Things weren't always better in the past. But many things lasted longer.

Jun 21, 2026

Thonet coffee house chair made of solid bentwood — Yes, that is indeed solid wood! The curved shapes are created using a highly innovative process for its time: steam-heated wood was bent into metal molds in machines, which provided reproducible, identical components.

Sunday morning, my coffee is steaming, and I'm scrolling through the internet. It's incredible how much there is to buy online today. Furniture comes in every imaginable design, style, and price range. This absolute availability is a completely new phenomenon in historical terms, and I find the story behind it very exciting, which is why I want to tell you a bit about it today. So grab your own coffee for a short history lesson:

For centuries, tables, cabinets, and beds were not something ordinary citizens simply bought because they liked the color. Such items were often acquired only once in a lifetime, as furniture was quite valuable. The selection was limited: either you had something custom-made by the local carpenter, or you built it yourself. Furniture was laboriously crafted as unique, handmade pieces, and the materials were precious. In principle, almost everything was made of solid wood, as there were simply few alternatives.

Those who had money also liked to show it through their furnishings. The opulent halls of Versailles are an almost sinful example. But I'll get ahead of myself here: expressing oneself through one's furnishings should not forever be reserved only for the super-rich.

The trigger, of course, was the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. Most people certainly know that production became mechanized and mass-produced as a result. Machines processed wood much faster than by hand, and a unique piece became a product.

At least as important, however, was something one doesn't initially think of: logistics. After all, what good is a factory that produces a thousand chairs if you can't get them out of the village? Only the invention of railways and steamships made transport cheap, fast, and reliable. The machine turned furniture into a product, but only better logistics made it possible to offer these products at all. (At that time, it was through catalogs instead of the internet, but the principle was similar.)

One particular chair exemplifies this change: the coffee house chair by Michael Thonet. When he introduced it in 1859, it was a small revolution. Not only because of the innovative techniques of mass production but because the chair was so well thought out. It could be transported very efficiently in individual parts (reportedly 36 chairs per 1-meter crate!) and then simply assembled at the destination.

Over the decades, the idea solidified that good furniture design was no longer a luxury but something that should be accessible to everyone. This idea, as is well known, condensed at the Bauhaus. But in many places, the same question was asked: How do we produce good design that is affordable for ordinary people? Instead of expensive woods and laborious craftsmanship, more and more industrial materials such as tubular steel and plywood were used. Amusingly, design legend Marcel Breuer allegedly got the idea for bent tubular steel by looking at the handlebars of his bicycle. At the time, however, the material was considered so outrageously industrial that many didn't want it in their living rooms at all.

What fascinates me most about this is the fundamental law of evolution: Innovation arises when there is a problem to solve. A village carpenter of earlier times, who built for the Müller family three houses down, didn't ask himself how to get 36 chairs into a crate. Thonet, who somehow still had to sell his chairs economically, did.

And exactly this pattern repeats itself. The next big problem came with the Second World War: millions of people had to re-furnish their homes somehow, while everything was scarce. Solid wood and steel were now unaffordable, and there was too little of it. Out of this necessity, an old idea became the next mass product: particle board, pressed from wood scraps and shavings. What some critical voices today dismiss as "cheap furniture" was originally a genuine piece of the democratization of living. And from there, things progressed rapidly: flat-pack for self-assembly, global supply chains, ever new materials and manufacturing techniques. Furniture became a mass-produced commodity available at any time.

Our time, however, now presents us with a new problem: While we have learned for over a century to produce furniture ever cheaper and faster, we have forgotten to preserve its value. This is where we at Revive come in; we see it as our mission to bring back a bit of the old idea that good furniture lasts a long time and is worth finding its way back into the cycle.

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