The We Do Wood Komplett Lounge Chair is proof that a chair does not need thick upholstery, a motorized footrest, or enough buttons to launch a satellite to feel distinctive. Designed by Danish furniture designer Sebastian Jørgensen, this low-slung bamboo chair reduces lounge seating to a few carefully shaped panels, an exposed frame, and an unapologetically honest construction.
Although the Komplett Lounge Chair has been discontinued, it continues to appear in design archives, auction listings, and secondhand marketplaces. Its appeal is easy to understand: the chair combines Scandinavian minimalism, renewable material, visible engineering, and a silhouette that remains surprisingly fresh years after its introduction.
Komplett Lounge Chair at a Glance
- Brand: We Do Wood
- Designer: Sebastian Jørgensen
- Primary material: Bamboo
- Overall height: 66 centimeters, or approximately 26 inches
- Width: 64.5 centimeters, or approximately 25.4 inches
- Depth: 73 centimeters, or approximately 28.7 inches
- Approximate seat height: 30 to 31 centimeters, or roughly 12 inches
- Design style: Scandinavian, minimalist, modern, and material-focused
- Current status: Discontinued and generally available only through resale channels
Archived product records describe the Komplett as a lightweight, comfortable lounge chair created to combine simplicity and function with respect for nature. Secondary-market records also indicate that its screw-connected structure can be disassembled, which is useful information for collectors transporting or restoring an older example.
A Scandinavian Lounge Chair Without the Usual Fluff
Simple Shapes That Still Have Personality
The Komplett Lounge Chair is visually economical, but it is not anonymous. Its broad back panel, curved seat, angled legs, open sides, visible fasteners, and dark cross-bracing create a recognizable profile. Nothing is hidden behind decorative skirts or oversized cushions. The structure is the decoration.
This approach reflects a central idea in Scandinavian furniture design: remove unnecessary information while preserving comfort, usefulness, and character. Well-designed Nordic furniture often relies on careful proportions, quality materials, and construction details rather than ornament. In other words, the chair does not shout for attention. It simply waits for everyone else in the room to calm down.
Scandinavian interiors frequently balance simplicity, craftsmanship, functional elegance, natural materials, and an economical use of resources. The Komplett fits that tradition while introducing a slightly more technical edge through its exposed rods and hardware.
Designed by Subtraction
Sebastian Jørgensen has described successful furniture as intuitive and requiring little explanation. His design process often involves subtracting elements until the object reaches a clear, self-evident form. That philosophy is almost embarrassingly visible in the Komplett: seat, back, support, connection, done.
There is no mystery about how the chair stands. The user can see the angled supports, screws, joints, and tension elements. This mechanical honesty gives the chair a workshop-made quality, even though its surfaces remain refined enough for a polished modern living room.
Why Bamboo Matters to the Design
A Material That Looks Warm but Behaves Precisely
Bamboo gives the Komplett Lounge Chair its warm color and visible linear grain. It softens the chair’s angular geometry, preventing the design from feeling cold or overly industrial. The result sits somewhere between a mid-century lounge chair, a modern flat-pack experiment, and a carefully built piece of cabinetmaking.
Bamboo is technically a grass rather than a tree, but engineered bamboo panels can be cut, laminated, curved, and finished much like conventional wood products. This makes the material especially useful for furniture that requires consistent surfaces and accurately shaped components.
Its rapid growth is one reason bamboo is frequently promoted as a renewable alternative for furniture. However, bamboo is not automatically sustainable merely because a panda would recognize it. Responsible cultivation, adhesives, finishes, factory practices, transportation, durability, and eventual repairability all affect the environmental story.
Design and sustainability publications consistently recommend looking beyond broad “eco-friendly” claims and examining sourcing, production, certification, and expected service life. A chair that lasts for decades is usually a better environmental investment than one replaced every few years, regardless of how many leaves appear on its packaging.
Understanding the Brand’s Sustainability Position
We Do Wood currently emphasizes responsible materials, reduced waste, upcycling, and FSC-certified sourcing within its broader furniture operation. FSC certification is intended to provide chain-of-custody and responsible-sourcing assurance for forest-based products, including certain bamboo products.
Because the Komplett is an older discontinued design, buyers should not assume that every example carries the same documentation as the company’s current collection. Ask a seller for original labels, invoices, packaging, or certificates when verified provenance matters. Sustainability deserves paperwork occasionally; otherwise, it is just a pleasant adjective wearing hiking boots.
