Sale Price:
$2,189.00
Original Price:
$2,729.00
Overview
The classic tub chair finds a contemporary reinterpretation through the linear and essential design of Ariel. Thanks to its enveloping and welcoming comfort, enhanced by the soft backrest that forms a single upholstered element together with the armrests, this model defines a small parenthesis of relaxation in which to devote oneself to reading or to one’s favorite pastime.
Design Concept: The Contemporary Tub Chair
The Ariel’s design brief is explicitly a reinterpretation of the classic tub chair — one of the most enduring silhouettes in 20th-century furniture design, where the seat, back, and arms form a single continuous curved enclosure around the sitter. The traditional tub chair (also called a barrel chair) has deep roots in both English club furniture and mid-century modern design. MaxDivani’s Ariel brings this heritage form into a contemporary context through linear and essential design — where the classic tub’s rounded, enveloping form is given cleaner, more angular edges that read as modern without losing the original design’s sense of shelter and enclosure.
The result is described as “enveloping and welcoming” — a chair that physically wraps around the sitter, with the backrest and armrests forming a unified upholstered shell. This single-element back-and-arm construction is the Ariel’s defining structural and visual feature, creating a cohesive, sculptural silhouette rather than the typical three-piece construction (separate seat, back, and arms) of most accent chairs.
The Dual-Material Construction: A Premium Specification
The Ariel’s most technically distinctive feature is its double-cover system — leather on the outside, quilted fabric on the inner surface:
Outer surface — leather: The exterior of the armrests and backrest shell is covered in leather, providing a durable, refined surface that defines the chair’s visible profile from outside. The leather exterior wraps the structural shell, giving the chair a polished, premium-material exterior that reads as sophisticated from across the room.
Inner surface — quilted fabric: The seat-facing interior of the back and armrests — all the surfaces in direct contact with the sitter — is covered in quilted fabric. The quilted treatment adds visual texture and tactile softness to the surfaces that matter most for comfort, while the grid-pattern stitching creates a dimensional, pillow-like surface that distinguishes the interior from the smooth leather exterior.
Fine seam edging: The junction between the leather exterior and the quilted fabric interior is finished with a fine seam edging — a tailoring detail that defines the transition between the two materials with precision. This edge is visible in the product photography as a clean linear boundary running along the inner edge of the armrests and backrest perimeter.
This dual-material system — leather outside, quilted fabric inside — is an unusual and premium construction that creates two distinct material experiences within a single chair: the sleek, formal quality of leather when viewed from outside, and the soft, textured comfort of quilted fabric when seated within it.
The Tubular Metal Base
Placed on a tubular metal frame, the Ariel’s base consists of four slim metal tubes in a slightly angled geometric configuration. The tubular metal frame is described as “comfortable and enveloping” in combination with the chair’s ergonomic shell. The legs shown in the photo have a matte, warm-toned dark finish — consistent with standard metal leg finishes across the Ariel and peer models.
The use of tubular metal — thin, round-profile steel — creates a base with minimal visual weight that allows the upholstered shell to read as the dominant design element without being obscured by heavy leg structure.
Overview
The classic tub chair finds a contemporary reinterpretation through the linear and essential design of Ariel. Thanks to its enveloping and welcoming comfort, enhanced by the soft backrest that forms a single upholstered element together with the armrests, this model defines a small parenthesis of relaxation in which to devote oneself to reading or to one’s favorite pastime.
Design Concept: The Contemporary Tub Chair
The Ariel’s design brief is explicitly a reinterpretation of the classic tub chair — one of the most enduring silhouettes in 20th-century furniture design, where the seat, back, and arms form a single continuous curved enclosure around the sitter. The traditional tub chair (also called a barrel chair) has deep roots in both English club furniture and mid-century modern design. MaxDivani’s Ariel brings this heritage form into a contemporary context through linear and essential design — where the classic tub’s rounded, enveloping form is given cleaner, more angular edges that read as modern without losing the original design’s sense of shelter and enclosure.
The result is described as “enveloping and welcoming” — a chair that physically wraps around the sitter, with the backrest and armrests forming a unified upholstered shell. This single-element back-and-arm construction is the Ariel’s defining structural and visual feature, creating a cohesive, sculptural silhouette rather than the typical three-piece construction (separate seat, back, and arms) of most accent chairs.
The Dual-Material Construction: A Premium Specification
The Ariel’s most technically distinctive feature is its double-cover system — leather on the outside, quilted fabric on the inner surface:
Outer surface — leather: The exterior of the armrests and backrest shell is covered in leather, providing a durable, refined surface that defines the chair’s visible profile from outside. The leather exterior wraps the structural shell, giving the chair a polished, premium-material exterior that reads as sophisticated from across the room.
Inner surface — quilted fabric: The seat-facing interior of the back and armrests — all the surfaces in direct contact with the sitter — is covered in quilted fabric. The quilted treatment adds visual texture and tactile softness to the surfaces that matter most for comfort, while the grid-pattern stitching creates a dimensional, pillow-like surface that distinguishes the interior from the smooth leather exterior.
Fine seam edging: The junction between the leather exterior and the quilted fabric interior is finished with a fine seam edging — a tailoring detail that defines the transition between the two materials with precision. This edge is visible in the product photography as a clean linear boundary running along the inner edge of the armrests and backrest perimeter.
This dual-material system — leather outside, quilted fabric inside — is an unusual and premium construction that creates two distinct material experiences within a single chair: the sleek, formal quality of leather when viewed from outside, and the soft, textured comfort of quilted fabric when seated within it.
The Tubular Metal Base
Placed on a tubular metal frame, the Ariel’s base consists of four slim metal tubes in a slightly angled geometric configuration. The tubular metal frame is described as “comfortable and enveloping” in combination with the chair’s ergonomic shell. The legs shown in the photo have a matte, warm-toned dark finish — consistent with standard metal leg finishes across the Ariel and peer models.
The use of tubular metal — thin, round-profile steel — creates a base with minimal visual weight that allows the upholstered shell to read as the dominant design element without being obscured by heavy leg structure.
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