Aaron Thomas Chair

Antique, new and vintage Lucite furniture has been on design editors’ radars for several seasons now, but thanks to a renewed interest in Lucite coffee tables, chairs and other pieces from the late 1960s and ’70s, the trend has reached fever pitch.

“I think there’s a freshness and cleanness to it,” says Fawn Galli, an interior designer based in New York. Not only is Lucite, or transparent plastic, practical, since it can work in nearly any environment, it’s incredibly stylish.

Some of the most acclaimed furniture designers share the same love for Lucite as an effective and practical material for use in any interior.

“I think there’s something really nice about the simplicity of anything Lucite or acrylic — it feels lightweight,” says Tamara Eaton, whose eponymous firm deftly balances traditional and modern designs. Even in the most historical setting, “you can still introduce some Lucite or something kind of lightweight and not have it feel like a distinct interjection, but a playful one that’s more about the shape,” she says.

For the living room in a mid-century modern townhouse in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Eaton chose a pair of box-shaped Lucite tables with copper handles from Jamie Dietrich. “We didn’t want anything to be too heavy, and that area was a place where [the family] would sometimes move those tables so the kids could play,” she says. The tables doubled as snack trays since the kitchen is nearby. “They have this transportable feel to them that I think was really fun.”

Browse a range of antique, new and vintage Lucite side tables, table lamps and other furniture now on 1stDibs.

While this specific seating is known to all for its comfort and familiar form, the history of how your favorite antique or vintage lounge chair came to be is slightly more ambiguous.

Although there are rare armchairs dating back as far as the 17th century, some believe that the origins of the first official “lounge chair” are tied to Hungarian modernist designer-architect Marcel Breuer. Sure, Breuer wasn’t exactly reinventing the wheel when he introduced the Wassily lounge chair in 1925, but his seat was indeed revolutionary for its integration of bent tubular steel.

Officially, a lounge chair is simply defined as a “comfortable armchair,” which allows for the shape and material of the furnishings to be extremely diverse. Whether or not chaise longues make the cut for this category is a matter of frequent debate.

The Eames lounge chair, on the other hand, has come to define somewhat of a universal perception of what a lounge chair can be. Introduced in 1956, the Eames lounger (and its partner in cozy, the ottoman) quickly became staples in television shows, prestigious office buildings and sumptuous living rooms. Venerable American mid-century modern designers Charles and Ray Eames intended for it to be the peak of luxury, which they knew meant taking furniture to the next level of style and comfort. Their chair inspired many modern interpretations of the lounge — as well as numerous copies.

On 1stDibs, find a broad range of unique lounge chairs that includes everything from antique Victorian-era seating to vintage mid-century modern lounge chairs by craftspersons such as Hans Wegner to contemporary choices from today’s innovative designers.