Spanish company Capdell Sillala has designed the Eboli Collection of seating, a group of chairs, armchairs, barstools, and benches that marries the oval and the rectangle in geometric harmony. The pieces pair wooden backs with upholstered seats to create an intriguing juxtaposition of texture and shape. The wooden backs, which are contoured ideally for the curvature of one’s back, accept your body in a receiving fashion, almost like an embrace. Likewise, the bench’s upholstered seats make the chair comfortable for the body at all contact points.

Eboli Bench. Designed by Vicente Soto for Capdell Sillala.

While the chairs have been used to great visual effect in restaurants in particular, they also make of residential dining rooms an interesting and relaxing place—reminding us that one should never have to forgo comfort in the name of style. It is the Eboli Bench, however, that elevates the Eboli Collection to new heights. With backrests, the Eboli Bench makes the act of waiting a true art. At 127 cm w x 82 cm h x 45 cm d, the bench accommodates two quite nicely. Of course, the backrests immediately define the bench as a place for pairs. And while the Eboli Bench is suited for commercial projects—waiting rooms in particular, it is also an interesting addition to more traditional individual seating in dining rooms.

Designed by Vicente Soto for Capdell Sillala, Eboli softens its metal structure with both the grain of wood and the weave of fabric. In combinations of solid and patterned browns, Eboli reminds me of chocolate bon-bons — each piece attractive in its own right but even more so in a box, where the round and square chocolates work against one another so as to intensify desire. Eboli exists also striking in combinations of black and white, as it mirrors punctuation of all types, from the period to the bracket. The Eboli Bench opens up the formal and functional possibilities of the bench category in general, making it a piece of furniture that embodies both structure and comfort, accentuated furthermore by the floating ellipse-shaped backrests which afford the sitter an added level of welcomed support. The true appeal with Eboli is its unlikely but elegant combination of geometrical interest with absolute comfort.