History Lesson: Emeco Navy Chair

Emeco Navy Chair

The Original 1006 Navy Chair

    During World War 2, the U.S. government gave Wilton Carlyle Dinges, the founder of Emeco (the Electrical Machine and Equipment Company) a difficult task: make a chair that can withstand water, salt air, and sailors. The U.S. government wanted the chair to be light-weight and strong, and they wanted it to last a lifetime. Dinges threw the chair out of a sixth-floor window during a furniture show in Chicago, and other than a few scratches, the chair was fine.

   The Emeco Navy 1006 ("ten oh six") Chair became popular among modernist designers and architects, and the design was copied world-wide.

Click here to view full history of the Emeco Navy Chair. 

Emeco works with Coca-Cola: 111 Chair AKA "Coke Chair

   Emeco still makes its classic chair, but now it uses recycled Coke bottles. Their mantra is to "make recycling obsolete" by making chairs that last for forever. If their Coke chairs are anything like their old chairs (which are made to last 150 years), they may just achieve their goal.

Learn how the 111 chair is made.

 Designers love both the 111 chair and the 1006 chair, check out how designers have used the chairs in various spaces: 

The Emeco chair combined with the use of the Eames® Molded Plastic Dowel-Leg Side Chair

A white Emeco Chair with the Tulip Table (a previous history lesson)

 

I love the rustic spin on these, the black matte finish really compliments the space.

Recipe of the Month- July 2014

Pico de Gallo & Guacamole

I usually make these together because there is a lot of ingredient overlap, but also because they go together awesomely.

Ingredients:

Pico de Gallo

Roma tomatoes (as many as you need, depends on how many you’re feeding)

Red Onions

Cilantro

Limes

2 or 3 fresh Jalepenos

Garlic (powder is fine)

Vinegar

Guacamole

Avocados

Red Onion (just use a handful from the Pico de Gallo)

Cilantro (ditto)

Limes (lime juice tastes good in guac, but it also slows down the browning process)

Garlic

Vinegar

Some people like sour cream/mayonnaise in the guacamole, to make it creamy. I think its ok, but kind of unnecessary...up to you.

Just chop everything up as finely as you feel like and combine. Garlic, vinegar, jalepenos, salt, lime juice is all to taste so just feel it out.

We like to get tortillas and cheese, maybe some refried beans, and make quesadillas on the stovetop (cook them in a lot of olive oil and salt for crispiness) and use the quesadillas to eat the pico de gallo and guacamole. You could also do tacos or just eat them with chips. Grab a six pack and this is a good summer feast!

History Lesson: Thonet Chair, #14

Thonet Chair, #14

Last time we talked about the Tulip Table, and we said that the Thonet Table was our favorite chair to pair with the Tulip table:

Tulip Table with Thonet Chairs

Like the Tulip Table, the Thonet chair is a timeless piece of furniture design history. The Thonet is actually older than the Tulip Table by almost 100 years, introduced in 1859 by its creator, Michael Thonet (often mispronounced "tho-nay" like a French name; Thonet was German-Austrian, he pronounced his name "toe-net" with a hard T at the beginning and end). He invented and patented a revolutionary way to bend wood in a steambox, a process that hasn't changed much since.

The chair wasn't just a renovation is design and woodworking: it could be taken apart (think IKEA) for easy distribution and transportation, making it easy to sell all over the Europe, and the world.

Thonet Chair Number 14 Vienna

The Thonet chair became incredibly fashionable, appearing in chic restaurants, especially bistros and cafes, a trend that continues to this day.

Restaurant with Thonet Chair Number 18

The #14 is the most famous and widespread, but Thonet also offers the #18

Thonet Chair number 14

The #18 keeps the aesthetic, but is more comfortable, as it supports the back, but does not hit the spine.

 

The Thonet Chair is a classic that continues to inspire furniture designers today; creative re-dos of the chair pop up all over the world like the one pictured above.