Swedish furniture company Blå Station has launched an armchair by Stone Designs that has an extra compartment to keep restaurants, bars and hotel lobbies free of clutter.
The idea for the chair – which was presented at Milan design week – came about when Stone Designs founders Eva Prego and Cutu Mazuelos stayed at a busy ski resort.
With people's goggles, helmets and backpacks piled up on tables and in the lobby, the pair – who set the studio up in Madrid in 1995 – decided to create furniture that could reclaim the space.
Pocket's scoop-shaped shell sits on four steel legs. It has enough room for both an upholstered seat and, beneath that, a built-in shelf for sitters to store their bags, coats or laptops.
The furniture is intended mainly for public environments – such as lobbies, waiting rooms and restaurants – where people need somewhere to store their valuables.
Its high back encompasses the sitter, offering some extra privacy from their surroundings. The Pocket chair comes in fabric or leather editions, and in a range of colours including bright orange, pink, blue and green.
Blå Station, which was established in 1986 and inhabits a former sewing factory on the coast of Sweden, puts a focus on sustainable development and produces all its furniture locally.
Earlier in the year it partnered with designers Thomas Bernstrand and Stefan Borselius to produce a modular, segmented sofa that won the Editor's Choice award at the Stockholm Furniture Fair. It has also released a chair that measures just 33 centimetres wide.
Pocket was on display at Salone del Mobile from 4 to 9 April. Other furniture that made its debut at the fair included the Bouroullec brothers' slimline ash wood chaise longue for Mattiazzi and Allan Gilles' steel-framed Contour tables for Vincent Sheppard.