What happens when you cross a Ford GT40 with the classic British Deck Chair? Designer deck chair with a hint of glamour.
Photo: allfotocars.com
Looking for a deck chair for your home?
I recently assisted Tom Elder, an automotive engineer, in the purchase of his new home. Tom’s passions range anywhere from design to auto racing. In his passtime, he engages in his personal projects in designing high-end consumer goods prototypes and restoring iconic sports car.
His latest project has been a redesign of the classic British deck chair.
The Concept
The original idea for the chair came about when Tom Elder from Floyd Design was looking for some deck furniture for his home. He found most good design on the market was too expensive for the material content and couldn’t find any thing that appealed to his race car / mechanical background. As a child, Tom could not understand why there were all those holes in the seat, much later did he find out they were for ventilation. They left an impression on him. The GT40 was originally built in the mid 1960’s. In 2005 Ford celebrated their 100th anniversary and brought out a new version of the GT40.
In about that time Tom Elder designed the chair (2003-4), Phillip Starck was in the news about the Ghost Chair, he took the LouisXV chair shape and changed the material to more of a mass market version.
Tom wanted to go in the opposite direction, take the iconic British deck chair and bring it upscale in materials. The chairs are CNC (computer numerically controlled) machined out of Aircraft grade 6061 T6 aluminum, stainless steel fasteners. The aluminum chassis are anodized to the customers choice of color, clear, stainless steel color, blue, pewter and can be polished or stain finish. Slings can be made from any material / color the customer desires. The original GT40 (Floyd) inspired chair is leather, but other leather and hi-tech vinyl slings are also available. The deck chair below exhibits painstaking detail from sketch to prototype. Price range CAN$2500-2800 .
