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10 retro chairs bringing timeless design to modern restaurant interiors
Alicia Macias

10 retro chairs bringing timeless design to modern restaurant interiors

14 jul. 2022  •  Especificação  •  By Collin Anderson

Retro armchairs build on past styles to offer new ideas for comfortable, ergonomic and visually appealing seating options. From metallic and hard to wooden and soft, a rich variety of products are available on the market today.

Architects and designers use armchairs to complete spaces visually and functionally. Armchairs are specified for reading, dining, drinking, talking and lounging: a user should, above all, be comfortable when seated. Retro armchairs pull the best from past ideas, and reinvent using contemporary materials, fabrication methods and current trends. 

Each chair selected here is uniquely sculptural, with some made of tubular and lightweight steel recalling the restrained ideals of modernism, and others simply shaped with light curves in the long tradition of bistro chairs. Whether selected for restaurants, cafes, bars or home dining spaces, the chairs listed here can strengthen or define the spaces around them.

 
1. Glass House Cambridge
photo_credit ©Michael Stavaridis
©Michael Stavaridis

Glass House Restaurant and Bar is a hospitality concept in Cambridge’s Kendall Square, owned and operated by The Briar Group. Located in a modern, glass mid-rise building at 450 Kendall Street, the eatery serves...

Utility High Chair SH760
Stellar works
Utility High Chair combines versatility and elegance, embodying a modern take on the enduringly popular industrial aesthetics, with a dash of contemporary sophistication. 
 
2. LULU
photo_credit Francisco Nogueira
Francisco Nogueira

LULU is a bar and restaurant project with approximate- ly 170m2, inserted on the ground floor of an early nine- teen-century building, located in the Santos parish, in Lisbon.

Ria Chair
Branca Lisboa
The Ria Chair is a flash back on Modernist Aesthetics. Using the stainless-steel tube-like masters did in the early times of mass production, designer Marco Sousa Santos just turn the elemental tubular structu...
 
3. Serra da Estrela
photo_credit Gonçalo Henriques
Gonçalo Henriques

The Serra da Estrela Restaurant  has undergone an adaptation to the existing brand concept of this famous restaurant chain, where it is served food from the mountain area of the nord of Portugal.

Merano armchair
TON Czechia
The Merano is one of the most popular product in the portfolio. Innovative design of the chair consists of two axially intersecting molded plywoods guaranteeing a very high level of comfort.
 
4. Adre Restaurant
photo_credit Nick Paniashvili
Nick Paniashvili

Along with the hotel “ZEG”, which is situated in the heart of Tbilisi, on Kote Abkhazi street, the constituent elements of the architectural complex are a yard with a two-level terrace and the restaurant &...

Dome 266
PEDRALI
Dome is a collection of chairs that evokes the glorious tradition of bistro chairs with arched silhouettes and th...
 
5. BUTCHER House Restaurant
photo_credit Dmitry Tsyrenschikov
Dmitry Tsyrenschikov

The main inspiration for the interior design of BUTCHER House was the nature of the Mid and Wild West of the USA. It was there that the culture of ranches and traditional steakhouses was born in due time. However, BUT...

Marco M3 Armchairs
Artu
Collection is suitable for different styles of interior due to its minimalistic design and well thought out ergonomics. The chairs base and legs are made of solid beech. Seat and backrest are based on metallic frame w...
 
6. Myricae Restaurant
photo_credit Paolo Utimpergher
Paolo Utimpergher

Make guests feel at home: the project of this restaurant on the Adriatic Sea coast close to Venice has been conceived around this idea with the aim to create a place rich in atmosphere where the domestic feeling is de...

Bergamo chair
TON Czechia
The backrest of this chair with its simple visual style is made of bent plywood. Various wood shades and upholstery can be applied. Bergamo is stackable which makes it one of the most popular in restaurants.
 
7. La Hermosa de Alba Restaurant
photo_credit Imagen Subliminal
Imagen Subliminal

The Project is situated in Tetuan Street in Santander. It is one of the main spots of the gastronomy activity in the whole city where the traditional seafood restaurant are abundant.

14 chair
TON Czechia
Since 1859, when chair No. 14 was first introduced, more than 80 million units have been sold all over the world. Its iconic shapes are formed by eight hand-bent beech rods and twenty screws. Thanks to its low weight,...
 
8. ANIMALS pop-up
photo_credit Sergey Melnikov
Sergey Melnikov

In 2020, St. Petersburg restaurant ‘Animals’ undertook a change in the team and cuisine concept. This was followed by the realization of the fact that the old interior had long ago failed to reflect the re...

NRA Bar Chair
DELO DESIGN
Base: steel rod 30 mm diam., polymer powder coatingSeat: MDF 16 mm, polyurethane foam and hollowfiber filler, textile upholsteryBack: birch plywood, enamel, varnishLegs: plastic glidersWeight:...
 
9. Chin Chin
photo_credit Natalia Nagorna
Natalia Nagorna

Bar Chin Chin is located in a classic building of the mid-20th century in the center of Zaporizhzhia. There used to be a pharmacy in this place. Therefore, it seemed logical for us to place a bar in this room. A pharm...

JAZZ 3718
PEDRALI
Harmony of shapes, ergonomics and elegance are the characteristics of the Jazz stool. The seat and the curved ba...
 
10. Bequadro Restaurant & Sound
photo_credit Davide Galli Atelier
Davide Galli Atelier

the project involves the restyling of the area below the amphitheater of the Teatro Due in the historic center of Parma Italy

Babila 2735
PEDRALI
Babila collection is able to move along tradition and innovation with great agility. The strenght of this coll...