Eero Saarinen was an architect first. He designed the Gateway Arch in St Louis, the TWA Flight Center at JFK and the main terminal at Dulles, all built as single sweeping forms rather than assemblies of parts. He died in 1961, before the Arch and the TWA terminal opened. The furniture came out of the same instinct.
His problem with the mid-century dining room was legs. He called the standard arrangement of four table legs and four legs per chair a "slum of legs", and in 1956 he answered it with the Tulip table: one flared pedestal in cast aluminium carrying the whole top. The Tulip dining chair followed on the same principle, a moulded shell rising from a single stem. Together they make a dining set that reads as two objects rather than twenty.
Saarinen studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art alongside Charles and Ray Eames and Florence Knoll, which is why the three ranges sit together so easily. The Florence Knoll collection and the Charles Eames collection come from the same circle.
The grid divides in two, and the split is structural rather than stylistic. It is the first thing to settle.
One stem, cast aluminium, no visible legs. The dining chair measures 48 cm wide, 54 cm deep and 78 cm high, with a seat at 46 cm measured at the top of the cushion, and weighs 6.8 kg. The shell and seat are moulded polypropylene in a glossy finish, over a UK fire-rated foam cushion upholstered in a cotton and polyester mix.
Three variants sit alongside it. The Tulip Chair in fibreglass is 58 cm wide with a 43 cm seat and swivels through 360 degrees. The arm chair is 67 cm wide with a 48 cm seat. The carver, for the head of the table, is 70 cm wide with a 43 cm seat, in hardened fibreglass, and also swivels.
Three upholstered chairs, none of which the old copy on this page ever mentioned.
All three arrive fully assembled. The armed version is the one to measure for: at 68 cm it is 20 cm wider than a standard Tulip chair.
For the wider ranges, the modern dining tables and designer dining chairs collections set these against other options.
The table is the constraint, and it is larger than most people expect.
The Tulip oval dining table measures 196 cm wide by 121.5 cm deep and 72 cm high, and the published seating is six to eight.
Chairs need roughly 75 cm behind them to pull out and sit down. Add that to both ends and both sides and the room needs about 3.5 metres in the long direction and 2.7 metres across before the table is comfortable rather than merely possible. Below that, someone is always squeezing past.
The pedestal helps here in a way a four-leg table does not: with no legs at the corners, chairs can sit anywhere around the edge rather than only in the gaps.
Seat heights in this collection run from 43 cm to 48 cm, and the table stands at 72 cm. That gives between 24 cm and 29 cm of clearance between seat and table top, depending on the chair.
The pairs that sit level are the standard Tulip chair and the Executive Chair with Arms, both at 46 cm. That is the combination to use for softer seating at the head of the table and the pedestal look down the sides. The fibreglass Tulip and the carver sit lower, at 43 cm; the arm chair and the Saarinen Executive Chair sit higher, at 48 cm.
At 48 cm wide, Tulip chairs are the efficient option: three along each long side with one at each end gives the eight the table is rated for. Six is the comfortable number, leaving proper elbow room.
The Executive Chair with Arms at 68 cm is a different calculation. Two per long side plus one at each end is six, and that is already snug. The armless version at 50 cm fits much like a Tulip chair. If you are seating eight, the Tulip chairs are the piece to use.
This catches people ordering a table and chairs together.
So for most sets, the slowest piece sets the date, and the table is always one of the slow ones. The standard Tulip chair, the arm chair, the carver and the table assemble top to base; the fibreglass Tulip and all three Executive Chairs arrive fully assembled.
An Eero Saarinen replica is a reproduction of one of Saarinen's designs. It is sold as a reproduction, and the Mobelaris product pages state that each item is not manufactured by or affiliated with the original designer. In this collection, prices start from GBP 139.50 for a Tulip chair.
The Tulip chair is Saarinen's pedestal dining chair, the companion to his Tulip table. A moulded shell sits on a single flared stem rather than four legs, which was the point: Saarinen wanted to clear what he called the "slum of legs" from under the table. The Mobelaris version is 48 cm wide, 54 cm deep and 78 cm high, with a 46 cm seat.
The Tulip table is Saarinen's 1956 pedestal dining table, built on the same idea as the chair. One cast aluminium column carries the entire top. Mobelaris stocks the oval version at 196 cm by 121.5 cm and 72 cm high, with a choice of fibreglass or walnut veneer top. Only the oval is offered; there is no round version in this collection.
Tulip chairs start from GBP 139.50 and the Executive Chairs from GBP 229.50. The Tulip oval dining table starts from GBP 1,054.50. Prices on the grid above are current and include any active sale. Every piece in the collection lists a five-year warranty.
The Executive Chair is Saarinen's upholstered four-leg chair. Three versions are stocked: with arms (68 cm wide) and armless (50 cm), both in a wool and polyester mix on laminated ply legs, and the Saarinen Executive Chair (56 cm) in cashmere on tubular stainless steel legs. Unlike the Tulip pieces there is no pedestal, and all three arrive fully assembled.
The standard Tulip chair and the arm chair have polypropylene shells; the fibreglass Tulip chair and the carver are hardened fibreglass. All four sit on a cast aluminium base with a UK fire-rated foam cushion. The standard chair weighs 6.8 kg, with a seat height of 46 cm measured at the top of the cushion.
Yes, and the pair that sits level is the standard Tulip chair with the Executive Chair with Arms, both at 46 cm. That suits Tulip chairs down the sides and Executive Chairs at each end. Other combinations can differ by up to 5 cm in seat height, and the armed Executive Chair is 20 cm wider than a Tulip, so it takes more table edge.
Six to eight. At 196 cm by 121.5 cm it takes eight Tulip chairs at 48 cm each, three along each side and one at each end, though six is the comfortable number. The Executive Chair with Arms at 68 cm wide reduces that: six is the practical maximum with those.
The standard Tulip chair, the arm chair, the carver and the oval table assemble top to base. The fibreglass Tulip chair and all three Executive Chairs arrive fully assembled. Mobelaris does not offer assembly as standard, though the support team can arrange a quote if you would rather not do it yourself.
It depends on the piece. The standard Tulip chair and the armless and armed Executive Chairs are held in UK stock and dispatch within 48 to 72 hours. The other Tulip chairs, the Saarinen Executive Chair and the oval table take 12 to 16 weeks. If you are ordering a set with the table, the table sets the date. Each product page shows its own estimate under the Add to Cart button.