Comfort: Relaxed, Low, and Intentionally Firm
The Sitting Position
With a seat height of approximately 12 inches, the Komplett places the sitter noticeably closer to the floor than a conventional dining or office chair. This low position encourages a relaxed posture, with the legs extending forward and the torso leaning into the curved back panel.
The approximately 29-inch overall depth gives the chair a genuine lounging stance rather than the upright posture of a side chair. Its broad width provides useful personal space without turning the chair into a one-person sofa.
However, body proportions matter. Ergonomic guidance emphasizes that seat depth should support the thighs without pressing behind the knees and that a backrest should allow the user to sit fully against its support. Because the Komplett has fixed dimensions rather than adjustable components, it will naturally suit some bodies better than others.
Who May Find It Less Comfortable?
The very low seat can make standing up more difficult for people with limited knee, hip, or lower-body mobility. Taller users may enjoy the laid-back angle but wish for additional head support. Anyone expecting the soft embrace of a heavily upholstered reading chair may initially find the molded bamboo seat rather direct.
A thin removable seat pad can increase comfort without burying the chair’s architecture. Choose a restrained cushion rather than something so enormous that the Komplett begins looking as though it lost a fight with a mattress.
This is best understood as a design-led lounge chair for conversation, reading, coffee, or occasional relaxation. It is not an ergonomic task chair and should not be treated as an eight-hour home-office seat.
How to Style the Komplett Lounge Chair
Give the Frame Room to Be Seen
The chair’s open frame and angular side profile deserve breathing space. Avoid wedging it tightly between a sofa and a storage cabinet. Place it where at least one side remains visible, allowing the legs, supports, and cross-bracing to contribute to the room.
In a small apartment, the chair can work particularly well because its open construction occupies less visual space than a bulky upholstered armchair. It still requires approximately 29 inches of physical depth, so measure the floor rather than relying on optimism, which remains an unreliable unit of interior design.
Natural and Neutral Interiors
The bamboo surface pairs easily with off-white walls, light oak, wool rugs, linen curtains, stoneware, and muted green or clay-colored accents. A compact side table and a warm reading lamp can transform the chair into a quiet reading corner without producing the overdecorated look of a furniture catalog suffering from cushion inflation.
Darker, More Dramatic Rooms
The natural bamboo also stands out beautifully against charcoal, navy, forest green, or deep brown walls. Its pale surface introduces contrast, while the dark structural rods connect visually with black lighting, metal shelving, or framed artwork.
Japandi and Mid-Century Spaces
The Komplett naturally complements Japandi interiors because it combines Scandinavian restraint with the clarity and material honesty associated with Japanese design. It can also sit comfortably beside mid-century pieces, especially low coffee tables, sculptural lamps, and simple wool textiles.
Buying a Used Komplett Lounge Chair
Since the chair is discontinued, the secondhand market is the most realistic place to find one. Condition matters more than a dramatic listing description written entirely in capital letters.
Inspect the Bamboo Panels
Check the seat and back for cracks, separation between laminated layers, deep water stains, swelling, or repairs. Small surface scratches may be acceptable on a used chair, but structural splitting around fasteners deserves closer attention.
Examine Every Connection
Look at the screws, bolts, rods, and joining points. Confirm that the chair sits evenly without rocking and that no hardware is missing, mismatched, or aggressively substituted with something discovered in a garage drawer.
Ask for Provenance
Original purchase documents, labels, assembly instructions, and photographs can help establish authenticity. Compare the dimensions with archived specifications: approximately 26 inches high, 25.4 inches wide, and 28.7 inches deep.
Request Detailed Photographs
Ask for images of the underside, rear connections, leg ends, seat edges, fasteners, and any damaged areas. A single glamorous front photograph taken from across a dim room is not a condition report. It is furniture speed dating.
Consider Transportation
Some examples can be disassembled because the frame uses screw connections. Even so, request confirmation before shipping or dismantling a chair. Old hardware and laminated components should be handled carefully, and forcing a stubborn joint can turn a collectible chair into an advanced woodworking assignment.
Cleaning and Maintaining the Bamboo
Dust the chair regularly with a soft, dry cloth. For light cleaning, use a slightly damp cloth and a small amount of mild soap, then dry the surface promptly. Avoid saturating the bamboo, applying harsh chemicals, or allowing moisture to collect around joints and fasteners.
