THE ADIRONDACK CHAIR
There’s more to this outdoor design classic than meets the eye.
The Adirondack chair conjures images of waterside lazing … at the lake, beach or in the garden. For its low seat profile, its extra wide armrests and its contoured back and seat that cossets the sitter, it’s a staple with a history that spans more than a century. Invented in 1903 by Thomas Lee in New York, the original design using 11 flat wooden planks from a single, knot-free plank, most often in hemlock or basswood. At this stage it was called the
Westport Chair, after Lee’s family summer home in Westport in the Adirondack Mountains. Lee’s intention was to design a comfortable chair able to handle the tough weather conditions of the Adirondack region.
Lee designed it but it was his friend, carpenter Harry Bunnell, who manufactured the chairs. Bunnell modified the original design by making it narrower and patented it a year later, calling it the Westport Chair. The difficulty in manufacturing a chair from a single plank gave rise to the beginnings of what we know as the Adirondack Chair, which features multiple thin slats of wood over the back and seat, rather than the original wider planks.
In 1938 Irving Wolpin of New Jersey gave the seat its final design change and further patented it, referring to it in his patent as the “lawn chair or similar”. Wolpin added a contour to the seat and rounded the back slats, arriving at what we most commonly refer to as today’s Adirondack chair.
The chair goes by the name Muskoka in Canada and there’s debate whether the differences between the Adirondack and Muskoka chairs are valid with minor height and width differences reported. Whether the first patenting of the chair by Bunnell was out of malice is also debated, but Lee was wealthy and didn’t need further income.
Its design hasn’t changed drastically from the first iteration and it’s hard to find a contemporary designer who has further given the chair their own stamp. Arguably, this could be a sign of its status as a true outdoor classic.
WHY WE LOVE IT
Sinkability for want of a better word. The extra-low, contoured seat that slopes sharply backward will keep you sitting for hours on end. And then the chair’s wide armrests, which have remained a feature since its very first iteration, are a natural winner, whether to rest your arms or a drink.
WHERE TO GET YOURS
Most carpentry shops and craftsmen produce Adirondack chairs and will paint them in a variety of colours. They often come in pine, though teak and saligna are much hardier outdoors. Patio Life does a beautiful saligna version for R2,550 (unpainted) and their Rhodesian teak one retails for R6,950. Finikiti’s Easy Chair in saligna retails for R2,950 and they also do a Western Red Cedar version for R5,500. For a more sustainable alternative, we’ve found that Polywood makes a Seashell Adirondack Chair in a number of colours for $489 (pre-shipping) from compounded recycled plastic.