How to Find thse Best Womb Chair (Model 70) - Eero Saarinen Style
Modern Classic's Saarinen Womb Chair Buying Guide
Modern Classics's Womb Chair vs. the Others
At Modern Classics, one of our core tenets involves our focus on enhancing historical furniture designs, striving to improve upon iconic pieces from the past. A prime example of this is our refining the construction of the renowned Model 70 Chair, known the world over as the Womb Chair. Who makes the best Womb-inspired chair? To help you decide, we wrote this comparison buyer's guide to highlight the popular sellers of this iconic chair - some of whom shall remain nameless - so you can compare them in specific detail.
When shopping for a Eero Saarinen Style Womb Chair and Ottoman, consider the quality of our version of our product, available in 16 high performance Boucle Fabric choices Modern Classics's Saarinen Style Womb Chair.
Quick Look: Modern Classics's Womb Chair
Click image to enlarge.
- Our Exclusive High Performance Polyester Boucle Fabrics
- Available in 16 Vibrant Fabric Colors
- Stainless Steel Legs with adjustable foot glides
- Dimensions Best Match Signature Model
- Exclusive: Powdercoating in 4 colors are available (for an extra charge)
- Customize with your own fabric or metal colors
| Our Item No. | MC-1310 |
| Base Price: Chair Only | $ 1,680 |
| Base Price: Chair + Ottoman | $ 2,480 |
| Overall Dimensions - Chair: | 40.25"w x 36"d x 36"h |
| Seat Height: | 17.5 inches |
| Seat Interior Dimensions: | 24"w x 19"d |
| Weight: | 40 pounds |
Summary: Modern Classics vs. the Original vs. Low-Market
Original$7,359
- Overall Summary
- Upholstery Materials
- Chair Dimensions
- Body & Sewing
- Frame & Finish
- Ottoman Details
- Custom Options
- Price Value
Low-Market$799
- Overall Summary
- Upholstery Materials
- Chair Dimensions
- Body & Sewing
- Frame & Finish
- Ottoman Details
- Custom Options
- Price Value
Our Womb Chair Version: An Icon of Mid-Century Lounge Comfort
The Model 70 Chair, universally celebrated as the Womb Chair, was designed in 1948 by Eero Saarinen and remains cemented among the top ten most influential mid-century modern furniture designs in history. Pieces from this golden era were defined by a brilliant marriage of form, function, and flamboyance. They offered an unprecedented leap in comfort over their rigid Bauhaus predecessors, intentionally engineered for "lounging"—a relaxed lifestyle shift that came to define the 1950s.
Re-Engineered with Modern Structural Integrity
Our exclusive version of the Womb Chair elevates Saarinen's vision using modern structural engineering. Instead of a basic shell, our proprietary chair features an internal skeleton of stainless steel encased in a high-resiliency, reinforced polymer foam mold. This exclusive combination yields a chair with far greater tensile strength and structural longevity than any other brand on the market. Further, we have tried to address other details for professional-grade durability:
Precision Engineering: The architectural backrest remains comfortably flexible yet incredibly sturdy, anchored to the base via robust steel screw inserts that are permanently welded into the shell for a wobble-free frame attachment.
High-End Tailoring: Our upholstery features tight piping wrapped gracefully around the perimeter of both the chair and the matching ottoman. We utilize custom-contoured, high-resiliency foam to achieve the authentic, sleek profile of the 1948 original - ensuring it looks tailored and sculptural, never over-stuffed or puffy.
Functional Ergonomics: The loose back pillow is left unattached, allowing sitters to effortlessly adjust the cushion to perfectly cradle the natural curvature of their spine.
We Offer our Womb Chair in these 16 Boucle Colors
Click on any of these Photos to see an enlarged view.
