Nida: The Outdoor Chair That Turns Rush Weaving Into Something Sculptural

Ethimo's new Nida dining chair, designed by Chiara Andreatti, takes the humble rush-seated chair, the kind you'd find in an old countryside kitchen, and gives it a completely contemporary outdoor makeover, built to hold up beautifully season after season.

The frame is die-cast aluminum, kept deliberately slender so the chair feels light rather than bulky, with a soft, semi-circular backrest that curves gently around you as you sit. The armrests flow naturally out of that same curve, giving the whole chair an easy, continuous silhouette rather than a collection of separate parts bolted together.

The real detail worth noticing is in the weave itself. Nida is wrapped in rope that changes character depending on where it sits on the chair. Up on the backrest, the weave is open and airy, almost lacy, letting light filter through. Down on the seat, the material tightens into something denser and more solid, resembling the traditional rush seats that inspired this chair. That shift between open and closed, delicate and sturdy, is what gives Nida its personality.

It's built to handle real outdoor life, which means it holds its own whether it's sitting around a dinner table on a terrace, poolside at a hotel, or gathered with friends over a long, easy lunch. Its understated shape pairs naturally with almost any table style or size you already have.

As Andreatti puts it herself: "Nida is a bridge between past and present: understated and poetic, lightweight and grounded, quietly expressing the beauty of craftsmanship reinterpreted through a contemporary lens."

Andreatti has quietly built one of the most interesting portfolios in Italian design over the past decade, working with names like Cassina, Gebrüder Thonet Vienna (where her Loïe armchair won the IF Design Award in 2019), Fendi Casa, and Starbucks, always with the same instinct: take something rooted in craft tradition and give it new life through contemporary materials. Nida continues that same thread, just outdoors this time.