Designed by three Swedish designers looking to provide an innovative and poetic piece for foyers and halls, the coat rack bench has now become a very recognizable part of the Wiener GTV Design collection. It has the bones of a GTV— bent wood, of course, and the distinguishable Vienna cane seat. This Gebrüder Thonet Vienna piece will look fantastic in any entryway but can also be used as a statement piece in other parts of the house.
The group of Swedish designers (called ‘Front’) that worked on this piece is composed of Sofia Lagerkvist, Anna Lindgren and Charlotte von der Lancken. Their goal is to design pieces of furniture that communicate an interesting story about what they are made of and how they are made—and they certainly succeeded with the coat rack bench for Gebrüder Thonet Vienna or GTV.
Their main inspiration for the collection was GTV’s heritage in bent wood—a heritage that dates back to the 1800s. According to Lagerkvist, GTV developed the ground-breaking solid bent wood technique in the middle of 19th century and this lead to the iconic and best-selling Thonet chair. For this collection, the group took a Thonet coat rack and added a bench to it, creating a piece that is both functional and beautiful for an entrance hall (or elsewhere in the home). Traditional bent wood and rattan techniques were used to create a piece of furniture that makes you feel right at home once you enter your hallway.
Bent wood is a great material to work because despite being light, it can also create strong structures. The GTV coat rack bench is available in white or black, with the rattan seat unpainted.
