PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
When Fredericia filmed a design talk with Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby in London, the subject was the studio's new chair, and the story began with an old one. By the company's own account, the J39 Mogensen Chair, in continuous production since 1947, is the design that inspired the Plan Chair. The studio behind the London 2012 Olympic Torch took on a Danish commission and started with Børge Mogensen.
That lineage explains a lot about how the Plan Chair, designed in 2022, actually behaves. The J39 was drawn for FDB, the Danish consumer cooperative, as a well built chair an ordinary household could live with for decades. The Plan Chair answers the same brief in tubular steel and moulded plywood, with a compact footprint, contract-grade testing, and every component designed to be taken apart and repaired.
The Plan Collection now spans chairs, barstools, and tables, with the chair itself offered in three builds and the barstool in two. This is the story of the design, the studio behind it, and how to choose between the versions.
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby
Barber and Osgerby founded their East London studio in 1996 and have designed across nearly every scale an object can take: furniture, lighting, industrial products, site-specific installations, projects for the Royal Mint, and the London 2012 Olympic Torch. Their collaborations with manufacturers like Vitra and Hermès sit in museum collections around the world, and the pair have been named Royal Designers for Industry and appointed to the Order of the British Empire.
What that background brings to a dining chair is an industrial designer's eye for the whole system. The Plan Collection pairs the chair with its own tables and barstools, sharing the same steel, the same wood treatments, and the same colour palette across the family, so one design decision can carry from the dining table to the kitchen island.
Fredericia talks about its catalogue as modern originals, designs meant to last for generations, and the Plan Chair was commissioned in that spirit. Opening the story with the J39 makes the ambition plain.
A Chair Designed to Come Apart
The construction is plain to read. A frame of powder coated tubular steel carries a seat and back in moulded plywood veneer, finished in a water-based lacquer and riding on plastic glides, with felt glides available for hard floors. The chair weighs just under 15 lb, measures 16.5" across, and puts the seat at 17.7". Most of the comfort is in how the plywood is shaped to the body, which is how the profile stays this slim.
Every component separates. The seat, the back, the frame, and the glides can each be renewed, replaced, or sorted for recycling, and on the upholstered versions the covers can be changed. Fredericia designs the Plan family for a circular economy, which in practice means a damaged seat or a tired cover gets renewed while the rest of the chair carries on.
The Plan Chair is tested to ANSI/BIFMA X5.4, the American durability standard for contract seating in restaurants, offices, and lobbies. In a house, that pedigree shows up as a kitchen chair that shrugs off the daily scrape and drop of family use, and a desk chair that holds its geometry through years of sitting.
The Plan Family
The chair itself comes three ways. The wood version keeps the lacquered plywood seat and back exposed, in oak or a black lacquered finish. The seat upholstered version keeps the plywood back and adds a fabric or leather seat, and the fully upholstered version wraps both seat and back in fabric or leather over foam, with a brushed steel frame option joining the powder coat colours.
The wood version suits kitchens and hardworking dining rooms, where the lacquered seat wipes clean and ages into patina. The seat upholstered build softens the sit for long dinners without changing the silhouette. The fully upholstered chair is the most formal read of the three, at home in a dedicated dining room or behind a desk where the foam back rewards hours in the seat.
The Plan Barstool repeats the chair one to one at standing heights, with the same steel frame and lacquered plywood seat. Counter height puts the seat at 26.38" for the standard 36" kitchen counter, and bar height puts it at 30.31" for a 42" bar or raised island ledge. A fully upholstered barstool rounds out the family for kitchens where the island has become the place everyone actually eats.
Frames come in Black, Chalk, Signal Blue, Modernist Green, and Bordeaux across the family. Black lets the plywood carry the piece and disappears against dark floors. Chalk pulls the frame toward pale Scandinavian rooms, while Signal Blue, Modernist Green, and Bordeaux turn the frame itself into the room's accent, a thin line of colour drawn under an oak seat.
For a long table I like four of the wood seats down the sides and two fully upholstered at the heads. The room still reads it as one chair, but the ends of the table get a little more presence.
Jenna, Interior Design Specialist
Frequently Asked Questions
Who designed the Fredericia Plan Chair?
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, the London design studio founded in 1996 and known for the London 2012 Olympic Torch and collaborations with Vitra and Hermès. The Plan Chair dates to 2022, and Fredericia credits Børge Mogensen's 1947 J39 chair as the inspiration behind it.
What is the difference between the Plan Chair versions?
Three builds share one frame. The wood version has a lacquered plywood veneer seat and back, the seat upholstered version adds a fabric or leather seat beneath the plywood back, and the fully upholstered version covers both seat and back in fabric or leather over foam.
Should I buy the Plan Barstool in counter height or bar height?
Measure your counter first. Counter height, with its 26.38" seat, suits the standard 36" kitchen counter or island. Bar height, at a 30.31" seat, is built for 42" bars and raised ledges. Aim for roughly 10" to 12" between the seat and the underside of the counter.
Can the Plan Chair be repaired?
Yes, by design. Every component separates, so the seat, back, frame, and glides can be renewed or replaced individually, and the upholstered versions can be re-covered. Fredericia builds the Plan Collection for a circular economy, which keeps a well used chair in service for the long run.
The J39 has been making the same argument since 1947: a chair proves itself by being useful to nearly everyone, in nearly every room, for a very long time. The Plan Chair carries that argument into powder coated steel and moulded plywood, adds a repair path for every component, and offers enough builds, heights, and finishes to seat a kitchen island, a dining table, and a desk from a single family. You can read the longer Fredericia story in our brand spotlight on a century of the company's chairs.
If you are planning a dining room or a kitchen around the Plan Collection, our in-house design team works with clients across Canada on everything from a single room consultation to a full interior project.
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