How the Iconic Eames Lounge Chair Is Made, From Start to Finish

In 1956, Charles and Ray Eames unveiled a lounge chair that did some­thing spe­cial. It took mod­ern design and made it com­fort­able. It placed “the sit­ter into a volup­tuous lux­u­ry that few mor­tals since Nero have known.” Below, you can revis­it the orig­i­nal unveil­ing of the Eames Lounge Chair, which took place on the Home Show, an Amer­i­can day­time TV pro­gram host­ed by Arlene Fran­cis. And above, you can watch the mak­ing of the Eames Lounge Chair, which remains very much in pro­duc­tion and demand today. It’s still a sta­ple of the Her­man Miller fur­ni­ture col­lec­tion. Some aspects of the pro­duc­tion have got­ten a bit more high tech, of course. And the orig­i­nal Brazil­ian rose­wood has been replaced by a more sus­tain­able Pal­isander rose­wood. But the high-touch process remains oth­er­wise large­ly the same. Orig­i­nal­ly priced at $310, the Eames Lounge Chair will now set you back $5,295.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Charles & Ray Eames’ Icon­ic Lounge Chair Debuts on Amer­i­can TV (1956)

Design­ers Charles & Ray Eames Cre­ate a Pro­mo­tion­al Film for the Ground­break­ing Polaroid SX-70 Instant Cam­era (1972)

Charles & Ray Eames’ Icon­ic Film Pow­ers of Ten (1977) and the Less­er-Known Pro­to­type from 1968

Ice Cube & Charles Eames Rev­el in L.A. Archi­tec­ture