3D printing furniture can be more challenging than making simple decorative items. But over the years, designers have been incorporating additive manufacturing into the more traditional methods to make 3D printed furniture of all kinds, from modern furniture to more rustic sets.
Here we’re going to look at some of the coolest, most interesting, and most aesthetically pleasing examples of 3D printed furniture from both professionals and hobbyists.
- The Best 3D Printed Furniture Projects in 2023
- Nagami’s Chairs – Architecture Meets Furniture
- Print Your City Project – Recycling Plastics For a Sustainable Future
- BigRep Ocke – A Big Addition to the Furniture Industry
- Puzzle Chair from BITS&PARTS – 3D Printing Fun Furniture
- “Supermod” 3D Printed Wall
- Jon Christie’s Hybrid Furniture
- Alexandre Chappel’s 3D Printed Furniture
- RH Engineering & ManoFigura Home Furnishings
- Wilkhahn Printstool One
- Morgan Furniture Rio Collection – Combining Past and Present
The Best 3D Printed Furniture Projects in 2023
Nagami’s Chairs – Architecture Meets Furniture
- Designer: Manuel Jiménez García
- Location: Spain
- Price: $1000+
- Source: Nagami Design
3D printing seats don’t just involve plastic stools and simple shapes, as designer Manuel Jiménez García shows with his 3D printed furniture.
3D printed seats are what Nagami is mainly known for, using a blend of PLA polymer materials 3D printed to be a combination of furniture and sculpture. The whimsical shape structures and creative designs are complex, visually pleasing, and comfortable.
These seats are more of an example of modern furniture made with modern technology. Adapting architectural design for practical function, these 3D printed chairs look like they belong in a museum rather than a living room.
While expensive at first, Nagami has worked tirelessly to maximize production efficiency to make their 3D printed furniture more affordable and accessible in the 7 years since their founding.
And it’s not just chairs Nagami 3D prints. They also produce a small collection of tables and lamps that look great in any modernly decorated home.
Print Your City Project – Recycling Plastics For a Sustainable Future
- Designers: Panos Sakkas and Foteini Setaki
- Location: Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Thessaloniki
- Price: N/A
- Sources: Print Your City and The New Raw
Additive manufacturing can help the environment and reduce waste in a lot of different ways. The New Raw has shown off this concept by making bespoke 3D printed furniture made from recycled plastics.
Print Your City does exactly as the name implies, creating publicly available benches and other furniture that shows the world how to better use their plastics to improve people’s lives in a sustainable way.
The 3D printed furniture combines public benches and plant pots to beautify neighborhoods and prevent plastics from being thoughtlessly discarded and potentially polluting the planet. The XXX Bench, for example, was designed for Amsterdam as it used the approximate amount of waste plastic created by two of the city’s inhabitants in a single year.
This shows how hard The New Raw is working to raise awareness while being practical and green in the process. Their efforts have taken them to Thessaloniki in Greece, where citizens were able to enjoy their city’s waterfront with a selection of recycled 3D printed furniture.
This project saw 800kg of plastic recycled and 2080kg of CO2 saved over the course of the 30 day program.
BigRep Ocke – A Big Addition to the Furniture Industry
- Designer: Beatrice Muller & Others
- Location: Berlin, Germany
- Price: N/A
- Source: Ocke Series
Using the BigRep ONE 3D printer, former designer Beatrice Muller created a proof of concept that one-shot large 3D prints are both possible and reliable despite the use of complex geometries.
The parametric design is visually pleasing and uses less filament than a more solid structure would, all while being sturdy enough for use as a chair. This large model is an impressive feat of engineering and has inspired others to create their own parametric 3D printed furniture too.
The Ocke series shows how even standard filaments can be strong and useful as furniture pieces with enough time and patience, all without sacrificing decorative value.
Puzzle Chair from BITS&PARTS – 3D Printing Fun Furniture
- Designer: BITS&PARTS
- Location: Zaandam, North Holland
- Price: Free (STL files) or $30+ (purchase)
- Source: Puzzle Chair
The puzzle chair from BITS&PARTS is a fun and unique example of 3D printed furniture that you can print and construct yourself. It was originally designed as a child’s chair, combining practical 3D printed furniture with a fun and simple two-color jigsaw puzzle.
It proved popular enough that they also released an adult’s version which can be used in any workspace or reading nook. Despite being a puzzle, the chair is perfectly safe for use once fully assembled, and because the pieces are all individually set, you can print this chair on just about any sized 3D printer.