Premium North American Boucle and Custom Finishes
What truly sets our Womb Chair apart from the low-market replicas (and in some cases, the DWR Version) is our commitment to the upholstery material. We spent over 18 months sourcing the ultimate textile, collaborating directly with a premier North American mill to design a custom, commercial-grade 100% polyester Boucle fabric woven from recycled plastics. Boasting an extraordinary heavy-duty rating of 100,000+ double rubs, our textured fabric features an eco-friendly stain guard integrated straight into the fibers, so it is water and stain-resistant, with simple cleaning requirements.
We are happy to mail you a physical piece of fabric so you can hold it in your hands.
| Fabric Name: | Modern Boucle Fabric |
| Content: | 100% Post-Consumer recycled Polyester |
| Weight: | 22 oz/linear yard |
| Finish: | Greenshield™ (High Performance, Eco-friendly stain guard that beads liquids and easy to clean) |
| Abrasion Resistance: | 250,000 Double Rubs(ASTM D4157-13) |
| Crocking: | Wet: Class 5.0, Dry: Class 4.5 (AATCC 8) |
| Light Fastness: | Class 4.0 - 5.0 @ 40 hours (AATCC 16 3511) |
| Pilling Resistance: | Class 5.0 (ASTM D 3511) |
| Seam Slippage: | Warp: 79.5 lbs Fill: 133.0 lbs (ASTM D 4034) |
| Tensile Strength: | Warp: 177.0 lbs Fill: 234.0 lbs (ASTM D 5034) |
| Flammability: | Class 1 (CAL 117-2013) |
Choices for the Metal Frame
To complete your custom interior design, each chair frame can be personalized right here at our facility. Leveraging our own in-house powdercoating line in Bellingham, Washington, we can finish the steel legs in a striking variety of durable architectural colors, offering a level of bespoke luxury unavailable anywhere else. We offer 4 standard colors and there is an extra charge for the custom frame finishing, the amount depends on the size of the piece to be finished.
Comparison Details: Modern Classics vs. the Competition
SUMMARY
Classics
We offer a structurally superior, historically accurate replica of the Womb Chair and Ottoman, emphasizing material longevity:
- 100% polyester USA-made textured boucle fabric rated at 250k double-rubs with built-in stain guard.
- Proprietary internal skeleton of stainless steel encased in reinforced polymer foam for unparalleled strength.
- Hand-polished No. 304 grade stainless steel tubing frames for an eco-friendly, rust-proof, lifetime finish.
- Historically accurate dimensions derived from original engineering drawings, featuring flat arms and correct sit posture.
The official Knoll brand versions have consistent dimensions but utilize a low-performance wool/nylon blend fabric prone to early wear. The current production shells are overly puffy, losing the original sleek silhouette, and the frames use an environmentally harmful chrome-plating process prone to scratching and rusting.
Low-Market Sellers use a dated, highly inaccurate 1990s shell molds with drastically incorrect back angles, sloped armrests, and overly puffy upholstery. They use cheap fabrics that rapidly pill, experience severe dye lot inconsistencies, and lack any custom modification options.
UPHOLSTERY MATERIALS
Why This Matters: A lounge chair experiences high friction and contact. Low-performance fabrics will quickly pill, fade, stretch out, or absorb permanent stains. To preserve the tailored, mid-century look, you need a high-rub, heavy-textured weave that can withstand real-world use without losing its structural integrity or color uniformity.
Classics
We offer 16 colors of textured boucle 100% polyester fabric made in the USA, with the option of providing your own fabric (COM) for a minor surcharge. Our fabric is commercial-grade with 250k double-rubs, highly resistant to pilling or fading, and includes an integrated stain guard.
Offered in a wide range of colors and fabric grades. However, their signature Classic Boucle is a low-performance wool/nylon blend not known for its long life. DWR does offer the chair and ottoman in leather, which we do not offer yet, but we are working on it.
Low-Market Sellers offer their chair only in a cheap wool blend fabric that has no lifespan or stain protection, leading to rapid pilling. Unstable dye lots mean you rarely get a matching set of chairs. Some of these sellers use a low-lifespan linen-cotton blend with similarly unstable dye lots that compromise color matching.
