Ida Wool Lounge Chair by Mariekke Jansen
The Ida Woollounge chair emerged at the close of 2022 as a personal queest by Jansen to design “a new classic”—a lounge chair built from waste wool yet capable of becoming iconic in its era. Rather than standard foam, the chair’s interior is entirely filled with 100 % Dutch wool, sourced from farm waste and shaped via a folded-tension technique—a method inspired by mattress-making and thread winding, where wool is knotted and folded to form both structure and cushioning. The cover, made of felted wool or recycled polyester velvet, anchors the wool internally without rigid framing—delivering an enveloping seat that molds to your body but holds its character over time.
Sustainability & Longevity
Jansen explicitly left behind foam to avoid microplastics, VOC emissions, and premature breakdown. Wool offers thermoregulating, hypoallergenic, biodegradable performance, staying fresh and supportive for decades.
Importantly, the chair can be opened, fluffed, and refilled, allowing users to adjust firmness or refresh the shape (and even replace the cover) instead of discarding the entire chair when it softens—a mindset shift from disposable to repairable and durable design.
Form, Comfort & Experience
The Ida chair carries a quiet, tactile aesthetic—soft-edged, inviting, and adaptable. Its visual simplicity belies its structural ingenuity: folds create tension that defines the shape while offering multiple postures—straight-backed, slouching, or curled—based on mood and body position.
The size is intimate yet generous (approx. 90 × 100 × 75 cm with seat height around 43 cm), ideal for personal and family spaces.
Vision & Legacy
Jansen’s ambition was to create something lasting—a chair that “gets better with time” rather than fading out of use. That vision shaped the Ida from conception: a furniture object that can be loved, maintained, and adapted by its owner over decades—even generations. The approach redefines value: reducing waste, enhancing emotional durability, and elevating humble materials to expressive design
Featured in exhibitions like Mia Karlova Galerie and design salons across Europe, Ida is gathering recognition among sustainable concept seating and collectible design circles.
Dutch Queen Maxima right and Mariekke Jansen left in front of a Ida Lounge chair in Milan, 2023
Queen Maxima seated in the Ida Lounge Chair
Feature Summary
Feature Details
Name Ida wool lounge chair
Designer Mariekke Jansen (NL)
Material 100% Dutch wool filling, recycled PET/polyester/cotton cover
Technique Folding‑tension method—no frame, all‑wool structure
Sustainability Biodegradable, refillable, repairable, low-emission
Comfort & Fit Molds to user, flexible posture, durable comfort
Production Made‑to‑order, small‑batch circular design
Why It Fits Chair Blog
Circular & Material-Driven Design: Ida encapsulates the movement toward zero-waste, biomaterials, and design with lifecycle in mind.
Human-Centered & Emotional: A chair that ages—with stories, softness, and evolving fit.
Illustrative Visuals: The images above show both the tactile surface (velvet or felted wool) and how the chair adapts to sitting postures—perfect for visual storytelling.
Dutch Ethos: Echoes the Dutch design tradition of sustainability meets sculptural comfort (much like the Rag Chair, but wool-based).
About Mariekke Jansen
here aptly dressed in wool
I am Mariekke Jansen, spelled with 2 k’s.
Before designing my chair, I had a business in vintage design furniture called Mariekke Vintage. I decided to add an extra “k” to my name because there were many Marieke Jansens in the Netherlands. I was actually the 6th Marieke Jansen during my interior design studies, and I graduated from the HKU at the same time as another Marieke Jansen. This inspired me because I like to be somewhat unique. I like to choose a different path than most people do. I was not made to obediently go to school until I ended up at the art academy. Here, you were encouraged to do things differently. The more unique and distinctive your own handwriting is, the better. I also realized that becoming an entrepreneur, where I could shape both my work and my life, would suit me best, so I started a business in my first year. I began trading in vintage design furniture, which taught me about entrepreneurship and what constitutes good design. At the art academy, I also discovered my own style. Once I graduated, my business was doing so well that I decided to pursue it full-time. Well, almost full-time, because at that time I also started making plans for my dream house.
Years later, when my house was completed, I felt that my business was lacking creativity, so I decided to stop it. At that moment, I completely changed my life. Just before my dream house was finished, I also ended my relationship with my then-partner. Living alone in this dream house was not an option, so we decided to sell the property. It may sound strange, but I didn’t shed a tear about it. After all, I had been living temporarily in Amsterdam because I also wanted to live in a city.We sold the house and I bought a campervan.
I went from a relationship, a dream house, and my own business to a life where I traveled around Europe in a camper and found a new partner. It was during this time that I had the opportunity to think about a new venture. I wanted to create a new “classic,” an lounge chair that would later be considered iconic for this era and innovative.
This task seemed extremely challenging because the classics of today are exceptionally well-made, often looking untouched even after many years. However, what often goes wrong is the foam cushions used in the furniture. After about 10 to 15 years, they crumble and need to be replaced. By the end of 2022, everything came together in one sketch: an lounge chair made from waste, meant to last a lifetime and be circular. A wool lounge chair. In the Netherlands, wool has become a waste product because the quality is not good enough for the fashion industry. Wool lasts a lifetime and provides the perfect softness for a chair.
To put the wool under tension, similar to what is done with woolen mattresses, I came up with a knot. A cover made of felted wool, filled with only washed wool, which is then folded together, creating tension on the wool on the inside. You can fill the wool in such a way that the backrest is firm and the seat is soft.
via Adorno.