History of Bean Bag Furniture.

The Italian furniture company, Zanotta, was the birthplace of the bean bag chair. Three designers are said to have developed this bean bag furniture. Known for modern designs like bean bag furniture, Zanotta became world famous for its award winning designs. It was against this backdrop that the beanbag chair was developed.

Zanotta developed the sacco chair, or the beanbag chair, releasing it to the market in Nineteen Sixty Nine. With its unmistakable teardrop shape, the sacco chair was not an immediate hit. The world had to catch on to
the bean bag furniture craze. The beanbag chair was thought to be a fad at first. But now, bean bag furniture has gone on to be one of the most iconic piece of furniture in modern history.

Most early bean bag furniture were stuffed with very small beads made from polystyrene. The beads inside the bean bag furniture were very reactive to static elecricity and would stick to almost anything. If the beanbag chair was to rupture, the result was a storm of very small pellets. They were a huge inhalation hazzard and the small plastic pellets from the bean bag furniture could easily become stuck in the throat or nose.

Considering the enormous potential for inhalation and possible death, beanbag chairs have been redesigned. In the old days polystyrene beads would be placed inside the outer cover. The stuffing material is now encased in a seperate bag, reducing chances of the bag breaking. In another significant change, the manufacturers have taken many steps to reduce or eliminate accidental inhilation. Switching from tiny beads to larger pieces of polystyrene keeps the beanbag chair comfortable, but reduces the danger of smaller pieces.

The tiny beads did serve as a way for bean bag furniture to mold itself around the user. This was a selling point for early bean bag furniture. Making the polystyrene pieces larger did not result in the same feel as early bean bag furniture. To compensate, pieces of shredded foam rubber were mixed with the polystyrene inside the beanbag chair. The foam rubber helps in molding the bean bag furniture to the user, while the polystyrene provides support.

The original beanbag chair from Zanotta had a teardrop shape. The narrow end of the chair was designed to support the head and neck. Many of todays beanbag chairs typically have a rounder shape that places less emphasis on supporting the upper body. Size seems to matter when it comes to beanbag chairs, and modern chair design places emphasis on larger bean bag furniture. Even from the early days of the beanbag chair, oversized, or jumbo sized bean bag furniture were very popular and all bean bag furniture remains so today.