axelsson has been thinking about that fact for over a decade, sitting on an idea he first sketched in 2014 and shelved when no one at the company wanted to revisit inflatable furniture. The concept never disappeared, it just waited. At Milan Design Week 2026, inside the “Food For Thought” exhibition at Spazio Maiocchi, that idea finally got its moment. The PS 2026 Easy Chair arrived alongside a rocking bench and a flexible floor lamp, three pieces offering the first real look at the upcoming tenth IKEA PS collection.

What Axelsson built reads, at first glance, like a fairly conventional lounge chair. Rich green fabric, cylindrical cushions, a compact and settled silhouette. The chrome tubing running around its perimeter is the tell, holding the inflatable volumes in place and giving the chair its shape and its credibility, keeping it far from the transparent, wobbly inflatables of the early 2000s. The separate air chambers between seat and backrest mean the sitting experience feels grounded rather than unpredictable. The lightness only reveals itself when someone actually lifts it.

Designer: Mikael Axelsson for IKEA

Mikael Axelsson is tapping into a design language that’s been trusted for nearly a century. It’s the same basic idea that made Le Corbusier’s Grand Confort a classic back in 1928: a rigid steel cage with soft cushions sitting inside. That frame is what makes the whole thing work. Without it, you’d just have a novelty green cushion that would feel out of place anywhere but a college dorm room. With the frame, the chair feels intentional and composed, and the backrest bolster sits with conviction across the top rail. The fact that it’s full of air is the last thing you notice, which is exactly the point.

The details here are just as smart. The fabric wrap gets rid of that annoying squeak and slide you might remember from old inflatable furniture, making it feel more like an actual upholstered piece. It comes with a manual foot pump instead of an electric one, which not only keeps the price down but also makes you part of the assembly process. It feels right for a chair that’s all about interacting with its materials. The deep green color seen in Milan is the kind of confident tone that can anchor a corner of a room without taking over.

 

The PS collection has always been IKEA’s design playground, a space for them to experiment since it first launched back in 1995. The rocking bench by Marta Krupinska has these wonderfully exaggerated runners, and Lex Pott’s floor lamp uses a simple diagonal cut so you can aim the light in three different directions. The full collection is set to launch on May 13, 2026. But the easy chair makes the sharpest point of the three. It argues that a chair built mostly on air can absolutely belong at Salone, as long as someone has thought carefully enough about the frame.

If you’re in Milan and want to see it for yourself, the chair is part of IKEA’s ‘Food For Thought’ exhibition. It’s being held at Spazio Maiocchi, located at Via Achille Maiocchi 7. The installation is open to the public and runs from April 21st through the 26th. It’s a great chance to see the chair, the lamp, and the bench in a setting that’s more about experience than just product display.

The post IKEA Waited 12 Years to Show This Inflatable Chair at Milan Design Week first appeared on Yanko Design.