Following an accident with a hairdryer, design student Sookhyun Kim has burnt a pattern of 426 circles onto this wooden chair using a heat gun (+ movie).

The box-shaped Peacock Chair is constructed from maple wood, selected for its hardness, and features a low rectangular back.

The entire surface of the furniture is covered in dark brown circular burn marks, created by holding a heat gun to the wood. Kim discovered the technique by accident, after leaving a hot hairdryer on top of a chair.

"The surface of the wooden chair where the dryer had laid on was burned naturally," said the designer, who is currently completing the Woodworking and Furniture Design course at Hong-ik University in Seoul, South Korea.

"Watching the scene I learned that burning the surface of the wood by blowing hot air is able to feel beautiful itself," added Kim. "I began looking for a tool that can burn more efficiently than a dryer, but creates similar effects."

After experimenting with a number of tools, the designer discovered that a heat gun could blow 630-degree air onto surfaces of various kinds of wood and burn on the circular shapes. These can vary in shade depending on how long the material was heated.

Kim created darker burn marks towards the back of the chair, in order to reference the wood's own natural gradient effect. The furniture is named for the patterned feathers of peacocks, which also feature dark circular centres.

Swedish collective Front also used singeing techniques to create tables covered with burnt-on doodles, and Belgian designer Kaspar Hamacher stripped bark back from logs and then burnt away sections to create stools.

Other unusual chairs that have recently been unveiled include spiral-shaped wooden seats purposefully designed to be uncomfortable, and a bench that expands and contracts like an accordion.