Keep the chair away from intense heat vents, fireplaces, prolonged direct sunlight, and persistently damp areas. Significant changes in heat and humidity can affect bamboo and other natural materials over time.
Do not sand, oil, wax, or refinish a vintage example until you understand its existing finish. Although current We Do Wood bamboo products may include care instructions involving gentle sanding and linseed oil, an older Komplett may have a different coating or previous restoration. Test any treatment on a hidden area or consult a furniture conservator when the chair has collector value.
Who Should Consider the Komplett Lounge Chair?
The Komplett is a strong match for design enthusiasts who appreciate Scandinavian furniture, exposed construction, natural materials, and low-profile seating. It also suits collectors seeking a discontinued piece that is recognizable without being painfully obvious.
It may be less suitable for buyers who need high seat access, adjustable lumbar support, a headrest, substantial padding, or readily available replacement parts. Families with energetic children should also consider the exposed frame and low position when deciding where to place it.
Ultimately, this is not a universal chair, and that is part of its charm. It has a specific posture, material language, and visual attitude. Furniture becomes more interesting when it stops trying to please every possible spine on the planet.
Final Verdict
The We Do Wood Komplett Lounge Chair remains relevant because its design is clear, useful, and refreshingly honest. Sebastian Jørgensen turned a limited vocabulary of bamboo panels, angled supports, visible fasteners, and structural bracing into a chair with real identity.
Its low seat and firm construction will not suit everyone, but buyers who enjoy restrained Scandinavian furniture may find it unusually rewarding. The chair is simultaneously warm and technical, simple and expressive, practical and collectible. That balance is difficult to achieve, especially without adding seventeen cushions and calling the result “luxury.”
Living With the Komplett Lounge Chair: A Realistic Experience
Because the Komplett is discontinued and firsthand long-term reviews are limited, the most responsible way to discuss the ownership experience is to consider its documented dimensions, visible construction, material, and recurring condition details from resale listings.
The first surprise is likely to be its height. Photographs can make the chair appear closer to a conventional armchair, but a seat approximately 12 inches above the floor creates a distinctly relaxed experience. Sitting down feels intentional rather than casual. You lower yourself, settle backward, and naturally extend your legs. Standing up requires a little more commitment, particularly after a long evening or an ambitious leg workout.
For a short reading session, the curved seat and backward-leaning position should feel calm and appropriately informal. A magazine, coffee, or 30-minute conversation fits the chair’s personality nicely. During a longer session, pressure from the relatively firm seat may become noticeable. A slim wool or leather pad can help, but the chair works best when the cushion follows its shape instead of disguising it.
Visually, the ownership experience may be even more satisfying than the physical one. Morning light brings out the narrow lines and tonal variations in the bamboo. From the front, the chair looks broad and composed. From the side, it becomes far more animated, revealing the angled legs and triangular relationships between the seat, back, and frame. It is the sort of furniture that rewards walking past it from different directions, a sentence rarely written about recliners.
The open construction also changes how the room feels. A bulky upholstered chair can create a visual wall, while the Komplett allows light and background colors to remain visible around and beneath it. In a compact living room, that openness can make the seating area feel less crowded even though the chair still occupies meaningful floor depth.
Day-to-day maintenance should be straightforward. Dust may collect along the back edge, under the seat, and around exposed hardware, but these areas are accessible with a soft cloth or brush attachment. The natural surface will reveal scratches and minor wear more readily than patterned upholstery. For some owners, those marks become a pleasant patina. For others, each scratch will trigger an emotional event requiring tea and careful inspection.
Secondhand ownership adds another layer to the experience. Before regular use, the screws and structural connections should be checked for looseness. A small amount of movement may indicate hardware that needs professional attention rather than enthusiastic over-tightening. Buyers should resist the urge to attack every visible screw with maximum force, because laminated bamboo and vintage fittings prefer diplomacy.
After several weeks, the chair’s greatest strength would probably become clear: it establishes a place. Positioned beside a lamp and small table, it creates an immediate reading corner. Placed opposite a sofa, it adds conversational seating without visually overpowering the room. Used in a bedroom, studio, or quiet office, it becomes a functional design object rather than mere decoration.
The likely long-term experience is therefore a mixture of admiration and compromise. The Komplett is not the softest chair, the easiest seat to rise from, or the most adjustable option. It is memorable, visually light, thoughtfully proportioned, and unusually expressive for such a reduced design. Owners who value those qualities may forgive its firmness every time the afternoon light hits the bamboo just right.
