Black Lodge Chair: A Journey Into The Possibilities of Chair Redesign

Twin Peaks is one of my favorite TV shows. The bizarre and layered concepts, depth of meaning beyond the show, and the visual design and details captivated me. Whether you are familiar with the show or not, this chair is a prime example of bringing a design concept for a piece of upholstered furniture to life; from inspiration to design, the execution of the benchwork and all the variables requiring sourcing, time, and thoughtfulness to bring it into existence. This is a themed and artistic piece married with professional upholstery. TL:DR See images below and know that you’re missing out on the magic hidden within the details.

Let’s begin with a brief review of the inspiration and concept. The Black Lodge is an extra-dimensional place, within the show Twin Peaks, where a person entering it would confront their “shadow self”. The room itself is part of the Black Lodge but also called “The Red Room”, a sort of waiting room that is sparsely furnished with Art Deco chairs and a Venus De Milo Statue. The iconic design of this “room” featured a black and white chevron floor surrounded by walls of red velvet curtains, a vision of David Lynch. I wanted to scale down this room design into a chair that had a similar feel of surrounding whoever was sitting in it. My first thought was to make a channel-back chair to mimic the red curtains.

Entrance to the Black Lodge in a grove of Sycamore Trees

Black Lodge aka Red Room aka Waiting Room

This was in 2014. At the time, a colleague of mine had a channel back chair frame that she was willing to part with. The ball and claw feet spoke to another concept in the show about Owls (they are not what they seem) and matched my love of anthropomorphic details found in wood carved furniture. I thought this would be easy but as a newbie upholsterer, nothing rarely is.

The chair frame sat in the tiny second bedroom of our rented townhouse for a couple years while my skillset continued to develop and hone. In the meantime, I searched for the perfect “theater curtain red” velvet fabric, a large scale black and white chevron fabric, and a tree fabric. It was said in the legend of the black lodge that the entrance appeared in a grove of sycamore trees, something I wanted to highlight on the outside back of the chair, sometimes seen, sometimes not. It took a lot of time and searching but eventually all 3 fabrics were pulled together.

Frame with modifications and springs tied

The biggest movement forward was when I had a conversation with a master upholsterer that I worked with who was equally as interested in furniture as functional art. We would talk about different ways to approach the frame based on how I wanted the final piece to look. It’s easy to copy all the details of a chair into a new fabric but this was restyling the frame of the chair to fit a final vision. The exposed wood on the front arms and wings would be covered and the shape changed so that the upholstery of the channels would have a more extensive and bold presence, as well as surrounding the person sitting in the chair. He helped to make the frame modifications based on the new design and then the upholstery got started.

The frame modifications are a key part of why the finished chair looks the way it does but they aren’t easy to explain so here’s a couple pictures of where we added to the frame and changed the shape. The front of the arms got the biggest adjustment by bringing them all the way to the front edge of the chair. There was also an addition of a slightly tapered curve to give the top of the arm a more sensual shape, more surface area, and better flow. Other additions were pull bars that help with fabric manipulation once padded. This also meant that the seat of the chair (which used to be sprung for a loose ‘T’ cushion) was to be sprung for a tight seat.

There are several ways to create channels. I wanted the larger channels in the back to be slightly different measurements and tapered. Leaving the fullness of the curtains to be slightly ‘off’ and ‘disorienting’ but still visually attractive. The arm channels were also slightly different widths from each other but straight. Getting the dimensions correct required several patterning sessions using a different fabric before being ready to do the final cover. Using foam instead of cotton, I opted to pattern out each individual channel, sew them all together, then sew a string into the seam allowance of every seam. The result before it was attached reminded me of the anatomical illustration by 18th century French artist, Jacques Gautier-D’Agoty known as “The Flayed Angel” - only further adding to the mystique of the chair. Confronting your shadow self in the Black Lodge being attuned to macabre exposure and vulnerability, revealing the insides.

No detail was spared in upholstering every part of the chair. The “wrapped curtain” idea was maintained by running the red velvet down the front of the arms, the tack band meticulously matched to the chevron pattern in the seat, and the birch trees seen from every angle with a hint of the red velvet “curtains” rolling over the back edge to border all parts of the forest.

The takeaway? It’s functional, it’s thoughtful, it’s art, it’s really comfortable to sit in, it’s an improvement on the initial design, and it was and had to be designed from the inside out as well as the outside in. The frame doesn’t dictate what the piece should be. It informs it. Thinking outside the box and understanding your options can result in high-end magic.