#Aluminum lawn chairs webbing portable#

With the postwar housing boom leaving many Americans with yard space to spare, Arnold decided to fashion a comfy, portable seat for alfresco hangouts. After World War II, a surplus of aluminum (used for aircraft) prompted many creatives, including Arnold, to find new uses for the lightweight metal. (In its prime, his company churned out around 14,000 of them a day.) It wasn't until the casual-furniture market usurped the practical but not plush folding seat that these picnic staples got relegated to the garage.īut if you understand the genius of the webbed chair as a smart, resourceful, and-yes-stylish specimen, you might rethink its placement. If you meandered down any suburban side street in the early sixties, you'd find a couple clinking cocktail glasses on their front lawn, perched in Arnold originals. It was 1956 when Arnold first patented his aluminum folding seat-aka the lawn chair-and it didn't take long for its appeal to grow. But there's something about those throwback metal and webbed lawn chairs that make them a close second in terms of coziness: nostalgia.įredric Arnold might not be a name that rings a bell for most Southerners, yet you would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't recognize the inventor's most memorable creation. We'll always love a good patio sofa and the buttery soft outdoor cushions that sit atop it.

If there's one thing you'll never hear us complain about, it's the strides outdoor furniture has made toward becoming as indoors-like as possible.

Aluminum lawn chairs webbing