Three Designer Children’s Chairs
Tiny furniture for little ones to enjoy
Discovering disco-inspired lighting and inert neon gas-filled lamps at this year’s Milan Design Week reminded us inspiration can come from anywhere. Meanwhile bouncing between the massive Saloni furniture fair and the design districts of Lambrate and Zona Tortona, we also saw how design can appeal to an audience of all ages, even children. With this in mind, the following are three of our favorite kid-friendly chairs spotted in Milan this year.
Arper
Designed by Lievore Altherr Molina for Italian furniture maker Arper, the Saya Mini chair is essentially a miniature version of the adored Saya. Made of molded plywood with a painted steel sled base, the basic seat is now available in a range of fun colors from yellow and white to pink and red. Sometimes the simplest option is the best option, and few places is this idea more appropriate than when designing for children.
Marni
Italian fashion label Marni continued their 100 Chairs exhibition in Milan this past week, showing a range of rocker and lounge chairs made entirely by hand by Colombian ex-prisoners, helping their resettlement into social and working life. While the full-sized designs are curious enough, the child-sized chairs were really the most visually stimulating. After all, what’s not to love about brightly colored tiny chairs made of woven plastic fibers and rigid steel frames? See more of Marni’s chairs in their monthly online magazine Anticamera.
Karimoku New Standard
A few years back one of Japan’s oldest wooden furniture manufacturers Karimoku introduced a side project called New Standard to collaborate with international designers and focus on sustainable production and design. As a result, much of their more recent designs have a vaguely Scandinavian feel, which can be seen in the beautiful Homerun Kids Chair. A “cartoon character” of a design, the cute little chair is a perfectly pared down version of its big brother. Made by hand using environmentally-conscious processes in Japan, the gorgeously crafted chair can be found directly from Karimoku New Standard dealers around the world.
Images courtesy of Arper, Marni and Karimoku New Standard
