Willow Chair by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1904

• Designed By - Charles Rennie Mackintosh
• When - 1904
• Made From - Black Laquered Ash
• Manufactured By - Cassina
• More Info - This chair was designed for Miss Cranston for her Willow Street Tea Room in Glasgow. It was placed in the centre of the two ground floor saloons. The Willow Chair's curved back forms the pattern of a stylised tree to mimic the name of the tea room and the lattice is made from a series of short horizontal insets between the continuous verticals slats. There is a storage unit underneath the seat cushion. This chair is available upholstered in leather, fabric or velvet in a variety of colours.

CH445 Wing by Hans J. Wegner, 1960

• Designed By - Hans J. Wegner
• When - 1960
• Made From - Beach, stainless steel, foam and upholstery
• Manufactured By - Carl Hanson & Son
• More Info - This is a very impressive, timeless design and a very comfortable chair that provides excellent support for the back, shoulders, neck and head at can be sat in in a variety of ways. They were only produced in a limited number until Carl Hanson & Son re-launched the chair in 1996. It is available in a wide choice of fabrics and leathers There is also a matching footstool: the CH446.

CH24 Wishbone Chair by Hans J. Wegner, 1949

• Designed By - Hans J. Wegner
• When -  1949
• Made From - Solid oak and woven paper cord
• Manufactured by - Carl Hansen and Son
• More Info - Also known as the Y Chair, this chair is light, simple, elegant and comfortable. This chair is an icon of Danish design. It was inspired by Chinese Ming Chairs. It is a very well crafted chair and it takes over 100 steps to make. The seat is hand woven from 120 metres of paper cord. It has been in continuous production ever since it was first made. It is available made from maple, ash, beech, cherry, walnut, oak wood and painted in a variety of colours. The woven seat comes in natural or black and there is also a black leather seat cushion available.

Wooden Chair by Marc Newson, 1988

• Designed By - Marc Newson
• When - 1988
• Made From - Bent natural beech heartwood
• Manufactured By - Cappellini
• More Info - This low lounge chair is a very sculptural piece of furniture, like many of Newson’s chairs. A metal version has also been made. It is shown at the MoMA in New York. 

Womb Chair by Eero Saarinen, 1948

• Designed By - Eero Saarinen
• When - 1948
• Made From - Upholstery, fiberglass and steel rods
• Manufactured By - Knoll
• More Info - This chair is designed to make whoever is sitting in it feel relaxed and secure and it is a good chair to curl up in, which is why it was named the Womb chair. It is available with wool, fabric or leather upholstery in many different colours. There are three adult sizes and there is a child’s version. There is a matching ottoman.

W.W Stool by Philippe Starck, 1990

• Designed By - Philippe Starck
• When - 1990
• Made From - Varnished sand-cast aluminium
• Manufactured By - Vitra
• More Info - This is a very sculptural stool and definitely more focused on form than function as there is barely a surface to sit on. It seems to resemble a root or sprout of a plant. It was designed as part of a fantasy office environment for film director, Wim Wenders.

Wertheim Chair by Peter Behrens, 1902

• Designed By - Peter Behrens
• When - 1902
• Made From - Oak and woven rush
• Manufactured By - Anton Blüggel
• More Info - This chair was designed as part of a dining room in the ‘modern interiors’ exhibition at the Wertheim department store in Berlin.

B3 Club Chair (Wassily Chair) by Marcel Breuer, 1925

• Designed By - Marcel Breuer
• When - 1925
• Made From - Bars of chrome plated tubular steel and strips of black leather
• Manufactured By - Thonet
• More Info - This is the best and most well-known example of Breuer’s revolutionary tubular steel furniture. It is a re-working of the traditional club chair so it was originally called the B3 Club Chair but then later become known as the Wassily chair after the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky gave the design his approval. It was the first ever chair to have a bent steel frame and was inspired by the curved tubular steel handle bars on Breuer’s ‘Adler’ bicycle. The prototypes were produced with the help of a plumber to do the welding. He had to use steel tubes that did not have a seam so that they did not break when bent. The strips of fabric are carefully arranged so the body never comes into contact with the cold metal. Breuer said ‘when I saw the completion of my steel chair, I thought that of all my  works, this would  attract the most criticism. It is the most extreme in its outward appearance and material expression; it is the least artistic, the most logical, the most ‘liveable’, the most machine-like. What happened was the opposite of what I expected’. It is now one of the most famous 20th century chairs and is a modernistic icon. The Wassily Chair is a timeless design and is still in production now. It looks functional and stylish and is often seen in offices and showrooms.

Wiggle Side Chair by Frank Gehry, 1972

• Designed By - Frank Gehry
• When - 1972
• Made From - Corrugated cardboard, edges made from hardboard
• Manufactured By - Vitra
• More Info - This chair is part of the ‘Easy Edges’ collection by Frank Gehry. It is made by gluing together lots of die cut sheets of corrugated cardboard in alternate directions, creating a material similar to plywood which he called ‘Edge Board’. It has a very tactile surface and the fat lazy curves give it a pleasing appearance. The sloped seat and high back make it comfortable and it is actually very strong. When it was designed it was instantly popular but Gehry stopped production to concentrate on his architecture because he didn’t want to become more known as a furniture designer than an architect. It is made of a very cheap material and was designed to be mass produced but it quite expensive to buy now. It is available with natural, white, orange and green coloured edges.