One discarded leather armchair, nine new objects for the home
How many things are hiding inside an old armchair? Designer Jan-Micha Gamer (Studio JM) took a leather armchair that had ended up in municipal bulky waste and, instead of treating it as rubbish, used it as a mine of raw materials. The project is called Raw Material: Armchair / Armchair as Resource.
The chair was taken apart layer by layer: timber, metal fasteners, foam, textile webbing and leather were sorted and reworked one by one. The result is nine objects: a floor basket, a candleholder, a lamp, a fruit bowl, a pouf, a picture frame, a cabinet, a rug and a table.
Joints are dry and reversible, with no permanent glues, and finishes were chosen so each material stays clean and can be separated again in the future.
Why we like it
- It shows, very simply, that a piece of furniture is really a collection of materials waiting for a second life.
- The new objects are designed to come apart too — upcycling that already thinks about the next cycle.
- It’s a great prompt for our own DIY: next time you spot an armchair on the kerb, look at what’s inside!
Source: designboom – discarded leather armchair deconstructs into nine functional domestic objects
