Tennis Ball Furniture

Among the cavalcade of sports images that, for better or for worse (probably worse) fill the hollows in the gray matter of any red- or blue- or white-blooded American Male, I’ve got three favorites as regards tennis: 1. John McEnroe face-down, eating dirt, apparently in abject despair, tennis racket disembodied alongside him, during the fifth set of his 1980 loss to Bjorn Bog in the Wimbledon finals; 2. A jubiliant Mats Wilander celebrating his surprising victory over Guillermo Vilas in the fifth set of the 1982 French open; and 3. Luke Wilson skulking through life as a chronically dejected ex-tennis star, perpetually outfitted in tennis retro (full beard, over-sized dark glasses, tennis whites and headband), in The Royal Tenenbaums. Speaking as a perpetual fan but never a player (I grew up on racquetball, hence my hyper-developed wrist motion dooms me to long and erratic forehands), what I really admire about tennis is how it unfolds as a character drama, how—in watching a great match—one gets a sense of warring dynamic personalities. Hence, the best tennis stars are bad boys, those who exude a noisy charisma (if it’s a dark and angry charisma as well, so much the better). All this by way of a timely introduction—presently writing mid-way through week one of what I like to call the anti-Wimbledon, bastion of the likes of ruffians Connors, McEnroe, and Ilie Nastase, New York’s U.S. Open—to a collection of tennis-themed furniture.

Given the near-absence of prominent Dutch players (apologies to Richard Krajicek), I’d speculate that Dutch Designers Tejo Remy and Rene VeenHuizen’s interest in the played-out tennis ball stems from a broader concern with found objects and re-purposed sustainability than a fascination with racket sports. Either way, their “Tennis Ball Bench,”—made from a simple steel frame and hundreds of well-placed balls, does double duty as homage to the sport and jokey reclamation; and it’s sufficiently visually striking, as well as comfortable, to have won a place as permanent seating for Rotterdam’s Museum Van Boijmans Beuningen, where it fits right in among the work of Surrealist Man Ray and Iconoclast Marcel Duchamp.

Ball Boy Stool. Designed by Charles Furniture.

Next, the “Ball Boy Stool” by Charles O’Toole for Charles Furniture features a seat of 117 tennis balls strung together on an unseen shaft perched atop four simple steel rods. Originally designed as an exhibition piece, it’s now being released in limited runs for consumers.

Finally there’s the “Tennis Ball Chair.” Made by Designer Will Holman of 50 balls (25 for the seat and 25 for the back), the chair is a simple chrome frame holding plywood sheets with tennis-ball sized holes. The key according to Holman is that the holes are of different depths and diameters, which allows the balls—when sat upon—to move and compress and conform to the body’s curves. Therewith answering the oft-voiced question “is it comfortable?” with a resounding “Yes!”

Tennis Ball Chair. Designed by Will Holman.

These three pieces represent an intriguing contribution to the increasing roster of furniture that’s found or made from re-purposed material. It’s always exciting to see designers come up with a new use for stuff that’s typically thrown away, so beyond appealing to the closet tennis fanatic within, they each do their small part to save the world… Just don’t let my Chocolate Lab anywhere near them!