Maybe your one room is bigger than my one room. Balance, for me, means having plenty of space around the furniture, too; no matter how I try to “balance” it, there’s only so much room for so much furniture. It would be nice to have extra seating available for occasional company, but I see no reason to take up precious space with non-folding dining chairs and a table when most of the time it’s just me in the apartment. Hence I have in mind to get a card table and padded steel folding chairs, which are comfortable enough for a few hours’ visit, but even those require space for storage. Even if the design isn’t perfect, I still like the basic idea of a flat-storage, minimal-footprint folding chair. It just needs to be designed for people who weight more than 110 pounds.

For everyday living, by the way, I do have a “real” chair at my desk, and for extended comfortable sitting my futon folds up into a chair/chaise. I’m not looking at folding chairs as everyday chairs, but as occasional “extra” seating.

I tend to put comfort and style before foldability in my seating because, be it dining chairs, sofas or desk chairs, I want to enjoy doing what I’m doing, and if I’m sitting, then the comfort of my back is a huge part of that. My chairs: http://www.artoffurniture.ca/p.....uct_id=182 (in white and chrome).

Also: I live in a one-room studio apartment, and I have a dining table and 4 of the aforementioned chairs without sacrificing any other furniture need. All about balance, I suppose…

And plywood comes apart when wet, unless specially treated. So, for outdoor use, the chair would have to be specially coated. Again, not all that eco friendly.

And, maybe it’s just the former manager in charge of workplace safety side of me, but the thing does not look all that stable. A person with balance problems or a squirmy toddler could tip that chair over.

The design is a starting point, but issues of useability/durability/safety would need to be worked out. I doubt if we’ll see this exact chair in mass production anytime soon.

Ruth

Something like this or this?

Have you tried to stack them for transport? Since they are not flat, stacking any more than five to ten high onto a cart becomes problematic.

And the amount of space to store them, especially if it’s several hundred, starts to add up.

While there are several problems with the folding chair in this post that needs to be addressed, storage and transportation appear to be a vast improvement over the current folding chairs.

There are already fairly skinny folding chairs out there that stack snugly. Is getting something an inch thick really that critical?

And when it does go to sale, will it cost several hundred dollars? This is not design within my reach.

You might if you lived in a small one-room studio apartment. Extra space is next to nil, certainly no room to have several “permanent” chairs adorning the room, but I still like to have family and friends over occasionally. A sturdier version of these thin-folding chairs would be something I’d seriously consider.

Gosh, can you imagine one of your guests sitting on this chair, it cracks as thin plywood is wont to do, and your guest ends up on his/her kiester? Ewww.

Now THAT’s not a decorating style I want to emulate.

For those who want to make their own, Playatech has plans as cutting layouts. From chairs to complete shelters. $5 bucks a sheet donation to charity.

If you make them from baltic birch plywood, and stain them they are much better looking than IKEA. They also survive many moves.

From 1/2 plywood and turning the kids loose with nontoxic paints they are cheap, serviceable and can pass as wall art when disassembled and hung on pegs. There are googobs of them around the trailer camps and tent cities of NOLA.