Debra Folz Has Us in Stitches

You may have seen Debra Folz’s pleated color-block “Marguerite” chair in the July issue of Boston magazine. It was hard to pick just one of the South End furniture designer’s pieces to feature; I also love her fabulous “X-Stitch” stool:

(Photograph by Dave Bradley)

At once industrial and warm, this vibrant chevron-emblazoned stool is a study in contradictions. While Folz was earning her MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, she welded a chair frame from holey steel and soon realized that it would be the perfect canvas for embroidery. “The grid of the perforated metal dictates the pattern in a certain way,” she says. These days, she outsources the welding, but still spends 40-plus hours cross-stitching each custom perch, which can be created from more than 100 colors of durable nylon thread. Talk about a sweet seat.

$1,600, Room 68, 68 South St., Jamaica Plain, 617-942-7425, room68.com; Debra Folz Design Studio, 516-429-2273, debrafolz.com.