Keilhauer’s Felt Chair and Ottoman

Thirty-two year old Montreal-born designer Brent Cordner’s first furniture design bears a striking similarity to another Canadian’s earliest efforts in furniture, Frank Gehry. But while Gehry layered corrugated cardboard for Bloomingdale’s in the 1970s to make his first splash in the design world, Cordner uses mats of wool felt from New Zealand topped with leather […]

Thirty-two year old Montreal-born designer Brent Cordner’s first furniture design bears a striking similarity to another Canadian’s earliest efforts in furniture, Frank Gehry. But while Gehry layered corrugated cardboard for Bloomingdale’s in the 1970s to make his first splash in the design world, Cordner uses mats of wool felt from New Zealand topped with leather to create his chair and ottoman set.

Cordner acknowledges the influence of Gehry, but it was the more mundane activity of cutting layer upon layer of foam, felt, and cardboard as an architecture student in Toronto that led to his first prototype for Felt. Totally natural and biodegradable, there’s little left to waste as the ottoman is manufactured from the pieces left over from the cutting of the seat for the chair.

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