Good evening everybody:

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People were nice enough to let me know they enjoyed the retro-housing ideas I shared a while ago. Thank you. So, I thought I might try a couple of other retro ideas developed by the same architect. This time, for furniture.

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I don’t know about you, but my back is killing me. Leaning into the computer screen from my dining room chair for six hours ensures pretty much endless chiropractic appointments once we can go visit one. My son’s desk chair isn’t much better –IKEA is probably not known for its ergonomics. 

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With the premise that this simply can’t be a new problem, I went back again to the 1940’s to find a better solution. I found five.

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Furniture Design #1: The Chair of Tomorrow

One of the nice things about this chair is that you can change positions – sit straight up:

or use the left arm for a headrest and dangle your legs over the right one:

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Furniture Design #2: The Couple’s-Only, Chair

The modern equivalent would come equipped with a side-pouch containing a testing kit to ensure that both occupants were COVID-negative:

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Furniture Design # 3: The Sling Chair 

Before it was a television streaming service:

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Furniture Design #4: Rotate a Bunch of Chairs, and Store the Others on the Wall

This shows how it was done inside a Boston Modern Design Store in 1950, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t try it at home.

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Furniture Design #5: The “Take-it-Outside” – or “Rob Manilla” – Collection

Lots of options here. And you can use the tea-caddy as a computer table. This was actually Knoll Furniture’s first line of outdoor furniture, so they’ve got the production specs somewhere:

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Furniture Design #6: The Rapson Rapid-Rocker

My favorite option – I find it really helps to rock, rather than forcing oneself not to slouch when sitting fully upright. Some early versions:

Here is the version produced during World War II, when you couldn’t use wood pieces of more than 18 inches – anything longer was requisitioned for the war effort:

Here is the “bentwood” model, freed from wartime restrictions. It debuted in Macy’s first show of modern furniture in 1945. And it continues to be exhibited in the Kresge showroom right opposite Jessica McKay:

Not sure this is helpful, but my back feels better already.

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