A modern day living room complete with the Eames revolutionary Lounge Chair and Ottoman (right).
Since their process for manufacturing molded wood designs had already been developed, Charles and Ray picked up where Charles winning MOMA design left off, and began applying the technique to furniture. They began by shifting the production of their war-time splint company onto a humble collection of three chairs: Dining chair Wood, Lounge Chair Wood, and Dining Chair Metal, which were believed to have the most marketing potential by distributor Herman Miller Furniture Company.
Soon, the interest and market for these chairs exploded as the Eames modernist approach to furniture took over the post-war homes and offices of America, enabling them to expand into more types of chairs, tables, cabinets, and even toys, such as the Eames Elephant, using their innovative molding and manufacturing techniques. Following the success of their wooden domestic furniture pieces, the Eames branched out into new methods of production, utilizing new industrial materials like plastic, aluminum, and wire mesh to finally create mass-produced furniture that anybody could afford in the form of their 1953 Zenith plastics produced Fiberglass Armchair.
While the most affordable of their offerings to date, this design would never surpass the popularity of their next breakthrough, with their luxurious, but bestselling and instantly recognizable, 1956 Lounge Chair and Ottoman, which would go on to sell 100,000 units in under 20 years.