CHAIR DIMENSIONS
Why This Matters: Eero Saarinen designed the Womb Chair with highly precise ergonomics intended to support multiple sitting positions, from upright reading to relaxed lounging. When a manufacturer changes the width, seat height, or back slant, it completely alters the ergonomic balance and destroys the iconic, mid-century silhouette.
Classics
Our chair dimensions were derived directly from original engineering and production drawings, ensuring absolute historical accuracy. The sitting position perfectly balances sitting and lounging, featuring arms parallel to the floor and a correct back slope that recaptures the original icon.
The chair sold at DWR is the licensed Knoll brand chair. The dimensions are historically accurate and have utilized the same authentic mold throughout the lifetime of their manufacturing.
Low-Market Seller also utilize a highly distorted frame that sits too narrow and angles back too steeply. Interior Icons: Sits noticeably higher off the ground and completely fails to resemble the original profile or lines of the Saarinen design.
CHAIR BODY & SEWING
Why This Matters: The inner shell dictates both comfort and long-term durability. If a shell is poorly cast or upholstered with cheap foam, it results in a lumpy, overly "puffy" appearance that masks the crisp lines of the architecture. Furthermore, premium tailoring details like clean welt piping and unclipped back cushions ensure easier maintenance and adaptable lumbar comfort.
Classics
Built with an exclusive, proprietary internal skeleton of stainless steel surrounded by high-resilient reinforced polymer foam. This offers superior structural strength while maintaining a sleek, tailored profile. Features secure epoxied screw inserts for frame attachment, premium blind-stitch piping around the perimeter, and an unattached back pillow for customizable comfort.
While the original shell design was fiberglass, recent versions reviewed appear to be molded plastic. Their high-resilient foam is upholstered very puffy, losing the lean, sculpted appearance of the historic original. Tailoring is high quality with blind-stitch piping, but the back pillow is permanently clipped into a molded cavity, preventing manual adjustment.
Low-Market Sellers use an outdated 1990s mold with incorrect sloped arms and steep back angles. The sewing quality is sub-standard, omitting the essential blind-stitch perimeter piping. They utilize generic urethane foam that creates an excessively puffy look, completely ruining the sleek aesthetic.
CHAIR FRAME & FINISH
Why This Matters: The metal understructure needs to withstand constant pressure while remaining rust-free. Commercial chrome plating involves hazardous chemicals and is highly susceptible to chipping, scratching, and underlying corrosion. True marine-grade stainless steel, when hand-polished, delivers a deep, natural luster that can be easily repaired and maintained for a lifetime.
Classics
Constructed from premium No. 304 grade stainless steel tubing, hand-polished to a flawless mirror finish. This delivers an environmentally friendly, inherently corrosion-resistant frame that can be easily re-polished by hand if scratched. We also offer 4 standard powdercoated finishes or custom colors, fitted with sleek adjustable floor glides.
Their frame is made from solid steel rod but finished via chrome plating, an environmentally toxic manufacturing process. If the chrome chips or scratches, the exposed steel will rust and cannot be easily repaired. They also offer a black painted finish and feature sleek, thin feet.
Several of the low-market seller use stainless steel legs but inexplicably utilizes an incorrect, oversized tubing radius that disrupts the original look. Interior Icons: Uses solid legs that are chrome-plated with a dull, low-quality milky finish instead of a crisp mirror shine.
OTTOMAN DETAILS
Why This Matters: The Womb Ottoman is not just a footrest—it is an ergonomic extension of the chair. If the ottoman sits too high, it reverses the leg angle, pushing the sitter uncomfortably backward. Furthermore, the leg architecture of the ottoman must mirror the clean, un-bent aesthetic lines established by the 1948 historic release.
Classics
The seat height of our ottoman is perfectly calibrated to comfortably rest your legs without breaking the pitch of the chair. We intentionally design our ottoman legs to match the authentic 1948 specifications, preserving the straight profile with no modern structural bends near the base.
The seat height of the Knoll ottoman perfectly matches the chair's pitch. However, Knoll modernized the design by adding structural bends to the legs to copy the main chair, altering the historical straight lines of Saarinen's original 1948 concept.
