The form factors of familiar furniture tend to be rather concrete in our minds. When we think of a chair, we expect it to look like a chair – and likewise for tables, benches, and so forth. But by playing with materials, functionality and appearances, furniture designer Thomas Schnur makes us totally re-think our preconceived ideas about furniture.
End tables and plungers are two household items which are so common they are often overlooked. The Rubber Table combines the two into a completely new and kind of bizarre piece of furniture. It’s a flexible rubber tabletop supported by five small plungers which, when pushed in gently, cause the table to adhere to whatever surface it is on through suction.
The beer bench is a symbol of fun times in Germany and everywhere else in the world with beer tents and summer festivals. Schnur’s High Shelf uses the same type of folding legs to bring a simple open metal cabinet up to a usable height. The resulting pieces allow the festival mindset to persist year-round in a home.
The monobloc chair is said to be the world’s most popular chair. The simple stackable plastic lawn chair can be seen in back yards around the world. Schnur took the monobloc aesthetic and extended it into a surprisingly stylish fiberglass bench. As a tongue-in-cheek nod to the Benchchair’s design inspiration, one side of the bench looks just like the classic monobloc chair.