“Supermod” 3D Printed Wall
- Designers: Sebastian Misiurek AND Arianna Lebed
- Location: Brooklyn, New York
- Price: N/A
- Sources: Sebastian and Arianna
Designed by the founders of Simplus Designs, the Supermod is made up of individually printed storage modules joined together to make a modular storage “wall” with enough design freedom to be as large or small as it needs to be.
During the day, the Supermod’s patterns and opacities are designed to allow sunlight into each module to produce a glimmering effect.
As a modular system, the Supermod also sidesteps the need to use large-scale 3D printers. Despite the wall being taller than most people, each module can be printed on an affordable 3D printer.
Jon Christie’s Hybrid Furniture
- Designer: Jon Christie
- Location: United Kingdom
- Price: Varies (depending on the price of wood)
- Source: Jon Christie
Jon Christie spent 20 years designing furniture before returning to university at the age of 40 where he fell in love with the 3D printing process. Using a lot of trial, error, and rapid prototyping of his earlier works, he was able to mostly self-teach 3D printing and add it to his repertoire.
“During my student years, I became interested in 3D printing and how I might integrate it with traditional furniture making. The projects I worked on explored how 3D printed parts could be used to assist the furniture maker and manufacturer.”
He is most famous for his “Saul Dining Table & Chairs” an artisan project made from different materials, mainly combining wood with 3D printed joints.
His printed joint technique has since been used by individuals in amateur furniture-making to offer greater customization, quicker production times, and reduced waste material.
Alexandre Chappel’s 3D Printed Furniture
- Designer: Alexander Chappel
- Location: Switzerland
- Price: $5 – $10+ (files only)
- Source: ALCH
Alexandre Chappel documented the construction process of his own wooden side table with 3D printed joints, and has since gone on to make a name for himself in 3D printed furniture modeling and design from his design studio in Switzerland.
He has made the STL files and instructions available on his personal website linked above starting at only $5. His other projects include a foosball table, a camera arm, a DIY dining chair, and many more.
The simplicity and elegance of the designs make them perhaps the most accessible 3D printed furniture projects for anyone to create regardless of the technology at their disposal.
RH Engineering & ManoFigura Home Furnishings
- Designer: René Helmreich and Enrico Klemmer
- Location: Schwarzenberg, Germany
- Price: Quote available here
- Source: 3D Print Luxury Furniture
This pair of designers from the mountains of Schwarzenberg have been disrupting the luxury furniture industry with large-scale 3D printing since 2020.
Their printer of choice is the BigRep One. The printer is big enough for furniture printing, with a 1005mm³ build volume, but comes with a $39,000 price tag (depending on specifications), making it quite cost prohibitive for most households. These luxury items are also not mass produced, meaning you will need to contact them directly for a quote.
Their process begins by 3D printing artisan furniture based on a client’s design. The piece is then coated with their signature “ManoVeneer.” What Manoveneer is made from isn’t revealed, but we know the coating is waterproof, and can add a range of surface textures to granite, slate, and sandstone, while weighing far less.
Wilkhahn Printstool One
- Designer: Thorsten Franck
- Location: Bad Münder, Lower Saxony
- Price: $266+
- Source: Printstool
Designed by Thorsten Franck and developed by Wilkhahn in Germany, this 3D printed stool was produced on an industrial 3D printer and is available as a part of Wilkhahn’s range of premium office furniture.
The Printstool One can be completed in a few hours, including the assembly of the non-3D printed base and seat. The main body is 3D printed with lignin, an organic biopolymer that makes the stool completely biodegradable.
Despite being commercially available, the Printstool One isn’t easy to obtain. It is not part of Wilkhahn’s main store catalog, only produced in a limited edition 500-piece run.
The price for each unit is undisclosed, but assuming that the Printstool One matches the $266 to $660 a conventional Wilkhahn stool costs, it’s likely too expensive for most individuals just trying kit out their home office.
Morgan Furniture Rio Collection – Combining Past and Present
- Designer: Mehran
- Location: London
- Price: N/A
- Source: Rio Collection
A collaboration between Morgan Furniture and Studio INTEGRATE resulted in The Rio Collection, a combination of old techniques and modern technology like, using 3D printing and digital methodologies.
Using a mix of the old and new, The Rio Collection uses traditional manufacturing methods to produce tables and chair designs with a polyamide powder-based 3D printing technology to create joints, arms, and backrests before adding the upholstery.
