FAQ

The cleaning of the plywood shells include wiping with a wet cloth. Application of cleaning chemicals or oils should be avoided. A leather moisturizer shall be applied to the leather cushions once every 6 months. Also the chair shall be protected from direct sunlight to avoid a change of colours.

Due to its construction and materials, the Eames Lounge Chair is intended only for indoor use. Exposing the chair to rain or snow may damage the wood, upholstery, and metal components over time.

Authentic Eames Lounge Chairs are typically marked with the manufacturer’s logo and the quality of the parts. But it is very hard to ensure authenticity in repaired chairs. Due to the simple construction of the chair its not so easy to say. If the wood parts by professional third party manufacturer parts like MIDCENTO, it is hard to say. Purchasing from authorized retailer, can help guarantee the authenticity.

While the basic design of the Eames Lounge Chair remains consistent, there are several variations in decorative wood veneers, metal parts designs and cusions.

The upholstery is typically applied to the cushions of the Eames Lounge Chair using a combination of zipper by the Japanese company YKK. The leather or fabric covering is carefully stretched and secured to the foam cushion, ensuring a tight and seamless fit. The Leather or fabric cushions as well as the inner foams can easily be replaced because of these zippers. Replicas from Far East usually do not have these zipper. The Leather or fabrics are therefore attached by glue or staples.

The base of the Eames Lounge Chair consists of screws, die-cast steel components, including the swivel mechanism pin and legs. The base shaped like a five-spikes-star. These steel parts are precision-engineered to provide stability and durability while maintaining the chair’s iconic silhouette.

The cushions of the Eames Lounge Chair are usually filled with high-density foam made of poly-urethan and a padding foam layer. In the first 10 years of the Eames Lounge Chair the filling was made of duck feathers.  The cushions outer material is often cow-leather. Herman Miller used so-called Scottish Leather, which is a more simplistic leather, whereas now Vitra uses a fine leather called Anilin Leather. There are also textile fabric cushions on the markets made of corduroy which is usually sold by Herman Miller. The cushions have zippers on the back-side to make a replacement of the inner foams more easy after several years of usage.

For the decorative outer layers, the leading manufacturers use walnut, cherry, ashwood, and imitation of palisander santos wood veneers. In 1956 real palisander santos wood was used. Nowadays, for the sake of the preservation of the rare trees no real palisander santos wood is used anymore.

The plywood shells of the Lounge Chair are usually constructed of 7 layers of birch wood. These are glued together by using a process of molding these thin layers of wood and also the decorating outer veneer layer together. These several layers are then shaped under heat and high pressure to form the shape of the shells. The Eames Lounge Chair and its Ottoman consists of four of these shells that are all of different size. The usage of birch wood is the usual material for the inner layers.

There are several differences in the construction, depending on the manufacturer that produced the chair. But in general, it consists of four molded ply wood shells, die-cast cast aluminum parts and upholstered cushions with zippers for easy replacement of the inner poly-urethan foams. The Poly-urethan molded foams are supported by some padding layers to make the cushions more softer. In the past, in the first generation of lounge chairs which have been produced from 1956 until around 1965, the upholstered cusions where filled with goose and duck feathers.