It Didn't Catch On In The 70s — The Unique, Cozy Seating Collectors Crave Today

Warm, groovy, playful, and cozy — people in the 1970s really knew how to make a home look stylish, inviting, and comfortable. Today, homeowners and renters alike are still inspired by the aesthetic of the era, adding sleek teak tables, voluminous velvet couches, and macramé plant hangers to their homes. One particularly '70s-style plush lounge chair is also making a comeback. Created by French designer Pierre Paulin in 1975, the Pacha Chair was an ode to the changing tastes of the time. The soft, round, and slightly fuzzy form of the chair directly contrasted with the hard, angular shapes of post-war design movements like brutalism. It's one of those decor trends from the '70s that looks even cooler today.

The Pacha Chair by Pierre Paulin was originally produced by French furniture company Mobilier International, and today, vintage originals sell for thousands of dollars online. The chair was then reissued by Danish design house GUBI in 2018. New single-seaters, a throwback to a more far-out era, sell for between $4,399 and $5,499 and come with or without armrests. There's also a three-seater Pacha sofa for $15,399, a two-seater outdoor sofa for $15,399, and a squishy ottoman that doubles as a stool. The original Pacha Chair was high-end and likely had a similarly spendy price tag, so it didn't make its way into the vast majority of American homes. It's a rare piece of Paulin furniture that captures the essence of the '70s and can effortlessly blend in with modern homes. After all, we all want to choose a lounge chair that doesn't sacrifice style.

If you're a Star Trek fan, you might actually recognize one of Pierre Paulin's designs, even if you have no knowledge of his aesthetic. In a 1960s episode of the iconic sci-fi show, Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, sits on a futuristic-looking orange chair. It's Paulin's Ribbon Chair. In fact, many pieces on the Star Trek set were designed by Paulin, illustrating just how space-age his creations were considered at the time. While some may think the Pacha Chair resembles a marshmallow, the designer was apparently inspired by what it might feel like to sit on a cloud. Either way, Paulin adeptly captured the essence of coziness, packaging it into a single-seater that still works in homes today.

It's perfectly understandable if you consider the price of a Pacha Chair, whether a mid-century original or a contemporary remake, too steep for your modest interior decoration budget. If you get extremely lucky, you could score a GUBI Pacha Lounge Chair while thrifting or on secondhand sites like Facebook Marketplace, though it's unlikely. That doesn't mean you can't bring a similarly puffy piece of furniture into your home. Why not make a Pacha-inspired lounge chair your next DIY project? All you need is some cream upholstery fabric, some wood, a lot of foam, and a good tutorial, like this step-by-step video from YouTuber Fashion Attack. Add in a little expert advice on incorporating 1970s-style decor into your home, and you'll have a dyn-o-mite living room in no time.