cafe chairs
Everything You Need To Know About Polypropylene Chairs And Probably Much More Besides
Most of us probably remember the polypropylene stacking chair (also known as the poly-prop) from school days. It was fairly rudimentary in design, not particularly comfortable, and usually came in one choice of colour, namely battleship grey. Surprisingly the poly-prop chair is having somewhat of a renaissance and 21st century designs see us embracing the poly-prop like never before. Nowadays you can buy it in a vast range of vibrant colours, styles and designs.
Going back to the beginning
Prior to the 1960’s, apart from a few exceptions such as the Tolix stool and Bentwood chair, seating really wasn’t designed to be mass produced. However in 1963 a young British designer called Robin Day used polypropylene in an injection moulding process to make the first stackable polypropylene chair. It was made initially for a now defunct London based furniture company known as S Hille & Co and it caught on immediately. It was cheap to produce and therefore cheap to buy. In effect It became the first true modern-day chair for the masses.
Wide range of uses
The poly-prop was tough and durable yet lightweight enough to be picked up and moved around. This meant that it opened up the possibilities of a wide range of uses. Before long the plastic stackable chair found its way into offices, doctor’s waiting rooms, hospitals, industry and of course schools. It was virtually indestructible and this is why we embraced it. In 1965 the polyprop chair with chrome legs became completely plastic when the very first all plastic chair, was invented by Italian designer Joe Colombo.
The boom years
During the 1970’s and 80’s the plastic chair was in even greater demand as the public couldn’t get enough of them. In fact the two biggest producing countries of the humble plastic chair were France and the USA. It’s been reported that during this period at one factory in particular, a chair was produced every 70 seconds. As a result millions of them were produced for export all over the world.
Decline
During the 1990’s sales dropped and plastic chairs fell into decline. People were beginning to embrace natural products again and other composites such as aluminium were also coming to the fore. In addition as computers were being introduced into offices, ergonomics were starting to play a big part and as a result, the plastic chair took a back seat (pun intended).
The 21st century
By the start of the 21st century designers started to play around with the simple plastic chair and in came some truly stunning designs. The ribbon chair for example based on an earlier iconic design was a great looking piece of stackable plastic furniture. In addition designers were also beginning to play with colour. Hot pinks, sunburst yellows, burnt oranges and deep red were just some of the colours to hit the shops and suddenly the humble plastic chair became very much de rigueur. Now the plastic chair is making a huge comeback in cafe’s, restaurants, and bistros all over the world and they really are the affordable chair of choice once again.
If you’re looking to experiment with colour and embrace the plastic then take a look at our Cafe Furniture Melbourne website. We’ve got a wide range of commercial polypropylene chairs in a vast array of colours, all at great-value for money prices. For further information, contact us on 1800 810 158 or if you’re in or near the Campbellfield area of Melbourne then why not pop into our showroom and take a look first hand.
