"Rodnenkiy" Armchair

A Chair Without a Face and a Cover Without a Reputation

Brera is a 2025 newcomer — Dantone’s “symbol of the decade,” an armchair with ambitions toward cult status. The form is soft, the proportions neutral, but the silhouette does not stay in the memory. This is a chair that is easy not to notice.

The¹ wooden bead massage cushion works in exactly the opposite way. It is recognised at first glance and immediately recalls its context: a cheap car, the nineties, “someone really should not have done that.” An object with an image permanently attached.

“Rodnenkiy” swaps them. The cushion becomes the upholstery of the Brera and gives it what it lacked: a character impossible to ignore.

Construction

The beads are turned from production offcuts of other Dantone wooden objects. Each batch depends on what was being manufactured in parallel, so two chairs from different production runs will differ in material composition. Four spheres of 80–100 mm diameter replace the legs, repeating the same geometric element as the upholstery. The chair stands on what it is made of.

Two versions are resolved as colour opposites. The wooden version is entirely black: beads and support spheres are stained with wood dye. The textile version has white wool upholstery with supports in natural unstained oak. In the first case, colour unifies all elements into a single volume. In the second, it exposes the difference between materials: white wool pile and pale wood operate as two distinct layers.

In the textile version, the wooden beads are replaced with dense balls of cotton and merino wool. The form is the same; the mechanics of contact are different. Wood does not deform under load; textile compresses and recovers.

The Logic of the Combination

The cushion has something that positioning cannot buy: it is instantly recognisable and produces a reaction. This quality transfers to the Brera along with the upholstery.

The Brera receives upholstery with no pretensions to refinement. The cushion receives a frame with a history in high design. The character that one object did not need turns out to be the only thing that works for the other.