Wooden furniture remnants stand out clearly against their subtle replacement parts in this series of artistic chair and bed repairs. Translucent acrylic fills in the gaps of these pieces, parts of My New Old Chair and Dear Bed collections by artist Tatiane Freitas. Mirroring the construction methods used for the two materials, the missing lathe-spun wooden parts are replaced by simplified acrylic geometries.

The approach follows a certain vein of old-versus-new expressionism also found in fields of design and architecture — added elements are clearly distinguished from existing ones in order to make the time period differences legible at a glance.

As with repair-oriented designers, there is a functional component here as well: the old chairs are able to be useful again thanks to these careful interventions.

More about the artist: “In her day to day before graduating from Fashion school Tati Freitas was already looking into ways to create objects which could be both confortable and admired. Craft wood is her most common material, and that which gives her objects its forms, but she’s also been developing with more brute substances, like cement, and the sensible acrilic.”

Treating the seat and back as blank slates for expression, the Layer Chair allows its owner to slip in and slide out works of art and design, transforming the look of the furniture on demand.

The clear acrylic framework “allows for a see-through structure. Both the back and the base of the chair have a void where the user can fit three different layers of printed or colored acrylic, or even wood, glass, or any other material that comes in mind.”

The approach by South Korean graphic and industrial designer Sohyun Yun is intended to address aesthetic limitations of traditional chairs, which are locked into a single style or look. Instead, through layers, this seat is visually refreshed through user-driven modifications.

Anything is possible, from pairing a hologram back with an Andy Warhol seat print, to slotting in more conventional looking pieces and parts aligned with other furniture looks and styles.

The layers also allow for experimentation and playful interactions between sheets, since their patterns can be partial and/or semi-opaque. A number of layers come with the initial object, but others can be created or bought by users as well.