The History of the Classic Lawn Chair
Designed by a WWII veteran, this American-made chair is synonymous with summer
It’s a classic American design. A recent MH+D cover shows a family happily barbequing and sitting on a set of classic webbed lawn chairs. There’s a comforting feeling that sweeps over many of us when we see these retro chairs. Memories are conjured up of fleeting summer days sipping ice-cold lemonade, playing in the sprinklers, and watching the fireworks on the Fourth of July, drenched in bug spray.
After World War II, plastic webbed lawn chairs began popping up in yards throughout U.S. suburbs. The chairs were made using aluminum, which had previously been used for the structural framing of airplanes during the war. The chair’s minimal construction drew on the pared down, functional aesthetic embraced by the Bauhaus design school. Even better, the chairs could be affordably produced.
WWII veteran turned inventor Frederic Arnold filed a patent for his lawn chair design in 1956. His patent description reads, “Folding chairs with flexible coverings for the seat or back elements having a frame made of metal with legs pivotably connected to seat or underframe.” Most of the companies that produced these folding chairs bought their seat’s plastic webbing from Waltrich Plastic located in Walthourville, Georgia. So how was Waltrich making this webbing? They loaded plastic pellets in a hopper and mixed them with UV-resistant polypropylene monofilament to create a thick yarn. Next, a large loom would weave the plastic yarn into a colorful webbing. This webbing was not only durable but fade-resistant and easy to wipe down; paired with an aluminum frame that didn’t hold heat like other metals, it became a classic in the 1960s and 1970s. Eventually, like most furniture, knockoffs were made overseas, and stateside production stopped.
In 2010, the family that owned Waltrich Plastic, Gary Pokrandt and his son Andrew, launched Lawn Chair USA. Why? Their plastic company was frequently getting requests to purchase the backstock of webbing stored in their warehouse from years past. The Pokrandts thought it might be time to return the classic webbed lawn chairs to the U.S. market. They tracked down their family’s previous clients and asked to purchase their old equipment. The clients agreed, and the Pokrandts opened a factory in Ft. Pierce, Florida. Today, the tight-knit staff makes every chair by hand using their own materials, with the exception of the aluminum tubes, which are made by a different company in Alabama. Each chair weighs in at just 4.2 pounds—easy to carry—and has a weight capacity of 225 pounds. The company recently caught the attention of MoMA Design Store home buyer Annie Auchincloss. Lawn Chair USA and MoMA now have an exclusive line of chairs for sale. Sales only seem to be going up for this lightweight, durable, rust-resistant chair.