Your Design, Developed Together

A lounge chair study in Sumparwood, and the details that can open a conversation about your own design.

A broad back. Upright supports. A soft seat held inside a pale frame.

This chair brings a few clear elements together. Look from the front and the upholstery takes the lead. Walk around it and the frame becomes more visible. Neither view tells the whole story. The character comes from the relationship between them.

For a designer, that relationship is a useful starting point. What if more of the frame remained visible? What if the upholstered arm became slimmer? What should stay recognisable as the design develops?

At Sumparwood, our own studies help open these conversations. They are not intended to replace a client's design language. They give a design team something concrete to respond to, question and take in another direction.

This chair is one starting point. Your project may take another direction.

Start with the idea you want to keep

Custom outdoor furniture design does not have to begin with a finished piece. A drawing, a particular proportion or a relationship between two surfaces can be enough to start a discussion.

What matters first is understanding the intention. A low chair with a generous seat asks different design questions from an upright dining chair. An exposed frame makes its own contribution to the silhouette. A frame partly covered by upholstery creates another balance.

Before changing a detail, it helps to say what that detail is doing. Is a wide arm part of the visual identity? Is a rounded edge meant to sit quietly beside the fabric? Is the back important because people will see the chair from across an open space?

These are design questions, not requests to select a standard model. They help us understand what your team wants to preserve while the material and construction are explored.

A chair with two different readings

The front view of this study is soft and full. A rounded seat cushion sits between the upright members. Fabric continues along the inner arms, while the pale outer frame draws a clear boundary around it.

From behind, the balance changes. The broad back forms a horizontal band across the chair. The upright supports interrupt that line, giving the rear view its own rhythm. Below it, a small opening separates the back from the seat.

There is something useful in looking at these views together. A chair may read one way in a presentation image and another when it sits in the middle of a space. The rear deserves attention of its own, rather than becoming the side that is simply turned away.

For another project, your team may want the frame to feel lighter, the back to appear more open or the upholstery to cover less of the outline. These are possible directions for discussion, not a promise that every variation can be made without further development.

A softer detail, built into the frame

One detail in this chair deserves a closer look: the upholstery fitted into the frame.

In this construction, fabric and foam are fitted into the Sumparwood frame so the soft surfaces and the surrounding structure read as parts of one whole. We describe it here as integrated upholstery. The fabric is doing more than covering a loose cushion. It helps define the inside of the chair.

The approach draws on the language of indoor furniture. Here, it is explored with a Sumparwood frame rather than a solid-wood frame. For our development work, that is a meaningful step. It opens another way to bring a soft surface and an exposed material together.

This is the point of showing the detail. Not to suggest that every design should use it, but to make a further possibility visible to the designers who work with us.

An indoor idea, considered for outdoor furniture

Outdoor upholstery offers designers ways to explore a softer visual language. The categories are no longer limited to a plain-looking fabric stretched over a frame. For example, Sunbrella's upholstery range covers interior and exterior furnishing applications, while Serge Ferrari's Batyline Elios is presented for outdoor furniture with an emphasis on textile softness.

These are examples of the wider fabric landscape, not the identification of the fabric used in this chair or an endorsement of this particular assembly.

The idea still needs to be considered as a whole. An outdoor application requires suitable fabric, cushioning and construction for its intended use. An outdoor fabric alone does not establish the performance of the completed chair.

Sailrite's outdoor foam guide also distinguishes foam choices and their relationship with the fabric covering. It is a useful reminder to consider the inside of the cushion, not only the surface. It does not identify the cushioning in this study.

For the design conversation, the opportunity is clear: a soft, upholstered detail can be explored alongside Sumparwood, without assuming the same construction choices will suit every project.

Let the materials talk to each other

The accompanying composition places a pale material reference beside textured fabrics, smooth light surfaces and darker veined references. It is a palette study, not a specification for every element of the chair.

Its value is in the relationships. The pale tone stands apart from the deeper brown. The quiet surface sits beside a more visible textile texture. The upholstery and frame can share a light overall tone without becoming visually identical.

Your project might take a different route. A stronger contrast could make the frame more prominent. A quieter pairing could draw attention to the outline. A different textile texture could change the impression without changing the basic silhouette.

This is why a material conversation belongs alongside a design conversation. A palette is not only a row of options. It is a way to explore what should lead, what should support and what should remain in the background.

From an interesting detail to your own piece

Taking inspiration does not mean taking the whole chair.

One designer may be interested in the broad back. Another may notice the fitted upholstery. A third may be drawn to the way the vertical supports sit outside the softer volume. Each observation can lead to a different brief.

The useful question is not “Can we have this chair in another colour?” It is “What does this detail suggest for the piece we are developing?”

That keeps the work connected to your team's intention. The study becomes a reference for discussion rather than a limit on the outcome. Its proportions, application and construction are not a ready-made answer to another project's requirements.

Our role is to bring Sumparwood into that discussion and explore how it may contribute. Your team brings the design direction. Together, the conversation can move towards the particular details that need to be resolved.

Put the next question on the drawing

Imagine a design team considering a more open version of the back. This is a possible brief, not the recorded history of this chair.

Rather than asking for a general redesign, the team could mark the part of the silhouette it wants to retain and the area it wants to open. A second view could show where the upholstery should finish. A material reference could explain the intended contrast.

Those small pieces of information make the discussion more precise. They separate an essential design feature from something still open to exploration. They also make it easier to identify whether the next useful step concerns appearance, geometry, upholstery or a particular connection.

There is no need to pretend the first conversation resolves everything. The aim is to make the next question clear enough to work on, while keeping the overall idea in view.

The Design Council's Framework for Innovation makes room for exploring different answers, collaborating and trying ideas at a small scale. That wider design principle is useful here: develop the question as well as the object. It is not a claim that the Council participated in this chair.

Three lines to begin a collaboration

You do not need to describe every detail in a first message. Begin with three short lines:

Keep: the part of your design that gives it its identity.

Explore: the detail where you would welcome a material or construction discussion.

Use: the setting and purpose you are designing for.

For a chair concept, that might mean keeping a strong horizontal back, exploring how an upholstered arm meets the frame, and explaining the intended seating context. It is an illustrative starting point, not a completed technical brief.

Add your own sketch or relevant views if you have them. Name the decisions that are still open. The first exchange should help define a useful next step, rather than force the project into a predetermined form.

Your design remains yours

Our internal studies give us ways to explore and share ideas. Their purpose is to support the designers and teams who come to us with work of their own.

This lounge chair shows one relationship between frame, fabric and form. It does not define a collection that your project has to follow. Another team may carry just one detail forward and arrive at a very different piece.

That is the conversation we want to have.

Explore our workshop or request a Sample Box with a short note about your project. Tell us what you want to keep and what you would like to explore.

Bring your idea. Let's explore how to develop it in Sumparwood.