One of the details we loved about Lydia Wills’ apartment, featured yesterday, are the folding stools hanging on the wall in the foyer. They look great, take up no space and are perfect for a million uses, as extra chairs for a dinner party, side tables, a place to sit and take off your boots…On their own, they are lovely little sculptures. They were designed by Roger Tallon in the late ’70’s. Lydia described how she stumbled on the stools and what she discovered about Tallon:
“Roger Tallon started out as a product/industrial designer (watches, electronics, typewriters), but his big thing is that he was a TRAIN designer, very well known for the Mexican underground, a trans euro train, and his biggest deal, the TGV Atlantique (!). I found this stool because he also made a little chair that was designed in a similar way that was an even more beautiful sculpture when folded, but it was too expensive on Ebay, so I just entered his name and then these stools came up one day. Since he did trains, no wonder he came up with these little useful folding chairs.”
Here are images of Tallon’s work (including trains, watches and a spectacular staircase)…We came across the little folding chair that led to Lydia’s stools:
They are so ideal for a small apartment, we wonder why there are nothing like them to be found these days…
…
…not five minutes after we wrote that, we stumbled on this folding chair designed by Christian Desile in 2009 (at Vange Edition‘s) on the odd, charming French blog Planetargonautes, (which published it’s last post in May)…
…a Comment about it led us to the Plaka chair designed in 1972 by Argentinian designer Carlos Blanco….
…and we followed the trail forward again to the Sheetseat, made from a single sheet of plywood, designed in 2009 by Kutuk and Keskin...
It reminded us what we’ve marveled at before: that people in different places can come up with the same idea at the same time, as though something was in the air…or REINVENT something that found it’s way into the world decades, even centuries before…
Which chair do you like best?
BTW: Lydia’s foyer light was made by Reggiani (the renowned Italian lighting company) in the 1970’s.
Related post: Lydia Wills’ Apartment: Before + After + In Between
I love all these chairs and the whole concept of good design being used to take up less space. They are practical works of art!
How fabulous! It’s refreshing just reading this. Makes me want to try a do-it-yourself variation on the theme.
its a good way to utilize the space.but can this design will be able to bear the load upto 85kg……
Yes, indeed it can…
Love the idea….would be wonderful if something like this is available in a material that could be used in a shower.
Ha, Isn’t THAT an interesting idea. Thanks.
Love the quality of these fold flat designs. In particular I like the Tallon chair. It manages to be practicle and solid while also looking cute and good quality. Most of these chairs look like they should part of a posh picnik set.
Now I have to build a set of fold flat bar stools with a seat height of 36″, circa 900mm.
Probably cut from one sheet of Marine Ply!
If you do THAT project, please send photos. How great to have fold-flat bar stools…
have built prototype and could manufacture if there is demand..
Cheers,
Jonathan
Where can I buy a plan for this chair
I showed the flat pack chairs and stools to inspire making your own, but didn’t find plans at the time. That said googling “Roger Tallon folding stool plan” yields patent designs that would help you forge your own. You might even find one with the dimensions.
add the hanger chair of philippe Malouin
I looked hard for it. It seems like it went into production in 2014, and then out pretty quickly. Too bad. Though not nearly as cool as the Talon hanging stools, it has a charm of its own (here for those who want to check it out.) THANK YOU.
Me encanta su articulo la silla esta un invento bonito
Is there any way to get the plans for some of the chairs? Such a cool idea.
I hunted down some plans for the chairs and included them in this post. Let me know if you actually get one made.
Me a gustado encontrar la silla tan practica para los pequeños apartamentos y que ilusión el taburete ,yo
tengo uno desde hace años y que me encanta
Where to buy them from.
We wrote ABOUT them. Sadly, we don’t sell them.