The Eames Lounge Chair Wood (LCW) (also known as Lounge Chair Wood Legs, or Eames Plywood Lounge Chair) is a low seated easy chair designed by husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames. It is sometimes called the “Potato Chip” chair because it was inspired by the gentle curving shape of the potato crisp.   Influenced by nature, and technological advances in bending plywood, the LCW was designed to create a shell that would ergonomically fit the sitter’s body, eschewing the need for upholstery. Additionally, they wanted to create furniture that was attractive, comfortable, affordable and easy to manufacture.

There are two versions of this chair: The LCW, described here, and the LCM which has an identical seat and back, but whose legs are made from tubular metal. The LCW is crafted entirely of moulded plywood, including the legs in the stretcher.   The silhouette is instantly recognizable as a mid-century modern icon.

There were significant challenges in the attempt to create a chair from a singular piece of plywood. The woodcraft and splintered. bent plywood spine and supported by bent plywood legs.

The chair was designed using technology for molding plywood that the Eames developed before and during the Second World War. Before American involvement in the war, Charles Eames and his friend, architect Eero Saarinen, entered a furniture group into the Museum of Modern Art’s “Organic Design in Home Furnishings Competition” in 1940, a contest exploring the natural evolution of furniture in response to the rapidly changing world. Eames & Saarinen won the competition. However, production of the chairs was postponed due to production difficulties, and then by the United States’ entry into WWII. Saarinen left the project due to frustration with production.