Several of the low-market sellers feature an ottoman height that is significantly too high. And then, because their matching chairs are pitched at an extreme, over-racked angle, using their ottoman makes the sitter feel more like an astronaut launching into space than someone relaxing with a good book.
CUSTOM OPTIONS
Why This Matters: High-end interior design relies heavily on personalization. A luxury piece should adapt to your existing architectural palette, whether that requires matching a specific material layout via Customer's Own Material (COM) programs or specifying unique frame color powder-coating to accent a room's design.
Classics
We embrace custom specifications. We offer full frame powder-coating in 4 standard shades or any color of your choice. We also offer full support for custom fabric upholstery (COM) for a small, nominal processing fee.
DWR will accept custom fabrics or leathers, but applies an extraordinarily expensive upcharge. They provide a basic black painted frame choice but do not offer true custom color finishes or hardware flexibility.
Low-Market Sellers operate strictly on mass-production assembly lines. They offer absolutely zero support for custom textile applications, leg finish alterations, or tailored structural adjustments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Unlike budget replicas that utilize standard, cheap fiberglass or plastic shells padded with low-density foam, our Womb Chair features a proprietary internal skeleton of stainless steel encased in reinforced polymer foam. This provides structural longevity and preserves the crisp, architectural silhouette over decades of use without looking "puffy". Furthermore, we use premium No. 304 grade stainless steel for the legs rather than prone-to-rust chrome plating.
Our textured Boucle fabric is 100% polyester made proudly in the USA and boasts a commercial-grade heavy-duty rating of 100,000+ double-rubs. It features an integrated stain-guard finish and resists the rapid pilling, stretching, or fiber breakdown typical of the low-performance wool blends found on the mass market.
Yes. Our dimensions are derived directly from original mid-century engineering data. This guarantees that the seating posture, backrest incline, and armrest orientation strictly preserve the intended ergonomic balance and iconic visual scale, avoiding the distorted, overly upright, or overly narrow seating profiles common in cheap replicas.
Absolutely. We support professional interior customization. In addition to our hand-polished mirror stainless steel legs, we offer 4 standard powdercoated finishes or entirely custom colors. We also feature a robust Customer's Own Material (COM) program allowing you to supply your own preferred textile for a nominal processing fee.
Yes, our Womb Chair is sold as a matching set that includes both the lounge chair and the coordinating ergonomic ottoman. The ottoman leg framework is designed to strictly replicate the authentic, un-bent straight profile of the 1948 release.
In-stock items ship within 7 to 10 business days directly from our Bellingham, Washington warehouse. Transit times vary by location, but regional tracking updates are provided as soon as your order is securely crated and handed to our freight carriers.
To ensure your furniture arrives undamaged, it is shipped via a specialized LTL freight carrier securely strapped to an oversized wooden pallet. The entire set is shipped fully assembled—the chair body and cushions arrive ready to enjoy immediately.
Yes, we highly encourage ordering material samples to ensure the color and heavy texture perfectly complement your home's lighting and architectural environment. Swatch requests can be made directly on our sample request page.
Customer Reviews
About Modern Classics Furniture
Here at Modern Classics Furniture, we focus tightly on manufacturing and selling furniture in the niche market known as Iconic Modern Classics Furniture. Here's why we are your top choice for Modern Classic Furniture:
- We make and sell only our own products -- we do not sell other manufacturer's product, nor will you find our products elsewhere on the Internet.
- We offer a 5 year warranty
- We only make quality furniture using the best materials
- We offer wholesale and design trade prices - let us be your #1 source - sign up today!
Corporate Headquarters and Factory Showroom
3999 Hammer Drive
Bellingham, WA 98226
Curt Roth, President
Phone: (360)733-6400
Email: hello@modernclassics.com
Text: (360) 733-6401
While we have a small showroom in Bellingham, the best place to get answers is at our company headquarters in Bellingham Washington. Call, Email or Text, you will be able to talk to a "live" person who can answer your questions.