Furniture: Dining on air

Reviewed by:
Rosemary Thornton

It started almost 50 years ago with a woman complaining to her husband about the chair legs scraping the floor under the family table. In 1956, at wife Carma's urging, Carling Allen invented and patented a table with eight legless chairs; chairs fastened to and suspended from the table. He called it the "uni-dine" table.

Suspended seats fast gained favor and were soon used in commercial applications (restaurants and lunch counters) but are again gaining in popularity for residential use. According to suspended seating manufacturer, Seating Innovations (based in Utah) one of the most popular residential uses today include barstools for the kitchen counter or center islands and dining tables.

Seating Innovations offers seating and seat backs and fabrics (for seat bottoms) and barstools in almost every style, material and finish imaginable.