Modern Curved-Wood Rocking Chair

other kind of chair, rockers have certain cultural associations as a furniture type – they are traditionally ornate, featuring turned-wood elements and many pieces cut and fit into one another along mortise-and-tenon conventions. From the narrow profile to the swooping lines and plywood styling, this is anything but your ordinary rocking chair design. And yes, this design rocks.

Made of skinny layers of maple and walnut to accent its curves, each bend is clean, crisp and minimal in this somewhat non-traditional approach to rocking chair construction. Moreover, the pieces slot neatly into one another without visible joints nor decorative flourishes. Each surface is articulated as a single curved plane rather than a collection of assembled wooden parts.

Craftsman Toby Howes attributes the unusual results of his creative process in part to his approach: each time he crafts something he starts in a different material. In this case? Pipe cleaners, which makes sense when you consider it in light of the finished design product. In other cases, he likewise mixes historical and familiar furniture typologies with modern and offbeat uses of typical materials.